Page 61 of Pack Ruin
“Yes. I shifted, and my wolf knew you. I think something happened, when I was trying to protect you that night. Our blood mingled? I’m not sure. But I knew who you would be to me, someday. My wolf was obsessed with protecting you.”
I stiffened. “Not all that obsessed. Where was that protection during the Hunt?”
“Callaway commanded me not to shift for years,” he murmured. “To weaken my wolf. It was only one of hundreds of commands he laid on me, in secret. I wasn’t allowed to shift. I wasn’t allowed to speak to you, unless I was acting as an Enforcer. I wasn’t allowed to step in if you were being punished…”
“Oh.” This was a familiar story.
“My wolf was more dominant than his from the beginning, but he bound it with commands. Not just about you, but all sorts of things. But my wolf resisted the ones that kept us away fromyou the most. He… gnawed at them over the years, if that makes sense. And when those started to unravel, the Alpha forbade me to shift or run with the pack. I was cut off.”
“He knew we were mates?”
“He may have known all along. But I’m almost certain Van figured it out when you were fifteen. He caught me watching you walking home from school. When he said something about letting Trevor have you when you were older, I shifted without meaning to and attacked him. Even under all the commands. Even though Van was far more powerful than me at that point.”
His next words were quiet, but each one was as heavy as a boulder. “That was when he told my fa… told Callaway that you needed to be the prey in the Hunt. That you needed to be mated to someone,anyoneelse. To make certain I could never challenge him.”
28
Second Kiss
FLOR
We sat in silence for a moment, while I tried to process everything he’d said. Callaway had tortured Luke, and me, to keep us apart. The whole Hunt had been to force me into mating with anyone besides him. Luke had saved my life when I was a baby. Had loved me since he was a little boy. He’d waited for me, tried to protect me.
It was just like Iris had said, how I hadn’t been alone for all those years during the Hunt. I’d had protection I never knew about.A broken pack, silently guarding me as best they could. A broken mate, bound by commands not to step in and protect me.
Now, Luke shifted restlessly at my side, until finally I let out a sigh. “That rat bastard Callaway. What an absolute toadfucking piece of dogshit. I wish you’d killed him in the ring.”
Luke hummed. “I should have. If I had, none of this would be happening.”
I wasn’t sure I believed that. The whole mess with the Council and Finnick’s parents taking control had been brewing for a hell of a lot longer than this summer. “So he didn’t want his adopted Heir mating his daughter.” I snorted. “It is pretty damned Southern, when you think of it,brother.” Somewhere down in the tunnel, Glen sniggered.
Luke groaned. “Please don’t ever call me that again.”
“I promise.” I bumped against his side, trying not to think about how good he felt. “So, rain’s wet, toast lands butter side down, and Callaway was an asshole. No shockers yet.”
“Isan asshole. I’m almost certain he’s alive somewhere.”
“He’s still the Alpha?”
“Yes. I can sense his connection, but it feels like a spiderweb. There’s no discomfort when I talk to you now. I think whatever Grigor did unraveled most of his hold… What are you doing?”
I had twisted around, remembering what I’d done to Luke with my steak knife. “Checking on that damned stab wound I gave you. Grigor wasn’t lying; I can make it better by touching it. I did it when I stabbed Glen—” I reached for his abdomen, or at least I thought that’s where I was aiming. He was hunched over, though, and instead of pressing my hand to his stomach, my fingers landed a little too far south, on his dick.
His hard dick. It was smooth, and warm. I must have been possessed by some sort of demon for a second, because instead of letting go, I wrapped my hand around it and gave it a quick squeeze. Like a nice-ta-meetcha handshake on his private parts.
“Flor?” His voice was strained. “That’s not where you hurt me.”
I let go quickly, even more glad the tunnel was pitch black. “Ah, sorry. I won’t—I mean, I didn’t mean to…” I was just about to crawl down the same tunnel Glen had gone into, curl up and find some nice place to die of embarrassment, when Luke’s hand circled my arm.
“I didn’t mean I wanted you to let go.”
My mind stopped working for a few seconds, a white noise replacing all my thoughts. “But you said?—”
“I meant I didn’t want to mate with you under duress. I’m not going to exchange mating bites in a filthy tunnel, for one thing. And definitely not because you feel sorry for me.”
“I mean, it’s medicinal,” I half-joked. “If it makes you stronger…”
“The thought of you being willing to give me another chance, after all the times I failed you, gives me as much strength as I’ll need.” He pulled me closer, until I was sitting on his lap, that very firm erection pressing against one of my thighs. “Anyway, I think the skin-to-skin contact was doing the job. Why don’t we just…”
