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I opened my mouth to press him, but he beat me to it, “I didn’t force her to mate with any of them.” He swiped a hand through his hair, pushing it back and revealing eyes dark with anguish. “Hell, once I knew she’d found love, I worked with them to find a way out of the mess.”
“A mess that you’d set in motion.”
“Agreed.” He shrugged, as if daring me to lay the blame at his feet, and equally willing to shoulder it. He wasn’t asking for forgiveness, or understanding, he claimed everything I threw at him. But the emphasis he’d put on love had me questioning his real motives.
“I thought shifters believed in love.”
“Do you?”
I flinched, despite having expected the retaliation and prepared myself. “I did. Sometimes I still do.” He was being honest with me; it was only fair I did the same. I clung to the hope that there was a happy ever after out there for me, a man who’d lift me up rather than beat me down.
“Who hurt you? What happened?” His words were like bullets seeking a target. A quick glance confirmed his anger, clear in the bulge of his muscles as they flexed taut, and in his eyes as they promised retribution in my name.
“I was married.” I offered the information grudgingly, unsure why I was telling him.
Tension bracketed his mouth, pulling his jaw even tighter. “You’re not now?”
“No.”
A jerky nod. “Good. He might live.”
Might. Despite giving myself a stern talking to, his words fanned a soft flame in my belly. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
I call bullshit. Pushing away from my spot on the wall, I yanked my so-called backbone out of the trash and pinned it in place. Three steps and I was halfway to him, staring into his fathomless eyes. “I think you do.”
He jerked back, but his feet don’t move. “Don’t come any closer,” came his snapped out plea.
I hesitated. “Why?”
“It’s not safe. I’m not safe.”
“But—”
His lips twisted. “You don’t want me—want this. You’re just curious. You think it might be fun. Thrilling. An adventure. And it would be, then you’d realize I’m not what you think. That I’m broken. A man not worth your time or attention. Then you’d leave,” he drawled in a voice hard and unyielding.
I didn’t know what to say, what to think. He spoke these words, expecting me to understand, but I didn’t have the first clue where to begin. “I didn’t come here—”
“To fuck me? No, you came to fuck me over, sweetheart. Don’t worry, I don’t do complicated fucks, and I’m not completely led by my cock. Though, if it’s an itch you want obliterating, then I’m your man.”
The anger in his voice had me flinching away.
His mouth untwisted, lifting in a genuine smile. “Now you get it.” Then he stalked off, brushing past me and striding up the stairs, leaving me staring after him.
Did he just offer to fuck me, no strings attached?
God help me. I think he did.
And, hell in a handbasket, I was actually considering it.
Chapter 5
Bastian
Footsteps followed me up the stairs, slow and steady. Did she ever give up? I had to give her credit where credit was due, once she got her teeth into something, she clung on. She was a lot like me in that regard. SAF, as Astrid had once called it. Stubborn As Fuck.
Spinning around, I stared her down. “What?”
