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“Can you tell me about your childhood?” he began.
“I’d rather not.” My wet clothes were plastered to my skin, and since I didn’t have my muslin cloth binding my breasts, I was more than a little self-conscious about the way I looked. My nipples were sticking out like they were trying to get this guy’s attention. Stupid nipples.
“About your parents, then.”
“Mama was around,” I said slowly. I swear, if a shifter’s human form could swivel their ears, his would have.
“Was? She’s dead?”
“Well, it’s a good bet,” I replied. “Killed by rogues is what they told me. She got thrown out of the packlands four years ago.”
He made a sympathetic sound. “Why?”
“She, um…” I’d never had to tell this story; everyone in my pack already knew it. “She was protecting me from this toadfu—um, this guy, Trevor. I’d started looking more like a girl.” I laughed self-consciously, tugging at the ends of my hair. “You’d never know it, but I was slightly cute at one point.”
“I’d believe it.” His voice was like chocolate, dark and sweet.
“Well, anyway…” I went on, flustered. “I didn’t want him, but I was unranked. He caught me the first week I was the prey in the Hunt.”
“Hunt?” A slight growl had entered his tone, and I shrank back slightly, until he relaxed.
“It’s a pack game the unmated guys play,” I said, not wanting to explain. It was so humiliating, and I didn’t want this guy to see me as weak. As prey. “Anyway, he caught me and said I had to mate him.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Wait, mate him for real? You said it was a game.”
I snorted. “Yeah, well, a game with consequences.”
His eyes flashed with blue lightning. “You would have been sixteen?”
“Yeah, actually fifteen, I think,” I mused, remembering how upset I’d been that my boobs had started to appear near the end of ninth grade. That was late for shifter girls, and the pack boys had started to notice. “I was a late bloomer. But he’s the oldest son of our Head Enforcer, a real bastard named Van.”
It was actually Van who had helped Trevor catch me. Del had been ordered to help cook for and serve in the Alpha’s private dining room. I’d had to handle the whole pack dining hall and the cleanup, and hadn’t been able to get away before the Hunt began that evening. Van had chained the doors to the dining hall from the outside so I had no way to get out, and then he’d given his asshole son the key.
The Hunt would have been over for me that night. Except Mama had shown up, sent home early from work.
His eyes narrowed. “The Head Enforcer. I thought that was supposed to be… what was his name, a fighter named Del?”
For the first time, my instincts were triggered. He knew something about Del. The faint, familiar scent of deception—like old metal rusting, stagnant water pooling—teased my senses. He wasn’t lying outright, but he wasn’t being truthful either. He was holding back.
“Yeah. Del lost a leg in some bullshit accident quite a few years back, when I was little. He lost his rank, so Van got his place.” I felt my gut churn, wondering not for the first time if Trevor’s douchebag dad had been the one to make Del’s accident happen. “Anyway, Trevor had cornered me in the back of the dining hall, and Mama found him trying to… you know. Mate me.”
“Rape you,” Glen growled, and my skin prickled at the surge of fear that the sound sent through me. A male growl had only meant pain before now. But this guy noticed my reaction and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. When he could speak, he murmured, “That’s not mating. That’s assault. Mating is... sacred. It’s miraculous.”
Unable to help myself, I snorted again. “Are you kidding? My parents were true mates, and I promise it wasn’t a miracle. It was a fucking nightmare.”
“Your parents?” He raised one eyebrow, like he was kind of interested, but I could see the laser focus in his eyes. “Where was your father when your mother was defending you from Trevor?”
“I don’t have a dad.” It was true; I had a biological father, but I’d never once called him Dad.
I knew who he was, or at least, I’d guessed. Mama had had a seizure every time the asshole had sex with someone else, so I’d put two and two together. But I didn’t want confirmation of my suspicions, and when I’d hinted to Del, he’d warned me never to speak of it. Not that I had anyone I would tell. It wasn’t the sort of thing I would brag about.
Glen flushed. “Ah, I’m sorry. Dead as well?”
“I can’t really talk about it. It’s complicated.”
He waited like he wanted me to go on, but I sure as heck wasn’t going to start braiding his hair and sharing secrets. This guy might be at events with the asshole, and he could let something slip.
“Anyway, Mama stabbed Trevor in the kidney. He healed eventually, but Mama was unranked, so…” I spread my hands in front of me. “They chucked her out for the rogues to kill. That’s the way it is at Southern. If you fart in front of the Alpha, you might as well kill yourself. And he hates me worse than fleas; that’s why I’m getting the hell clear of this shithole.”
