Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Sherryl.
Ah, she’d been the typical frenemy—someone who pretended to be your friend but was more of a rival. Casey hadn’t associated with her until the female joined the Hounds, so she hadn’t known Sherryl well. Donahue had asked Casey to take the new player under her wing, so she had. Sherryl had climbed up Casey’s ass shockingly fast, lavishing her with praise and flattery. Casey had sensed it was fake, but she’d thought the other mink was simply trying to secure her friendship.
When Sherryl had asked for private soccer lessons from her, Casey had obliged. Then Sherryl had wanted Casey to “recommend” to Adrian that he give Sherryl an enforcer position. Adrian, however, didn’t believe the female had what it took. She’d then accused Casey of convincing him not to grant her the position; she’d maintained that Casey selfishly wanted to be the only female enforcer. Sherryl later apologized profusely, but that had only been for show.
Sherryl’s sickly-sweet act stopped then. Oh, she continued her “friendship” with Casey. But she also constantly made passive-aggressive jabs, tried treating Casey like her own ATM machine, and only came around when she wanted something. Oh, and Sherryl did like to make sarcastic, cutting remarks that were always immediately followed by, “What, I was just kidding! You take everything so seriously.”
No pushover, Casey always called her on her shit. The other mink would then apologize, and they’d move on, because Casey wanted peace and coherence within the team. Besides, Sherryl wasn’t a horrible person. She could be fun and encouraging, and she’d cut down anyone who talked smack about any of her teammates—even if that teammate was Casey.
Sherryl was also hugely protective of her family; never had a bad word to say about them. She simply did not make a good friend. Didn’t seem to know how to have a balanced friendship. And, well, Casey couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Sherryl’s true mate had died when he was a child, and Casey figured that would mess anyone up.
Still, she had not been a happy bunny when Sherryl later started dating Miles. She’d tried warning him that Sherryl could be quite the backstabber, but he liked to see the best in people—a trait that was admirable but often caused him pain.
Sherryl had seemed to care for him, though. She’d made him happy. And it had obviously been real, or they wouldn’t have almost imprinted on each other—the beginnings of the bond had been there. But then she’d dumped him, claiming she felt like bonding with him would be betraying her deceased true mate.
No matter how many times Casey had told her that she wasn’t to blame for Miles’ subsequent downward spiral, Sherryl couldn’t bring herself to believe it. Nor did she believe that Casey and the pack didn’t blame her.
Basically, Sherryl had projected all her self-blame onto everyone else, and then she’d pushed them away and transferred to another pack.
Late one night a few months later, Sherryl had called and—drunk off her ass—given Casey an earful of shit. She’d spouted a lot of hurtful comments, laughed at how much of a joke Casey’s family was, even accused her of sucking Adrian’s dick just to get the position of enforcer, and proudly admitted that she’d slept with some of Casey’s exes before those relationships ended. How mature.
Even though the friendship hadn’t been real, Casey probably should have felt betrayed. But the one good thing about being riddled with trust issues was that you expected people to fuck you over, so it didn’t always hurt when they did.
Casey knew herself well enough to know that despite being sure she could trust Eli utterly and completely, it wouldn’t be so simple for her to believe it with every fiber of her being. She also knew her habit of getting touchy whenever anyone tried dismissing or crushing her strength could be an issue—he was an extremely dominant male, after all, and liked to have his own way. But they could find a balance, so Preston could just fuck right off with his dumbass presumptions.
Reaching the Alpha’s home, she knocked on the door. Like the other houses so deep into the estate, it was pretty as a picture, especially with the colorful garden and the flowerpots under the windows.
It was Adrian’s Beta, Clare, who answered the door—the female was often there, since she and Adrian had been dating for a short while.
Clare smiled. “Casey, it’s nice to see you. Come in.” The Beta stepped aside to let her pass. “Adrian’s in the yard putting the new barbecue together. He’s planning on inviting all the enforcers around here for burgers later. Will you be able to make it?”
Following Clare into the kitchen, Casey said, “Sorry, no, I’ll be busy. I just came by because I have some news.” She pulled her collar aside to bare her claiming brand.