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Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear.
She’d forgotten so many twisted, horrible things—and wished never to remember them. Abruptly, the last night in her father’s house came back to her in snatches.He dragged her out of bed…shoved her down the stairs…beat her.
She remembered running, falling, screaming for help.
The knife. The woods. Her nightgown was gone, torn around her like broken wings. She was curled up on the ground beside her father’s dead body...
Only now she had a pretty damn good idea of who killed him.
“Oh…God.” Her fingers shook as she braced them against the counter—anything to stay upright as the world started spinning. McGoven had danced around her father’s murder for a reason, but one too horrifying to fathom.
Some nameless criminal hadn’t killed him.
“I did it.” Shehadto say it out loud. Admit what she figured some distant part of her had known all along. “I stabbed him. I killed my fath—”
“He wasn’t your father,” McGoven said gruffly. Throughout her violent recollections, he maintained a grip on her shoulder, keeping her upright. Though his fingers flexed, as if expecting her to pull away.
“You protected yourself,” he insisted. “I’m pretty sure that if you hadn’t, he would have killedyou—”
“Don’t.” Loren wrenched out of his grasp and staggered for balance. “Don’t try to pretty it up because you think I can’t handle the truth.”
She couldn’t—but his concern didn’t make it any easier.
“I killed him,” she croaked. “I stabbed him with a knife. And you—”
More visions filled her head, chilling her to the bone. He had been there.Standing over her. Watching. Dragging her back when she tried to…
God, had she really tried to kill herself? The thought seemed so surreal, like it belonged to someone else. A whimper tore from her throat as more images flashed through her head.He had pulled her back…confirmed that her father was dead, and…
“Loren, just let me explain—”
“No!” She squeezed her eyes shut, fighting to remember.Him. He was in her head. Her soul. Taking. Obscuring. Controlling.
“I only wanted to protect you.” He’d taken a step closer, towering above like a wall of muscle, eyes so bright they practically burned. She had never seen him this tormented, as if every breath he took was poisoned, killing him from the inside out.
“Loren, please. Listen to me.” He reached out, and she flinched.
“Don’t touch me!”
“Okay.” He withdrew, displaying his hands passively in front of him. “I just need you to know that everything I did was to protect you.”
“Protect me?” She would have laughed if the thought wasn’t so horrifying. “From what? Why didn’t I remember? Why now? Why?What did you do to me?”
Because he had donesomethingalright. Something that had ripped away the mental veil keeping the dark thoughts at bay. Something to block out these memories in the first place.
Then, it hit her.
Mates. That damn word everyone kept flinging around. It was the real reason why he followed her the night he sent her with Kyle. Why he kept her near him at all.Probably the same reason why the verythoughtof him being around any other woman nearly drove her insane.
He entered her soul—but that wasn’t the horrible part that had tears springing to her eyes.
After forging such an intimate bond between them, and seeing her memories and thoughts for himself, he then deemed she was a burden he didn’t want any responsibility for.
And he threw her away.
“You made me feel like I was being crazy,” she said in a rasping voice, spinning to meet his gaze. “But you knew why I was attracted to you. I felt like something was wrong with me, but… If you didn’t want me, why do that in the first place?”
“Loren.” Something she couldn’t name flashed through those silver eyes. Was it pain? Guilt? “You have every right to be angry with me. Let me take you back—”
