Grieves must too, because he gets there before I can, snatching up the mobile as she hisses at him. He gives her a sad little smile and tucks the device in his back pocket.
“You can’t ring those psychos to come and kick us out, bubbles. Not until we finish discussing this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss!” she shouts, leaping to her feet on the mattress and swaying dangerously when she’s upright. Grieves and Thayer reach out to steady her, but she slaps their hands away. “Don’t fucking touch me!” Her voice is a growl. “The thought of your hands on me makes me sick.”
Thayer pins her with a look. “I actually think it has the opposite effect, killer.”
She scowls at him. Then darts to the edge of the mattress. I catch her with an arm around her waist before her feet make contact with the floor, pulling her back against my chest as she struggles to get free. “Let me go!”
“No running,cor mea,” I murmur into the top of her head, my beard catching on the silky strands. “Not now. Not ever.”
“Youleftme!” she whispers, her body sagging in my hold, already exhausted from her struggle. “You fucking left me. Notthe other way around. I can’t just stand around waiting for you to do it again. It’ll kill me.”
I don’t think she’s being dramatic here. I think she believes that. If we reject her again she could die.
“That’s not going to happen, sunshine,” Piers says, voice a low rumble.
Her head lifts and I can tell she’s pinning him with a look even if I can’t see it. “No? You’re a member of the pack, bitten in and bonded and they still hide you away, Piers. Because you're a beta. And you just stand by and let them do it.” She shakes her head, her voice thick with anguish for him and for herself. “I refuse to let anyone do that to me. Fucking refuse.”
We all flinch. I let her go and she stumbles away from me, spinning to keep us all in her sights as she backs toward the door. “I want you to go, and I don’t want you to come back. Do you understand? It hurts me to see you. Hurts me that you could suggest-” She cuts off with a sharp shake of her head. “You know what? I don’t owe you any sort of explanation. I want you gone. So you’ll go. End of story.”
“No,notend of story.” It's on the tip of my tongue to bark at her to sit down and listen, to make her give us a chance to talk this out with us. To let us figure out how to fix this for her, so everyone gets what they need.
But I will never do that. Will never bark at her.
Even I’m not that much of a monster.
“Please, sit down,cor mea,” I say instead. “Please listen. Please work with us to find a way that we can give you what you need.”
“But you can’t!” She cries out, still backing toward the door. “You can’t give me what I need. What I need is a pack. Your pack. To be bonded and mated and you won’t give that to me, will you? You’ll bond fuckingIsadorainstead and give me scraps. I’drather have nothing than to have to watch you with her. See her bite on you.”
A low growl rolls out of me, unbidden. “That won’t happen. She’ll never bite us, Florence, I can promise you that.”
A harsh laugh falls from her lips. “Right. You’ll just bite her instead. You have to, right? For appearances at least. You’ll give her something that should be mine. Only mine. And it won’t stop there, will it, Sythe? Your bite.” Her fisted hand pounds on her chest. “Your bond.” Slam. “Your knot.” Slam. “Your children.” Slam. “All things that should be mine.”
Each word lands like a blow, bruising. Painful. Like she was hitting me instead of herself. She’s right. All of those things should be hers. Theyarehers, even if I can never give them to her.
Thayer frowns at her, like he’s just now realizing what this means. “Maybe we can find a way to just marry her? Make her a princess but you’d be our bonded omega.”
“You never cared about the title anyway, right, Pixie?”
Ren stares at us, silent, condemning. I shift uncomfortably on my feet. “That wouldn’t work. Isadora would never let that stand. Ever. She’s already crowing to anyone who will listen about how we picked her over our fated mate.”
Ren flinches and I curse myself. She didn’t need to hear that. She’s been asleep for the last twenty hours and isn’t aware of the absolute shitstorm her interview caused. How the monarchy is saying this is another manipulation on Ren’s part. And Isadora is feeding the other side, playing up that ours is a love match, stronger than fate, and that Florence is so bad even her fated mates didn’t want her.
I’m sure she’s going to get an earful from the queen about that, about not following the crown’s lead. But either way, it paints Ren as the villain.
Even though we know the truth.
Florence Karlin could never be a villain.
She’s pure fucking sunshine.
Our sunshine.
“Since when do we care about what Isadora does or doesn’t do?” Thayer drawls. “She can crow about it all she wants, doesn’t make it the truth.”
Ren swipes both hands down her face and mutters. “Jesus fucking Christ. Itisthe truth. You picked her over your fated mate, and you’re going to do it again and again and again. Because that is what your duty demands. Well, I have a duty too. A duty to myself, to take care of me, to make sure I survive as long as I can for the people that love me.”
