Page 50 of The Broken Wolf's Redemption

The last person on earth who should ever make her want it. Rome was sex. Hard, rough sex, but he could be more. He could learn intimacy. He was wounded and hardened because of it. What he’d endured and done would be enough to destroy just about anyone. He could learn what it was to give himself up to her and receive her body and soul in return.

“You’re staring at me like there’s hope yet,” he said, voice caustic. Far too caustic.

She hadn’t done anything to provoke that, and it made her chest hurt. Unbidden, tears gathered in her eyes. Crying was the last thing she wanted to do, especially because Rome likedit.

He flexed his one hand and then curled it into a fist and cracked the knuckles with the other. “There’s not.” And then he wrecked her world in a flat, emotionless tone. “I wanted you, and the only way to get you under my control was to pay to do it. I couldn’t just ask you to submit to me that way I needed you to submit. You would never have signed anything if you hadn’t owed me money. You never would have come to me unless I forced you to be desperate.”

Nausea twisted her stomach. “What are you talking about?”

Rome’s face was like granite. That was the worst part. He didn’t feel any of this. Zero remorse. He was admitting to something terrible. Pain knifed through her, hitting her from multiple angles. She’d just been thinking about her heart and his, twisted together with their bodies eventually. How fucking stupid could she be?

“I found someone who met my requirements, though that part wasn’t easy. I offered to pay them a large amount of money to go through with the lawsuit. I paid all the legal representation, naturally. I knew the decision would come against you. I did enough research into your shop and found out who your insurance company was before I came up with any of it. They’re notorious for getting out of claims or straight up refusing coverage. Like most insurance companies, they’ll always find a reason to turn you down when you need them most. A million dollars was more than I thought the settlement would be, and that was delightful. The courts did me a favor. Yes, darling, that’s right. I can see you understand now.” He popped the other knuckles. “Once the money was deposited into his account, I made sure he’d give it back, minus what we’d agreed on, but a hundred thousand is a small investment, all things considered. It was all me, Seren. I was the one who wanted you. I trapped you. I was set to claim you and break you as I promised. This is the man you were going to open your legs for. This is the man you already did. You need to know. I wouldn’t feel right about fucking you otherwise.”

The room spun. Seren wasn’t sure if she was going to blackout or if a shift was happening against her will. If her wolf was going to lose her mind and pop out to avenge both of them. She could never have imagined that someone could do anything so heinous, even Rome. He’d warned her and she’d refused to listen properly. Why the fuck hadn’t she just kept herself hardened against him? She’d become the most pathetic being on the entire planet. She wasn’t worthy of her wolf.

She’d been strong after her divorce because she had to be, but this? What was she even supposed to do with this? Anyone could tell a person that the shit pile of a divorce doesn’t last forever. Things will eventually settle and be okay again. People will forget to be mad, assets will be divided, life will go on.

How was she supposed to move past this?

She’d allowed herself to be trapped into basically being a sort of sex slave and then she’d just about forgotten to hate it and offered herself up freely, far past that stupid piece of paper.

She thought she could be this man’s endgame, but he didn’t want what she’d been about to offer. This was just part of his game. All of it. She’d never heard anything so vile. She’d never met anyone half as horrible as this man.

And still.

Her heart beat pathetically. It ached pathetically. He was never going to be hers. This was never about finding himself or each other or moving past anything. It was all just a bid to get her to submit. She couldn’t lose what was already lost.

Her pride might be so thoroughly wrecked that she could never hope to get it back, but she lifted her head and proved that she wasn’t defeated. She still had a backbone. No matter how she’d been played or how clever the trap, she was still alive. She’d survive this too.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re pathetic, Rome Nightfall? Because truly, you are. Maybe I should be flattered that you went to such lengths to try to attain me. If I was a bottom feeder like you, maybe I would be. Maybe it would feel good. It would stroke an ego as fragile as yours.”

She was so angry she couldn’t breathe, so wounded her lungs felt like they’d been shot full of holes, but she couldn’t lose it. Not yet. She stalked over to the desk and he had the good sense to get out of her way by backing up a step.

He’d said the contract was in his desk.

She ripped open the top drawer and there it was. Anyone could have come in there and found it, figured out what she’d put her name to. It was the original copy, though others could have been made. If there were, it didn’t matter. Rome had given her a confession. He’d given her the keys to something she couldn’t even begin to fathom unlocking.

She tore the contract from top to bottom and then again from side to side. Again. Again. She let the pieces flutter to the floor.

They rained down like huge snowflakes, over the floor and over a few of the toys she’d scattered.

Good. Let it all stay there. He could pick it up, knowing all the while that he could never pick up the pieces of what he’d ruined.

She turned to face him, hanging on to her control by a very thin thread. “Thank you for telling me before I made the biggest mistake.” She swallowed hard. She should leave it at that, but she couldn’t. “You’re very good at ruining your own life. You’re probably right about fate. Why hold a source beyond understanding responsible for your own malevolence?”

Since Rome had cameras all over the garage, she didn’t allow herself a single break in the stony façade that she kept in place as she stormed out the door and to her car. She was even able to drive home like that. She looked in the mirror once, at a red light, frightened by the hard set of her mouth and the darkness in her eyes.

She kept expecting that she’d find a way to let it out once she got home, but all she did was crawl into bed while there was still light in the sky and stare at the far wall of her bedroom. Hours later, she was still focused on the same spot, lost in her head, trapped in her own body.

It would have been easier to cry and scream and rage like any normal person would do, but that would imply that anything about what had just happened to her was normal.

Chapter 18

Rome

“Oh, hell no. Not you. Never you. You’re banned from this shop for life.”

He hadn’t been expecting a warm welcome from Seren, but Rome didn’t think that she would have told anyone about what happened between them.

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