Chapter 204
0204
(Lily POV)
Brady and I sat down on the couch, leaving a decent amount of space between us. Brady ran his hands through his hair, and then put his head in his hands.
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“You know that James will be able to hear everything we say. The walls in these human apartments are
really thin.”
I sighed.
“I know. And if it really bothers you, we can mind-link. But James will never agree to leave me here alone with you, and I assumed that you would be more comfortable with him in the bedroom than sitting here
with us while we talk.”
“Mind-link it is then,” Brady conceded.
“But you should also know that James and I do not keep secrets from one another.”
“Meaning that whatever I say to you right now you are going to tell him anyway?”
“Yes.”
Brady looked up at me, clearly hurt. It made me second guess whether I should have said it, but it was the
truth. And I needed to say it out loud not just for Brady’s benefit, but also for James’ as well. I did not
want James to think that I was going to hide anything from him.
“Lily, what happened to you? Are you even listening to yourself? It was not that long ago that I had to beg
you to meet with James in Hawaii. You were adamant that you never wanted to see him again. You
fought me tooth and nail about going on that trip. And now… now you are defending him, telling him your
secrets, and you are practically
at the hip to him. How does that make sense?”
I looked down at my hands. “People change, Brady. Things change.”
Brady reached over and grabbed one of my hands. “People change, Lily, but not that fast. You are just
confused. The mate bond is strong: I get that. But you do not have to be with someone who has hurt you
just because of a mate bond.”
“I am not with him just because of the mate bond, Brady.”
“Then why?”
I hesitated, knowing my next words were going to hurt him.
“I love him.”
Brady shook his head and squeezed my hand. “No, Lily. You don’t. It is just the mate bond making you
think that you do.”
I looked Brady in the eyes, wanting him to see how serious I was.
“No. If it was just the mate bond at work, I would have felt this way from day one. Or in Hawaii. I didn’t. It
was only recently that I realized how I felt about him.”
“The mate bond is just messing with your mind, Lily. It is trying to heal itself back together, and it is
making you think you feel things that you do not really feel.”
I pulled my hand away from Brady. “No, it is more than that. Yes, the mate bond is playing a part, but there is more to it than that. We have communicated by phone or text message most of the time that I have been here in Ravenswood. I have gotten to know him. I know that given our recent history it seems fast, but we had a lot of earlier history that was good between us too. And on top of that, a lot of things have
happened since in a very short period of time.”
“Lily”
“No, Brady. I need you to understand. I love James, and I would be lying to you and to myself if I tried to deny it.”
Brady looked at me as though I had just punched him.
“How can you say that?!?! Have you forgotten what he did to you?”
“Brady, please….”
Brady stood up and began pacing angrily, shooting me dirty looks every now and then,
to
“No, Lily. I will not try to understand. When someone hurts you as badly as James hurt you, you do not just forgive and forget. You move on. You look for something healthier. That is why I lost Evelyn. She had t
move on after what I did. And you deserve to do that too. Sometimes it is healthier to move on than to try
to overcome the hurt.”
“I am not the same as Evelyn, Brady. And our situations are completely different.”
“Different? Are you serious? Our situations are different only because I did not do to Evelyn even half of what James did to you. Have you really forgotten so easily?”
I did not say anything.
“Let me remind you, Lily. You had to shift for the first time by yourself because of the lies that James told
tortured and starved. Your own pack members and family called you a murderer and a sl ut. They accused you of being so unworthy that you lost your wolf. No one would be friends with you out of fear of the alpha family’s wrath and what James might do to them.
And why did James do all of that, Lily? Because HE WAS IN LOVE WITH YOUR SISTER. Your messed up,
evil sister. He wanted her, not you, HER.
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