Page 49 of Defeated

For several seconds, we lay side by side, sharing the same pillow as the birds chirp outside and the sunlight bleeds through a gap between the drapes.

I hadn’t wanted to let Zoe go last night, but the thought of being woken by a blinding sun had driven me up from the bed to pull the drapes closed and quickly return to gather Zoe back into my arms.

“What?” she asks, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

I shake my head, skimming my hand up and down her smooth skinned back. “Just feeling lucky that you would want to do this with me.”

“And you’re still not feeling any inclination to run away?” she asks.

“From you?”

She nods.

“No. What about you? Fighting the urge to shove me out of this bed and sprint down the stairs?” I ask.

“Not yet,” she admits.

Her expression turns thoughtful. “I don’t think I deserved to have something good because my mate didn’t want me. And I don’t think I realized that until I met you. Maybe I never would have.”

"Your mate is an asshole who doesn’t deserve a mate.”

She blinks, as if surprised by my answer. Or maybe it’s the growl in my voice. “You think so?”

I kiss her forehead. “I know so.”

She looks me right in the eye. “If I ask you something, will you promise to be honest with me?”

“I will,” I respond without hesitation.

“I’m not asking you to tell me about your mate, but was she… enough for you?”

The hesitancy in her voice makes me realize how much damage her mate did and how much doubt he infected her mind with. “Yes. We were happy.”

Losing her wouldn’t have hurt so much if things had been bad between us. But, like most mated couples, I couldn’t imagine us not talking things through. It sounds like Harlan was the exception.

“So you didn’t want… more?”

“Your mate said something to you. Didn’t he?” Do I really want to know with the way my wolf was growling in my head before?

No. But I need to. I need to know how Zoe is hurting so I can help her if I can.

She immediately looks away. After a moment, she speaks. “He tied me to a tree. Naked. Left me there all night, and I was too afraid of what he would do to me if I broke free and went back to the house.” Her eyes find mine as rage fills my mind. “And I still don’t know why he would do that to me.”

I see the vulnerability in her eyes, the self-doubt. And the pain.

“I could never have done something like that to an enemy, let alone my own mate.” I lift my fingers to her chin. It’s a struggle to contain my fury, to give her the reassurance she needs when my wolf is snarling at me to gut Harlan. “You are enough. You are more than enough.”

I kiss her lips this time. “My old alpha would probably have killed someone who would treat their mate like that.” I think about Mack, usually calm and amiable, and I try to imagine what he would have done if someone did the same to Aerin. “Mack would too.”

“Harlan was friends with our alpha, and he was an enforcer, so I guess it didn’t matter what he did to me.”

I frown. “I care. So should your alpha. Had anything like that happened before?”

She shakes her head. “That’s why I thought it must have been because I’d done something wrong. More and more, I think it wasn’t anything I did. It’s one reason I think people are assholes.”

I think about how I can ask her again if she wants to come with me to Winter Lake. After what she revealed about her mate, I can’t let her go back to a man that cruel. She doesn’t deserve it. What a man like that deserves is to be buried six feet under.

“That blue bear was the first time I let myself believe I’d found a fresh start,” she blurts out. “Thanks for packing it in my bag. I would have missed it.”

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