“Then why did you allow it?”
“If we hadn’t, he’d have killed you immediately.” He sounded as angry as I felt.
“And you would have let him? All because I refused to suck a cock?”
“Shields submit.”
“I should have opened wide?”
“No,” he roared. “It was taking Drake to the ground that got you in trouble.”
“What other option did I have? Let him rape me? While you enjoyed your morning coffee?”
“We would have stopped him,” Teal said quietly, the words heavy with what sounded like regret.
I didn’t believe him. Not for a second. “Oh, really? When? After he’d hit me a few times? After he forced my lips open? After he raped my mouth. Shields are abused. Regularly. That’s the first thing my roommates told me.”
“You blame us?” Grayson barked.
“You let it happen. Who else should I blame?”
“The men who abuse the girls.” Grayson sounded as angry as I felt.
“You’re the strongest quad. The leaders. You could stop it. You don’t.”
He turned away from me. “Enough talking.”
“Things get uncomfortable, and you end the conversation?”
“She’s right about that.” Flynn grinned. “You do that every time.”
He might be done talking, but I wasn’t. “You’re proud of being a guard. Anyone who looks at you can see that.”
He gave a minuscule nod.
“You might want to examine what you’re proud of.” I didn’t push any further. He’d put aside his questions about my magic for now—for which I was grateful.
Flynn, who had been prodding the wyvern’s massive corpse with his boot, looked at me with a curious gleam in his eye. “This thing is enormous, and you took it down. Remind me to stay on your good side.” Then he grinned—a naughty grin that promised untold pleasures. In vastly different circumstances, that grin might have tempted me to spend a night with him (without him even buying me dinner). Which was ridiculous. Flynn and I getting together was as likely as hell freezing over.
Teal stepped closer to me, his gaze scanning for injuries and stopping at a deep scrape on my arm. “You’re bleeding. Again.” He sounded disapproving.
I shrugged. “It happens.”
“I’m sorry I dropped you.” His hand hovered near my arm as if he wanted to touch the wound but didn’t dare. “So sorry.”
“It’s just a scrape,” Grayson growled. “We ride.”
“The horses are spent,” Teal snapped back.
“Then we fucking walk.”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
PIERCE
With his earth magic, Teal was more in tune with beasts than the rest of us. He rubbed his mount’s neck with a gentleness he seldom showed. “The horses can carry us now.”
