Page 11 of The Broken Wolf's Redemption

Her lashes shuttered and he scented that fresh, salty ocean scent. She was going to cry. He was going to make her cry thinking about all boundlessness of his depravity.

His watch beeped on his wrist. Exactly on time.

Seren knew what that sound meant, and the alarm signaled a change in her. She leapt off the desk, wrenched down her dress, and whipped his belt at him so hard the buckle struck the back of his hand as he caught it. Pain pulsed up his knuckles. He relished the sensation.

Not much surprised him anymore, but he was indeed surprised and entertained when Seren tore the panties from her body. Literally. The seams didn’t hold up to her intense battle as she tore them down her legs from beneath her skirt. She kept herself fully shielded from him with the clothing. She went to toss them at him, but his evil grin stopped her.

She shook her head, balling the underwear into her fist as she stalked to the corner where she’d placed her clothing and boots.

She gave him a filthy look as she grabbed it up as fast as she could. Truly, he didn’t know why he was there or why he’d taken such pains to make this happen. Was it absurd to think that someone like him could be helped? She was right. It was sick to make her do this. He needed to break her in order to break himself, but he had to slow down. She’d have almost a week to recover.

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why you were banished.”

If she thought that was going to be a knife blow slipping between his ribs, she was mistaken. “Hardly. My dark soul was tolerated and even somewhat appreciated. I wasn’t all bad, just mostly.” He gave her another grin because he could see how it rattled her. “The eight wolves I killed… my father couldn’t let that slide. He had to put on a good show of getting rid of me as punishment and appeasement.”

The noise she made was as strangled as her horror. She was utterly appalled by him. If she wasn’t afraid of him before, she was now. He thought he’d enjoy that too, drink her fear in like a heady wine, but his chest twisted. He didn’t like her afraid. Not of him. It set his teeth on edge. It made him want to do something to prove to her that she was safe, which was absurd. He had nothing to prove to her.

“How-how many people have you killed?” She edged to the door like she might be next.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes!” When she reached what she thought was safety, a quick escape, she straightened, trying to pretend she wasn’t afraid. She wanted to be a worthy adversary.

Something new entered the room. A heady musk. She was half terrorized, but she was turned on by what he’d just told her. His size, the threat of him, of what he’d done and what he could do to her.

“You should bring your daughter to your family. She’ll never be safe with you. Ever.”

That was the one weapon that could pierce through his armor, and she knew it. He’d handed her that knowledge straight up. He wasn’t afraid to have a weakness. He’d prepared a good defense and nothing, fucking nothing, was getting through him.

“Never. I love my brothers and sisters, and she might even be better off there, but I won’t ask them. Ever. She’s my responsibility. She’s mine. Her mother left her to me.”

“Left her?” She was well and truly disgusted with him, thinking that he was fine talking about his daughter like she was a thing.

He didn’t have to answer her, but he found himself responding. She’d find out eventually anyway. “In her will. Lila gave me full custody in the event of her own mother’s passing. She had no other family. Waverly isn’t my blood daughter. I’ve adopted her, so it’s official. Blood doesn’t matter. She’s mine.”

Seren stepped into the doorway. It was obvious how badly she wanted to leave, but still, she wasn’t going to give herself away. She still stared him down like she enjoyed a challenge.

“Any questions I have, I assume I can ask you on Sunday.”

The thought of her reaching out, voluntarily, felt like a caress. It went against reason, and while his reasoning might not always have been sound, his instincts were generally good. They screamed at him to run or to stand his ground and fight, but not to accept something so intimate, even if it wasn’t.

“Yes. Sunday.” He withdrew into himself, shutting himself back inside his fortress, where it was safe. He’d done it for as long as he could remember.

Nothing hurt him as a child. He was well protected. Safe in their pack. His father forged peace and he was alpha for nearly forty years. In that time, they’d never been at war and threats were few. The tension in the area was still there, but it never broke wide open. It didn’t matter if the threat was real or not. He’d always found a way to retreat inside a safe zone when his skin crawled and his senses prickled and everything screamed at him to either find a hiding place or fight his way through.

How could he fight an unseen enemy? It was safer to hide. He’d die if anyone knew he felt that way. It was cowardly and no proud wolf would own it.

“See you Sunday.” Seren fled then, showing herself out.

The lock flipped and the front door banged shut.

She hadn’t stuck around, thank any fucking god that might be out there, so she wasn’t privy to his small meltdown. He stumbled to his desk chair and sat heavily. Panted for a while before he set his head down and forced calmer breathing.

He’d been worried about what he’d tell the guys about why the security cameras in the office were turned off, but not anymore. He’d tell them that it was a liaison. They might think it was strange, but they’d shrug it off. They were all shifters with dubious pasts. The garage was a sort of safe place for all of them, and if they were good at one thing, it was keeping their opinions about the others’ personal lives to themselves.

Had he made a mistake instigating all of this with Seren? He still couldn’t name the foreign sensation in his gut, but it was spreading through his veins like a sickness, and nothing about it was any closer to being fixed for his ownership and mastery over the one who inspired it.

Seren was the venom. He thought she might also be the antidote.

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