I didn’t miss how Chaz’s eyes gave a quick glance to Matt’s hand on my shoulder. He then looked Matt square in the eye. It made Matt quickly slide his hand off and take a step away from me.
“You should go shower,” he told me while watching as Nico came down the stairs with a large garbage bag. I assumed this one held my blood-soaked sheets and comforter. “This shouldn’t take too much longer.”
“You sound as if you’ve done this before,” I murmured before flinching. Looking at him said it all. Matt’s expression told me that was exactly the case. Somewhere at some point in his long life, he had. Nothing more was said as I slowly trudged myself up the stairs.
CHAPTER 20
I spent a half hour in the shower. I started crying once I saw the blood wash off me. The distinct vibrant red collected before slowly circling down the drain. I cried harder the more the events of the morning played through my head. I cried for Richie; I cried for his death. He wasn’t a good person, but that still didn’t qualify him for a grisly end. I cried for Laurel and Jonna; neither deserved to die. I cried for Old Man Thompson. And I cried for myself and the situation that didn’t feel as though it was going to have a happy ending.
After pulling myself from the shower, I put on my burly robe once more. I couldn’t stand the idea of going into my bedroom to look for clothes. I never wanted to go into my room again if I could help it. I didn’t care how I looked as I slowly padded down the hallway; all thought of image didn’t matter to me anymore. Such a thing as wondering what I looked like now seemed trivial.
I was surprised to find my room was absolutely spotless. Stopping in my doorway, I found that not only was no one in there, it was also positively clean. My room held the strong stench of bleach, but I couldn’t find even the smallest droplet of blood. My mattress, rug, and all bloody articles of fabric were gone. The window was open and allowed a soft breeze to filter inside to air the bleach smell out. Outside I could even smell a fire going. That was mixed with the scent of fall leaves. Gentle waves of smoke filtered in the room, the fresh air and the smoke slowly filtering the bleach scent out.
I made my way to the staircase but paused when I heard the boys downstairs speaking.
“It’s getting worse,” said Nico quietly. “How many more people need to die?”
Whomever he was speaking to didn’t answer him. “This is getting harder to hide.”
“She’s stubborn,” Cale eventually said. “She doesn’t want to join. Scaring her obviously isn’t cutting it.”
“She doesn’t get a choice,” Jamie threw in adamantly. “You guys act like she does.”
“Not all of us,” replied Cale coldly. “The stoic one with a hard on for her doesn’t—”
“Shut your mouth or I’ll be shutting it for you,” snarled Matt, immediately silencing Cale. “If you were all honest, then no one would want her to join. She doesn’t belong with us. But he’s not listening to reason. He won’t allow her not to join. He wants her.” Matt’s words were almost so quiet I couldn’t hear them. That sent a shiver up my spine.
“This is more work than it should be,” Bobby remarked. No one else said anything, inspiring him to continue. “What, you guys aren’t thinking it, too? If she was really mated to him, she wouldn’t be denying joining the pack—”
“Unless she mated with someone else,” interjected Chaz coolly. He chuckled at the silence that followed. “Wouldn’t that be an interesting twist, Matty?”
A low snarl issued from nearby, giving me a startle. I had no doubt it was Matt who made the noise. Chaz didn’t say anything else due to what was probably fear.
“You didn’t deny it,” said Jamie quietly.
“I shouldn’t have to,” replied Matt coldly. “The plan is simple; we’ll work to get him focused on someone else. No more dead bodies, no more chasing.”
“That’s not how it works, and pretending otherwise is dumb of you,” said Jamie. “He said from the beginning it was going to be her specifically. You tried giving him the sister. How did that work?”
That single word hit me like a punch to the face. “What?”
I hurried down the stairs, my mind having a hard time processing what was being said. It was plenty obvious that this was about Miranda. I looked to Jamie and Matt, unable to hide the shock from my face.
“Ohh look, Everly’s returned. I was wondering what piece of information would inspire her to quit eavesdropping,” said Cale with a smirk. Clearly they knew I had been nearby without having to see or hear anything from me.
I ignored Cale, my eyes only trained on Matt. Part of me wanted to shove him, wanted to hurt him. But I couldn’t find myself moving as my eyes misted with unshed tears. “You dated my sister to give her to your leader?”
Up until that moment, I didn’t quite know what I had been thinking about the brief relationship between Matt and Miranda. I no longer spent time wondering why Matt had gone out with my sister. I couldn’t find myself caring once I realized that I liked him, too.
But hearing this was appalling. Little did poor Miranda know that the guy she was interested in was only using her. It meant that Matt held no qualms on sacrificing my sister to his alpha.
Matt didn’t look me in the eye as he replied. “He’s been attracted to a scent from the very first moment he caught it at The Forest. I wasn’t sure if it was yours or hers given you were both around the conference center during the same time.”
My thoughts turned back to the time that Miranda’s company had been at the hotel for the conference. Back then, I was still in the shipping department. Matt wasn’t wrong with his statement; the alpha could have gotten either of our scents. But that didn’t evaporate my anger. “So when was it that you decided which of the Davis sisters was going to be your unlucky victim?” I moved forward with the intention to shove him only to chicken out of touching him. I felt too hurt.
“Yeah, Matty boy, when?” drawled Cale, inspiring an awkward laugh from Bobby. The rest of the group didn’t seem to know what to make of a girl on the verge of extreme tears. They either watched me with awkward expressions or avoided looking at me altogether. But Matt watched me with sorrow-filled eyes.
“Get out,” he said to the group while not looking away from me.
Bobby, Nico, and the quiet Terrance obediently left through the front door into the cold November air. As annoyed as Cale looked, he too stalked out of the house as well. But Chaz and Jamie remained inside. Both looked cross.
“You’ve been making a lot of orders lately,” remarked Chaz coolly. His unblinking eyes didn’t waver from Matt.
“Yeah,” agreed Jamie. “Almost as if you’ve been forgetting who’s really in charge.”
Matt then turned a cold eye onto him. “When he’s not around, I might as well be your alpha,” he said in a low, dangerous snarl. His expression was murderous.
That was enough to get Jamie to leave my house. Chaz followed soon after, but not before giving Matt a very cold look.
We were left in silence after that. Matt didn’t say anything, and I wasn’t sure when I had started freely crying. He made to move toward me before I quickly moved away from his touch.