Page 15 of Tamed Wolf

My eyes snap up to the tear-filled ones of Lark, watching her crumpled up and leaning against the woman that led her in, and I almost want to be the man that is there for her, comforting her, even if I know that we’re bad together. “What’s his name?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess he’ll be needing one of those. I’m partial to Trevor Jr.,” the idiot says with a smile.

“I went through the labor, I get to choose. You both lost the right to have any say in his name when you abandoned us. His name is Camden James.”

“Cute.”

Her fingers are twitching as we handle the baby, and I know she’s probably dying to hold him again so she knows he’s safe.

When we hand him back over, she lets out a big sob and takes several steps backwards immediately, planting space between us as a form of protection.

“Do you…need anything?”

She shakes her head as she buries her face into the tiny little body, and I reach for my wallet anyway. “Here. We were assholes when we brought you here the way we did. I want to apologize for not leaving you with the clothes you were wearing or for letting you take anything from the house. It’s all still there, if you want me to bring some of it for you. Or all of it. Or maybe you could come stay the weekend sometime?”

Trevor starts laughing. “Rich. Grow some backbone, man. Why the fuck you apologizing? Do you not remember what put us in this position in the first place? Her lies? She doesn’t have need for that nice stuff here. I bet she’s perfectly content with what she’s got now, aren’t you sweetheart?”

I swear to the fucking goddess I will murder this man someday. I settle for a sharp elbow to the kidney. “Don’t be a fucking asshole. Can’t you see how much she’s suffering?”

“Fuck you. She’s just a little washed up. Looks like she’s got enough anger in her flabby body to incinerate us if she wanted to.”

The woman with Lark is quick to intercede. “That’s enough. If you have no more business with Ms. Drake, I’ll just ask you to be on your way.”

Hearing my name attached to hers hits me good. “Can I just have a moment of your time? Please? Without Trevor?”

“Fine. I’ll fucking wait outside, you pussy. Go kiss up and make yourself feel better for putting her somewhere that’s been literally providing for her. Bet she complains about everything here, too. You get jealous when the matron helps other residents, Lark? I remember how much you used to whine about us touching our employees.”

“I said, that’s enough! Leave now or I will have you removed and banned. Your lack of sensitivity is appalling.”

“Whatever. Peace. Congratulations on not fucking up your pregnancy.”

He walks out, and the second he’s out of the building, something inside of me cracks.

I slump down in the nearest chair and bury my face in my arms, exhausted. “As you can see, it’s not so great without you, Lark. I know we weren’t perfect, but losing you made me and Trevor a totally empty pack. Our bond is basically destroyed too. We’ve been living apart, only seeing each other at work.”

She sits next to me, draping a blanket over her shoulder when the baby starts to fuss, then uses the cover to feed him. “Do you expect me to feel bad for you, Ivan? I don’t think you understand how completely you fucked up my life. I’m living in a shelter, for fuck’s sake. Him saying all my needs are being met is incredibly ignorant.”

“You always were so smart, using big words. Would you consider trying again with me? We can keep Trevor out of it; I think he’s always pushed me to be a worse version of myself and I just always seem to let him take me there.”

“You’re joking, right? You mated me against my will, pressured me into sleeping with you, never made me come once, and then dumped me here the day you found out you knocked me up because you ‘didn’t want to see me get fat’. And I very much donotcomprehend the saltiness about me not wanting you two to touch other women. Do you have any idea what that was like? How hellish it was to feel through the bond when you’d be getting off with someone else?”

“You could feel that?”

“Do you fucking know anything at all about shifters, asshole? Of course I could feel that. Every damn time one of them made you come I’d get a rush of pleasure down the bond that made me sick to my fucking stomach.

“I’m a fucking kid, Ivan. When we met, we all agreed to wait to start anything until I graduated high school so I could bring my best self into the mating.”

“You forced our hand when you asked to move in with us early.”

“You mean when my parents fucking left me homeless unless I agreed to move in with the two guys that were nearly ten years my senior and owned a fucking strip club? You honestly think that was my plan A? And that is no excuse for the way you’ve treated me; if you had any respect for me as your mate, you’d have encouraged me to graduate and supported me while I became the adult I should have been allowed to morph into. Not hold me back and then cut my feet out from under me.”

I sigh, letting go of the fight. I don’t have it in me to continue to hash things out with her. It’s clear we’re not going to get anywhere. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you got mated to us. You should have been mated to someone closer to your age that wasn’t told how stupid they were their whole life. You should have been cherished and fucking cared for, and we didn’t really do that, did we?”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response, not after everything you took away from me. You didn’t get hit like I did when you dumped me here because you’re the one that rejected me, but the pain you thrust upon me was so much worse than labor. It’s something I actively have to fight every damn day here. The sadness inside of me has embedded itself into my bones, and I can’t shake it. The depression…thank the goddess for Camden because he’s the only thing that makes me strive to complete basic self-care tasks.”

“You really won’t take my money?”

“Will I take the money you made by exploiting women and/or fucking them in between sets? No. I don’t want anything you have to offer, Ivan.”

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