Shameful by May Dawson
42
Killian
I paced around the cell,exasperated with Rhett, with West, with Legacy, and most of all with myself.
“Cyrus set us up,” I grumbled under my breath.
“What? Our great wolfish leader? I thought he led because he was the wisest and strongest.” Rhett asked innocently.
“Oh, you do listen. I’m shocked.” But all I could think about was how, by trusting Cyrus to have any good intentions, I’d damned us all. I should’ve never asked for him to hear us out about the vamps.
“I do listen…only so I can mock you later,” Rhettsaid.
Legacy frowned at the nasty bruise on my face. “I’m sorry,” she said, touching it gently, before I pulled away. “I thought the guards were your friends.”
“You started a brawl in the Council chamber,” I remindedher.
“I didn’t start a brawl,” she said, her voice heated. “He hit me first, remember? What did you want me to do—takeit?”
No. Never.
I didn’t know what to say to her, so I turned and strodeaway.
“I’m not ever going to do that again,” she said, her voice fierce. “Fuck fate. I’m going to take what I want from nowon.”
Clary came down the hall, his boots loud across the floor. “Gibs wants to talk toyou.”
“Great,” I said tightly. Even when they were in prison, the urge to tell Rhett and West to stay out of trouble was strong, but I resisted. I couldn’t get away from Legacy fast enough anyway.
My feelings when it came to her were all mixed up. I wasn’t supposed to be drawn to her the way Iwas.
Clary stayed at my shoulder as we headed down the halls, as if I were a prisoner. The same way I’d escorted Rhett and West when I was sent to Reject Island to collect them from prison and take them to the island. Great.
Clary stopped when we reached Gibson’s office, and I knocked on the wall as I leaned in the doorframe.
Gibson looked up, his face grouchy. Before I could even enter the office, he demanded, “What the hell happened in there?”
I came in and sank into the chair across from his desk. “Legacy’s story istrue.”
“I know,” Gibs said, and when I looked at him, relieved it had been that easy, he added, “I know your story is true, and you were there, with the vampire.”
I was glad he still trustedme.
“I thought West and Rhett were changing after you three went on that mission for Cyrus,” he said, shaking his head. “They did good, it seemed.”
“They were great,” I said, remembering the other shifter pack that had kidnapped one of our shifters. We’d been closer, and Cyrus had sent the three of us to intercept them. We’d been a goodteam.
And then they’d half-killed me to escape.
“But then they went back to being what the pack saw them as,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s toobad.”
Maybe it’s hard to be anything but what other people see usas.
Rhett and West saw me as Cyrus’s pawn, and Cyrus probably saw me that waytoo.
Maybe that meant he would never see me coming to killhim.
“Cyrus has it out for Legacy,” I said. “And for Rhett and West too, I think.”
Gibson nodded. I expected him to talk to me about the three of them, but instead he said, “I remember when your father and I started working together, back when Reject Island was first founded.”
Gibs never talked about my dad, and I stared athim.
“Your dad was a good man. Tough but compassionate, cared about everyone.”
“Yeah.” My voice came out quiet. I didn’t remember much about my dad. Sean didn’t have any memories of him atall.
He glanced away from me. “That’s why he ended up getting murdered in that alleyway, Killian. He got between a vamp and their prey, trying to do the right thing. He got in theway.”
My lips parted in surprise.
“Your father would be proud of you,” he said. “He wasn’t around, but somehow you grew up just like him. You take care of Sean, even fromhere.”
“I’m trying.”
“Killian,” he said. “Be like him, but learn from his mistakes.”
Gibs was the man I looked up to, the man who had been like a father to me the past four years. I hoped he wasn’t saying what I thought.
Then he added, “Make sure you don’t get in theway.”
And I knew I’d never look at him the same way again.
Maybe part of growing up is giving up all your heroes.