Chapter 0241


    My lip starts to tremble as I listen, tears again stinging my eyes, but Jesse leans forward.


    “Rafe,” he murmurs, ncing between us. “Slow down a little, man. I mean, if we’re aware of what


    they’re feeling, then she’s aware of it double – she can feel it all down their bonds. And that, on top


    of her own feelings?” He shakes his head, holding Rafe’s gaze, willing him to listen.


    Rafe takes a deep breath and sighs, pushing his cake around on his te, clearly thinking it


    through. In the end, though, he looks up at me. “Can you seriously feel everything they feel?”


    “Not everything,” I murmur, my voice tight as I look down at my te. “Not unless the emotion is


    really intense, or they send it to me deliberately. And not…across great distances. Only when


    they’re nearby, or in the room. Like I can’t feel them now.”


    “Weird,” he murmurs, quietly eating his cake as he puts his thoughts together for a second. Jesse


    does the same.


    After a long moment, Rafe breaks the silence.


    “I just wish, Ariel,” he murmurs, truly hurt, “that you’d trusted me enough to let me know. I’d have


    told you, after all.”


    Text ? by N0ve/lDrama.Org.


    My nose starts to sting at the true sadness and hurt in his voice, and then my throat gets tight. I


    blink fast, not wanting to cry, because I know that they have every right to be mad at me, but…


    Well, the tears start to fall down my cheeks anyway.


    “Aw,e on Ari, don’t do that,” Jesse murmurs, leaning forward and putting a warm hand on my


    knee. “We can’t yell at you if you’re crying, and we’re not anywhere near finished.”


    “I know,” I murmur, brushing frustratedly at my cheeks with the side of one hand. “I’m sorry, I’m


    really sorry –“


    “No, I’m sorry,” my brother murmurs, setting his te on the coffee table and getting to his knees as


    he reaches for me, wrapping his arms around my body and pulling me into hisp. “I’m sorry, sis.


    I’m fucking livid with you but – god, fuck, I’m sorry you bore this alone. I’m sorry – I wish you’d have


    let me be there for you.”


    I cry harder, letting myself be overwhelmed by my grief and confusion, knowing he’ll see me through


    it. Knowing he’s strong enough for that.


    “Oh, let her go, Rafe,” Jesse murmurs, scootching closer and reaching out to put his his own te


    on the coffee table,ying himself down on the couch so that all of our heads are very close


    together, so that we can talk and hear each other in barely more than a whisper, if we so choose.


    “We can’t get all the gossip if she’s crying like that.”


    “The gossip?” I ask, wiping my away all my tears, kind of appalled.


    “Oh, all the gossip,” Jesse murmurs, yawning and turning his head to grin at me. “Jackson’s fine, by


    the way, thanks to yours truly. Going to show up here to breakfast tomorrow, newly determined to try


    for your hand. In exchange for your genuine gratitude, my love…I will ept the whole damn story.


    Right now.”


    “Same,” Rafe says, giving me a solemn nod. “Luca’s pissed as hell, and while…well, while he’s not


    precisely prepared to grovel for you…he’ll be here in the morning. So, madam trouble? The floor is


    yours.”


    And so, with a sigh, I unfold myself from Rafe’s arms and sit on the floor next to him, beginning to


    tell them the whole story.


    “Well,” Rafe says, about an hourter, his eyebrows raised. “Actually, in retrospect, I’m d I didn’t


    know any of this. I would much rather have broken up one wolf fight after finals than have had to


    worry about this the whole term.”


    “Such empathy in my big brother,” I say, lowering my eyelids into a half-hearted re and reaching


    out my fingertips to give him a shove.


    Rafe grins at me, chuckling a little, as Jesseys on the couch next to us, staring at the ceiling, his


    head cushioned on a pillow.


    “Honestly, Ari,” my cousin says, his voice more thoughtful than it usually is, id out like that I’m not


    sure you could have done it very differently. The only ce you really seem to have fucked up was


    when you didn’t n this evening – you just let both of them show up here, expecting dinner. It was


    a powder keg, ready to explode, but the rest of it?” My eyes are wide as I watch him shrug,


    desperate to know what he’ll say next.