The bitter acceptance in his voice made her want to comfort him, and she caressed his arm softly.
“I don’t think Axel’s death was your fault, Wyatt. It was an accident. Pure and simple. And I think your punishment was too harsh. You’d already lost your best friend. You shouldn’t have had to lose your family, your home,andall your people, too.”
“It is what it is,” Wyatt said. “I made my peace with everything that happened a long time ago.”
“The elders are bullies,” she said. “My father, your father, they’re cut from the same cloth. I was never happy growing up there. We live an archaic lifestyle and the elders rule with an iron fist. I know our kind have to be even more secretive than most other shifters on account of our size, but to live that secluded from the world is just not natural.”
He rolled his head round to look at his, and she continued forcefully.
“Ialwayswanted out, even before my father tried to force me into marriage so if you’re still intent on rejecting me based on something the elders said to you fifty years ago, then do it.” She put all of her determination and her challenge into the look she gave him, and then her voice softened, tinged with sadness.
“But you need to be honest with yourself and admit that you’re doing it for your own reasons, and not for me. I never want to set foot inside that wretched place again. So the only thing you’re taking from me, is you.”
