Josephine's Secret

29. Why Not Now?

29. Why Not Now?: Archer's Pov

QOTC- what do y'all think the chapter title means?

Chapter Goal- 300 votes for Eric's POV

*6848 words

I monitor everything happening as Nate comes in and puts a black bag made of cloth over Eric's head. With this situation, the only people going to interact with Eric is Derrick, Nate, Josephine, and I. I hear Josephine laughing when the door opens, Derrick shaking his head with a small smile on his face. My wolf and I hold in a growl, jealous that we haven't had that kind of interaction with our mate in a while.

"We're about to bring him into the interrogation room." I announce, receiving a curt nod from Derrick. Turning to my mate, I ask, "Are you ready?"

"I guess." she shrugs, her tone no longer joyful at the mention of Eric. Derrick leaves the room before us to help Nate bring him into the interrogation area, meaning that it's just my mate and I left.

"I don't want to talk to him if you're not there." she tells me before we leave, surprising me a bit. I expected her to want to speak to Eric alone or maybe with Nate.

"I won't leave your side unless you tell me to." I promise her, taking her hand and leading her out to the interrogation room.

We're in a building near the cellars, but still completely separate from it, meaning that Nate was required to move Eric pretty far from his cell. "Here," I hand Josephine a bag of Haribo Peaches when she backs away from the door of the interrogation room.

She visibly relaxes as she takes the bag from me, mumbling a quiet 'thank you' before letting out a deep breath and entering the interrogation room. There are only two chairs, so Derrick and I stand behind Josephine and Nate, letting them two closer to their sibling.

"Is he going to cooperate or do I get to shoot his other foot?" Josephine asks before we even begin. She raises an eyebrow at Eric, smirking when she sees him shift his feet.

"I'll cooperate." Eric says, keeping his eyes on my mate. "I just want to make things right-"

"It's too late for that." Josephine cuts him off, surprising everyone in the room. "You can't erase what happened and everyone sure as hell knows that things are never gonna be the same as it was before."

She leans back on her chair and eats a piece of candy, suddenly seeming uninterested in what's going on. "I messed up." Eric sighs, seeming genuinely disappointed in himself. He doesn't dare to make eye contact me as he looks at everyone in the room, knowing that it's an extremely dumb move to challenge an Alpha. "I can give you the address to where we were living, but I know that they probably fled again by now."

Josephine's Pov

As much as I know that I should be paying attention to what's going on, I can't bring myself to muster up that much concentration. All I can focus on right now is keeping myself together.

A big part of me feels guilty for allowing Archer to put him in the cells. Even though Eric isn't receiving the traditional treatment of a Blood Moon prisoner, it still feels wrong to let him stay here behind bars. For sixteen years, Eric was my protector... one of my protectors.

Along with Alan, Eric would be the one that would take care of me the most. I knew when something was wrong with him and he knew when something was wrong with me. We had- we still have that connection with each other.. at least I hope we still have that connection. He keeps looking at me while he speaks, knowing that I'm not paying attention to his words. The thing is, however, if he really wanted to talk to me, he would've mind-linked. But I guess I'm not that important to him anymore.