Shadowing the Teacher (Perfect Pairs Book 3) by Tamsin Baker Read Free Book Online Page A

woman again, Kane!”
    Kane growled with a venom he’d never felt, the anger and pain in his gut so intense he could practically feel the partial shift rip through his spine.
    “Don’t you dare say such a thing about Sam!”
    Reid’s eye brows went high on his face, and a snarl ripped though his features.
    “How dare you defend her! She’s nothing to you, Kane. You don’t even know her. Amanda was our mate, our wife , not this new woman. Amanda was perfect for us, you know that.”
    Kane shook his head, looking at the ground and biting his lip as memories rolled though him. Good memories, bad memories, things he didn’t want to rehash. He didn’t want to fight his brother on this, but he might have to.
    He looked up again, hoping that pleading with his brother may work.
    “Reid, let’s not talk about Amanda. She’s gone, and we have been given an opportunity to live again, love again.”
    “No!” Reid began to pace, his once frail body rippling with power and muscle again. “I will not forget her, and I will never replace her! How can you even say such a thing! My own brother. Her husband!”
    Kane clenched his teeth, the muscles in his shoulders and arms shaking as he glared at his brother. “I don’t want to replace her. We can’t replace her! But we have a chance here, Reid.”
    “A chance for what? To mate a woman I don’t want?”
    “You don’t even know her, Reid!”
    Reid threw his hands up in the air. “I don’t want to get to know her, Kane. Amanda was my wife, my mate. She was perfect, and I am happy to die knowing I married the person I was meant to love.”
    Kane looked away, unable to let that one lie. “She wasn’t perfect.”
    Reid stepped right up in front of him again, his eyes angry and wild as his hands turned to fists at his sides. “Say that again.”
    Kane curled his own fingers into his palms and took a breath, his heart aching to tell the truth and fight for what it knew was right. He could handle a punch or two. He’d done it before.
    He took a breath and channeled the anger he’d felt time and time again when Amanda had been the exact opposite of what they’d needed. “She wasn’t perfect, Reid, and you know it. She played us off against each other when it suited her, and when she wanted to be, she could be a real bitch.”
    Reid’s fist cracked him straight across the cheekbone, the pain and force throwing him back against the wall. White light blinded him as he cradled his face and stretched his neck, his face throbbing with pain. Kane glared at his brother with his one good eye.
    “And you bloody know it, Reid.”
    Reid took a step closer, and Kane lifted his fists and pulled his arm back. He’d never win this war, but he’d go down trying.
    “If you want a fight, brother, bring it on, but you need to remember who she was! The day before she died, you two had a massive fight. Just because she’s gone, doesn’t make her a saint now.”
    Reid wheeled back as though Kane had indeed struck him, and Kane pushed himself away from the wall. He saw it happen time and time again with counseling. When someone died, the memories of that person became sanctified. The family only remembered the good things about their loved one, not all the bad memories. Which, for the most part was a good thing.
    Not here though.
    Kane pressed harder, his bad eye watering and stinging beneath the closed eyelid. “I loved Amanda, Reid, just as much as you. She loved us both and in many ways she matched us, but she was not our fated mate. We never felt the electrical first touch, and I often spent nights sleeping alone in my old bed.” He swallowed hard, his chest squeezing tight on the remembered pain. “I’ve spoken to the other twins, and since they met their women, they have never spent a night away from her. They can’t. Brandon said it’s painful and impossible to sleep without her by his side.”
    Reid choked and groaned, doubling over.
    Reid spent even more nights in his own