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Twenty minutes later, with her head on Rafe’s pillow and her body nestled between his sheets, she was nearly asleep when they started to argue.
“They can’t keep doing this!” Elliot hissed. “We can’t let it continue.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, we do! You and I know it.”
“Keep your voice down,” Rafe demanded. “She’s sleeping.”
“The things Thatcher and his buddies get away with, it has to stop.”
“How?”
“You know how. It’s time, Rafe.”
“No, it’s not. I don’t want it.”
“Why not, Rafe? Why the fuck not?”
“I’m scared.”
There was silence for a moment.
“You think I’m not? He killed my dad. Your parents.”
Who? Vivian wondered. Who are they talking about?
“Doesn’t that terrify you? He wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to us.”
“He can’t,” Elliot stressed. “So what’s the real reason? Why are you being a chickenshit?”
“I. Don’t. Want. It.” Rafe whisper-roared the words, his venom strong. “I don’t fucking want it, Elliot. I don’t want this pack. I don’t want this. This isn’t what I want. Don’t you get that?”
They were quiet again.
She almost didn’t hear Rafe when he said, “It isn’t fair.”
“Heroes aren’t born, Rafe, they’re made. And that girl up there, she needs you. They all need you, despite what you think. Despite what you want.”
Vivian could imagine them, squared off, ideals very different. Desires unique, and needs unmet, just like the rest of the pack. Was Elliot trying to talk Rafe into mating with her? Sacrificing what he wanted for her happiness?
This morning that would have made her ecstatic, but now she wouldn’t sacrifice Rafe’s happiness. She would be better, perfectly behaved, and not give her father reason to mate her off. Maybe he’d even let her find her fated mate.
Hey, a girl could dream.
A noise downstairs drew her attention as one of them sat heavily on the couch. “Can you just go?”
“You have a duty to these people.”
“I need more time.”
“And until then?”
“We keep doing what we’re doing. Put out the fires, fly under the radar. Don’t give him a reason to eliminate us.”
“You could change all of this!”
Rafe sighed. “Could you just go? Please, just go home, Elliot.”
