His Apprehensive Mate - Brea Alepou Page 0,17

to open up to him, but if she would rather talk to someone else, Morgan understood.

“I’m no better than them,” Ava whispered so quietly that Morgan would have missed it if he hadn’t been paying such close attention to her.

“No better than who? Ava, I need you to start from the beginning,” Morgan said.

Ava finally looked up at him with angry, red, puffy eyes as tears spilled. “You’re too nice to me. Why don’t you hate me? Why would you want to keep me?”

Morgan felt the need to go hug her, and for a second he sat there unsure if he should. But he remembered when he was a teen and things had gone south for him, he’d craved the affection of others. They were also shifters, and touch was important. He got up from the table, the chair screeching against the tile floor as he made his way over to Ava. He pulled her into a hug as her small frame shook with tears.

“I could never hate you. Why would you think that’s possible?” He slowly ran his fingers through her hair, trying to calm her.

Ava clenched her teeth so hard Morgan could hear them grind together. She reeled back; tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I’m their daughter. They did—” Her words caught in her throat, but Morgan didn’t need for her to continue to know what she was referring to.

Although his hands trembled as memories assaulted him, he forced himself to smile anyway. “What they did or have done has nothing to do with you.”

Ava shook her head, pushing back a little. “No, I knew, I saw, and I did nothing. I’m—”

“A child,” Morgan interrupted. He softened his tone and pulled his niece back into his embrace. “You’re a child, and you did what you had to do in order to survive.”

“But I knew it felt wrong,” Ava cried. She bawled her fist in his shirt. “I—I only helped because I was scared—” She lifted her head, eyes full of so much sorrow staring up at him. “That the same thing that happened to you would happen to me.” Her bottom lip trembled with each word. “Because I’m a runt, aren’t I?”

Morgan closed his eyes as his past nightmares came flaring up. He shoved them down, deep down. It wasn’t the time—Ava needed him. He sighed and slowly opened his eyes to look at his niece, giving her a caring smile.

“I’m glad you took the chance to get out of there before things went bad.”

Ava shook her head furiously, bright blue hair clinging to her wet face. “No, you’re supposed to hate me. This makes me a terrible person. I was going to just drop you off and flee somewhere. I didn’t care what happened to you.”

Morgan wasn’t sure how to help Ava with her guilt. All he could do was tell her the truth.

“If you truly didn’t care, you wouldn’t feel this guilt, now would you? If it wasn’t for you, I would probably be dead, or at least still stuck in that room.” Morgan hugged her once more before she could say anything. “I don’t care about the reason you decided to help me. The fact is that you did save me, and Ava…” Morgan tightened his hold. “Thank you.”

Ava shook in his arms, and Morgan wasn’t sure what else he could tell her. All he could do was hold her. Morgan glanced over to the opening of the kitchen and wasn’t at all surprised to find Kenny standing there. He wanted more than ever to ask for his mate to join them. Instead he gave Kenny a tight smile and continued to hold Ava for as long as it took.

They got Ava to bed. She’d cried herself out, and Morgan looked ready to drop himself. He’d stayed strong the whole while during their talk, and Kenny couldn’t be any prouder of his mate. Morgan chewed on his bottom lip.

“She doesn’t need to feel that guilt,” Morgan said.

Kenny nodded. “We can’t change that, only help her heal from it.”

Morgan sighed. “Are you su—”

Kenny stopped his question by kissing his mate, stealing the words from his mouth, turning them into a moan as he tasted the inside of Morgan’s mouth, getting acquainted with it. Kenny pulled back to a dazed-out Morgan.

“That’s one effective way to stop me from talking.”

“Noted,” Kenny said.

Morgan looked more relaxed, even as he glanced back at Ava’s door.

“She didn’t give me an answer.”

Kenny had only caught some of the talk, but by the way