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“Sorry, little mouse,” Gabriel said, frowning. “But it’s true. You especially need to avoid him if you can.”
“Why? Because…because I’ve changed so much?” I asked, looking up at him uncertainly.
“That’s part of it. He’ll find out about your, uh, development soon enough.” Gabriel’s eyes flicked to my breasts and away again. “But you don’t need to antagonize him or give him another reason to be mad at your mom.”
“Why would seeing me make him get mad at her?” I demanded.
“Because clearly she was keeping you on some kind of blockers to keep your Royal DNA hidden,” Gabriel growled. “You’re what—seventeen?”
“I’m eighteen,” I said, lifting my chin.
“Dios—whatever. The point is, there’s no way you would have taken so long to show your true heritage without some kind of medication to keep you from it,” he snapped.
I thought of the special tea my mom had given me since I was eleven and how my body hadn’t started maturing and changing until I ran out of it. And then I thought about how she’d kept me ignorant for so long—I still didn’t understand that. Why had she felt like it was necessary to hide the facts of life from me? Even just glancing in the books I’d checked out from the library let me know how much she’d hidden. But why?
“Anyway, just keep a low profile,” Gabriel told me. He looked at Christopher. “You too, little brother. You know he’s going to want someone to punish. He won’t beat his bride—not as long as he has any hope of breeding a baby into her. So you need to make yourself scarce.”
Christopher frowned.
“I’m not a kid anymore, Gabe. You don’t have to keep taking my punishments for me—I can handle myself.”
Gabriel shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling under the black T-shirt he wore.
“Fine. Come with me and get beaten just for being a Beta instead of an Alpha if you want to. Just don’t be surprised if he uses the belt with the silver buckle.”
Christopher’s eyes widened.
“He’s that pissed off?”
“Pissed like a fucking bear, brother.” Gabriel said stonily. “If you don’t want to earn some scars to match mine, I’d suggest you stay away.”
I thought of the white scars I’d seen on my older stepbrother’s back and wondered if those had all come from my stepfather beating him. I also wondered why he and Christopher still put up with it. They were grown men—why did they let my stepfather abuse them?
It made me worry about my mom. It wasn’t her fault she wasn’t pregnant yet. She’d had me when she was pretty young—only eighteen or nineteen—but though she and my Dad had tried and tried, they’d never been able to give me a brother or sister. I hoped my sadistic stepfather wasn’t hurting her for something that wasn’t her fault.
Christopher had been driving slowly through the Compound and now we had reached the front of the mansion.
“Drop me here,” Gabriel said. “And then take Zoe around to the back. The two of you can sneak in through the kitchen and stay away from the Pack Master. I’ll keep him distracted.”
Wordlessly, Christopher complied. He even helped me carry my Wal-Mart bags and my pile of library books quietly up the back stairs to my room. Downstairs, in the main part of the mansion, we could hear deep male voices raised in anger. Though I couldn’t make out the words, I knew it must be my stepfather shouting at Gabriel.
“What will you do now?” I asked Christopher, as he put down the stack of books and the last of the bags by my narrow bed.
His green eyes went hard.
“I’m going to go be with Gabe. He used to protect me when we were little, but he doesn’t need to do that anymore.”
“So…you’re going to let that bastard beat you?” I exclaimed, upset by the idea. Come to think of it, I didn’t like the idea of Gabriel getting beaten either. I used to dislike my older stepbrother, but he had protected me and kept me safe from the other Alphas for weeks now. Even if he was still gruff and sarcastic, I appreciated his courage on my behalf.
“It won’t take long—he gets his anger out fast when he has a belt in his hand.” Christopher sounded so stoic I nearly wanted to weep for him. It occurred to me that I had thought I was living a nightmare for the past six months, but my stepbrothers had been living that same nightmare for years.
“But…I don’t want him to beat you,” I said in a small voice.
Christopher looked down and saw the expression in my eyes.
“Aww, don’t worry, Little Sis,” he murmured, putting an arm around my shoulders and squeezing briefly. “Gabe and I are used to it. You just hide up here until it all blows over.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” I put my arms around him and held him tight, pressing my body against his. My newly sensitive nipples rubbed against the broad planes of his chest but I barely noticed, I was so upset. “Please, Christopher—don’t go!” I could feel my throat closing up and my eyes stinging as I said the words.
