and take it out and jump it. They’re made for that, too. And he hauls what I need just fine if the boys’ trucks aren’t available to me. You really don’t know me anymore.”
“Why leave Hunter?”
“Look, you don’t just get to come in here and ask questions. My life isn’t an open book for you to insult. I don’t want him coming with me. Bryson either. End of discussion.” He reached forward and turned up the radio dial to volume level eight—almost, almost, loud enough to hurt her ears.
“I never saw a trio of more broken brothers than you Kaids,” Summer murmured. Wes didn’t respond, so she kept right on talking. “I always wondered what it was, you know? Back in the days when we were together and things made sense. I could understand most things about you except your relationship with your brothers. Sam was like a demigod to you that you barely were brave enough to talk to. You were this better version of yourself around him, like you wanted so desperately for him to like you.”
“That’s enough.”
“And Hunter? He looked at you like you were the moon, and you treated him like dog-sh—”
“I said enough, Summer.”
His tone was different, and it stopped the word in her throat. Just froze it there. That had never happened to her before. She clutched her neck and tried to finish the word “shit” but she couldn’t.
“What have you done?” she choked out. “How did you do that?”
Wes slid her an angry look and said, “Please don’t make me do it again. I don’t like it.”
Alpha. The word whispered to her through the bond. Alpha? No, no, no, Wesley Kaid wasn’t built to be an Alpha. He was an enforcer. A fighter. A killer.
“Did you brand them?” she asked in horror.
“Hunter, Bryson, Sadey, and Maris are mine.”
Something about that stung to her core. He’d chosen them. Improved enough for them. Branded them, but what had he done to Summer? Changed her into a monster and abandoned her.
She slammed her head back against the seat to punish her emotions and stared out the window. “I guess I don’t know you anymore. But then again, maybe I never did.”
“You’re probably the only one who ever really knew me.” He said it as soft as a breeze, and she almost missed it.
Why? Why did seeing him again wrench open all this emotion? She’d been working on this moment, preparing for it for a month, ever since she’d dug into the sickly bond that kept haunting her dreams. She’d followed every new instinct she possessed and found out Sam was alive. All she had to do was stay unaffected like she had been practicing the last few years. It was simple.
Wes made her weak, and she hated it. He ruined everything.
He reached forward and turned down the music as he rolled to a stop at the main road. “Where are we going?”
“Ooooh no. I’m not telling you. You’ll ditch me at the first gas station.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because abandoning people is your number one move.” Yeah, she threw it out as a burn, but he didn’t react like she’d thought he would. There was no fire, no insult hurled back at her. Instead, he nodded his head and said, “I understand how you would feel like that.”
“Cut it out! You’re being weird.”
His nostrils flared, and he looked like he was counting to three in his head for patience. “I wish I could ditch you right here.” There was truth in his voice.
“Aaaah, that’s better. There’s Old Wes, wanting to shine through the mature imposter that has taken over his body.”
“I miss when you were nice.”
“I don’t. Nice me got hurt. Take a right and keep going south until we hit the New Mexico border.”
“You’re really not going to tell me where Sam is?” he asked, turning onto the two lane paved road.
“Nope. Not until we’re close.”
“You’re annoying now. That’s new.”
“You’re an asshole still. That’s old.”
“Controlling.”
“Full of yourself,” she spouted off.
“I liked your hair better blond.” His voice rang with a lie, though.
“Untrue, ha! You like how I look now.”
“Like a goth Barbie Wolf.”
“Maybe I have my nipples pierced now.”
When Wes jerked his attention off the road to her, the truck swerved dangerously.
Summer grinned. “Joke. Probably.”
“Holy fuckin’ shit,” Wes muttered, looking grumpy. “You gonna mess with me the whole way there?”
Summer mimed shaking something up then looked at her hand. “Magic 8-Ball says it is decidedly so.”
Wes snorted and then reshaped his expression into one of