Remembering I have it in my hand, I toss it towards the door. It clatters against the concrete.
If he’s protecting her, then there’s hope that I can reason with him. We seem to have a common interest here.
“Come here, Sugar,” I say, holding my hands up in the air to try to show that I’m not a threat. Not that the cattle prod made me look any more threatening, considering threatening isprobably one of the last adjectives someone would use to describe me.
She slaps the alpha on the shoulder and lets out an exasperated sigh. I think my eyes damn near bug out of my head.
What a gift she has. This guy looked ready to rip my head off with his teeth, and here she is, pushing him around.
Well, trying to push him out of the way. She’s pretty unsuccessful.
“Griffin, you can move, it’s okay! This is Rowan. He won’t hurt me, right, Rowan?”
“Right,” I say, trying to lace the single syllable with all the conviction towards her I feel.
“Then go ahead and toss the remote too, kid,” the alpha, Griffin, growls.
“I can’t do that,” I say, shaking my head.
“Thought you said you weren’t going to hurt her,” he bites out.
“Yeah, but I need to keep her safe.” The underlying, unsaidfrom youpasses between us.
The guy flashes me a menacing smile that has fear skating down my spine, but he takes a step back, his chains slackening.
“Fair enough,” he says.
“I’ll be okay, I promise,” Mirabelle says, flashing Griffin one of her sweet smiles before making her way to me.
She can’t hide the wince of pain the movement causes her.
I can’t help but wrap my arms around her, burying my face in the crook of her neck and breathing in her sweet strawberry perfume. I need to erase the sour taste of her terror from the back of my throat. My whole trailer was soaked in it.
I opened all the windows before sprinting to my dad’s house to try to fix this fucking situation.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t keep you safe,” I whisper.
She wraps her arms back around me, squeezing me surprisingly tightly, considering her small stature. We stay like that, silentlybreathing each other in for a really long time. I’m surprised the alpha says nothing.
“Where’d you get all those scrapes?” I ask, nodding down at her legs when I finally break the hug.
“Jett,” she says, her shoulder curling forward as she wraps her arms around her torso. “He dragged me all the way here by my hair. I don’t know why, I would’ve walked, if he’d given me the chance.”
“It’s ‘cause he’s a fucking sadistic psychopath,” I bite out.
Griffin lets out a small huff of laughter, but I keep my eyes on Mirabelle.
Her bottom lip wobbles as she looks up at me, lifting a hand up to my neck and brushing her fingertips gently against the red marks left from when he choked me out. Those’ll probably start bruising like crazy in a few hours.
“Yeah, he is,” she says, her voice a strained whisper. “He hurt you too. Why—why would he hurt you too?”
“Sometimes, shitty people do shitty things. Don’t waste your brainpower trying to figure it out,” I murmur, gently taking her hand in mine and giving it a little squeeze. “I’ll be okay, I promise. I’ve dealt with worse.”
That comment just seems to make her even more upset, if the way her strawberry scent grows bitter is any indication.
I hate it. I hate that I’ve upset her, hate the expression on her face, hate the way her scent twists in the air. I rip off my hoodie and tug it over her head, needing to do something to try to fix the situation.
She liked it last time. I want to do things she likes.
