18
1192 Words
Over the water, the sun was starting to set. Ethan knew he should probably be worried about the time. While he was out here, drinking and chatting with the most beautiful woman in the world, his pack was falling apart. He should be out in the real world, trying to find a solution to his witch problem, or at the very least, he should be trying to find leads here.
But as the sun was setting, casting all kinds of beautiful colors over the skyline and watery horizon, he had a hard time caring about any of that. He wanted to take some of those blankets and find a secluded spot to make out with Ruby, just like Portia had suggested.
Do it, his wolf coaxed.
But he wouldn’t. Where would such a tryst lead them, anyway? Nowhere good.
“I think we’re being summoned for dinner. Look.” Ruby nudged her chin to a tiny speck off in the distance. They had walked nearly across the whole island.
As it turns out, that tiny speck was actually the boat. All around it on the beach, tables had been organized and decorated. There were tapered candles and soft romantic music coming from somewhere, but he wasn’t too sure if it was magical or just very well-hidden speakers.
“It’s like your aunt’s goal this whole time was to get people together. Are we sure this hotel isn’t powered by love or s*x or magic or whatever?”
Ruby threw her head back with a laugh. “Are you sure you’ve got no experience with other kinds of creatures? Because that is definitely something that the devil and his ilk would do.”
He chuckled. “Now I feel smart.”
“You are,” she commented offhand.
He snorted. “I don’t feel very smart. I’m the alpha who let one of my members mess with a witch.”
Ruby pursed her lips. As they made their way to the tables, she was quiet. He thought he had killed any chance of a good conversation when she finally said, “What would have happened if you had forbidden Gus to see his witch before he asked her to marry him?”
“s**t, I don’t know. He might have left. He might have continued to see her behind my back. I’m not in his head. I don’t know what he would have done.”
“Right, but that’s my point. Or it’s the point I wanna make. You can’t hold yourself responsible for his actions. I get that it’s a shifter thing to be all in your pack’s business, but is that really the kind of leader you wanna be? One who dictates what his pack can and cannot do?”
“I guess not. Not in the way you mean. I just want my pack to be respected and respectable. Breaking some poor woman’s heart and having the entire pack punished for it feels a little … careless.”
“You did what you could. Now, the next time a pack member falls for a witch, you’ll be able to handle it a little differently. How long have you been alpha, anyway?”
“Just over a year. I took over when my dad passed.”
She nodded cautiously. “Are we sad about that?”
“My dad passing? Yeah, people are typically sad about the death of a loved one.”
“Well, most of the creatures you will run into here won’t feel the same. Or maybe I’m just projecting my own s**t on them.”
“Are you saying you wouldn’t be sad if something were to happen to your mother or sisters?”
“Sad?” A flash of pain ran across her features. Ethan had the sudden urge to step forward and hold her in his arms. “No,” she answered. “Probably a bit sad. I don’t know, actually. I don’t like thinking about it, honestly.”
“That’s fair.”
“I’m sorry about your dad. You know, if he was a good dad and you miss him, I’m sorry. But it’s also really nice that you have those memories to hold on to. He lives on in that, no?”
Ethan stilled as her words sank in.
The second his father had died, Ethan hadn’t been given the time to grieve. He took over the pack and never stopped for one second. If he wasn’t at work … a pack-owned forestry company … he was with the pack and repeated it all over again, daily.
He cleared his throat. “You’re right. I was pretty lucky to have such a good father, a good alpha. He was stern but fair. Respected.”
“Big shoes to fill, huh?” she guessed.
Ethan nodded, trying to shake loose the ball in his throat. “Yeah. Very hard to fill.”
“Well, you respected him, and he raised you, right? Doesn’t that mean that you’re just about the only person who can fill his shoes? All those memories? How he led, it’s all up there.” She reached across the table to brush his temple with her fingers.
He curled his hand over hers, keeping her fingers on his face. She lowered her hand, curving it over his cheek. Their eyes were hooked together.
“He never faced anything even remotely close to this. I don’t know what to do. This is new territory which makes me think I f****d up somehow. That’s why I’m here. It’s my fault we were cursed because I’m not a good enough alpha.”
“Bullshit,” she whispered. “Are you telling me you are responsible for two grown adults’ behavior? Their choices? No way, big guy. No f*****g way can you hold yourself accountable. You’re the leader of a pack, yes. You gave an order, and Gus made his choice. Actually, he made a whole series of them.”
“I could have tried to anticipate that he would disobey.”
“How? By having him followed. Is that a good way to lead?”
“Obviously not, but at least there wouldn’t be this curse on the pack.”
“This is a bad twenty-twenty loop you’re in.”
He frowned.
“You know how they say hindsight is twenty-twenty? You can keep obsessing over everything that happened, but the truth is, you will never know. You don’t know if things would be better if your dad was still alive and alpha, or what if Gus had listened? All of these different choices do not necessarily mean you would be worse off. You gave an order; it was disobeyed. You’re not here because you think you’re responsible.” She paused and leaned into him. “You’re here because you don’t trust Gus anymore, and you don’t think he can clean up his own mess.”
Ethan’s entire body went numb. Could she be right? Was he really here because Gus never would’ve been able to pull off this mission?
No s**t. You know all this. Good thing Ruby is here to remind us.
- Writer
