Page 59 of Plus-Size Bullied Mate

Before I can get ahead of myself, I redirect my attention to Brooke and the follow-up questions I have. I take note of everything useful while the other thing sits in my chest and makes itself difficult to ignore.

It’s not rational, and I’m aware of that. Dom is one of my closest friends, and I know he’s incapable of betraying me in that way. He’s being friendly and kind to her, and that’s it.

He’s open and personable with most people he knows, which makes him easy to befriend and even easier to open up with. And Tessa is responding to it the way anyone would when they need a friend like him.

Which tells me more about my own deficiencies than about Dom’s or his intentions.

Despite knowing all of this, it doesn’t reduce the temperature of the fire burning in my chest by a single degree.

She laughs now, quietly like she doesn’t want to disturb the rest of the house, and Dominic grins.

***

By ten, Brooke and the children are settled in the guest room. Dominic has taken the couch again despite there being more rooms, and the house goes quiet once more.

Tessa moves through the upstairs hall while I follow, and the door of our room closes behind us.

After just barely managing to keep my irrational thoughts at bay, the pressure has been compounding in my head, and it finally feels like I can catch my breath again.

Tessa goes to the closet and finds something to change into. She does so deliberately, whether she’s aware of the less-than-ideal atmosphere following me through the room right now.

“I need to talk to you about tonight,” I start, keeping enough distance between us to not make her feel like I’m ambushing her.

“Okay,” she says, more to the dresser than me.

“You went outside,” I murmur, fighting to get through how ridiculous it sounds to say outlaid. “After I specifically—”

“Said to stay inside,” she cuts in as she turns around. Her voice is even, but there’s something more volatile underneath. “I heard you.”

“Then explain to me what happened between hearing me and walking out into the storm toward two Wraith Peak wolves.”

“I was inside, like you said, then I saw children running through the storm alone. The person trying to protect them was being cornered and couldn’t help them, so I did.”

“Which is exactly the kind of situation I didn’t want you getting involved in.”

“Did you really expect me to do nothing? To sit inside where it was warm and dry while a family might’ve been ripped apart right in front of me?”

What she’s saying isn’t necessarily wrong, and she was brave to do exactly that, but it was a disaster waiting to happen.

“That is exactly the kind of situation Hayes would engineer specifically to draw you out,” I tell her, unable to stop my voice from rising as that previously concealed anger returns all over again. “Do you understand that? He knows you’re here, and he knows who you are to me.”

“He wasn’t engineering anything. He had his wolves break into their home and chase them out into a storm.” She returns with more of an edge now, and the careful tone is virtually gone. “I wasn’t drawn out by a strategy. I saw children running, and I went.”

“You didn’t even think, did you?”

“I thought plenty.” She takes a step forward, eyes harder now. “I thought about defenseless children, their terrified mother with nobody else to help her, and two wolves standing between them and safety. That’s what I thought. And then I remembered who I’m supposed to be. How the alpha’s mate isn’t supposed to back down. But I’m sorry that didn’t fit within your approved actions I can take.”

“I’m not asking for approved—”

“You’re angry because I acted,” she fires back at me, not even letting me finish. “You were angry with me when I didn’t fight back against Hayes, so much so that you forced me into this situation. Now, you’re furious that I decided not to be small anymore. So what exactly do you want from me? It seems like the answer keeps changing, and the only constant is that whatever I do is wrong.”

Her claims hit me square in the chest, and I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.

She keeps going.

“And while we’re talking about tonight, don’t assume I didn’t feel whatever that was from you when I was talking to Dominic. Harmlessly, might I add,” Tessa mutters, more disbelieving now. “I spent years feeling invisible because of you and everyone else, and after being claimed and put in the middle of everything after the fact, I finally meet people who don’t have preconceived notions of me. I’m trying to do the thing you want me to do, and when I get there, it still isn’t enough for you! I don’t know what you want from me, Hunter.”

Rain continues to pelt down against the roof, muffling the sounds of our raised voices, but once she’s done and looking more raw than ever before, the room sounds deafeningly quiet.