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“Well, that was fun,” Mongrel rumbled, a tiny smirk on his face.
I gave him a dead eyed smile.
Yuck it up dickhead. Just you wait until our mate’s wrath is unleashed upon you, brother.
“She’s gonna be a fucking handful.” I pinched my nose and rolled my neck until tension popped from my spine.
“And you love it,” he mumbled. My Sgt. at Arms tucked his hands behind his head and winked at me.
“Fuck off, asshole.”
“You really aren’t going to let her ride along?” Mongrel pulled himself off my couch and dropped down into the chair that Sasha had vacated, dragging her scent into his veins.
I flicked a bit of ash off the end of my cigarette. “Too dangerous.”
“Bullshit.” My oldest friend rolled his eyes. “With you and me? Couldn’t be better protected. And you know what I meant.”
I ignored the pointed jab.
“Fine, asshole. Here we go,” I growled. “Bone Crushers got their ass beat but they’re still out there.” I began ticking each reason off on my fingers. “Even with Benji’s intel, we don’t know their exact numbers. Nor would they tell a lowly prospect who all their allies were. Plus—” I held up another finger and took a drag from my smoke, “—do you really want her with us when we confront these people?”
I held his beating gaze. My oldest friend wasn’t challenging me, he was listening. Trying to puzzle me out, so I gave him the rest in a rush. Relieved to get it out.
“You want her to see what kind of animals we really are? How much the beasts inside us revel in the blood we spill? No matter how justified, she’s going to hold onto that. Judge us by it. She won’t come running into your arms once she’s seen you bathed in blood and gore, Mongrel. She’s human. She’ll run her ass the other way. And we can’t protect her if she ain’t here!”
“That human is stronger than you can imagine, alpha,” Mongrel growled, long and low. “Don’t underestimate her.”
“I meant, asshole, that Sasha is less than twenty four hours out of captivity. Who knows what the fuck she endured? You wanna go and add even more blood to the nightmares running through her head? No. Fuck that. I won’t do that to her and neither will you.”
I stabbed out my cigarette and looked at the ever-dwindling packet. Damnit, there was no way I would have time to get another today, much less tomorrow. Fuck. I shoved that almost empty pack into the top drawer and slammed it shut.
“So, you’re gonna mate her, then?” Mongrel asked so casually that I nearly choked on my own spit.
I smacked my chest until oxygen reentered my lungs. “No.”
“Yeah? And why is that, Grimm?” he prodded. “Because of her trauma or yours?”
This fucker is gonna get his ass beat.
“Because I’m not,” I grit out, beast riding my throat.
“Can I say something, alpha, then leave it alone?” he asked, one brow lifted.
Damnit, I knew that look, and I wasn’t looking forward to his next question at all. My Sgt. at Arms knew me far too well. “Can I stop you, beta?”
We both knew the answer was no. Mongrel was my oldest friend. I had spent more time at his house growing up than my own. Things I would never tolerate from any other member of my pack were all fair game to him. So long as he said them in private.
“You let Silver come when we confronted his old pack.”
Mongrel was not wrong.
Silver had his own shitty story with a good for nothing pack he’d left for dust. When our omega had finally come to us—shared what he’d lived through—of course I’d taken him with us when the Soul Reapers paid a visit to that pack.
But not the day after he’d found his way to us, and not when the trauma was still icing through his veins.
“Not until after he was patched,” I replied.
“No, but you never planned to bring him along,” Mongrel pressed. “You only let him ride along when he asked.”
