Page 51 of Israel

Finally he began to speak.

“I was locked in a cage once,” he said.

His voice was very soft, and it sounded as though he had to push each word out separately.

“I grew up on the streets of Seattle,” he went on. “When I was about fourteen, there was this crazy bitch who ran a gang of rogue shifters in my neighborhood. The one I told you about before.”

He looked down at his hands, sticky with blood, and rubbed his fingers together.

“She’d make her gang hurt people while she watched,” he said. “She’d get off on it, and then she’d make them fuck her, with the blood everywhere…”

Horror rose up in Ashley. She’d seen cruelty. She’d even seen misused alpha power. But this…it was unthinkable. No wonder her family had withdrawn from this world.

But maybe they shouldn’t have, if things like this could happen here.

“Did she make you—” She couldn’t even say it.

He shook his head. “No. But she captured me. She used to sell shifters to an experimental lab.” He paused. “After she was done with them.”

Ashley felt sick. “She’s the one who caged you?” she asked.

She felt his muscles bunch, and he gave a short nod.

“There were iron bars, like a zoo cage, and filthy blankets and straw on the ground. There wasn’t even a bucket to shit in. That was the most humiliating thing, I think. I used to shift so I didn’t have to dirty myself as a human.”

Ashley just held onto him, trying to be quiet so he could forget he had an audience and just talk.

“I fought so hard,” he said. “She liked that. She’d let me fight, and then her pets—her minions—would punish me. She’d tell them I was a threat, that I was going to hurt her, and they had to hurt me first to stop me.”

He laughed bitterly. “I was half their size, filthy and shit-covered and exhausted and terrified. But I knew if I stopped fighting—” he paused, and a shudder went through him.

“I’d die. Not on the outside. I knew that would happen, I knew she’d kill me, or she’d send me someplace where they would. I wasn’t so afraid of that, even though I didn’t want to die.”

He stopped again. Ashley waited, not daring to move, almost not daring to breathe.

“But if I stopped fighting, she’d kill my spirit, and then I’d be worse than dead. I had to hold on to that one piece of me that would never give in, that told me I didn’t deserve this. Because if I gave her that, it wouldn’t matter if I got out. She’d still win.”

“But she didn’t win,” Ashley said.

Israel shook his head. “Kane got me out,” he said. “He was the only one who ever broke away from Selina, and he did it because of me.” His voice grew stronger. “Hunter—Kane—and I took out half of Selina’s crew that day,” he said, his voice filling with pride. “We made it out and we lived on our own for three years before Jace Monroe found us. We helped him build the Silverlake pack, and the best crew of Enforcers in the country.”

Ashley didn’t know what to say. She’d spent half her life feeling sorry for herself because she didn’t have enough choices—because she didn’t want the life her family had laid out for her.

And here was someone who’d had no choices—except the choice to be his own person, to never give in, never break. Even when the only other choice was death.

He turned and faced her, blood still on his hands. “I want to take on your family, Ashley. I want us to have the chance to be together. I didn’t let Selina beat me, and I’m not going to let them do it either.”

This man had stayed loyal to his friend and stood by him through his own personal hell. Now he’d transferred that love and loyalty to Ashley, and she’d pushed him away. Because she was afraid.

She was still afraid.

“Israel, they’ll kill you,” she said. “Don’t you understand? The penalty for any outsider who learns what we are without the Elders’ permission is death. I can’t take that risk. I won’t.”

He just looked down at his hands, rubbing the blood that was now drying and flaking off. The wounds on his palms were closed, but still red and angry.

“Can I ask you something?” he said finally.

She hesitated, then she nodded. He’d been brave enough to tell her about his past, about his fears. The least she could do was answer a question.