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I held his gaze until he slumped back into his chair. “How much did you hear?”
“Every idiotic word.”
Soon, Grimm and Sasha would be put out of their misery. However, I didn’t plan on forcing my mate to live in her own personal hell a moment longer than she had to, and neither would Mongrel.
“Fuck.”
“Fuck is right, alpha. You’re driving us away, man. And none of us even want to leave. Least of all Sasha.”
“What do you want me to do, Silver? I offered to mate her, for fuckssake!”
“As a consolation prize, Grimm! Right after you told her she’d never be a wolf. That she’d never be your equal. Stop treating her like she’s just another person in your pack you have to manage and give her the fucking respect she deserves.” He growled, opening his mouth to let me have it, but I wasn’t done. “No. Shut it, Prez. I’m talking now. After everything those humans have been through—everything they’ve survived—you’re trying to force them to play victim. But Sasha isn’t a victim, Grimm, she’s a fucking warrior.”
“I know that,” growled the Prez. “I respect the hell out of her for surviving that shithole.”
“Really? Well, you’re doing a stand up job of showing that to her and everyone else,” I spat back. “At every turn, you challenge her authority. Needle at her decisions. But it doesn’t matter what you do to undermine her authority because the pack sees through it. You want to know why everyone has taken to calling her ‘little alpha’ in the corridors? They own that nickname for her now. Do you know why?”
Grimm winced and shook his head. His eyes were bright with his wolf but his beast wasn’t looking to put me in my place for speaking out of turn. Instead, he was lapping up every word I had to offer because he was so desperate to learn more about his mate’s life here. A life they both could have already been a part of, if the human side of him wasn’t being such a jackass.
“Because they see Sasha. The real Sasha. She wasn’t born a wolf but she has a soul as fierce as any shifter. They recognize that. Respect her for it. You can’t lock her up in a tower because you’re worried she’ll break, Grimm. You’re stifling her with all of this overprotective bullshit. Making her feel small. You. You’re the one making her feel weak.”
His eyes were haunted now as I barrelled on.
“So congratu-fucking-lations, alpha. You succeeded in making our fierce mate feel more powerless than the Bone Crushers ever did. That’s why she’s calling on you for the wolf. Because she’s desperate to meet you stride for stride.”
“Silver—” Grimm’s voice was a whimper. I could feel his spiraling panic through the pack bond we shared, the bond we’d be breaking in the morning. “You can’t. For the love of the Goddess, you can’t give her the bite. You saw what it did to Louise. Mongrel told you my story. I can’t—can’t watch her die like that.”
“I’m not gonna turn her, Grimm. Neither is Mongrel. But we’re sure as shit gonna respect her decision to fight for her freedom. For her people. She’s already alpha of her own pack. You’re just too fucking blind to see it.” I stomped to the door and snarled as I damn near tore the thing off its hinges. “You know the worst part of all of this? You never treated the humans in our pack as less-than before. I fucking loved that about you.”
I risked a look back and saw the Prez with his head in his hands. Good. I hoped it fucking hurt because leaving my friend—having my mate and her people run off by the alpha I had bled for, would’ve died for—hurt like hell. He deserved to feel the weight of his decisions tonight.
“This Chaos has changed you, Grimm. And not for the better.”
40
LOVE ME TENDER
Mongrel
As Sasha cried herself out in my arms all I could think about was how I’d treated her that first time. I’d held her down. Trapped her against me while Silver and I had bonded her. I’d punished her. Left my handprint on her ass like a brand for fuckssake.
I’d meant it from a place of love. Silver knew that, of course. He’d had time to adjust and had long since fallen in love with my wild ways. But I hadn’t even thought to ease Sasha in. I’d been so caught up in the moment—the savage pull of the Chaos and how sweetly my mate had submitted to my dominance—that I’d taken everything and pushed for more. Made her submit to my every whim without a word or whimper of complaint.
Everything I did in the bedroom would always be in service of her pleasure. Her unspoken desires.
Sasha had no way of knowing that I’d never push it too far, though. That I’d never cause her actual pain and revel in it. That I was listening with every cell of my body to the secret whispers hers was sharing with me.
In fact, life had taught her the exact opposite. Male after male had used their superior strength—their position of power—to belittle and degrade her. Seeing a fierce female standing in defiance of their rule only made their primal natures come out to play. Demanding her subjugation to prop up their own fragile egos.
Submission from a woman like Sasha was supposed to be a gift. Freely given. Not forced by brute strength and fear. A call and answer from our innermost selves. Sometimes you took, sometimes you gave. But, at the end of the dance, everyone found their bliss.
So why hadn’t she stopped me? Spoken up? Told me to fuck off? And why was I only hearing now what she’d been through at the hands of those fucking bastards? Had she felt like she didn’t have a choice? Did she think she had to please us—me, her brute—to be safe here in our pack? To be safe in our den?
Just the thought of it drove my wolf wild inside. I felt sick. Shaken. Disgusted. If Sasha had been harboring anything even remotely like the dark thoughts running riot through my head, I knew I didn’t deserve this beautiful gift from the Goddess any more than my alpha.
I didn’t deserve it, yet I’d taken it all the same.
Diving into our bond, I hunted for any hint of distress indicating that Sasha felt debased in our den. But her sleepy thoughts were serene. There was no fear, only the desire to burrow into my arms and that ever present spark of courage as she dreamed of our tomorrows.
