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“That’s so…evil,” I said.
“Yeah, well, he’s a demon. He can’t be anything else.” Braxton took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I told you, death isn’t a punishment. By then, the recipient doesn’t know anything anymore. He’s going to torture me until he’s had his fun before he finally ends it all.”
Braxton’s mouth twisted in bitterness, and he suddenly stood, climbing to his feet. “I can’t let him hurt more people. He’s already gotten to a few of my own over the years. He’d left me alone until I was alpha, and then he started striking again. I can’t protect them all. I try, but I don’t always know where they are and what they’re doing, and if anyone gets hurt on my watch, because of me…” He shook his head. “Fuck.”
I didn’t know what to say. Braxton had been through so much, and his nightmare was never-ending. I thought about what Uma had told me.
He’s haunted by his demons.Literally.
Now I understood what she meant.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said.
“No, it’s not,” Braxton said tightly. “None of it is okay.”
“Nothing happened tonight, not really. We’re all safe. No one got hurt.”
“It’s just a matter of time,” Braxton said.
“Who else knows?” I asked.
“Dagger and Uma,” Braxton said. “And Cal,” he added darkly.
I was yet to meet the elusive Cal, but from what Uma had dropped about him here and there, I wasn’t in a hurry.
“Is that all?” I asked.
“If the pack finds out that I can’t look after them, that they’re in dangerbecauseof me, they’ll get rid of me. Or they’ll leave. I can’t have that. I owe it to Hauser to carry on his legacy. After everything he did for me… if I lose them all, or if they decide to leave me…” His voice trailed off.
“I won’t leave you,” I said softly.
Braxton’s eyes locked on mine, and I couldn’t read his expression. His face was fierce, but his eyes were pained.
“No, you won’t,” he said.
I didn’t know if that was a threat, or if it reassured him. Had he said that because he cared for me and wanted me to stay, or because he owned me, and I couldn’t leave?
After opening up and being vulnerable, he shut down again. He was the distant, cold, and unreachable alpha who’d purchased me, and I had no idea who I was and what I meant to him.
I guess I could just add that to the pile of things I didn’t know about Braxton, about myself, and about my existence.
13
BRAXTON
Istood at the bar, drinking bourbon, because fuck this shit. I’d tried to drink less over the past couple of weeks because alcohol was a crutch. That was what Uma had told me at some point.
Right now, I didn’t care that it was a crutch. I damn well needed a crutch for what had happened.
The house had been repaired, as if no attack at even taken place. That was the upside of having money and a shit ton of people always at my beck and call.
I’d put Kinley up in a guest room for a night, and they’d fixed her window, replaced her carpets and whatever had broken, so that the room was as if nothing had happened.
By the time she was back in her room, everything was perfect again, and we could forget the whole thing.
Except, Icouldn’tforget the whole thing. This was going to happen again and again and again until I could figure out a way to stop it all. Icouldn’tfigure out a way to stop it all because it was a promise that had been made, and since demons lived for an eternity, the promise didn’t have a fucking expiration date.
“I thought I’d find you in here,” Dagger said, coming in.
