Chapter 35: Broken Hearts

-Nova-

I released my brother from his restraints, but it didn’t change much. He was badly hurt, and he could barely even sit up. I had to place him against the cold stone walls behind him, as we went to sit on the floor. I brushed his dark hair away from his sweaty face and looked at him worried.

“Is it true?” Keith asked.

“What?”

“That he is your mate? The beta.”

“Keith …”

“Tell me the truth, Nova,” he commanded.

I looked down, feeling so damn guilty, and I knew that was answer enough. My brothers knew me well enough to figure out what was true or not without an answer.

“Dammit,” I heard him whisper.

“I’m sorry …” I said and looked at him.

“Why didn’t you fucking reject him?!” he shouted.

“I … I didn’t want to anger him and give him a reason to kill me,” I said.

“As if you being a rogue isn’t enough,” he said.

I looked down again, and it was quiet for a little while, but then my brother spoke again.

“Oh please,” he said.

“What?” I asked and looked at him.

“You actually think he wants you?!” he said. “Nova!”

“I …”

My brother started to laugh, and it was more hurtful than I could ever say.

“He does!”

“Please, sister, he doesn’t want you. You were easy prey,” he said. “You were a body to warm his bed, nothing more.”

“What?”

“What? You don’t carry his mark, and don’t tell me you didn’t sleep with him,” he said.

I stared at my brother shocked, and he read me so easily.

“Shit … Nova, he fooled you,” he said.

“It’s not true!” I said and felt the tears press in my eyes.

“Yes, it is! He would never accept you. You were a fun toy to play with and a way to get information about us,” he said.

“I never told him anything! I was trying to get information for you!” I told him.

“He was going to wait,” he said. “He would just win over your trust and then crush you.”

I shook my head.

“Yes! Why do you think we are so overprotective of you?!” he asked. “Because we know what they are going to do to you.”

“The pack members?”

“Pack members, rogues, lone wolves. Nova, you are so naïve and people love that! They eat it up,” he said.

I felt the tears slowly stream down my cheeks, and I quickly wiped them away.

“I am not saying it to be cruel,” Keith said.

“Well … you are …”

“Hey,” he said and lifted his arm slowly, wrapping it around me. “I am just trying to make you see the truth. I am sorry how it came out.”

I leaned on my brother and nodded. Maybe he was right. Maybe Rhys never wanted me. Maybe it was all a game. A cruel game … but just a game. I was easy. I knew it, and Rhys knew it too. He won me over so easily … I couldn’t believe I was so stupid! How could I ever think that he wanted …

“Nova!”

No … it couldn’t be …

“Nova!”

Suddenly a face appeared in the little hatch, and then the door was unlocked and opened, but Rhys did not come inside. No, he stopped in the doorway, watching us and seeing how close we were.

“Rhys …”

I tried moving away from Keith, but he held onto me and challenged Rhys with his eyes. Rhys growled, showing him how little he liked to see Keith holding onto me.

“Is it true?” Rhys asked and suddenly turned to me. “All of it?”

“Serena told you …”

He nodded.

“Now answer me. For once, be honest with me,” he said.

“I am so sorry, Rhys … This is why I couldn’t choose you. I have to choose my family, just like you do,” I said, and looked up at him.

“You heard her. She is not yours. She is *ours*,” Keith said.

Rhys growled lowly and came into the cell, but I quickly stood up, knowing what he was about to do, and placed myself in between them. My brother was too weak to defend himself, not that Keith cared. He just loved pushing Rhys’s button.

“Stop!” I said.

Rhys looked at me, and it was like he was looking at a stranger. I didn’t like it. I hated it in fact, but I understood why he was withdrawing from me. I had lied. I had kept very big secrets, and I was so sorry about that now, but still, I was defending my brother right now, and not Rhys.

“You choose them?” he asked and pointed to my brother. “When you can have all of this?!”

He threw his arms out to the side and gestured to the entire place.

“They are my family,” I said. “They have protected me and loved me.”

“Please, Nova … I love you!” he shouted.

I stared at Rhys shocked, and all I wanted was to say the words back, but then I heard my brother move, and looked over my shoulder, seeing him standing up slowly, leaning back against the wall.

“By the Goddess, maybe I was wrong, Nova,” he said. “Maybe he didn’t fool you, but you certainly fooled him.”

My brother started to laugh, and I just looked at him shocked, before I turned to Rhys, and I saw him believing every word my brother said.

“No … Rhys …”

“I see,” he said.

“No, Rhys, let me explain!” I said.

“Explain?! You had more than one chance to do that,” he said and turned away.

I followed him over to the door, but he threw it in my face and locked it, so I pushed my head out of the hatch, looking at him.

“Please! Rhys! Wait!” I shouted.

Rhys stood there, looking at me almost with a broken look in his eyes.

“Just listen.”

He hesitated, but eventually decided to stay.

“It wasn’t fake,” I told him.

“You expect me to believe that?” he asked.

“No, but I want to tell it to you anyway. I want to say the words back, and I want to be yours, but I owe my family too much, and I knew if I chose you, I would have to watch them die,” I said. “You made me fall for you, even when I didn’t want you to, but you succeeded. I know it doesn’t matter now, but I do want to say the words back.”

“Nova …”

“I know, I made a choice, and now I have to live with it, but it doesn’t mean my heart doesn’t break from it. Don’t you see the choices I am left with? Watch my mate die or watch my family die … I lose either way. You might give me all of this, as you say, but I lose a part of my heart and soul. Would I still be the same Nova you claim to love if I had to watch my family die?” I asked him.

Rhys seemed to think over what I said, and I was happy he did, but then he just looked down and walked away.

“Rhys!”

But he didn’t turn back. He just walked away, and I felt a piece of my heart being ripped from my chest.