Chapter 2

Vesper's POV

"Vesper?" Karl lets go of Delilah and comes toward me, fast.

He doesn't ask if I'm hurt. He doesn't ask about the pup. The first thing out of his mouth is, "What are you even doing up here? You show up out of nowhere and almost get Delilah killed. You get that?"

"I got her killed?" I look at him, cold.

"Who else would it be?" There's disgust all over his face. "She told me she was on the groomed runs. You're the one who dragged her past the closure into the South Bowl, and then the whole slope came down. What were you trying to pull?"

Five years I loved this man. Standing here looking at him now, the whole thing just seems ridiculous.

Last time around, I explained myself right up until the day I died. I told him Delilah took off toward the closure like something in her had snapped, and I only went after her to pull her back.

I didn't get her killed. He didn't believe a word of it. He just decided I was covering my own ass.

"Karl, don't blame her." Delilah limps over with Buck holding her up, eyes red, doing the fragile thing she does so well. "She probably just wanted a little excitement. She didn't mean for any of this to happen. My ankle might be broken, but as long as she's okay, that's what matters."

"You hear that? She's still standing there defending you." Karl loses it. He grabs a fistful of my jacket and yanks me toward him.

I've got nothing left in my legs. My foot slides out from under me and I go down hard in the snow.

The pain rips through my stomach. My hand clamps over it, and the cold sweat soaks straight through everything I'm wearing.

"Quit lying there like you're dying." His voice comes down at me, flat and cold. "You think the helpless act is going to make me forgive what you are? You'll never have half the heart Delilah does."

That one goes through me like a dull blade. Slow, all the way down.

That's all I ever was to him. A stand-in. Something to cover the hole she left.

Five years ago Delilah walked away from him when he was still just a Delta, and married into an Old Blood family.

He was still down at the bottom of it when he met me. My eyes looked a little like hers, so he kept me around. He even took me as his mate.

I figured five years was long enough to thaw out anything.

I was right there beside him while he clawed his way up from a nobody in the Guard to First Squad Captain.

Then her husband died, and she came back a widow, and suddenly I was the thing nobody wanted to look at.

Every last one of his men is standing around Delilah. Not one of them comes over to check on the pregnant woman in the snow.

Buck doesn't even bother keeping his voice down. "Come on, Vesper, drop the act. Delilah's delicate. You're built like a truck. One fall isn't going to do anything to you. Just apologize to her and we can all move on."

Between the disappointment and the pain, I don't have a single word of explanation left in me.

I set my teeth against the cramping and push myself up out of the snow, slow, and I look at him. Calm.

"You want an apology?"

Karl stops short. That's not what he expected.

Any other time he raised his voice, I'd have been the one scrambling to make it right.

"You don't think you owe her one?" His brows come together, but the edge drops out of his voice a little.

"Neither of you is worth an apology, Karl." My voice stays level. "Take your precious girl and get out of my sight."

His face goes dark. "What did you just say? Have you lost your mind?"

"I said get out." I hold his eyes without backing up an inch. There's nothing in me for him but disgust. "From here on, whether I live or die is none of your business."

Then I turn around and start walking, slow and heavy, the opposite way from all of them.

"Vesper! You stop right there!" He's shouting behind me. "You think playing hard to get is going to make me cave? Fine! You've got so much pride, go ahead and walk back down yourself! Let's go!"