“Afraid?”
Fabiana crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes.”
“Maybe you don’t see things the way we do. We aren’t afraid of you, Fabiana. We respect Adonis’s wishes to leave you alone because he has made that clear. Just as you’ve made it clear you won’t fight your own battles.”
“Excuse me?”
Running his fingers through his hair, Raph frowned and shook his head. “You let Adonis make the rules, so his rule is to leave you be. We follow. You don’t react to the punishment either way, so it’s then your rule as well.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do? Punch him like he does to them?”
“If that’s your choice.” He shrugged. “Not sure how good your hand will be after though.”
Fabiana didn’t understand this conversation. Exactly how was she supposed to make the other wolves see her as more than something to be feared when their own Alpha was working to do just that?
“You aren’t making any sense.”
“Do you want to be alone while you’re here, Fabiana?”
“Of course not. Wolves are not solitary creatures by nature. Not truly. Our human side still requires social interactions and acceptance.”
“Then make it so. The next time someone has something stupid to say, say something back. Joke with them, make them family. And the women who run? Have you ever seen Adonis strike a woman?”
Never. He’d never hurt a single woman within the compound. “No.”
“Then maybe they aren’t afraid as much as they don’t know who you are and what you stand for. I mean, at this point, all you do is watch as their men are cut to size. Probably wouldn’t want to talk to you either.”
“That’s not my fault.”
“Oh, but it is. Adonis thinks giving you time to come out of your shell is better than pulling you. Me, well, I’ve always liked the more direct approach. Adonis treats you like glass that will eventually become a real woman, but I’ll treat you like a woman who should be Alpha mate but isn’t quite there yet. My brother deserves the former.”
He lifted one shoulder before gesturing in the air with his hand. “Your choice. Oh, and he has requested your presence tonight for a date. I believe some of the women in the pack are waiting near your rooms to prepare you. May want to try being more than the caged mouse and show us you have teeth.”
After delivering that cutting speech, Raphael turned and left the lab. If Fabiana wasn’t so taken aback by what he said and how right he was, maybe she would have been angry.
Truth was, she couldn’t be.
She’d watched Guiles roughhouse and play with the males of the pack as fiercely as she was soft with the women. She was the Alpha mate of the Bianchi and she’d never shied from it. Zoey didn’t think to be afraid of Dominic or his men. If she didn’t like something, she said it and used that annoying, happy personality to break through any barriers of those who were hesitant. Kalinda mingled with mages and wolves alike, despite being one of the most powerful mages in existence, and she never was above getting into the rubble in person to clean up.
And … Fabiana hid.
Maybe Raph was right.
She lifted her chin and found her way back to her hall where there were three women waiting just outside the door. When they saw her, they quickly bowed their heads and clasped their hands in front of them.
“We’re here to get you ready for your evening, Alpha mate. We meant no disrespect to interrupt your peace.”
Fabiana exhaled.Way to go, chick.
“You’re not interrupting me. It seems I’ve been a bitch, and not in a good way.”
Three heads snapped up when she spoke. “We didn’t mean–”
“I meant it,” Fabiana interrupted. “I grew up with a father who liked to lock me in a closet when I didn’t do what he told me to do.”
One of the women, a blonde, stepped forward, her gaze searching Fabiana’s face. “My ex wanted to see if silver really burned wolves.”
The shorter woman, more round in the hips and breasts, lifted her hand. “I lived on the streets for a long time before my pimp bottom bitch forced the change on me. Didn’t kill me, but I killed her before escaping.”
