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"You did what?" Brooklynn snapped, squinting her eyes harshly at Connor.

"I get that it was wrong, but it seemed urgent. And I was right-"

"I don't care if you were fucking right, you should have brought me my phone instead of creeping like the nosey mate that you are," Brook was yelling by now.

Connor stood there, feeling half guilty at going through his mates phone. But when he saw the urgent voice messages and texts from Fiona, he thought it was in their best interest if he listened to the messages.

And he was right, but he knew he was still wrong for going through Brooklynn's phone.

"Brook, I'm really sorry about going through your phone but I only listened to the voice messages. She left like thirty," Connor mumbled.

"And let me guess, you listened to all thirty." She replied, angrily.

"Maybe like fifteen of them...But that's not the problem now! The problem is that your old pack is going to start paying rogues to come in large numbers and attack us." Brooklynn fell silent, completely forgetting about the phone issue.

For as long as Brook could remember, her dad despised rogues. He showed no mercy for them when they would even put a toenail on our territory.

And now he's practically siding with them?

"I'm going to have to call my dad," Brooklynn said. Connor shook his head rapidly. "I have to. Maybe I can convince him not to go through with this."

Brook and Connor stared at each other, before Connor nodded.

"Fine, but we're getting you a disposable phone. I don't want there to be any chance of them tracking you."

Brook thought that Connor was being a little over dramatic. Her dad wasn't that good with technology.

Brook started to walk away, assuming that the conversation was done. But Connor wasn't finished with her.

"Brook, wait." She halted in her tracks, and turned back to Connor. He was about to apologize, which was something that he should've done a long time ago. He didn't know how, due to the fact that he had never once apologized to anyone for being an ass.

"I'm sorry," He spoke, "I'm sorry for ruining your future and bringing you here. I'm sorry for kidnapping you and dragging you away from your own pack to be a part of this one. I'm sorry for all of the times I hurt you both mentally and physically. I'm sorry that I'm too fucking selfish to let you go home, but you belong here. You can hate me all you want but my pack is thrilled to have you here. I really, really hope that it's not too late to ask for your forgiveness."

Brooklynn's icy cold frontier dropped for the first time since Connor had met her. Connor didn't see a girl who hated him, he saw a girl that looked utterly lost and confused.

"I don't hate you." The words that left Brooklynn's mouth surprised Connor. He didn't realize that she had stopped hating him. "I'll be honest, the first couple days I came here all I could think about was how I'd kill you. That's what kept me going. You aren't my favorite person, but I definitely don't hate you." Once again, Connor was surprised. He didn't think she hated him enough to want him dead, but he did understand why she would.

"Do you think someday you could love me?" Connor asked, and Brook snorted.

"That's a little far," She laughed. "Maybe someday if you don't fuck up."

A large smile broke out across Connor's face, so large that it almost creeped Brook out.

That's not the only thing that's large...

Brooklynn wanted to yell at herself for thinking that, but she composed herself.

"I'd say I'm pretty big," Connor interrupted. Brooklynn's jaw dropped, remembering that she had just spoken into the mate link. "You want to test it out?" Connor said, jokingly. But the both of them knew that he wasn't really joking.

"Slow down, buddy." Brook laughed, her face still red from embarrassment.

After they both stopped laughing, they fell into silence. It was definitely an awkward silence, making the both of them extremely uncomfortable.

"I never got to thank you for letting Fiona come here." Brooklynn said, breaking the bitter silence. "That really meant a lot to me."

Connor soaked up the sincerity in her voice as if she was the sun.

He didn't know if Brooklynn being nice to him was going to be a regular thing, but he didn't want to take any chances.

Before he could say anything, Brooklynn wrapped her arms around him. She didn't know why she was hugging him, but she just knew that she desperately needed to be hugged.

And after Connor's complete and utter shock wore off, he returned the hug. He pulled her in tightly, his arms resting on the crevice of her back. To him, this could've been equivalent to getting hit with an asteroid. He didn't expect this to happen.

Neither of them did.

But there Brook stood, her arms around Connor Sebastian, her tough girl facade crumpling by the second.

She hoped that this hug would help her feel happy, but instead she felt tears streaming down her face.

She missed her pack, but that wasn't all that was bothering her. She felt as if she had no one left and that she was alone. And Brooklynn had never been alone.

All of the stress that was building up from years back was now tearing its way to the surface.

A loud animalistic sob escaped from her mouth, sending Connor flying back in fear.

It sounded like someone was being murdered.

But his startled demeanor faded when he saw that it was coming from Brook. Instead, he became concerned when he saw the tears running down her face.

"Brook, what's wrong?" He frantically asked.

But she wasn't able to tell him, no words were coming out. The only sound that she could push out of her mouth were cries.

She desperately wanted her mom, but that was one thing that wouldn't ever come back.

She wanted Fiona to comfort her and remind her that everything would be okay, but she didn't even know where Fiona was.

And she wanted Connor, she didn't know why she wanted him. She just craved reassurance in any possible way that he could provide. She didn't care how poorly he treated her in the beginning, right now she had forgotten about all of that.

Connor and his wolf were both going ballistic at the sight of his mate crying. He'd only seen her cry one other time and it was not nearly as bad as this.

He pulled her back into a hug, whispering soothing thoughts into her ear in hopes of calming her down. It was working.

He felt her harsh cries turn to soft sniffles, and then her soft sniffles turned to nothing.

And so they just stood there, embracing each other as if they were going to become one person, as if the world was about to swallow them whole.

"Brook if this is about me-" Connor began speaking, but was cut off by Brook.

"Shut up," She looked at him. "Just don't say anything. All I want you to do is hold me." And he listened to her, he silenced himself and held her tightly.

Connor could feel her body heat, radiating off of her like a warm fireplace. He had never really liked the heat, he always preferred the cold.

But once he held Brooklynn his views on the heat changed, and it left him wishing that summer would last forever.