The vulnerability in his voice made her breath hitch painfully, and a slow bubble of fury spread over her to send a tingling akin to adrenaline from her nose to her toes. She turned her head aside under the guise of reaching for more herbs for his leg, to hide the fierceness that suddenly lit her face. "If I didn't know it would only hurt you more, I would kill her for it." The low-voiced admission tumbled free unbidden and if it were possible she'd have snatched it right back. She drew back, not meeting his gaze as she winced. Well shit, Cascade, even you know not to tell your alpha you'd like to kill his girlfriend for any reason, even if he is hurt and mad at her and you hate her for doing it to him. That seemed like a pretty sure way of making him mad at you instead.
But sheer force of stubborn will made her own up to it and she determinedly turned to face him again. "What I said about her not being used to our ways doesn't excuse her actions. Whatever her reasons she did still betray you and your pack by choosing an enemy over you. Instead of trusting you, trusting you to know what you were doing, she walked away. So you aren't wrong to feel angry and hurt. But..." she turned her face away again with a grumpy scowl. "I also know that she means a lot more to you than just a pack member, or you'd have punished her for it right then instead of letting her go. So I know she'll come back to you, and you'll forgive her. That's the thing with opening up your heart, isn't it?" she added wistfully. "It's easier to get hurt but it's easier to forgive too?"
She couldn't remember ever caring about someone enough to forgive them. She'd never had someone love her so unconditionally they would forgive her.
She'd had to climb and claw her way back into Valen's good graces after she'd engineered Rhythm's kidnap and it hadn't been until recently that she'd felt her equilibrium returning; he and Rhythm would be right back where they were within a week. There was a world of difference between "friend" and "lover" and while she was still learning what it meant to be a friend, innocent little Rhythm seemed to come by love naturally so undoubtedly she'd have Valen like clay in her little paws again as soon as she realized just how hard it was to have to live by herself and came back to Valen. It was a disconcerting realization to know just how much power such a useless little female could have over someone - almost frightening. And who was going to protect Valen from getting hurt again?
She sighed.
"Just promise you'll be careful?"
She took the herbs for the poultice for his leg into her mouth to chew them then, in part to keep her from saying anything else stupid.
""
Cascade's "baby daddy" (Valentine) and her children (Angelus, Seraphim, Evangeline, and Chaos) are allowed in any of her threads, regardless of whether or not they are marked private. Because they are all special rays of sunshine.
