“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” Luke said after a long pause, his voice stronger now. “I don’t even expect you to trust me. But I want to try, Bella. I want to fix this. For you, for the pups… for us.”
Bella looked up at him, her green eyes meeting his blue ones. There was sincerity in his gaze, a raw vulnerability that she hadn’t expected to see. It tugged at something deep inside her, something she wasn’t ready to face yet.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she admitted, her voice barely audible. “I don’t know if I can trust you again.”
Luke nodded slowly, his expression pained but understanding. “I’ll earn it,” he said. “I promise you, Bella, I’ll earn it.”
Luke’s expression softened, his blue eyes filled with regret and pain. “I didn’t want to tell you like this,” he said quietly, “but you deserve the truth.”
Bella stared at him, her breath hitching. Tyler growled low in her mind, protective and alert, sensing her rising distress.
“Abbey,” Luke continued, his voice steady but strained, “manipulated your parents. She convinced them to stage an attack to lure you back to the pack. Your mother didn’t want to go along with it at first, but Abbey… she used your mate bond against them, told them it was the only way to bring you home safely.”
Bella’s legs felt weak, and she gripped the door handle behind her for support. “My parents agreed to this? They let her hurt my mother?” Her voice trembled with disbelief and anger.
“I think they believed she wouldn’t actually hurt Vera,” Luke said, his tone measured, as if trying to calm her. “Abbey took it too far, Bella. She’s reckless, and her actions are inexcusable. I’m going to deal with her. I swear it.”
Bella shook her head, her thoughts spiraling. “I don’t understand… Why would they think this was okay? Why would they agree to any of it?”
“They wanted you to come home,” Luke said softly. “They thought… they thought you needed the pack, needed me.”
Bella let out a bitter laugh, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Needed you? I was doing fine on my own! I didn’t need this, I didn’t need any of it! And my mother almost died because of their stupid plan.”
Luke stepped forward, his movements slow and deliberate, as if he were approaching a wounded animal. “Bella,” he said gently, “I know you’re angry. You have every right to be. But I swear to you, I will make this right. Your mother will recover, and Abbey will be punished.”
Her tears blurred her vision, and she shook her head, overwhelmed by everything. “I can’t… I can’t trust any of you. You say you didn’t know, but you’re the Alpha. How could this happen in your pack? How could my parents think this was the only way?”
Luke’s jaw tightened, and he took another step closer, his voice soft but firm. “Because they were desperate, Bella. They love you, and they made a terrible mistake. But they’re not the enemy here. Abbey is. And I am going to make sure she never hurts anyone again.”
Bella’s chest heaved as she tried to process his words. Her parents’ betrayal stung almost as much as Abbey’s actions. She felt like the ground beneath her had been ripped away, leaving her free-falling with no end in sight.
“I need time,” she said finally, her voice shaking. “I can’t… I can’t do this right now.”
Luke nodded, his expression filled with understanding. “Take all the time you need,” he said softly. “But please, Bella, don’t run. Stay, for the triplets, for your mother… for us. We can figure this out together.”
She turned away, her mind racing. Tyler whined softly in the back of her mind, torn between the desire to stay with her mate and Bella’s overwhelming need to escape.
“I don’t know,” Bella whispered, her hand still gripping the door handle. “I just don’t know.”
Her father’s face fell, the guilt written all over it even before he could utter a word. That single expression confirmed her worst fears. Bella’s heart sank, and her hands balled into fists, trembling at her sides.
“Baby girl, I…” He hesitated, his voice faltering. “It wasn’t like that—”
“Don’t you dare!” she snapped, her voice trembling with a mixture of anger and pain. “Don’t you dare try to justify this! You let them hurt her! You let Abbey hurt mum! For what? To drag me back here like some damned pawn in their twisted game?” Her voice cracked, and the tears she was holding back spilled over.
Jody stepped closer, his hands raised in surrender, his expression desperate. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Abbey… she said it would just be staged. I never agreed to Vera being truly hurt, Bella. I swear it.”
“You let her!” Bella yelled, her voice reverberating through the house. “You allowed it, dad. You stood there and let her manipulate you into thinking this was okay. How could you? How could you do that to me? To mum?”
“I didn’t know,” he pleaded, his voice breaking. “I didn’t know how far Abbey would go. By the time I realised, it was too late. She… she went too far, and I—I failed to stop it.” His shoulders slumped, and he looked at her with tear-filled eyes. “I thought it was the only way to bring you back. To make things right. We missed you so much, Bella. We wanted you home.”
Her chest heaved as she fought to control the storm of emotions swirling inside her. “Missed me?” she hissed, her voice dripping with bitterness. “You wanted me home? You think this fixes anything? Do you know what it was like to lose everything? To be forced out of the only life I’d ever known? And now you expect me to just… come back and pretend everything’s fine?”
