Page 5 of Same Difference
“We were dating,” she whispered angrily. “I broke it off, and now you’re giving me back to him like some gift you don’t want.”
“Go on, get in the truck,” Decker told her, and there it was—an Alpha’s order in his tone. He really had taken the Pack. Already the urge to obey him felt like a weight tugging her legs forward.
Her breath hitched as she fought like hell to hold back her emotions. Delta clenched her hands at her sides. “I have a mate.”
“You didn’t fuck him.”
“Hey,” Nate gritted out. “Say it again and I’ll lay you the fuck out.”
Decker straightened his spine and closed some of the distance between him and Nate. “She wouldn’t fuck you.”
But that’s not how it had been. It had been the opposite. “Wrong,” she squeaked out, feeling a great weight on her lungs. “I wanted him. He was the one who didn’t want me.” The tears that had been building in her eyes spilled to her cheeks. She felt so betrayed. So hurt. So…disposable. “I’m not going back. Nate is clearly canceling the Arrangement, and I will accept it. I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me, but I have a Pack.”
“Coeur d’Alene Lake Pack has been dissolved,” Decker growled.
“We’re figuring it out as a Pack.”
“But you aren’t a Pack!” he barked, rushing her. He stood over her and parted his lips to say more, and when she closed her eyes, she expected him to explode on her. His wolf had a high prey-drive, and he’d always seen her as prey. He liked to yell.
But nothing happened. There was athudsound and then a scuffle, and when she opened her eyes, Nate and Decker were beating the absolute shit out of each other, in human form.
Her dad rushed to them, yelling for them to stop. Decker Changed first. His enormous white wolf ripped out of him in two seconds flat, and Nate Changed right after into his charcoal gray wolf. They went after each other’s throats in an instant, and she was supposed to protect her mate? Right?
But she stood here confused, and her wolf was quiet, because at this moment she realized she didn’t have a mate at all. Not like she’d thought.
“Get in the truck, Delta,” her father barked before his wolf tore out of him to try and separate the fight.
Maybe Decker would die. Nate’s wolf was bigger, and he was fighting with vengeance she didn’t understand. It was pointless. He didn’t want her anyway, so what was the point of this pissing contest? Whose wolf was bigger? Who cared?
She turned, feeling completely numb, and made her way to Nate’s truck. She got in and stared straight ahead, her hands clenched in her lap as she stared blankly ahead.
The fight was loud, and travelled to the snowbanks, farther away from the trucks.
Submissives attracted dominants with desire for power. It’s just how it was. It was explained to her that way since the day she’d had her first Change, and the Heritage Place Pack had realized what she was. Weak.
Female werewolves were rare, and submissives were even rarer, and she was, unfortunately, both. Lucky her. Dominants were attracted to her because they could control her. Even if they didn’t mean to, eventually they grew to love that power. Decker had.
Two more tears streaked to her cheeks, and she dashed them away with the back of her hand. Weak, weak, weak.
She grabbed her cell phone from the cupholder and opened the text thread with Nory.Can I stay with you when we get there?Send.
Outside the wolves were snarling and bleeding each other, but inside the cab of Nate’s truck, there was a sense of calm acceptance as her heart broke.
He’d really tried to give her back.
She was nothing to him.
Nory messaged back.Sure. Everything okay?
She replaced the phone in the cupholder. She wasn’t ready to talk about any of this. She was too ashamed. Too embarrassed. Too destroyed.
The truck jolted to the side and Nate ripped his driver’s side door open and got in.
He was naked, his clothes in shreds in the parking lot from his Change. He smelled heavily of blood, and when Delta lookedover at him, his skin was marred with deep injuries. He winced as he held his hand over his bleeding abdomen.
“You lost a pointless fight,” she whispered.
“Who said I lost?” he gritted out.
