Screw My Childhood Sweetheart His Alpha Brother Marked Me First novel Chapter 119

Knox waved him off. “It’s not happening. We just need to figure out how to make the rest of the community realize what an ass he’s being. They weren’t at the testing, so they don’t know that you aren’t violent or a risk.”

“What about Ivan or Kaleb? Couldn’t they say something?”

Knox leaned back in his chair. “They could, but it would be stepping out on a limb for either of them. The Quad doesn’t make a habit of going against each other. It’s a self–preservation thing.”

‘More like a cowardice thing,” Caspian mumbled.

‘He’s right,” Anson agreed. “They know the truth. It speaks to their character if they won’t stand up for Sen.”

But was it the truth? I looked down at my hands, picturing the shock of pain on Chris‘ face as I shoved him away. “I could hurt

someone.”

River ran a hand through my hair, his fingers moving over the strands in soothing strokes. “You would only hurt someone who deserved it.” He bent his head so that our eyes were level. “I can sense it in you. I would tell you if you needed to guard against that gift manifesting.”

‘It doesn’t feel like much of a gift right now.”

‘It is,” Caspian said. “To be able to protect yourself, the people you care about. That will always be a gift.”

Anson ran his fingers along that spot on my neck he seemed to love so much. “I think you need to learn to control it. My strength gift reaked me out at first, but now that I know how it works and trust myself to wield it safely, I love that I have it.”

My mouth curved. “You love that you

can throw full trees

a beach.”

He sent me a cocky grin. “That doesn’t suck.”

Knox set down his soda. “Anson’s right. If you master your gifts a little more, I think you’ll feel more in control overall.”

‘d kill for a little piece of control right now. It felt like I’d been in a tornado for weeks, spun around, not knowing up from down. I vas ready to have my feet firmly on the ground for a little while. “Let’s start this afternoon.”

Caspian studied me. “You sure you’re up for that?”

made a face at him. “You’ve made me take a nap every day after school and go to bed before ten. I’ve been forbidden from using my ;ift since I got drained. I’d say I’m rested.”

He held up both hands in surrender. “Just checking.”

A throat cleared behind me, and I looked up to see Mason. He gave me a hesitant smile. “Our care facility called. They think Abbie is stable enough to see you.”

Caspian drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, glancing over at me every so often.

‘I’m okay,” I told him, staring out the window at the winding, two–lane road.

Chapter 119

I slipped off my shoes, tucking my knees up to my chest. “I’m tired of being a mess.”

“Sen, you’ve been through more upheaval in the past couple of months than most people will go through in a lifetime. It doesn’t make you weak to be scared, confused, overwhelmed, any emotion under the sun. It makes you strong because you keep moving forward.”

I turned in my seat, running my hand through Caspian’s hair and letting my fingers trail down his neck. Thank you I needed to hear

that.”

He sent me a smile that made my stomach flip. “I’ll be here to make sure you know the truth whenever you need it.”

I let my fingers tangle in the hair at the base of his neck. Caspian knew better than anyone what it was like to have your life apended. He’d lost his parents and his brother as he knew him on the same day.

‘How’d you get through it?”

He didn’t look my way, instead keeping his gaze focused on the road. “I put one foot in front of the other however I could. Vaughn was so broken in that year after the attack. He could barely function. I felt like I needed to be strong for him, not break down.”

Caspian swallowed hard. “It was Knox who took me aside and told me I had to let it out. Even as young as we were, he could see that keeping all of the grief and anger bottled up was only hurting me. I thought letting it show would make me weak. The truth was, letting it out helped me work through it. I could be more present for Vaughn, and I didn’t have a hair–trigger.”

‘And now?”

‘It’ll always hurt. My parents were stolen from me. So much of Vaughn’s childhood was taken from him. Our innocence in so many ways. The grief pops up at unexpected moments, but it doesn’t take me out the way it used to. I found my new normal. Built a family of choice.”

‘I like the idea of chosen family,” I said.

‘In some ways, it’s that much stronger.”

That made sense. You were choosing to commit to the people in your life. To be there for them no matter what happened. Guilt ricked at me. I hadn’t kept that commitment to my adoptive parents.

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