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“Perhaps I should.” I didn’t move. “I wanted to ask again about checking in with my pack. Talking to my family—"
“No.”
“Why not?”
Stone made an over-acted perplexed face. “Is an alpha’s no not a full sentence anymore?”
“It was a full sentence. It wasn’t a good reason. My mother will be worried about me and Dylan.” Mostly Dylan.
“You want a reason? Fine.” He leaned over the table toward me, and his presence sent heat washing over my skin. Stone smelled delicious, something spicy and dark mixed with that King woodsmoke scent. “We haven’t been able to confirm Nathan’s death. If he makes it back to your pack, if he knows where you are, he’ll come for you.”
“I thought that was your plan. That I’m bait.”
“Yes. But in my own time. I’m not going to lose fighters to protect you.” He waved me off dismissively. “You’re not worth it.”
I got to my feet, my movements jerky.You’re not worth it. There was a part of me that respected Stone, admired Stone, and that hurt. As I headed toward the door, my feelings grew into something hot and angry.
I hadn’t expressed anger in my five years pressed under Nathan’s thumb.
Now all of it seemed to explode at once.
I whirled at the door. “I’m not worth it? Brennan thought I was worth it! What the hell would he think about the way you treat me?”
He stood so quickly his chair fell over, towering to his full height, his eyes blazing. “You do not want to bring up my brother.”
“Why not?” I demanded. “Do you think he’d be proud of you?”
“Watch your mouth.”
“What are you going to do?” I demanded. “Are you going to hit me?”
“No.” Stone stopped, a horrified expression across his handsome features. “Never.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“You won’t let me talk about Brennan. You loved him. You must hate me. So why can’t you hit me?”
He looked bewildered and furious all at one time. “Not every man is the kind of asshole who hits women.”
“So you wouldn’t have killed women when you attacked our convoy? If we’d had female fighters?” I knew some of the men in my pack, like Nathan and Cliff, would’ve taken extra joy in hurting women who fought them.
“That’s different.”
“That’s different,” I repeated. “Well, you’ve got a weird moral code but at least you’ve got some semblance of one.I’ll rip a woman’s throat out but I draw the line at slapping her. Very interesting.”
“Why do you keep pushing me? What are you trying to accomplish?”
“Nothing.”
He caged me in with his arms, leaning so close to me his lips scraped my ear when he whispered, “Bullshit.”
“Get off me,” I said, trying to push him away, but I couldn’t move him. He was a wall of muscle.
I started to duck under his arm, and he caught me and reeled me against his body. His strong arms caged me in. “You sought me out. You came to talk to me, Amelia. So now talk.”
“I already told you what I wanted, and you were an asshole just like I expected.”
