Broken Pieces Read online

  I slowly nod. “And the threat against Rebekah is much greater and not something we can avoid. I can avoid the one with the wolves.”

  “Yeah,” he agrees before chancing a glance at me. “But what about you?”

  “What about me? I don’t matter, only my family,” I say as strongly as I can, even though it’s like knives in my back. I want to be selfish, I want to love Taegan for the rest of my life as husband and wife, but how can I when the world is against us?

  “True. It’s just shitty, though,” he says then, and I look to him, nodding.

  “You have no clue—”

  I hadn’t even realized we had reached the lobby of the Clandestine, when my gaze meets the one of the woman who has stayed on my mind for almost my whole life.

  “Taegan,” I breathe, my voice unrecognizable.

  Her eyes are bloodshot, her face is red, and she looks just miserable. “Oceanus, Jonas,” she says to my brother, and he nods.

  “Hey, Taegan. Ever so gorgeous,” he compliments, but her eyes are on me, begging me, and I can’t take it.

  Looking away, I hear her say, “Thanks. Um, Oceanus, I’ve been trying to reach you.”

  Clearing my throat, I don’t look up, feeling like a fucking coward as I say, “Yeah, I shut my phone off.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.”

  Silence stretches between us, and then I look to Jonas, needing to get away from her. “Ready?”

  Jonas looks completely out of sorts and holds his hands up in confusion. “Yes?”

  But before I can move or even say anything, Taegan’s hand comes into mine. Like it did so many years ago. Like before, my breath stops, my mind goes wild, and I am stunned as I look down into her blue eyes. “I need to speak with you, please.”

  “What is there to speak about?” I ask, my lip starting to tremble as her eyes plead with mine.

  “A lot,” she says, her eyes killing me. “Jonas will wait, won’t you?”

  “Yup. In the bar. Take all the time you need,” he says, and before I can break his nose once more, he is hightailing it into the bar.

  “Bastard,” I call to him before looking back at the ground. “Taegan, I can’t do this.”

  “Please,” she begs, and I feel her misery coming off her in waves. “I don’t want to do this here, but I will.”

  I look around, and I see the guards are watching us, as are some of the patrons entering the bar. In a low voice, I warn, “Taegan.”

  “Oceanus,” she demands, and finally, I look to her. “Just five minutes.”

  She’s crying.

  Her tears are more like knives twisting in my chest. Before I lose it, I pull her outside, out of earshot and away from unwanted eyes. But just being outside isn’t enough. I take her around the building to the alley where I know no one will be.

  Turning, I drop her hand and then cross my arms, looking down at her. “So?”

  Her brows touch as she shakes her head, looking away. “So you know.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I tried to stop it.”

  “Did you?” I ask, looking at her, and she glares up at me.

  “Yes! I don’t want to marry him!”

  I try to seem so unaffected, almost as if I don’t care, but I can’t. “Oh, really? ’Cause if you didn’t want to marry him, you wouldn’t have to!”

  “You tell that to my father,” she shouts, her eyes wild and full of tears. “You don’t tell the Kerrigan family no. Oceanus, you know this!”

  I pause. Kerrigan? What the hell? Now she is lying to me. “Who in the Kerrigan family wants to marry you? Everyone is betrothed!”

  “Marcello,” she yells, her face turning red.

  “Taegan, really? You’re going to lie to my face? The last time we’ll be together, you’re going to lie?”

  “I’m not lying,” she pleads, reaching for me, but I push her hands away.

  “He’s engaged to Grace MacMartin. I have the damn invite in my office!”

  “Well, the wedding has been canceled ’cause she’s dead.”

  I pause, my brows pulling together. “What?”

  “She was killed in a hunting accident. She was trying to get the best kill to wear with her dress, and the bear got her.”

  “When the hell did this happen?”

  “Last week.”

  “I hadn’t heard anything of this.”

  “Why would you? They aren’t part of the Works, but I bet your da knows.”

  I look away, shaking my head. Why hadn’t he told me? Really, does it matter? Taegan isn’t marrying me. I glare. “So now you’re going to marry this douche?”

  When I look back at her, her lip is wobbling, her tears falling in streams off her face and onto the white shirt she wears. “I have to. My da said yes before he even spoke to me because it will be so good for our family. They are the second-greatest wolf family in our world, right behind us. Since they have all been betrothed since the beginning of time, Da never considered them for us, but now…now, they want me. They are a great bloodline. It’s an honor even to be considered because I’ll be queen, Oceanus.”

  “You were to be my queen!” I spit out, and she jerks back like I’ve hit her, but I would never.

  Never.

  “I know, and don’t you understand how much this kills me?”

  “Kills you?” I laugh. “Tae, I’m dying here. I’m completely broken.”

  “There is nothing I can do. Da says I’m marrying Marcello, that we can’t disrespect them.”

  “Then marry him, Taegan. Who the fuck cares?” I bark, acting like a child, and I know that, but I don’t know how else to act. I don’t know how to handle this. I know what she is saying is all true. The Kerrigan family is up there, almost as big as the Conner family. Rich beyond words. And while the Conners have been the biggest and wealthiest wolf family since the dawn of time, they are stretched pretty thin right now, which is probably the reason Kurt needed money from my father. He has to put on a wedding that is worthy of the Kerrigan family, and that won’t be cheap.

  “I care, Osh. Please don’t walk away from me.”

  “I don’t want to speak of this anymore!”

  I can’t speak of this, but I can’t tell her that. I have to seem strong. Though, I feel I’m breaking into pieces before her.

  “We have to speak about this, Oceanus, it can’t end like this!”

  “End it? Tae, this was over the moment you agreed to marry someone other than me. How dare you! And not tell me anything? I thought I meant more to you than that,” I roar, my whole body going into shock.

  It’s over.

  She just said it was.

  Her voice is full of panic and pain as she yells back at me, “Oceanus, I didn’t do this. My father, he did it. He wants to bring the packs together, and I’m so sorry. I wanted to tell you, but he got to your father before I could get to you.”

  “A phone—”

  “No, I wanted to do it in person!” she cries, and I feel the tears stinging my eyes. They want to fall for her. For myself, but most of all for the end of this beautiful thing I thought I would have forever. “I don’t want this, you know that. Surely, you know that.”

  “Then why are you doing it?”

  “Because what choice do I have? We do what our families say, Oceanus. You know that most of all.” She pauses, her voice breaking. “And let’s be honest, it isn’t like you are asking me to marry you and want us to run off together. No, not you, Oceanus von Stein, next in line for the Patchwork. You care more about this damn legacy, this family, than me. So don’t make me feel bad for something you would do if the roles were reversed.”

  I don’t even pause, my feet scuffing against the ground as I shout, “You’re right, I would do it. But I would make sure to tell you, to apologize for ripping your heart out of your chest and destroying it. I would apologize for not being the man you deserve, for hurting you, and breaking you—”

  “You think I’m not broken? I love you