Page 18 of Dark Sold Mate

“I don't have a wolf,” Elle spat. “So I'll be fine.”

“That is even worse because you are a human. The bond will tug at you, creating this painful ache in your chest. You will miss and despise me at the same time.”

Elle's face went pale. “That's not fair.”

“Well, it happens in both directions,” Silas explained. “I feel it too. The need to be near you. To know you're safe. To—” He stopped himself.

“To control me,” Elle finished. “To own me.”

“To protect you.”

“I don't want your protection!” Elle's voice rose. “I want my freedom! I want my life back!”

“I can't give you that. Not yet. Especially not now with the traffickers still in business.”

Elle clenched her hands. “Then I will take care of them myself. I have lived alone for eight years, Silas. I have been homeless, hungry, and lonely. I learned to fight. I learned to be strong. I don't need you or anybody else to protect me.”

“They're shifters,” Silas said. “You can't fight them.”

“Then I'll learn. I'll train. I'll—” Elle sniffed, her voice breaking. “I'll do anything not to remain here as your prisoner.”

“You're not my prisoner.”

“Yeah, right. I can't leave. I didn't choose to be here. I didn't choose this bond. I didn't choose any of this!” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “You took everything from me. Again.”

Silas swallowed harshly. No matter how many times she said it, it still hit him the same.

Elle was right. He had taken her away from her life. Just like his pack did eight years ago.

But his wolf snarled, saying that it had to be so. She was safer here, with him, than in the streets where traffickers would be able to locate her.

“I will thrive without you,” Elle continued, her voice hardening. “Just like I did before. You thought that by forcing me to remain here, things would suddenly be fine? You're wrong. I'll never accept this. I'll never accept you.”

Her words should have made him and his wolf furious. Instead, Silas was fascinated.

This Elle was nothing like the girl he remembered. The docile, adoring girl who had allowed his pack to tramp all over her had disappeared. Now, she was a woman who survived hell and emerged stronger. A woman who stood before him, with tears streaming down her face, and wrath in her eyes.

He wanted to know what she'd been through. What made her this hard-edged?

“What are you staring at?” Elle demanded.

“You,” Silas said honestly. “You're different.”

“Of course I'm different. Eight years of struggling to live will do that to someone.”

“Tell me about it.”

Elle blinked. “What?”

“Tell me about those years. About what you did. How you survived.”

“Why the hell would I tell you anything?”

“Because I want to know.”

“Well, I don't want to tell you.” Elle wiped her tears angrily. “Now get out of my way.”

“Elle.”