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I quickly looked away, and Draven ushered me out the door.

CHAPTER 28

Iris

Draven led me out the door and away from the club.

“I hope you got what you wanted because we’re not going back there, Iris, never again,” he said.

He wrapped his hand tightly around mine, and I tried to pull away, but he didn’t let go and kept moving toward my car.

“Draven.” I tried to pull free again. “Can you ease up a bit? Draven?” He ignored me and kept walking. “Why are you pissed off right now?”

He snarled. “That fucking vamp, he wants you. He wants to take you from me. I’ll kill him first.”

I could feel the rage rolling off him. “You don’t need to be like this, so…territorial.”

He stopped suddenly and turned. “I’m a fucking animal, Iris. I am territorial, it’s in my DNA, especially when it comes to you. I’m also newly mated. You thought I was crazy before, wait and see what happens when another male dares to lay a hand on you, and god help them if they try to take you from me.”

I stared up at him, shocked and not sure what to say. “I know this whole thing will take some getting used to…for both of us, but I don’t think you understand.”

“No, little witch, it’s you who doesn’t understand. We mated less than forty-eight hours ago.” His grip on me tightened. “When my people mate, the male locks his female away with him and they fuck for a week. We need that, not only to claim our females and to work out all the intense…the fucking violent hunger we have for them, but to strengthen the bond between us.” He slid his fingers into my hair and fisted, tilting my head back. “I need that, Iris. My wolf needs it. We need it.”

Jesus. This was too much, too intense, like everything between us. I craved him, too, but he was right. The way he wanted me was most definitely violent. I’d been with a violent male before, and I didn’t want that again. I could lie and pretend I was fine. I could let him have me the way he described, the way Brody used to take me when he felt particularly hateful. I could put up with it while I bided my time until this was over because it would end in spectacular disaster. How else could it end? We were virtual strangers forced together.

But I wasn’t that female anymore, the one Brody had shaped and molded, and I wouldn’t let anyone hurt me again. I wouldn’t put my wants and needs aside for what someone else wanted from me. “No,” I said. “I don’t want that.”

He jolted as if I’d slapped him. Confusion filled his gaze. “No? You’re denying me?” His hold on my hair wasn’t painful, it was possessive, and he kept hold of me as he lowered his head closer to mine. “You want me, too, Iris, I know you do.”

I wasn’t going to lie about that. “I do, but I don’t want what you just described. I don’t want violence.” I lifted my hand to the cold, marked skin of my cheek. “I’ve had violent, Draven.”

His hold on me immediately eased up, and he paled. “I would never hurt you.”

“You hated me,” I said, unable to pretend that everything that happened between us hadn’t. “That much hate doesn’t just vanish.”

His breathing grew ragged. “I don’t hate you. I hate Selene.”

“Pretending you don’t hate someone is easy with the right motivation.” Like how Brody pretended to love me to get access to my family, to hurt us. “Until things get quiet, and you’re looking into the face of the person you believed hurt you. There’s no hiding the hate then. The urge to punish them, to make them pay for whatever it is you blame them for, is too hard to resist.”

His brows lowered, and his head jerked back.

Where the hell had that come from? My hand shook, and I curled my fingers into a fist to stop it.

“You think I’d do that, that I’d treat you that way?” he asked, his voice impossibly rough.

“I think you’re capable of anything. Most beings are.” I looked into his wild stare. “Myself included.”

I expected him to get angry, to shove me away, or yell. Instead, his fingers, still in my hair, gently massaged my scalp. “He did that to you? The fucker who marked your face?”

A sob burst from my throat, surprising me. That pain was never far away, and Draven’s sudden kindness had thrown me, allowing it to roar to the surface. I’d told Draven that Brody had used me to come after my family, but I’d kept the rest of the ugly truth to myself. Why lie? Why hide the truth? He already saw it in my face, heard it in my voice. “Yes, he hurt me…in a lot of ways.” I took a shuddering breath. “But he’s dead now, so he can’t hurt anyone else ever again.”

He shook his head. “If it were possible, I would bring him back to life so I could destroy him in every way possible for hurting my mate, for causing you pain.”

I laughed, the sound coming out of nowhere. I felt freaking manic. “God, I can never predict what you’ll say next or how you’ll react to anything.”

He did that thing he did often, rubbing his thumb over my cheek. “The violence I’m speaking of, Iris, is not born of anger or hatred or selfishness. It’s born of passion, of wanting to please your mate above anything else. For that week, when it’s just the two of them, it’s all about her. Nothing else matters, not food, not sleep, only pleasing and caring for our females. I don’t hate you. I want to give you that. I want this to work between us, petal, and I want you to be happy with me and my pack.”

My body reacted to his words despite myself. My track record when it came to judging a male’s character had been proven seriously deficient, but I thought I might believe him.