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With a desperate cry, Zee forced her hand to open and she spun away. She shoved her hands through her hair and immediately wished she hadn’t, because the thumb of her right hand brushed against a scar, one so faded, you’d have to know it was there to even notice it.
Zee could never forget.
She’d been thirteen that summer. Thirteen, and she’d realized the truth of her reality. That her life would be nothing more than what it had always been—she’d never know anything else. The knowledge had almost broken her. For the longest time, she thought it had.
Feeling as if her limbs had been turned to wood, she turned back to Hannah and saw her huddled against the wall. With her knees drawn to her chest and arms wrapped around them, the big, tough soldier looked more like a woebegone teenager than anything else.
Hunkering down in front of Hannah, she took one of the woman’s hands. The soldier didn’t even fight.
Some distant part of her wondered... was it easier to just give in? Her father, her brothers, they’d all warned her that fighting the stronger wolves only roused a predator’s instincts more quickly.
But giving in would have destroyed what little remained of her soul.
So they kept on beating her, battering her. Again. Again. And again. And again. Until she forgot she wasn’t one of Royal’s broken toys. And she’d given up. She’d stopped fighting and curled in on herself.
“Do you feel this?” She guided Hannah’s hand to her head, under the damp, heavy mess of her hair, the scars hidden just inside her hairline. “I got these scars the night I finally stopped fighting. The night I finally gave in. I was thirteen. Isaiah was one of the soldiers. He had a younger cousin, Brandon. Brandon was about the same age as Isaiah’s younger brother, Neil. Brandon wasn’t from Greylock, came from somewhere down south but spent most of the summers there. Neil and Brandon were tight, thick as thieves, following Royal and Isaiah around or bullying the younger wolves. That was what they did for fun. Neil was bad just by himself but when Brandon was with him... they were monsters. They were all bigger, stronger, meaner. Cruel... they liked to beat up the little kids and the only people who ever stopped them were my brothers and a couple of the older lieutenants like my dad.”
The memories spun through her mind, twisting her belly to knots even now.
“One summer... it was bad. Royal knew there were pack members looking to have him replaced. But he couldn’t find the leader, or even get a solid idea of who was involved. Three of the pack members who worked with my dad were caught by Royal’s men, tortured to death. They never gave up names, but everybody was scared. A couple of the kids who Brandon and Neil targeted had been orphaned by... ” Zee stopped, her throat thickening. “They were orphaned that summer. I slid outside one night. I was always doing that—sneaking out. Being in the house while Dad and Phoenix plotted made me sick. I didn’t know why Dad didn’t just kill Royal. Royal needed to die, and my father was strong enough. I found Isaiah, Brandon and Neil with three kids, and a couple of Royal’s bullies. One little girl was on the ground, crying, naked. Neil had her brother, one arm around his throat, a hand gagging him. Brandon and one of the other kid was eleven, but she looked older. She was sweet, but... simple. She’d hit her head when she was little and her father waited too long to take her to get treatment. The swelling inside... well, she never fully recovered. She was sobbing while Brandon and Chase stripped her naked. Chase had her rubbing his penis. Brandon had his hand in her underwear. They were babies, Hannah. I lost it. I shifted and bit Neil from behind, right in the hamstrings, then again in his femoral. I went after Chase next, tore half his throat out. The kids got away, but the rest of the bigger wolves? They came after me. I was fast. I always have been. And I was scared. But they were stronger and older. They caught me eventually. One of them grabbed me and threw me—these scars... ”
Hannah had long since yanked her hand away and Zee caught it once more. “The rocks did this. I blacked out. I woke up and Brandon was bent over me, he had his hands around my throat, squeezing, and squeezing... two of the wolves were trying to drag him away. They were scared of my brothers and father.”
“No.” Hannah tore her hand free, curling it against her chest as if burned. She shook her head, over and over, still repeating the word, but it was in a monotone. She wasn’t even looking at Zee anymore.
“I need to speak to my soldier, Zee,” Boone said, his voice polite.
There was more Zee could tell the other woman. But nothing else would be heard.
As she rose, Zee felt... odd. Her bones felt heavy and weary, as if she’d come through a battle. Yet she felt oddly light. The weight of the burdens she’d dragged around for so much of her life had become chains over the years, turning brittle of late.
Those chains lay in pieces, shattered as she finally freed herself from the smothering, choking silence of memory.
Looking at Hannah, the woman who had gone strangely lax as she stared at the wall in front of her, Zee shook her head. “I spent too much of life letting the opinions and fears and dictates of others shape me, Hannah. It’s not happening anymore.”
As she turned, she felt Boone’s gaze on her.
But she didn’t look at him.
She had a Prime to face.
