Page 63 of The Alpha's Protective Mate

I stare at my reflection, feeling numb.

She scarred me.

There’s no grief right now, no shock, just something heavy blanketing all the emotions. I have a dark bruise on my forehead from where she slammed it against the counter multiple times, and there’s blood on the side of my head. I know there will be contusions all over my body.

“How can somebody hate someone so much?” I whisper, bone-deep exhaustion settling inside me.

I don’t want to cry or scream.

I just want to go home, curl up under a blanket, and be surrounded by silence.

The door opens, and when he walks in, Robert hisses, “You shouldn’t be standing!”

“I’m okay,” I say, my voice a threadbare whisper.

He doesn’t seem to care what I think and guides me back to the couch. “I’m going to get a first aid kit. Where do you keep it?”

“Under the counter out front.”

He strides away, and I stare at the wall in front of me, feeling drained. My face hurts, but my heart hurts more.

It was foolish to entertain the hope that Arabella had any positive intention in her desire to see me. As she demeaned me and said all those vile things, why didn’t I let my brain work? Why was I so desperate to reconnect with her? I haven’t forgotten a single abuse I bore at her hands.

I close my eyes and press my palms against them. “God, you’re stupid.”

“Now that’s just mean.” Robert enters the room, and when I open my eyes, I see he’s holding the first aid kit.

“I wasn’t saying that to you.”

“I know.” He crouches next to me, his voice gentle. “I’m going to clean you up, okay? And no trash-talking yourself, please. You’re not very good at it.”

My lips twitch without warning, and I immediately wince, my torn flesh burning at the movement.

“Easy there,” Robert says, his voice pleasant but his eyes flashing. Dabbing alcohol onto some cotton gauze, he warns, “This is going to hurt.”

Leaning forward, he gently swabs my wound. I squeeze my eyes shut when the contact sets my skin on fire.

“Just bear with it a little.”

He sounds tense, and I open my eyes. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this. Thank you for helping me.”

Robert seems to be contemplating something, and he doesn’t respond straight away. Taking his time, he finally says, “She had every intention of killing you.”

I’m silent.

He meets my gaze when I don’t say anything. “Were you going to let her?”

“No,” I whisper hollowly. “I was fighting back, but you saw how that went. I couldn’t hold her off.”

He appears to be about to say something else and then changes his mind.

“Just because you’re physically weaker than a vampire doesn’t mean you can’t fight them off,” he tells me, throwing away the bloodied gauze and preparing a new one. “You just need to know where to hit them.”

“I’ve taken self-defense classes, karate classes, and any other class I could find,” I begin, but Robert shakes his head.

“Humans teach you how to defend yourself, Charlotte. When you’re facing the kind of enemy you just did, your aim shouldn’t be to defend yourself. You fight to kill.”

His voice is grave, and I freeze.

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