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“I did well enough this long,” I spit back.
“You want to know what I think?” He grabs my arm and drags me toward the doorway. “I think you’re afraid to live in a pack. Afraid because you’re ahalf-breed.”
My heart starts beating, and I stumble alongside him, my words freezing up.
“That’s why you’re sick. Your human side is ill.” He spins me around by the shoulders, drawing me against his chest. “You know what else your sickness tells me? You haven’t had your first transformation yet, have you? Otherwise you would have shifted by now and healed from your wolf side.”
I swallow painfully, looking up at him as my heart drops right through me that he’s uncovered the truth. My father was human, and he met Mama when he saved her from a bear trap in the woods. He cared for her until she was conscious enough to transform and heal herself. Mama often told me it was the making of a romantic story… that was before he left us.
I lift my chin to Dušan, well aware that he doesn’t know everything about me yet, but it’s enough to set off alarm bells in my head. It tells me he’s savvy enough to pay attention to everything I do. And that means I’m in trouble if I stay much longer in this settlement. What will he do when he discovers why the undead don’t attack me? There is no way he can find out because I won’t become anyone’s lab experiment.
“What will you do to me?” I ask.
“That’s up to you.” He cocks his head to the side, staring at me sharply.
I blink at him, confused.
“You can stay as you are and keep getting sicker until you die. Or I can help you find a way to bring on your wolf with a forced mating.” He gaze softens. He’s looking at me as if he pities me.
Forced mating.The air rushes out of my lungs. After a male marks a female, she’s forever under his command. Her wolf will obey him, and he owns her. Mama told me males can still mark a female with a bite that binds her to him even if they aren’t fated mates. That what lots of Alphas do, making a harem for themselves through a forced mating. So is that what Dušan wants? To keep me as his sex slave? I can’t—Iwon’t. I love my freedom too much to be owned by anyone. I stiffen. He will own me over my dead body.
“I’ll be fine alone,” I declare, as I lift my chin high, my mind stuttering, and panic clutching at my chest. “My wolf will come out soon enough. I can feel her pushing, and I don’t need your help.”
“Half-breeds don’t survive transformations on their own,” he explains, his fury taming. “Maybe you need some time alone to think about your next steps. You don’t have to be alone in this.”
I’m lost, his words ripping over my mind. Fury punches me in the gut at his persistence, and my words come flying out. “There’s a reason they don’t survive. What lies inside half-breeds are monsters, not perfect wolves like you.” It’s what I’ve heard from shifters in other settlements.
He reaches for my hand. “That’s not—”
“Don’t,” I cry out. “I don’t need your sympathy or pity. I’ve lived with what I am for years.”
The stone walls seem to close in around me. I can’t settle down my nerves as I study his face. Shadows gather in his eyes and he doesn’t say anything.
Because he knows what I say is the truth.
