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“You know you have to let me go,” I tell him. “Rick is going to wonder where I am.”

“I’d rather not,” he says. “I’d rather keep you bound and safe.”

“Is it me you want to keep safe, or everyone else?”

“You,” he says. “I couldn’t give a damn about the world at large, not now that you’re finally mine.”

This is how wolves are. Mating means more than casual sex to a man like Henry. Knotting in me, filling me with his seed, means that he’s made a commitment.

But it’s not going to be that simple. If he’d been drawn to almost any other female—I refuse to fall for this fated mate nonsense, no matter how good the sex just was—it would be that easy. I’m different, though. I come with baggage, history, and a brother.

“You know you’ve got to let me go,” I say. “Rick is going to wonder where I am eventually.”

His expression tightens a fraction when I mention Rick’s name. My curiosity is piqued again, though I know better than to ask the same question twice. If he wants to tell me what happened, he will.

“So you’re going to live a double life. The socialite and the sociopath. You’re going to go to all the parties and then afterward you’re going to go eat people if the mood takes you,” he smiles.

That’s exactly my plan.

* * *

Henry

She grins at me, flashing her teeth with sass and aggression in equal measure. I can’t believe she’s the she-wolf responsible for all this trouble, all these public sightings, and a handful of slayings. She’s been an absolute menace out here on my streets.

I haven’t punished her for that yet. Discipline is yet to come, but it will have to happen. She has no inkling of that, however. I can tell by the way she’s grinning that she thinks that the matter is not only at an end, but she’s free to keep up her misbehavior. She’s going to be a very sorry girl when she discovers that’s not true.

For now, I am enjoying her presence. I never thought I’d see her again. The last time our paths crossed she was cute, but nowhere near being on my radar. I’ve never been the type to look at a friend’s kid sister.

She’s all grown up now, though, and more besides. I’d say I’m surprised Rick’s letting her run rampant, but I’m not. He’s not paying attention to a lot of things. Losing his father knocked him around more than he’ll ever admit.

“Hey,” she says. “What are you thinking about?”

I can sense her curiosity as genuine. It’s almost like she plucked the thought about Rick out of my head. Perceptive little thing. She and I have a lot of getting to know one another to do. Having been around each other years ago really doesn’t count. We’re both adults now, and a lot has changed.

I’ve mated her, for starters.

“You can’t go back home and pretend everything is normal. It isn’t. We were intimate,” I remind her.

“You fucked me,” she says. “And I didn’t have much say in it.”

I smile at her as she attempts to act as though she did not enjoy every second of being mine. As I smile, she blushes and looks away. She knows very well that she will be craving me again, and soon. That is how these things work. Once a fated mate pairing finds one another, the chemistry is powerful enough to drive anyone who tries to resist it mad. She’s going to need me, and I am going to have to make sure I can get to her.

“You’re my mate,” I tell her. I know she already knows this fact. It’s impossible to deny. The chemistry between us is active at a soul level. Our bodies were made to join. Our lives were destined to intertwine. There is no choice here, only destiny.

“I was Christian’s mate,” she says, her tone dipping into bitterness at the mere mention of his name.

“Apparently not,” I say.

Again her eyes find the floor.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says in a way that makes me pretty damn certain I know exactly what I am talking about. She wants to keep her self-image intact. She wants to act as the wolf heiress, too far above common things like being mated roughly, taking my knot, having my cum deep inside her.

Or maybe it’s not that. Maybe she could take being used just fine. I think it’s the fact I am telling her that this all matters to me that’s throwing her off. She might be more comfortable if I opened the van door and let her run. The rope is still on her ankles and wrists, but it’s not silvered. She could shift if she wanted. This entire time, there wasn’t a thing stopping her from resisting me. She submitted, but she wants to pretend otherwise.

Pretending isn’t going to get her anywhere.

She may already be bred.