Page 9 of The Broken Wolf's Redemption

“I thought—”

“You aren’t here to think. You’re here to do what I say. If I tell you to get on your knees, you’ll get on your knees. Or do you want to return my million-dollar investment and call the whole thing off?” He knew she couldn’t, and how fucking sweet that knowledge was.

She knew it too.

She didn’t find it sweet or even the least bit palatable.

The fury in her eyes played out like a violent tragedy in front of him, one in which everyone met horrific ends. She knelt down on the clean white tile. She wouldn’t bow to him. She turned her face up in a final act of silent defiance.

Her pink hair settled like a sweet cotton candy river over her black velvet dress. Were those ridiculously chaste panties wet yet? Were her nipples beaded under that dress? Underneath the fiery fury there was a glimmer that told him she didn’t want to like this, but she did. He knew it was true because he wasn’t blind or deaf to the way her body called to him as soon as he was near.

“Thank me.”

She snorted. “Excuse me?”

“Thank me for saving your shop. For lending you that money. For accepting this as a form of payment.” His eyes flicked over her, a disinterested mask in place.

“It was you who suggested it in the first place. I would never have thought that I—”

“That you what?” he interrupted with a sneer. “That you were worth a million dollars?” He enjoyed her dark scowl. He hoped her knees were starting to hurt on the hard tile floor. “If you’re going to continue this, you had better keep me interested. You know the penalty for defaulting on the contract. It doesn’t just involve you walking away. You can break it in other ways. By not obeying or by obeying in a lackluster manner.”

Her narrowed blue eyes turned to such a shade of ice that he knew if there was any sort of weapon within range, she’d have no trouble piercing it through any part of him she could reach.

“Thank you,” she ground out painfully. Yes, it hurt to have to swallow one’s pride to such an extent. She wasn’t willing to do this for herself, but she’d save her friends and coworkers whether they deserved it or not. She saw them as worthy and that was all that mattered to her.

“Thank you for what?”

“For… for…” She blinked suddenly, quickly. She looked away, studying the light.

She was going to cry now? How disappointing.

It wasn’t having her at his mercy that he needed. Rome didn’t know what he needed, so he’d experiment until he found what it was. Her presence affected him. Soothed the wild animal in him, broke apart some of the restless aching, the thorny barren fields and concrete bunkers that he’d shredded himself and broken himself against since he was a child.

Ten? Eleven? When did he realize there was a universe between himself and his siblings, his parents, every wolf and human he’d met? Why had they been born to the same parents and raised the same and turned out so differently? What made him cruel and unsettled where they were kind and content?

He waited, leaving her on her knees, a bright pink blush starting as she struggled to find the words, grappling with the horror of debasing herself this way. “Thank you for accepting my body as payment, however mediocre it might be.”

“Old, I think is the word you’re searching for.” No one said he was above being an asshole. He certainly wasn’t. No one said he had to be honest. He wasn’t that either.

Her mouth parted. He watched anger transform her features. Seren was nothing short of marvelous. Fucking gorgeous. Breathtaking. Damn her for existing. He cursed her for making him feel anything at all. Sometimes, it was internal. Now, seeing her on her knees with that scarlet blush of humiliation morphing to sheer rage, there was nothing internal about it. His cock hardened painfully in his jeans. He did nothing to adjust it. Let her notice the bulge if that’s what happened. What was going to happen in that office was clearly nothing short of sexual whether they touched or not.

Which they would not.

But the thought of putting his hands on her body, exploring her, hearing her gasp in surprise and pleasure, didn’t sicken him. It didn’t make his skin crawl to think of her hands on him, ungloved, lacking a tattoo gun this time.

“Nothing smart to say? I can hear you thinking it. You’re projecting your hatred loud and clear.” He snapped his fingers. “Up. On the desk. Sit on the edge and lift up your dress so I can see those panties.”

She moved faster this time, but didn’t scramble up. There was no desperation in her movements. She moved like a true wolf, graceful, pride still intact.

He was delighted to see it. All the more fun to break it slowly than snap it apart right at the beginning.

While he watched her open her legs, trying to hide the new trembling that made them shake, and slowly pulled up the hem of her dress, he thought about his earlier life and all the things that brought him here.

He’d tried to force himself into the mold. He’d denied Lila because he knew his parents wouldn’t accept her as his mate. He’d stayed when he should have left. Lila was the exception. The one his heart desired. She was more than light or fire or any such cliché. She was all of him, all of the universe, all of every law and bit of matter. She was the gravity that tethered him, and still, he hadn’t had the courage to make a life with her. He should have left long before he was banished.

He ripped off his worn leather belt with a savage ferocity. He wanted to shake the memories off. He didn’t like going back there. Not when there wasn’t a single fucking thing he could do to change any of it. He’d always known he was a curse and a poison. If he didn’t exist, Lila never would have died, and Waverly wouldn’t be stuck with him.

Seren gasped at the sound the belt made when he smacked it against his palm. He’d done it hard because the burst of pain grounded him. Pain sharpened the mind, but it also tamed it.

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