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My hand floated back to my mark and I could feel Silver’s concern through our bond. A wave of calm broke over me—my mate sending me comfort—but the feeling was banished by Winter’s next words.
“You let one of those animals claim you?!” Winter roared, her long night gown flowing around her like a warrior Goddess as she stepped from her nest. “Like a piece of property?”
Gobsmacked, I started backing away. My hands came up in self-defense at the terrible look in her eyes as she ate up the distance between us with jerky, rage-filled steps.
“After everything I’ve done for you?!” she screeched, pointing at the scabbed and swollen circular bites along her own neck and shoulders. “The hell I lived through?”
I wanted to vomit. Each word a hurled grenade. Each ragged breath an explosion. Sending a million tiny shards of shrapnel ripping through my soul.
My insides shook and I wrapped my arms around my middle. Still I remained silent in the face of her wrath. I had nothing to say that could explain this. Nothing that could make her understand that my mark was different. I had asked Silver to claim me. I had gone to his bed, even after everything I’d seen, and begged him to mate me. To make me his.
I could see the betrayal through her eyes. This fresh rage was directed at me. And I deserved it.
“Does nothing affect you, little alpha? The all high and mighty leader of our broken band of fools? You were supposed to protect them. You were supposed to lead the way. Now you’re bedding down with our enemy?!”
She pointed a shaking finger at me. Long and curled, it looked like the Crone Goddess had come to reap the souls of those who’d crossed her. Then she swung it to where Robbie and the girls were watching us, frozen in the middle of their game. Eyes flown wide.
“Well, congratu-fucking-lations. Now you’re some wolves’ pet. How the fuck are you gonna take care of them, now? When you’re down on your knees at your new master’s paws?”
I shook my head. She had it all wrong. So wrong. Chains had twisted it all up in her head. What she was describing wasn’t a true mating. It was slavery.
“We’re mated, Winter. He’s not my master, ” I tried, touching the bite for reassurance. “We’re equals.”
I could feel Silver’s need to come to me but something was holding him back. Guilt and confusion, and—yes—a little bit of rage, too. My omega was fighting his own battle, he couldn’t come flying to my rescue at the drop of a hat.
Besides, he couldn’t protect me from this. This was a mess of my own making. A grave error in judgement. A breach of trust. I’d been so swept up in myself, in the pull of the magic, that I hadn’t even cast a single thought as to how this choice would affect my most broken charge.
“The Bone Crushers—”
“Don’t you fucking start with me, traitor.”
I heard the hawking of phlegm before it launched in the air. I watched completely dumbfounded as it flew toward me. I didn’t have time to duck, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to. Winter’s spit dribbled down the side of my cheek.
“You don’t even get to breathe my air, wolf bitch. You’ve made your bed and you’re welcome to it. But I’m gone.”
Winter started gathering up armfuls of her nest, billowing out of her scrawny arms in a way that would have been comical if I didn’t want to scream in shame.
“Where are you going?” Louise asked quietly.
“Anywhere but here.”
Winter slammed out of the room in a whirlwind of rage that sucked the oxygen from my lungs, jarring my soul.
Addy padded over to the door and peeked into the corridor. “She’s gone.”
“It’s okay, Louise,” I assured the girl whose lip was trembling.
But it wasn’t okay and I didn’t know if I’d be able to hold the sobs that wanted to rack my body in much longer. Louise sidled up to me and laid a gentle hand on my back. Addy joined us. Winter was gone. I’d driven her away.
“She shouldn’t have said that,” Addy murmured as she used her sleeve to wipe the tears from my face. I hadn’t even noticed them falling. “These wolves aren’t the same.”
“I know.” I pulled them both into a hug, petting Louise’s hair as she held me tight against her too thin frame. “But in some ways Winter never escaped that burning shit hole. Maybe she never will. I hurt her bad, parading this mark in front of her. For that I’ll never forgive myself.”
“You saved us,” Louise mumbled, snuggled closer.
Addy growled in agreement, tightening her grip on my other side.
Who was holding who? I didn’t know anymore and I didn’t care. I felt Talia and Robbie come to join us but Winter’s absence left an ache in my heart that would never heal.
