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Delilah caught her arm, drawing the attention of both her and Jaden. The boy growled and Larissa combed a loving hand through his hair.
“I have no one here to talk to about this stuff,” she whispered, her eyes pleading for an ally.
Larissa met her stare then looked away. “You can talk to your mate.”
“He only tells me what he wants me to know.”
“I cannot discuss this with you.” She self-consciously glanced over her shoulder. “It’s a private matter between mates. It is against our laws to involve one’s self in such personal considerations.”
Infuriated by such archaic subservience to a suffocating patriarchy, she snapped, “He’s not my mate. He’s my captor. I don’t love him. I have a life I need to return to. You have to help me, Larissa. You’re married to the patriarch.”
“And as the bishop’s wife, I must set an example.”
“Of what? Oppression and obedience?”
Larissa’s eyes flashed silver and she jerked her arm out of Delilah’s hold. “Brother Christian is a good and honorable male. How dare you presume to know my situation and summarize my life so blithely as if my existence is merely a pitiful result of male choices. I’ve lived through more than you can imagine, and I chose to be here. My husband protects and values me above all things. I am not oppressed and I don’t simply obey like a mindless hound. I love and honor him because he loves and honors me.” Her gaze lifted. “Your mate is here.”
Delilah turned and her heart plummeted into the pit of her stomach, chills racing over her shoulders and down her arms. Christian scowled from the gate. He’d heard everything, as did Dane who was standing by his side with Moriah.
She hadn’t meant to offend the woman. She should have never mentioned anything to her. Destiny and Anna were the women to talk to.
Angry that Larissa somehow sounded like a hero while Delilah was gaslit as a criminal, she glared at her. “You set me up.”
“No. I helped you. You just don’t realize it yet.” She crossed the path and walked off with Dane and the children.
Frozen, Delilah met Christian’s stare. A tremor of uncertainty rolled through her like building thunder. Had she gone too far? He was her captor. He was holding her against her will. She wanted to go home.
Her gaze followed Dane’s shrinking form. Why would no one help her?
“Delilah.” Her name snapped through the air like the crack of a whip, commanding her focus away from the other man.
Christian’s entire body flared with pent-up rage as he breathed deeply, his shoulders rising as he watched her with that mercurial stare. He was terrifying, but she would not be bullied. Whatever he intended to do to her.
Her eyes narrowed on him. Bring it.
“Come. It’s time we returned home.”
But that wasn’t her home. She was tired of letting others decide her fate. This was her fucking life and her fucking decision.
“I’m leaving.” Yanking up her skirts she marched past him, heart jackhammering in her chest, her brain a maze of indecision as she tried to figure out her next step.
He followed, but she didn’t look back. She had no idea where she was going, but if she walked far enough, she’d eventually hit signs of modern civilization.
“I see I made a mistake, trusting you on your own.”
She ignored him, too furious with her adaptation into captivity to unlock her jaw and form actual words. Was this how it worked with the animals? She thought of wild bears, roaming the mountains and living freely, then suddenly trapped and confined, taken to some horrific zoo where they were forced to live within a glass cage, on display for all to watch and judge.
Larissa judged her. Mostly because Delilah had made unfair assumptions about her as well. Either way, it didn’t feel good to be judged so openly when so many circumstances were out of her control.
Her eyes narrowed. This was all Christian and his stupid God’s fault.
His frustration boiled at her back as if he were actually targeting the emotion at her, burning her flesh with his irritation and aiming the blame of each complication directly at her skull. A crippling migraine formed between her eyes, throbbing so painfully she was amazed she could still walk.
So much for love and affection. As far as mating went, Destiny was right. Marriage was better. At least then people had a choice.
But who in their right mind would actually choose to live in this repressed version of the American colonies? She was over this Hester Prynne bullshit. She wanted to go back to her own fucking modern way of life and get the hell away from this primitive oppression under tyrannical male law.
If Christian wanted her, the real her, he should be glad for her defiance. He was trying to erase her.
