Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
“Does it bother you to see me without a shirt on?”
I teased.
“Brady, I am being serious. Grow up. We need to talk.”
I rolled my eyes but reached for the t-shirt I left on the porch before Sammy and left. I put it on as I followed her into the packhouse and towards my office.
(Brady POV)
As I walked into my office with Evelyn, my heart continued to pound forcefully against my chest. Despite my feelings for Lily, seeing Evelyn and being this close to her without being able to touch her felt like a cruel, painful reminder of just how st upid I was all those years ago.
Evelyn sat down on a guest chair, and I sat down behind my desk.
“What is going on, Evelyn?”
I said with forced coldness.
need to talk to you about a couple of things.”
“So you said.”
“How are you, Brady?”
“You want to talk about how I am? That’s what this is about?”
Evelyn shook her head. “No, Brady, that is not what this is about. But I hate that we cannot communicate. There is always so much tension in the air between us. Don’t you think that after all these years, we should be able to have a decent conversation like the friends we once were?”
“We talk all the time, Evelyn.”
“By text. About Sammy. And even then, those messages are me talking and you giving me one or two-
word answers in return.”
“Sometimes my texts have a few more words than that.”
“Brady.”
“It still hurts, Evelyn.”
There, I admitted it.
“Even now?”
she asked, sounding sympathetic. “It has been years, Brady.”
I looked her in the eyes. “I never stopped loving you, Evelyn. Never. I know how st upid I was back then, but I was 20 and I panicked. I made one mistake and it cost me my mate, my son, and my entire life.”
Evelyn shook her head, the sympathy suddenly replaced by anger and hurt. “Wolves in this pack talk,
Brady. It was not just one mistake. Panicking was mistake one. Rejecting me was mistake two. And the she-wolves you slept with afterwards? Well, they were mistakes three through one hundred.”
“I did not sleep with ninety-eight other she-wolves,”
I protested.
Evelyn glared at me. “Are you joking right now? Do you really want to fight with me about what number you got up to? That is your defense?”
“But I never enjoyed it! All I thought about the whole time was you! All I wanted was you! You were my life, Evelyn, but you just left! And you took my son with you!”
(
on years
Evelyn stood and put her hands over her face. “We are not doing this right now, Brady. It has been
I am with Andrew now. I have moved on. You need to move on too and let me go.”
I looked at her curiously.
“Are you saying that I not affect you anymore? That you really do not love or miss me anymore?”
Surely I cannot be the only one affected here.
“Brady, I love and miss you as a friend. That is it! I miss the Brady that I was friends with. That I could talk to. But, no, I do not miss you in the way you mean. Andrew is my mate now, Brady. Andrew did not need to sleep around to understand how important I am to him. Andrew saw my worth from the first day that I met him. I love him now, Brady, and only him.”
I stood up and walked towards her. “Do you love him more than you used to love me? Does he… does he make you feel better than I used to make you feel?”
Evelyn turned, put her hand up, and gave me a look of pure hatred. “Do not take a single step closer to me, Brady,”
she said angrily. “And do not dare touch me. I am warning you.”
I smiled. “So I do still affect you.”
I took another step forward.
“Brady, so help me, if you take another step forward, I will leave right now and take Sammy with me.”
I did not move.
“What about that girl that my parents told me about. Lillith or Lillian or Lillibet? The one that you have been seen with lately. My parents said that you seem interested in her. You took her on some trip.”
Nicely played, Evelyn, I thought to myself. Now I felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured all over me. Worse, I felt guilty for basically hitting on Evelyn despite being in love with Lily.
I walked away from Evelyn and sat behind my desk.
“Her name is Lily,”
I responded quietly.
“Are you together?”
Evelyn asked.
“Are you jealous?”
“No, Brady. I was actually grateful when my parents told me about her. I was hoping that you being with someone else meant that you had moved on and that you and I could be friends.”
I did not say anything.
Evelyn sat down again. “Clearly I was wrong. You are not ready to be friends. Fine. Let me just jump right into what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Okay, and what is that?”
I asked, forcing the coldness back into my voice.
“Two things. One, I wanted you to hear it from me and not Sammy. I am pregnant.”
Her words felt like they shoved a dagger into my heart. “Wow. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. Andrew and I are really happy. We are having a baby boy, due in early summer. We plan to tell Sammy when we get back to Canada.”
“What… what is the second thing?”
“This is the hard one:
Telling me that she was pregnant with another male’s baby wasn’t the hard one?
“I know that our original plan was that Sammy would come and live with you full-time when he turns 16, but I would like us to talk about whether that is still a good idea.”
“Why v wouldn’t it be? Sammy is my heir. He belongs here.”
Evelyn sighed and started to wring her hands. “Because Andrew and I would like Sammy to make his own choice when it comes to his future.”
“His own choice about what? He is my heir. He will take over Black Moon, just like I took over for my father.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?