I Loved You Through Seven Losses Chapter 08

I Loved You Through Seven Losses Chapter 08

Three years later, my suitcase wheels hummed 

across the polished floor. 

A broad–shouldered man in a dark coat took the 

handle from me. 

“Ms. Reed. I’m Liam. The Badlands assignment is 

closed, and Command assigned me as your 

personal security.” 

I glanced at his credentials and nodded. 

Three years out in the Badlands had worn every 

soft thing off my old life. 

My skin had gone brown, and my hands were full 

of calluses. I wore my scars like armor. 

In that other life, I had turned down the Council’s 

offer for Asher’s sake. 

I had wanted something quiet and ordinary. I had 

wanted to be a mate and a mother. 

I had been such a fool. That life was never 

anything but a cage. 

This time, I chose to live for myself from the very 

first day. 

Liam was walking me toward the private exit when two figures came shoving out of the crowd. 

“Roxie!” 

“Roxie!” 

I stopped. 

Asher and Garrett stood there, both of them years 

older, hollowed out and worn down. 

Liam stepped forward at once. “Stop there. 

Identify yourselves.” 

Asher’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?” 

Garrett flushed with anger. “You dare block my 

way? I’m her brother!” 

“Doesn’t matter,” Liam said flatly, and his hand slid toward the weapon at his hip. 

I gave Liam a nod. 

He fell back to a spot that kept a polite distance, close enough to step in, far enough to let us talk. 

“Roxie… he isn’t…?” Asher’s eyes moved between 

the two of us, and jealousy flickered through the 

gold. 

“That has nothing to do with you,” I said coldly. 

“What are you doing here?” 

Asher’s face crumpled with pain. 

“Roxie, we’ve spent three years paying for it. I don’t 

sleep.” 

“Every time I close my eyes, I see you. Give me one 

more chance. I swear to you…” 

“I don’t care,” I cut in. “We ended three years ago. 

Go find something else to obsess over.” 

I turned to Garrett. “And you. I don’t recognize you 

as family.” 

“Our parents would understand. If you want my 

share of the inheritance, talk to my lawyer.” 

Garrett reached out to me, and his fingertips were 

trembling. “Roxie… you’d really cut off your own 

brother?” 

Asher grabbed my arm. “I never accepted that 

rejection! Under Pack law, we’re still mates.” 

I threw his hand off, out of patience. “Fine. Let me 

tell you a story.” 

I laid it out for them in a few sentences. 

The bet, the poison, the seven pups who never 

made it, and the night our parents died. 

The color drained from both men’s faces until they 

were as white as paper. 

Later that night, my phone rang on an encrypted 

line. 

“Garrett lost control of his car on the cliff road and 

died at the scene. Asher was in the passenger 

seat.” 

The report came with a photo of the wreck and a 

note that had been pinned to the dashboard. 

[Maybe dying is the only way either of us gets to 

start over.] 

I looked at that line for a long time, and I didn’t say anything. Then I set the phone down. 

However many times I had to relieve in, I would 

take the same road. 

It was the road that saved me once, and would go 

on saving me a thousand times over.