Marcus pulled me into his embrace with a soft growl when I sobbed again. He kissed my forehead once more, his hands rubbing my back, although he was careful not to use pressure. For a moment, I nearly tensed, until I remembered he didn’t know my spine healed. That caused my legs to give out again, and I sobbed brokenly into his chest. Even though I tried to run away, he still remembered the condition I suffered and refrained from antagonizing it.
“I’m sorry,” I whimpered, “I’m so sorry.” I hugged the alpha werewolf as tight as I could and sobbed with abandon. Once I calmed a little, albeit this sorrow never tried to overtake my soul even though it pained my heart, Marcus tilted my chin up.
“What, pray tell, do you have to be sorry for?” Marcus asked tenderly, and tears filled my eyes again. By this point, I thought they were dried up, but apparently not. Kneeling, Marcus stared into my eyes after I dropped my gaze. “You figured out everything on your own, yes Char confessed after the vampire took you. Then, you finally had a moment to think while faced with Kyler and put that together too. God, you are so smart, Angel. But you’ve had to be, right? On the streets, it’s only your smarts that keep you alive.” Gasps came from Jax’s parents, and I flinched. Great, now they know I’m a street rat too. There goes any value I might have had.
“So, what do you need to apologize for, hmm?” Marcus continued gently. “When you learned the truth, you were so hurt it spooked you. That’s not surprising in the least. What else would a child who grew up quickly do? You sacrificed your happiness to ensure Matty’s. Thus you went without a roof or love to provide for your baby brother. To make matters worse, you suffered at the hands of a sadist, dancing to his tune to keep him from ripping apart the world to find Matty. He isolated you, filled your head with lies, and shredded what little self-esteem survived the man you thought was your father. So, I ask again, what do you have to apologize for, Angel?”
Mutely, I shook my head while tears continued to roll down my cheeks. If I wasn’t born, they might still be alive, and Matty could have grown up in a stable home. “You said your father was mean by the time you came around,” Marcus began quietly, his eyes piercing my soul. “Thus, with the passing of even more time, he might have beaten Matty for daring to breathe. Plus, Matty isn’t interested in sports. A mean drunk who once lived and breathed football would have despised a son who refused to play. You saved Matty, Angel.”
“Indeed,” Ryker agreed gently. “He would have killed everything you love in your little brother. So you are definitely Matty’s angel. As for Molly, your monster hated her from the get-go. You never saw it, but Peter cleaned up for her. You thought he fell into the darkness after his accident, but that wasn’t the case. Peter always danced in the dark with his friend, but he tried to lessen its hold once Molly became his ray of light. You, well, you were a child he wasn’t ready for, and you lacked his blood, which only made it worse. He never wanted you, but Molly promised Jazzy she would raise you as if you were her own. Thus, to keep the woman he loved, he had to tolerate you. He believed having a child of her own would allow him to get rid of you, albeit he was wrong. Molly would have destroyed his life had she known what he did to you. You were the last link she had to the sister she adored and, well, hell hath no fury.” Sniffling, I stared at the vampire with a hollow pit in my chest that desperately wanted to become hope. However, I refused to allow that to happen. Why did I deserve hope?
Shaking his head, Ryker sat on the ground beside Marcus and met my gaze with sincerity burning in his eyes. “Jazzy loathed the males who insisted a woman couldn’t be an alpha. She rallied against them, beat them in fights, and still was dismissed as unimportant. It made her miserable. Especially when the alpha of her father’s pack began trying to mate her off to another alpha. She would have killed whoever it was, gleefully. Instead, she went to a club that catered to werewolves and got drunk. Now, for a wolf, that’s quite a feat. Werewolves have fast metabolisms that make it a chore to even get buzzed.” Well, that made sense. Considering your metabolism rate dictated how many drinks you needed to get drunk in the first place, plus how long it would affect you.
“There, she danced with the humans who were part of the band playing that night. One found himself drawn to her, and she to him,” Ryker continued with sorrow filling his voice.
“Oh no,” Jeanne whimpered, but I couldn’t look away from Ryker to ask her what was so bad about that.
“The pair of them drank and laughed all night, then woke in the same bed come morning. The human, well, he had to find his band to make it to their next gig, and Jazzy had an
