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And then he threw the pills in the fire.
I jumped up, lunging toward the fireplace. “Fuck!”
Donovan jumped up at the same time, pulling me down and onto his lap. “What did I tell you about using that sort of language?”
“You just threw my medicine away!” I ground my teeth together when he just lifted an eyebrow.
“It was bad for you. It was affecting your heart. Your brother told me you were supposed to stop taking it. That these were only for emergencies.”
“And what if I have an emergency?” I laughed hysterically. “What if I have an alpha mate with a knot so big, it will rip me wide open? What if I’m scared to go into heat because I know I may not survive it?”
He held my chin in one massive hand and forced me to look into his face. What I saw there devastated me. His expression was… hopeless. “I’ll only tell you one more time. I. Will. Never. Hurt. You.”
“I’m so sorry, Donovan,” I choked out. “I know that.”
“You don’t. But you will.”
He adjusted me on his lap so that we were both facing the fire, and wrapped one arm around me, securing me in place. His other hand moved through my hair, gently untangling strands as he spoke so quietly, I had to strain to hear.
Chapter 13
Donovan
It was one of the hardest things to do, telling the story I knew my little mate needed to hear. But she had to know. “This house was my home. I was born in the main bedroom.”
She gasped. “Here? In this house? You’ve lived here all your life?”
“Not quite. I bought it and had it remodeled after my parents went to work for Duchess Cruises. My sister redecorated it for me. Rita and I shared the room your nest is in. It’s a good thing she moved out for college, since that was about the time I hit puberty. She would not have wanted to share a room with a young, idiotic, fifteen-year-old alpha.”
I allowed myself to remember how excited, how happy I’d been, to be like my dad. My parents had been thrilled. Alphas were larger and sometimes more aggressive, sure. But they also made phenomenal leaders and were respected.
“Dad was so happy. He helped me deal with all the new… energy surging through me by giving me more chores than any teen boys my age would normally do. I chopped firewood for the entire town and carried it from house to house, up the mountain road, in an old wheelbarrow. He said it was character building.”
She giggled. I stroked her face, loving the feel of her soft skin. Wishing I didn’t have to share the next part.
“Her name was Louella. She lived at the top of Aspenvale Peak with her parents, and when I met her, she invited me inside her folks’ home. Louella was twenty-four, a beta, and had a reputation around town. She was pretty, I guess. Small-boned. She’d never bothered to talk to me, but when I took that load of firewood up her hill that spring—no shirt on, of course, because I was a cocky young shit—she must have changed her mind.
“Her parents were away for the month, and… I was overwhelmed. Literally. I was fifteen, and when she invited me in, and stripped off her dress—” I patted Valentine’s hair soothingly as she let out a soft growl. “Anyway. She knew what she was doing, or at least I thought that. I sure as hell didn’t. She worked me up, teasing me, for hours. Wouldn’t let me come, but rode my dick again and again. Said she wanted to try a knot. I told her Dad had warned me not to do that with a beta, that it could be dangerous. But she had a bottle of some perfume she’d ordered, Heat Effects.”
“Oh no,” Valentine whispered. “They took that off the market after a month! They banned it for causing… Oh no.”
“I learned later that it was the reason for my sudden rut. My violence.” I pressed a kiss against her hair. “I wasn’t anything special. Just an alpha with almost no sense, and even less control. The perfume and her aggression combined triggered my rut, my first one. I fell into the haze, and only came back to myself when I smelled blood.
“She was screaming underneath me. I had knotted her, and…” I had to stop talking to swallow the lump in my throat.
“She was a beta, but covered in omega pheromones,” Valentine whispered, turning on my lap and pressing my head to her shoulder. I felt dampness there, and suddenly realized I was crying. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“It was.” My voice was choked with tears. “By the time the ambulance arrived, I had managed to take it out.”
“Did she…”
“She lived,” I rasped. “Had to have a transfusion. Dad paid for her hospital stay. She tried to sue my family for more, but since I was underage, and she admitted she’d invited me in and asked for my knot…” I pressed my hand to my mouth, holding my breath.
“Oh, Donovan,” Valentine whispered, then exhaled, her voice rumbling.
No. Purring. She held me close and purred as I mourned my own innocence, lost all those years ago. My parents had been so disappointed in me. I’d left home, enlisted in the army, served a tour overseas, returning with my first scars and a handful of ribbons and medals.
“My parents forgave me. But I never could.” Slowly, one breath at a time, I began to pull myself back to the present. “After I left the army, I got a private job working to protect diplomats in volatile countries. I did a couple of years as a bodyguard for that big K-Pop band.” I named them, and she gasped. “Yeah, more than a few of my scars are from fans of theirs trying to take me out to get to them.” I told happier stories from the years in between, and when I finally had my emotions under control, I sighed.
