Love, Lies & Eternal Ties (Whitby Shadows Series Book3)

Chapter One

I stepped back and frowned, my head whirring at a hundred miles an hour. "What do you mean 'I know'? You've known all along that he's your brother?"

Luke looked down at the floor.

"I don't understand..." I said, running my hands through my hair. "How could you keep this from him? You know where they are, don't you? Your parents, his mum." I gasped as I realised something. "Did you arrange all of this? A mysterious lead on Marcus' mum so he'd go away and leave me alone with you?"

He snapped his head up and frowned. "What? No. I had nothing to do with him leaving, Cat, I swear."

"How am I supposed to believe that?" I shook my head and backed away from him towards the door. "I only found out you were a werewolf because Marcus told me, so it's not like you're particularly forthcoming with secrets, is it? Seems a little convenient, and very unlike Marcus, that he'd leave me at such a time." The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. "You did, didn't you? You set it up so he'd leave!"

"No," he replied, taking a step towards me. "I didn't, Cat, I swear on my life."

Tears pricked at my eyes as the penny dropped; I couldn't trust a word he said. "I don't believe you," I said, turning my head to see where the door was. Seeing it was only a few steps away, I turned back to him. "How could you lie to me? I thought we had..." I motioned my hand back and forth between us "...something, Luke. Now you're making me question everything."

"I didn't lie to you. There is something between us, Cat. You're my soulmate, my world, the love of my life. I—"

"Don't!" I yelled. "Just shut up. For all I know that's a load of crap. You've probably manipulated this entire situation. I don't trust you, Luke. I'm done."

I turned and ran out of the room, but I barely made it two steps before he grabbed my arm, whirling me back around to face him. The pain and fear in his brown eyes shocked me to the extent I almost choked on my own sobs.

"I would never lie to you," he said, his voice low and gentle. "I couldn't do that."

"You're lying to me by saying that," I said, anger boiling in my veins. "You have lied to me. More than once."

"Cat, I haven't."

I yanked my arm free and squared my shoulders, fixing him with a steely glare. "Just because you haven't physically uttered the words, it does not mean you haven't lied. You lied by omission, Luke. You're not getting out of this on a technicality."

"I'm sorry," he said, raising a hand to cup my cheek. "I never meant to hurt you."

"Don't touch me," I said, batting his hand away. "There are hundreds of things that have caused harm in the world that were never meant to happen, but guess what? They still happened and they still hurt people. Prevention is better than cure. You could have prevented this entire situation, but instead you thought you'd try and deal with it once the secret was out. Wrong move."

"Ok, I'm sorry." He stepped back, holding his hands up in a surrender sign. "I understand, Cat, I do. I thought I was protecting you. After everything you've been through lately—"

"Exactly!" I yelled, my voice breaking as I screeched at him. "That is exactly why I expected you of all people to be honest with me. I..." I couldn't hold back the fresh bout of tears that sprung free and flowed down my face "...I feel like I could face anything with you by my side. Anything."

Guilt bit at me, taking chunks out of my soul. I shouldn't have been saying things like this to another man, not without knowing the full extent of my situation with Marcus, but in the midst of an argument about honesty, I realised I hadn't even been honest with myself about my own feelings. Deep down, I knew me and Marcus weren't meant to be, but that didn't mean I had to forgive Luke just because we were apparently written in the stars.