She’d been selfish by putting her own needs, her own wolf, ahead of the major operation that was about to take place. That wasn’t like her in any shape or form. She’d always put her Pack, her family, first. And yet she hadn’t been able to hold back the truth.
If it had been any other person with either Pack, they would have already known why there was that tension between the three of them. Maybe they weren’t a triad, but there was something going on, and if Shane had known what to do with the wolf inside him, he would have caught on. He was going through so much, she knew, and apparently, something deep inside hadn’t wanted her to go through any more. Keeping secrets only hurt people in the end, and yet she’d wanted to hold back just a bit longer.
She didn’t know what she was going to do for herself, let alone how the others would react. She’d already tried mating with someone, already given over to the need that had coursed through her. It hadn’t worked, damn it. She’d failed at a process so inherent to the needs of shifters that her kind went willingly into fate’s hands and trusted the moon goddess ninety percent of the time. Most people didn’t reject their potential mates, as there was a reason the moon goddess put them together. Their human halves fell in love and knew without a doubt that the other person was the other half of their soul.
Though she’d known it was a risk to Bram to be mated to her considering where she’d come from, she’d fully given in. And had been rejected. Not by Bram, but by fate itself.
And now, the moon goddess was giving her a second chance. Perhaps even a third. Only she wasn’t sure she was worthy enough for the two men who could be hers. She knew the blood that flowed in her veins. The man who had fathered her had murdered hundreds and sacrificed his own daughter to bring a demon into the world. That man’s son had also killed and tortured hundreds of wolves and humans in his own right, his sense of decency long since diluted by the blood of the innocent.
How could the moon goddess want to gift Charlotte with a mate and a future when her family had caused so much hurt to the world around her?
Yes, Ellie had found a mate with Maddox, but Ellie had been through a far greater hell than Charlotte had. She’d paid the penance for the cruel men’s sins, and yet Charlotte didn’t feel she had yet. Yes, she’d been taken from her birth mother at a young age and forced to live in a basement, chained to a wall and forever encased in silence, but she didn’t think it was enough. It would never be enough. Countless men and women had died because of the Centrals’ Alpha’s greed and cruelty, and Charlotte would never be able to wash that away.
But now it seemed she had a choice. So many choices. Bram or Shane. Bram and Shane.
And because she hadn’t been able to help herself, she’d told Shane the real reason she and Bram could calm his wolf. Because he’d been born human, she wasn’t sure he got the full scope of what it all meant. She couldn’t wrap her head around it herself.
Charlotte ran a hand over her face and sighed. She needed to shower quickly and head back to the Talons so they could do what they needed to do. She didn’t have time to keep her head in the clouds and worry about things out of her hands. She would go with the others to the compound and do what she did best—move fast. She was one of the fastest wolves in the Pack, and she’d use that to her advantage.
And when they were done, maybe, just maybe, she’d sit down with Bram and Shane again and worry about everything else. But right now, she couldn’t think of the personal things in her life, only the Pack’s future.
She quickly stripped out of her clothes and turned on the shower. The water heated quickly, and she slid under the spray, letting out a long sigh of pleasure at the sensation of the hot water on her skin. She’d always loved hot showers, much to her family’s chagrin since she’d had to share the bathroom with her two younger sisters. Maybe it was because she hadn’t had long or hot showers at all when she’d been a child that she took this one form of pleasure when she could.