I rubbed my face. They’d given up fighting against her allure. They had less of a cause not to. I’d been the one to make the promise to Susanna after what she’d done.
A short laugh burst through the room, reaching me and blooming warmth in my gut. Similar to thefeelingscoming frombothRafael and Cade.
We shouldn’t have these soft emotions for the girl. Not when she was temporary. Not when Susanna would regain her place in our Pack. The fact that it didn’t seem as necessary or urgent asit did before only confused me more. I trudged to the couch and sat.
She’d been tearful earlier. I hadn’t seen a single show of tears since she arrived, but she cried now. Why? I itched to know what wrought so much emotion from her.
This! This right here. My curiosity wasn’t natural. Slowly, she chipped at me, effectively rendering me into a slobbering fool.
Cade’s abrupt laugh came from the kitchen. I leaned forward, resting my arms on my knees. She’d stood between my legs, touching the edges of my scars.
Cade must have mentioned them to her. That rash moron.
Seeing her scars softened us all. The circular risen skin where she’d been burned over and over caused a sort of pattern across her back. But even with the scars, she shouldn’t be exposed to my hideous ones. Disgusting scars that stretched across the entirety of my back and lower.
Susanna even forced me to fuck her with my shirt on with how disgusted she’d been by them.
Then why had Eva touched them?
Hiding them had become a habit.
I rubbed my finger over the cuts across my fists. They’d stopped bleeding last night. As Cade and Rafael fucked her, I tended to my hands cut by the pane at the auction.
Footsteps approached from the kitchen, and Rafael entered. The couch dipped under his weight.
“You’re torturing yourself,” he murmured. It wasn’t a question. I flashed him a frown. “You can’t lie. I feel it.”
I ground my teeth and pinned him with my gaze. Rafael held it, his eyes hard and with a challenge. He didn’t look away from my dominance.
“You’ll have to let this play out.”
A growl ripped from my throat. I didn’t like the challenge. Neither had done it before, always choosing to go along with what I decided.
But we’d never disagreed about anything.
“We can’t keep her,” I bit out.
Rafael leaned back, arms crossed across his chest.
We were too damaged to offer her much. She held herself with quiet strength. She was a force, and she was bewitching me. If I gave in, I wouldn’t be able to contain this crawling need to watch her, to touch her, to fuck her.
And if I yielded, I didn’t know if I could keep my promise.
“We owe Susanna,” I reminded them . . . and myself. As if I could ignore the desperation.
“If she even wants to return.” Another laugh from Cade rang out. Rafael hesitated. Cade was blissful with her focus on him. I scoffed, shaking my head. There was no edge to Cade’s laugh, no mocking tone, that was pure joy. “Susanna doesn’t fit with us.”
“Susanna is more . . . suited.” I disagreed. She grew up in the same rat-infested environment. She could handle herself. We would never need to worry about her.
But Eva De La Cruz would undo us. Because if we lost her . . .
I put a halt to the thought.
“Once we find Susanna and ensure her safety, we can make sure she lives a comfortable life. That could be enough to make up for what she did for us,” Rafael murmured.
I fucking detested how much that tempted me.
Closing my eyes, I rolled my shoulder where it was always pinched and aching.
