Filed To Story: In the Shadow of the Past Luna (Lily & James)
I pulled my hand away from Brady. “No, it is more than that. Yes, the mate bond is playing a part, but there is more to it than that. We have communicated by phone or text message most of the time that I have been here in Ravenswood. I have gotten to know him. I know that given our recent history it seems fast, but we had a lot of earlier history that was good between us too. And on top of that, a lot of things have happened since in a very short period of time.”
“Lily”
“No, Brady. I need you to understand. I love James, and I would be lying to you and to myself if I tried to deny it.”
Brady looked at me as though I had just punched him.
“How can you say that?!?! Have you forgotten what he did to you?”
“Brady, please….”
Brady stood up and began pacing angrily, shooting me dirty looks every now and then, to
“No, Lily. I will not try to understand. When someone hurts you as badly as James hurt you, you do not just forgive and forget. You move on. You look for something healthier. That is why I lost Evelyn. She had t move on after what I did. And you deserve to do that too. Sometimes it is healthier to move on than to try to overcome the hurt.”
“I am not the same as Evelyn, Brady. And our situations are completely different.”
“Different? Are you serious? Our situations are different only because I did not do to Evelyn even half of what James did to you. Have you really forgotten so easily?”
I did not say anything.
“Let me remind you, Lily. You had to shift for the first time by yourself because of the lies that James told tortured and starved. Your own pack members and family called you a murderer and a sl ut. They accused you of being so unworthy that you lost your wolf. No one would be friends with you out of fear of the alpha family’s wrath and what James might do to them.
And why did James do all of that, Lily? Because HE WAS IN LOVE WITH YOUR SISTER. Your messed up, evil sister. He wanted her, not you, HER.
How can you possibly forget all of that?!?!”
I felt tears threatening to escape from my eyes..
“Brady, stop. Please. I know you are angry, but
—
“Angry? No, Lily. I am not angry. I am disappointed. I thought you were better than this. I thought you were stronger. How can you just forgive and forget someone who tortured you like James did, and all the while turn your back on someone like me who wants nothing more than to love you and take care of you for the rest of your life?!?!?!?!?!?!?”
The tears started to run down my face. I stood up and went over to him, putting my hand on his arm.”
Brady, I—-“
“EXPLAIN IT TO ME, LILY! TELL ME HOW YOU CAN TURN DOWN MY LOVE IN FAVOR OF JAMES AND
HIS TOXICITY?”
Despite how angry Brady was and how much he was yelling at me, I suddenly realized that Brady was crying as well. I felt my heart break for him and for our horrible situation.
“Brady, you do not love me,”
I said honestly, “You love the idea of me. You love who you think I could be.
Who you think I… who you think I could replace.
Brady shook my hand off of his arm, resuming his pacing. Then, as though a light bulb went off in his head, he spun around.
“Wait… are you choosing James because of Evelyn? Because you realized that you look like her? So f&&
ing what! Yes, you look like one another. Who cares. I have a type. A lot of guys do. That does not meant that I love you any less.”
“Brady, stop. Please.”
Brady looked up in the sky, as though he was talking to the heavens above.
“It was that picture. That st upid picture. When you asked me on the airplane to show you that picture, I should have known that it was a bad idea. Goddess, how could I have been so st upid?!?!”
“IT WAS NOT JUST THE PICTURE!”
I exclaimed. “Yes, the picture helped me piece everything together. But it was not just the picture. It was the places you took me; it was the things that you wanted to do together; it was the restaurants we ate at. They were all places and things that you enjoyed with Evelyn.”
Brady looked at me in disbelief. “I never gave you any details about what it was like to date Evelyn.”
“No, you didn’t. At least not on the airplane. But when we would go places, you would always bring her up. It was subtle, and you never mentioned her by name. At first I did not know if you were referring to one female or multiple females or a friend or a group of friends. But somehow, someway, you always brought. something up. With the exception of Hawaii, we never did anything new together. It was always something that you had done in the past, that had some memory attached to it.
And that was fine. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed spending time with you. But when you finally told me what happened with Evelyn, and you showed me her picture, it all clicked.
I am not Evelyn, Brady, and I do not want to be. I would much rather go to a chocolate factory or to a baseball game and eat pizza than go out to eat at some fancy restaurant. I would prefer to drink beer over expensive champagne.
I can enjoy the nice restaurants and the champagne, but I will never enjoy them the same way that you
The same way that Evelyn did.”
Brady stopped pacing and stared at me. I could not tell if he was hurt or angry or confused or all of the above. He did not say anything for a long while.
“So James is your baseball game and pizza?”
he finally whispered.
“No. Yes. I don’t know. But I do know love him. The same way that you loved Evelyn. The same way that I think you probably still love Evelyn.
“He is going to hurt you again, Lily. And I may or may not be here when he does.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I am willing to take that chance.”
Brady headed towards the door, seeming defeated. “I am going to spend the next couple of nights at the Paramount Hotel, just in case you change your mind. I do not want to give up on you, Lily. You deserve. the world.”
“You deserve the world, too, Brady. I mean that.”
With that, Brady walked out the door, I closed the door behind him and leaned my back against it as I continued to let out the tears.
James opened the door to the bedroom and looked at me hesitantly, with a huge frown on his face. I ran up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my bead in his chest. He returned the hug kissed my forehead.
a and
(Lily POV)
James took my hand and silently led me to the couch. He then sat down and pulled me onto his lap. I buried my face in his chest, and he nuzzled his chin in my hair.
“Are you okay?”
he asked me.
I nodded. “Yeah. It just sucks. I never meant to hurt him.”
James did not say anything, so then I added: “I am sorry that you had to hear all of that. That must have been uncomfortable for you.
“No, you were right. I never would have agreed to leave you two alone. And if you had actually tried to talk to him via mind-link, I would have interrupted every few seconds. As it was, it took all my willpower not to storm in and put an end to Brady yelling at you. You did not deserve his guilt trip.
“I sort-of did though. I led him on. Not on purpose, but I did,”
“Do not blame yourself, Lily,”
James said in a determined voice. “Brady saw what he wanted to see. That was on him, not on you.”
I reached for James’ hand and intertwined our fingers together..
“Thank you.”
For a minute, neither of us said anything else.
After a while, I looked up at him, and he seemed to be lost in thought. I realized that something was bothering him.
“Are you okay?”
I asked him.
“Yes. I am here with you,”
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?