Wes

It was hours before Wes made his way home, only to remember there wasn’t much left of it.

Nothing was the same anymore.

He knew he should go to Cali’s. Or maybe find Etti and apologize. But he didn’t have the energy to do either. He barely had the energy to pull the mattress off the splintered bedframe after drinking half a bottle of Jack on the long walk home. He’d been kicked out of Horney Wolfe again and the bartender took his keys. He should’ve been more upset about the long walk home, but he needed the time to think.

Wes had instantly felt like shit after he’d walked out on Etti. Her words replayed over and over in his head. He was the problem, not her. It wasn’t Etti’s fault she didn’t love him the way he wanted her to. He couldn’t blame her for not returning his feelings. Especially after the way he was acting. He was being a complete dick, holding their friendship hostage. She deserved better—better than him—better than Grey.

The thought of Greyson West made Wes sick. Etti’s life had never been easy. It’d been filled with more hurt and heartache than any twenty-six year old should have to experience. Her mother wasn’t kind, secretly hating Etti for her shifter heritage. She mistreated her with years of abuse all while keeping Etti’s true identity from her. And her father never did a thing to stop it. Wes had urged Etti to run away time after time, saying he’d go with her, but her mother always reeled her back in with guilt and family obligation.

It had become Wes’s job to try to shelter Etti and give her the family she deserved. But now, when it counted, he couldn’t. Yet, she was happy. As much as Wes didn’t want to believe it was true, he saw the new strength and joy radiating from Etti.

Somehow, in the strangeness of the past few months of unlocking her shifter gene, getting pregnant and engaged to a cursed shifter, Etti had found happiness. And it killed Wes that he couldn’t be happy for her. Even after she’d truly apologized and admitted she needed him.

Wasn’t that all he wanted?

But still, he turned his back on her and ran away like the coward he was.

Wes sank down on his mattress, the weight of the last few days washing over him. There was no anger left, only sadness, as he stared at the scrawling ink covering his massive arms. Ink Etti had put there herself. His body was a tapestry of their lives together—a constant reminder of how intertwined they’d become. Wes could no sooner cut Etti out of his life than he could scratch away the tattoos she’d bled under his skin. Because that’s where Etti lived—under his skin, in his heart . . . forever.

“I thought I might find you here.”

Wes looked up to see Cali standing over him.

God, why had she not given up on him already?

He needed to stop this destructive cycle with Cali. He couldn’t fuck his problems away this time, no matter how much he wanted to. “Cali,” he began, but she cut him off when he turned to face her.

“Jesus! Wes, what the hell happened to your face?”

He gingerly touched the cut under his eye. “I’m not welcome at Horney Wolf anymore.”

“Who did that to you?” Cali growled, fire dancing in her pretty blue eyes like flames.

“I did it to myself. I think . . . I don’t know. It’s hazy.”

Cali grabbed a wet cloth, returning to sit on the mattress with him, gently pulling his face toward her. “Wes,” she murmured. “You can’t keep doing this. I don’t think your face can handle it. And I’m sort of attached to the way it looks.”

He barked a laugh. “Ah, come on. I’m not that pretty. Besides, who else are you gonna practice your mad healing skills on? You can fix me right up.”

“Yeah, I could if you were a shifter. But you’re not, Wes.”

“Don’t remind me,” he huffed.

“Seriously. You’ve got to stop picking fights you can’t win.”

“Tell me about it,” he muttered under his breath.

Cali ran a soothing hand through Wes’s hair. His eyelids shuddered closed. He loved when she did that.

“Wes, I know you’re hurting and I wish there was something more I could do for you, but—”

Wes stopped her roving hands. “Cali, you’ve done more than you should already.”

Hurt washed across her face, but she quickly recovered. “I knew what I was getting myself into with you, Wes. But what I was going to say, is that you need to stop this before you do something you can’t live with.”

“What do you mean?”

Cali sighed, looking sadder than he’d ever seen. It prickled his nerves to see her normally resilient exterior ruffled. “Today, after you left the Painted Wolf, Etti was so upset that her stress started to endanger the baby’s heart rate—”

“What?” Wes was on his feet in an instant.

“She’s fine,” Cali said quickly, putting a hand on his chest to stop him. “But if you can’t control the way you act around Etti, maybe you should consider staying away. This thing between you isn’t good for anyone.”

Wes sank back to the bed, hot tears leaking from his face. He was shaking, unable to hide his self-loathing. He couldn’t believe what he’d almost done. If anything happed to Etti—to her baby—because of him . . . He couldn’t live with himself.

He let Cali soothe him until he could regain control of his emotions. He cleared his throat and stood up, striding across the room, collecting clothes and shoving them into a rucksack.

“What are you doing?” Cali asked.

“You’re right. I think I need to stay away from Etti, from everyone, for a while.”

“Where are you going?”

“Somewhere to think.”

“Maybe I can come—”

Wes cut her off. “I need to be alone for a while.”