Free The Lamb Who Cried Wolf by Scarlet Hyacinth Page B

blue and clear, and Brody again felt like he’d let down and betrayed his mate.
    He followed after the rest of the wolves with Roxanne clinging to him like an annoying leech. As a small comfort, he caught sight of Liam appearing from a room and joining them. His friend gave him a look of regret, and Brody was thankful that at least, someone understood. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help,” Liam mouthed.
    Brody just nodded in distant acquiescence. He didn’t blame his friend for any of this. Liam couldn’t have changed Soren’s mind or The Lamb Who Cried Wolf
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    influenced the outcome of the situation in any way. Brody was only glad wolves had not turned to shooting the messenger like they had with breaking mate bonds.
    The soldiers led Carson into one of the cars, but his father didn’t let Brody climb into the same one. Perhaps the man feared Brody would change his mind. As if anything could be done at this point.
    He’d taken this decision for Carson’s sake and would not back down.
    Liam climbed into the car with Brody, but didn’t speak. Everyone seemed to grasp Brody’s foul mood.
    The trip back to the outskirts of Ramston took far too little time than Brody would have liked. They didn’t go too far or too close to the sheep town. With the previous attack, the sheep must have strengthened their defenses, and the wolves had no desire of getting shot.
    Brody left the car and watched as Carson did the same. His lamb took one final look toward him then walked away from the vehicle and disappeared into the forest.
    “There you go,” Brody’s father said. “He’s safe now.”
    Brody didn’t feel quite satisfied. The forest might be full of animals that could hurt Carson. “I’ll rather see that for myself.”
    The other wolf frowned. “That’s fine, as long as you take a couple of men with you.”
    Brody hadn’t expected his father to trust him, so he wasn’t surprised at the request. A couple of men turned to be five huge werewolves, led by his brother. Liam joined them, as always, by Brody’s side. They followed Carson’s trail into the forest, staying at a reasonable distance. At one point, Brody sensed Carson realized he was being followed, but didn’t seem to care.
    Finally, they reached the edge of the forest, just in time to watch Carson enter his town. “You see?” Soren whispered. “He’s fine. Now let’s go before anything worse happens.”
    Brody went, turning his back on Ramston and the life he’d hoped for.

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    Scarlet Hyacinth

Chapter Five
Two years later

    “But Carson, I don’t know why you’re so adamant in staying away from us. It’s been two years. We’re willing to forgive and forget.”
    Carson took a deep breath and focused on not slamming the phone against the wall. His mother didn’t know about everything that had happened to him during those few life-altering days, or rather, chose not to know.
    After Brody’s rejection, Carson had returned to his town, only to be faced with a new problem, his brother. Ray had invented some fucked-up story about how and why he and the other young rams left their posts. It involved Carson getting eaten by the wolves, and it had been quite believable, or so Carson gathered. And naturally, when Carson returned, claiming the wolves let him go, everyone turned against him, including his own mother.
    Disgusted and uncaring, Carson had left Ramston behind. Besides, he didn’t think he could live in the same town as his brother and his cronies anyway. No one believed his story about his near-rape either, so Carson no longer felt any need to live in Ramston. He did miss the forest from time to time, but he’d built a new existence here, something better than he’d ever had in his home town. From time to time to time, however, he called his mother, just to check up on the lambs. Alas, she ended up throwing accusations at him and making him so angry he couldn’t see straight.

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    “Forgive and forget,” he