Page 26 of Wicked Wolf

“You and Quinn,” Kade said softly, though his wolf was up front from the sound of his growl.

She nodded. “Yes, me and Quinn.” She winced. There wasn’t a “her and Quinn,” but she’d get to that part.

“I don’t want to talk about everything.” She met her father’s gaze. “I can’t. But I will say that he didn’t want to be my mate. He had a good reason.” A reason that hurt her more than anything, but she’d move on.

Kade growled full-out, and her brothers joined him. Goose bumps rose over her flesh at the sound, so protective yet angry at the same time.

“There isn’t a good enough reason to hurt my daughter. You are a Redwood and will one day be the Enforcer. Does he think you’re not good enough?”

Yes, but not for the reasons he’d said.

Not that she’d tell him that.

She shook her head instead. “He had a mate, Dad. He had a mate, and now he doesn’t. He has a five-year-old son to raise, and finding a new mate isn’t on his agenda.”

“Oh, honey,” Mel whispered then cupped her face. “I’m so sorry.”

Gina didn’t cry. She didn’t think she had anything left to cry about. “It’s okay, Mom. I tried. I put myself out there. He didn’t want me. I get it. He doesn’t want another mate.” He doesn’t want a witch. “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“We can beat him up for you,” Ben put in.

“Yeah, I’ll tie him down,” Tristan said.

“No one is allowed to hurt our sister,” Drake said.

“We love you, Gina,” Mark said. “We don’t like it when you cry.”

“We really will hurt him for you,” Nick added.

She sniffed then kissed each brother, even standing up so she could kiss Finn’s cheek. He looked down at her, still frowning.

“I’d kill him if I could,” he growled.

She shook her head. “That’s the exact wrong thing to do, Finn. You know that.”

“I don’t care if he’s a freaking Talon. He hurt my family. From the way you reacted, it wasn’t just a brush-off, Gina. He hurt you.”

She closed her eyes. “I know, Finn, but you need to remember that you’re the Heir. You can’t kill a member of another Pack because he hurt your sister.”

“You think I don’t get that? You think I don’t know that I’m the Heir? I’ve been the Heir for as long as I can remember, Gina. I’m not going to mess things up for my Pack because of what he did, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I want to put family first. Can’t you get that?”

“We all get that,” Kade said from behind her, and she opened her eyes. “You know we all get that. The whole family has had to put some of their own wants and needs on hold because of the war with the Centrals. Now with the treaty with the Talons, we’re forced to do that again.”

“When Logan and Lexi first joined us, we wanted nothing to do with the Talons,” Mel said. “Gina, you might have been old enough to remember when they first came to us. We wanted blood for the way the previous Alpha had treated them, but we had to step back.” She cupped Gina’s face. “But if we need to, we’ll fight for you, Gina. Never forget that you are our daughter. You are Larissa and Neil’s daughter. Your heart matters just as much as whatever the Talons mean to us. You matter more. If you want us to take matters into our own hands with this, we will.”

“Just because he’s a Talon and we’re trying to find a way to make our treaty work with them doesn’t give him the right to hurt you,” Kade said.

She pulled back and shook her head. “I don’t want to do anything that will hurt the Talons or the Redwoods. In fact, this is good, right?” She tried to smile and failed. “Okay, so the rejecting thing is horrible, and I’ll get over it because I have to, but that’s not what I’m talking about. You know we formed the council because of many things, but one of those was because there hadn’t been any matings between the Talons and Redwoods in all this time. This is huge.”

God, she knew she sounded like an idiot, but if she didn’t move on to something she could talk about without breaking down, she wouldn’t be able to speak at all.

“Gina, you don’t have to try to make this better,” Mark said from her side.

She shook her head. “I’m not really, but think about it. There’s a mating between a Talon and a Redwood. We’re moving forward.”

“And if the goddess sees you both reject it and doesn’t allow another mating?” Finn asked.

Kade growled. “Then that is something we deal with, Finn. We won’t force Gina to deal with Quinn for the sake of the Packs.”