Fenrir did what she wanted without protest. She sat next to him, opened the bottle of peroxide, and dabbed it on the cotton pads.
She hadn’t left. She was taking care of him. Tending to him. And though he didn’t need it because the cuts were already almost healed, he didn’t stop her.
“Tell me about the person you hurt today,” she said without looking up.
His beast shifted uneasily. There was no going back now. He needed her to see what he was. He needed her to know what she was getting into if she gave him a chance. “What do you want to know?”
“Who was he?” She dabbed at his knuckles.
“I… I don’t know his name. His soon-to-be ex-wife is a client of my dad’s. He put her in a coma. She will most likely never walk again. He threw her down a flight of stairs to make the beating look like it had happened when she fell.”
Grace nodded, lifted his hand, and blew lightly on his knuckles until they were dry.
The sensation shot straight to his groin, and he fought the urge to jump from the bed and shield her from his animalistic nature.
“I take it the police couldn’t prove what he did?” She looked up at him.
“They can now. I got a confession out of him.”
She opened a tube of ointment and brushed it lightly over his scabs with her fingertips. “But won’t his confession be considered coerced?”
“I drove him to the police station. He ran inside and spilled everything. They do that a lot. The minute they see what I really am, they’re willing to tell the police everything just to be kept safe.”
Grace wiped her fingers on one of the cotton pads and looked up at him again. She nodded. “Then you did the right thing.”
Fenrir blinked. He couldn’t have just heard her right. “W…what?”
“You brought a woman abuser and potential murderer to justice. That’s something that even the government can rarely do.”
“I don’t understand.” He honestly didn’t. Her words just didn’t make sense to him. How could anyone, especially someone as sweet as Grace, believe that what he did was good?
She sighed and cupped his cheek. “Fenrir. I cannot say hurting people is a good thing, but it can be a necessary thing. You most likely saved another woman from being abused like his soon-to-be ex-wife. Do I wish you didn’t have to resort to those things? Of course I do. But I am not naïve. I know that sometimes the only way to end violence is with violence. Especially when it is in the defense of someone who cannot stand up for themself.”
Fenrir tried to wrap his mind around her words, but in the time that it took him to even begin to understand what was happening, she stood, pushed herself between his legs, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him.
Fenrir grabbed onto her, clinging to her. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Could it? Could she really not see him as a monster?
Grace broke the kiss and looked at him. “My mother is the Moon Goddess. It’s why you couldn’t track me last night. I have this way of not being found if I don’t want to be. I can’t explain it, I never could, but there it is. That’s the truth.”
“Wait… you’re the daughter of the Moon Goddess?”
“Yes. The Goddess Luna. It’s a long story, but to make it simple. My adoptive mom, Fay, wanted a child. She was an alpha and my father’s fated mate. He was the alpha of our pack. Fay couldn’t have kids. So she prayed to Mother Luna to help her have a child. My Goddess mother, being the generous immortal she was, slept with my father and then offered me to my adoptive mother since she couldn’t raise me myself with me being half-mortal. Mom Fay agreed. Mother Luna told my mom that someday I would need to leave and fulfill my destiny. Fay agreed to let me go when the time came. When Fay told her mate, my father, about me, he freaked out and left before I was even a week old.”
So her biological father had cheated on his fated mate with the Moon Goddess and then had run when he found out about Grace? What a betraying bastard.
“And your adoptive mom, Fay?” he asked.
“She raised me as her own. She was the best a girl could ask for. She kept my lineage a secret because she never wanted me to be used or taken against my will because of who my biological mother is. She died seven months ago and told me I had to come to the underworld.”
Fenrir didn’t know what to say. “Your adoptive mom, Fay, sounds like an amazing woman.”
“You have no idea. Since she, too, was an alpha, she took over the pack when my dad ran. She kept them together and focused. With her loving care, they flourished.”
Grace’s stomach growled, and she grabbed it. “I’m sorry. I guess talking about myself and making out makes me hungry.”
As if on cue, Fenrir’s stomach growled as well.
They both laughed.