Shameful by May Dawson
64
Legacy
Later that day,Courage and Tania seemed to regain their strength as they ate, guzzled Gatorade, and began to move around the room. I knew Tania was feeling better when she stole me away for a talk in the adjoining room while the guys were watching some ridiculous action movie.
“Do you still love Lucas?” Tania asked me in a whisper.
“I don’t love him, I hate him.” I swallowed hard, then confessed, “But I haven’t been able to completely break the bond with him, either.”
“The mating bond is a powerful thing,” shesaid.
“It’s as if my body doesn’t realize what an asshole he is. It can’t catch up to my mind,” Isaid.
“Maybe your body needs to be reminded that he might’ve been your fated mate, but he’s not the only wolf under the moon.” Tania waggled her eyebrows.
“Killian marked me,” I admitted, pulling aside my collar to reveal his mark. It had turned from a hickey—with teeth marks—into a bruise that was beginning to take on a shape. I wondered what it would look like when it wasdone.
Anyone could see I was Killian’s, and although the two of us had some work to do, I also felt strangely proud to be marked.
Tania whistled. “Wait, Cutie Killian? The one every girl had a crush on growingup?”
“How funny,” Rhett called from the next room. “Cutie Killian is what we call himtoo!”
I hadn’t been prepared for Rhett to overhear, and Tania and I exchanged a shocked look before dissolving into giggles. It was refreshing to have a girlfriend again.
“I had the biggest crush on him growing up,” Tania mused.
“Me too.” I confessed. It was weird to think back to how Killian had never noticed me when we were kids, but had noticed me the second I stepped off theboat.
I’d had a crush on Lucas too. But Killian was older, unreachable. He was the sexy older guy who was nice to everyone but untouchable.
And now I rubbed my fingers absently over his mark, pressing against the bruise to feel its gentleache.
Killian wasn’t perfect like I’d thought when I was a kid. I’d only seen the confident, hard-angled athlete who could beat anyone in a fight and who made all the girls blush when he smiled. The truth was, he had faults and flaws and vulnerabilities. But now I knewhim.
And he wasmine.