Chapter Forty-I Didn't Do Anything

The folding chair that Jacob spent the night in was pressed against the jail entrance that was housed in the farmhouse basement.

I wasn’t under arrest, not yet, but I’d rather sleep on a cold metal cot than spend another second under the roof of the house of pain that my husbands made for me.

Despite my anger and my broken heart, I tried to find any way to rationalize the events of the past six months. Tried to find some way to make it seem like normal behavior between people who loved each other, but even my warped sense of right and wrong couldn’t make it work.

When the bolt clicked open, Jacob jerked awake and rose to his feet, on guard to protect me from his leader. Not that I expected he really would, or could. He’d just end up locked in one of these cells right along with me. I knew the night he hesitated to mark me, that he wouldn’t do anything to disturb the power dynamic that existed. He would always stand with his brother. I respected him and hated him for it.

Teddy ducked to come down the stairs and stepped around Jacob. “Did you get any sleep?”

I wrapped the blanket my mother knitted for me around my shoulders and smiled. “Shit! This isn’t even the worst place I’ve woken up in.”

Leaning against the bars of my door, he gave me a quick flash of his perfect smile. “Billy gave me permission for the potion. They’re picking up Nina now.” His nose wrinkled as he gave me a wink. “This will all be over soon.”

“Good.” My eyes fell on my husband as he leaned over with his elbows on his knees, watching us. “No matter what happens, I’m out of here tonight. I don’t know what kind of thing has to occur to dissolve this nightmare, but make it so.”

“Make it so?” The chair scraped across the concrete and dirt floor as Jacob came to his feet. “What are you saying?”

I tilted my head and blinked at his naivety. I’m not sure if he really believed that we could go back to our lives after what just happened, but he seemed shocked that I was even thinking about leaving. “I’m saying this whole farce is over. I’m done.”

“But I didn’t do anything, Tessa.” His mouth quivered as he came to me with his hand over his heart, but I just nodded as I listened to him as he tried to convince me he was somehow less to blame. “I didn’t hurt you. I would never.”

“I know you did nothing.” I leaned forward and pressed my face between the bars. “That’s the point, Jacob. You knew he was crazy, and you did nothing. You knew cameras were watching every detail of my day, and you did nothing. He marked me, and you were prepared to do nothing.” I sized him up with my teary eyes and shook my head. “Your no kind of husband at all, anyway. I’m better off on my own.”

He was confounded. Awestruck. Gobsmacked. Speechless. And that was my point. When I needed him to be my voice, he said nothing at all. For all the Lycans’ talk of family and loyalty, it seemed it only applied to blood. To their own species. They had none for me.

While he recovered from the blow I landed, the bolt clicked again, and I smelled his chocolate-covered steps coming down the stairs. What a difference a night in an empty bed makes.

His eyes were dark, and his face careworn. The dueling personalities living in his head wore my Alpha thin, and it showed.

He promised me when he marked me, I wouldn’t get, but a couple of miles from him before the bite called me back. But from the looks of it, it was his body that was begging for another fix of his mate. I had enough anger inside me to keep myself filled up for a while.

After clearing his throat, Logan’s fingers motioned for the guard. “Let her go.”

“Un-un.” I grabbed the bars in my hands and shook my head. “Explain yourself.”

His tongue slid across his big lips as he came towards me. “I don’t need to hear anything. I saw the video.”

I raised my brows, and my face jutted forward as I waited for an apology. “And?”

His hands wrapped around mine on the bars. “I did what you wanted. I killed her.”


I scoffed at his attempt to appease me and nodded. “That’s good. That’s one less person you can’t trust running around your town. Once I’m gone, you’ll be all set.”

“I can’t let you do that.” His lips pressed against my fingers before his eyes met mine. “There is no leaving.”

I hadn’t shown either of them an ounce of the power inside me, but I wanted to clarify my being there was of my own will. That no matter what they thought about our bond, it was nothing at all.

While I laughed at his declaration, he backed away, and the voices inside me whispered their sweet voices while they wrapped my heart in their fiery hands and broke me free of Logan’s genetic leash forever.

The world bent before me, and I stepped through the bars like they were just illusions. And that’s what they were. This world has no hold on my demons, and I go where they lead me. I swept the gritty film of their reality from my skin and wiped it off with my hands. “We’ll see about that.”

The foul scent of the dark mist rose from my feet, and they scattered before me like torn-up scraps of paper as I brought the Cape Cod to me.

When Logan’s house built up around me again, I rushed to my room and stuffed my bag as quickly as I could. But it wasn’t quick enough.

A chill moved down my spine, and I knew I wasn’t alone in that house. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Even now, all I wanted was his arms around me, and I paused for just a moment before I went back to gathering my things. “Home.”

I never even heard him cross the floor, but his breath was on my neck. “This is your home.”

The tip of his nose parted my hair, and he rubbed against my head. “Look at me.”

I turned to face him and shook my head. “This has never been a home; it’s an ant farm. I’ve just been here for your amusement, but I’m done now. You can get yourself a new toy to play with. I’m all worn out.”

I wrapped my bag strap around my hand then rubbed his shoulder. “Have a nice life. I mean that.” I left him standing alone, and as I crossed the threshold of our bedroom, I stepped down onto the brick sidewalk that led to my parent’s Georgia mansion.

Before my hand even met the cast-iron knocker, the door swung open, and the forever young man I called my father wrapped me in his freckled arms.