Smoke and Wishes (Best Wishes #1)(75)

“God, Lucie, I’m so fucking sorry. For everything, for yelling at you and going after my family because I was jealous and upset,” he had moved up next to my right side and held my hand. His soft skin warm against my cold fingers, cheeks stained with tear tracks.

“It’s alright, Hudson, I don’t blame you at all,” I squeezed his hand reassuringly.

“It is not his fault,” Nik was glaring at Hudson, his voice stern. I didn’t understand why he was frustrated at him.

“Don’t blame yourself, Hudson, those bitches did this. They are the only ones who can hold the blame.” Cam finished Nik’s train of conversation. What?

“Did what? What did I miss?” Glancing between each of them, I grabbed my head to still the spinning of the room from my quick movements. Clearly, I was out of the loop.

“We found out that the girls had given Hudson a bracelet with a rune on it, it fueled those negative emotions to overshadow everything else. They were forcing him away from us. Brittney gave it to him the night of the party right before she told him about you and us,” Landon explained, gesturing between himself and Logan. My jaw dropped. I knew they wanted me to stay away from them, but I thought they were all bark and no bite.

“I barely remember the last three weeks or what I said, the guys got the rune off of me and persuaded those fucking bitches to tell us everything,” Hudson added.

“They told us about the threat, Lucie,” Logan was looking at me, anger in his eyes, but there was also something else. Something I recognized with great familiarity, fear. “They told us about how they threatened you with Noah.” I felt my throat close up as my breathing quickened.

“I guess you put it all together, then?” I whispered, trying to force the tightening in my chest to ease. I’m safe with them, he can’t get me. The guys looked between themselves before turning back to me.

“We have put together that he’s an ex-boyfriend. One who gave you all your scars,” Cam’s voice was soft, no judgment colored his words. “Would you tell us about it? If what she said was true, we want to be prepared if he does come for you.” I took a deep breath, trying to steel myself for telling a story only two have heard before.

“Alright, but Alex and Sadie should be here. They should know too,” I added. No matter how many deep and meditative breaths I took, nothing could prepare me for launching into some of the darkest times of my life.

October 27th

Early Saturday Morning

Hudson





“I met Noah in eighth grade. He had moved to town from the East coast with his family, his dad had been hired as a general manager for an up and coming business. He was sweet and nice to me when most of the boys had been picking on me since I was little because I was shy and nerdy, you know that stupid adage ‘boys will be boys’ shit,” her laugh held no mirth, only coldness. Her voice was low, still scratchy from her screams in the quad. I will never forget her screams. They would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.

“We became fast friends, he was nice to my best friend, Charlie, he stood up for me when the other students would pick on me. Soon enough, they left me alone. I don’t know what he did to get them to stop, but it did. We didn’t start dating until we were freshmen in high school. We were a normal couple, no red flags warned me of how he really was,” she sniffled and wiped a tear away from her cheek. My heart cracked looking at her laying in this hospital bed, watching her lay out something so fear-inducing. Her mental shields may have been strong, but her emotions were stronger and pushed against me.

“It started small, slowly getting upset about who I talk to or hung out with, nothing physical started until sophomore year. A push here and there, a hole in the wall when he was angry. At this point, I was already separated from most of my friends other than Char. She knew something was off, but I was too stubborn to listen to her,” she sobbed at the end of her statement. Oh, princess. I brushed my fingers against her arm lightly as I looked at her, trying hard to comfort her as much as I could.

“From sophomore year until the end of high school, it got worse. It moved from shoving, to slapping, to hits, to kicks and choking. Any tiny thing could set him off, I had to be extremely careful in what I said or did. He was a ticking time bomb. The ultimate controller and manipulator, twisting anything I said or did into something that would set him off. I have had multiple broken bones, cuts, cigarette burns, bruises, and more.” I felt my stomach rolling from her admission. Cigarette burns, fuck. I noticed my brothers looking equally sick and angry as I was.

“I can’t believe how anyone could hurt our Lucie like this,” I sent out telepathically to my brothers, leaving out Dean Renaud and Lucie. My family nodded slightly in response. The dean looked murderous, it was terrifying knowing how powerful he was.

“Two days before graduation I finally couldn’t handle anymore. He had gotten angry that I was ten minutes late to his apartment because of traffic coming from a classmate's house. She had notes I needed for a class that I had missed. He thought I had been sleeping around behind his back, ‘again’,” she finger quoted, heavy sarcasm laced the again. “Which wasn’t the first time he thought I was sleeping with someone else. He bruised my face, my arms, legs, and when I was finally curled on the ground, he stomped on my rib cage. Resulting in two broken ribs,” she looked at us.