Read Taken Over (Book 2 The Ravening Series) for Free Online Page A

age, I could see the pity in his gaze. It was that exact look I had feared, that look was the reason I had never talked about my feelings for Cade. “I know that the two of you went through some intense shared experiences…”
       “Don’t.” I interrupted sharply. “Don’t you dare minimize what happened between us, or what I feel for him. I am telling you what I feel for him, what I will always feel for him. I am telling you what was, is, and always will be. I loved him from the first time I saw him, I loved him when he first taught me to fish, and when he insisted that I be allowed to play with the two of you. I loved him when he was broken by his parent’s deaths and took to avoiding us. The night of father’s funeral he came and sat with me in the garden for hours. It was the first time I had spoken with him in two years.”
       “I didn’t know that,” Aiden whispered, looking slightly surprised by my words.
       “Throughout that whole horrendous time he was the first person I cried in front of, the only person I cried in front of.”
       Aiden’s eyes narrowed on me, his gaze became sharper , more questi oning. “ I didn’t know you had cried .”
       “He never came back after that night . At first I kept going to the garden, hoping that he would return, but he never did. I was hurt in the beginning , wounded by his rejection but time , and the struggle that our lives became , eased it. And eventually I forgot about that night, eventually I moved on. Eventually I even started dating Bret, but you know how much I resisted that, how fairly platonic our relationship truly was. At first I didn’t understand why it was like that , why I was like that . E very girl in school thought I was crazy for not agreeing to go out with Bret right away , and then for being so distant with him once I did agree .”
       “Bethany…”
   “And then Cade touched me Aiden.” I couldn’t stop now, once I had opened the bottle o n the emotions I had been suppressing, I couldn’t stop them from pouring out of me. I seized hold of his hand, desperate for him to understand, desperate for him to see why I was so broken. And maybe, just maybe, he could even forgive me for being so lost . I wanted him to know that I had not abandoned him, or Abby, that I did not want to die but that I simply couldn’t breathe, or even be anymore because part of me was lost forever. A part of me had been killed with Cade.
       “Then Cade pulled me into that antique store, and held me, and he kissed me…” I broke off, knowing this was not stuff Aiden wanted to hear. I swallowed heavily before continuing. “And everything made sense. I was whole for the first time in so long , whole in a way I never knew I could be. My indistinct feelings toward Bret, the strange emptiness inside of me, it all made sense because what I had been missing all along was Cade. With him it was so easy, so beautiful, and so absolute . E ven my guilt , and lingering sorrow over surviving th at car when dad didn’t, weren’t anywhere near as bad when he was holding me . With him everything was better , even with the world falling apart around us.
       “It was true Aiden, you must believe that. You have to also believe that though I am empty without him, I will do everything I can to come back to you and Abby. I love you; I don’t want either of you to experience anymore pain. I ’ m broken , but I will survive and I will continue to keep on living. P lease believe me when I tell you that I do not have a death wish.”
       Aiden’s eyes were fille d with a sorrow that tore at me . T here were tears in his eyes, tears I knew he would later shed for Cade and I. Tears that I was unable to shed for us. “I didn’t know Bethany .”
       “I know.”
       “I’m sorry . I wish I could take this from you, I truly do. I’m your older brother, I should be protecting you . I should be the stronger one of the two of us, not you.”
       I