Page 64 of Defeated

Harlan puffs up his chest, his eyes sparking with rage as he takes a step toward me.

But I’m not afraid of him now. All I want is him gone from my life. Forever.

I don’t realize Chris has followed me until Harlan glares over my shoulder. “Who the fuck is?—”

“I reject you, Harlan Burton,” I yell, my voice ringing out loud and clear across the clearing, out toward the fruit trees, the forest, and into the house. Someone shoves an upstairs window open. I don’t lift my eyes to see who it is.

Harlan staggers, his right hand scrabbling to his chest as if I’ve carved his heart out and he’s trying to scoop it back inside.

I stumble back, collide with Chris, who grips me by my arms and holds me upright.

It hurts.

I hadn’t thought it would hurt this much, but the agony isn’t nearly as bad as the way Harlan made me feel. It makes it easier to shut myself off from the pain rupturing through me to stand a little taller and look him right in the eye.

I form my hands into tight fists.

“I reject you. There is nothing about you I want or would ever need. I reject you, Harlan Burton, and the day I ever see you again will be a day too soon.”

My heart is still pounding, my cheeks are wet, and I have no memory of crying.

Harlan is breathing hard and his eyes are glassy, as if he’s barely holding his tears at bay. “You’re mine.”

I shake my head. “No. I’m not. You’re not my mate.” I sweep my eyes over the assembled pack. “This isn’t my pack, and this isn’t my home. Not anymore.”

And I turn and walk away.

Harlan is demanding the alpha stop me. The alpha is saying there’s nothing to be done, it’s over.

I reach the car. Chris moves to help me in, and because I no longer give a damn, I spin around to yell at Harlan. “And sex was never good with you. I fell asleep the last time. It was that shit.”

It’s true. Maybe it’s petty of me to yell it like that, but I fully own it.

He was a shit lover, and an even worse mate.

As insults go, someone—anyone really—could probably do better. But it feels so good to for once, just once, make Harlan feel as shit as he made me.

I ignore Chris’s body shaking with laughter, though his expression remains passive as he helps me in.

Harlan moves toward us.

Chris slams the door shut and rounds the front of the car, pausing before he gets in. “Come anywhere near Zoe, I won’t just run you over, I’ll back up and do it again.” He says it so calmly that Harlan jolts to a stop. “And if I see you again, I’ll kill you.”

Chris gets in the driver’s seat and starts the car.

Harlan is still glaring as my former packmates hide their laughter and smiles from him.

I turn to Chris and I have never been more certain about something than I am about this. “I think I love you, Chris Winters.”

Smiling, he takes my hand and brushes a kiss across my knuckles. “I love you, Zoe Winters. How about we go home?”

“Yes.” I smile. “Let’s go home.”

Chris has turned the car around and we’re driving away from my hated former mate when he starts laughing.

“You fell asleep the last time?” He’s laughing so hard I can barely hear him.

Then I’m laughing too.

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