Page 86 of Claiming Sarah

“If you had been next to me, yes, you would have,” she conceded. “But we were separated, and I got stabbed. Twice, and more were coming.Omensaved me from my attacker, Deacon. Then Rex.Youwere nowhere near me. I’m not saying that like you were neglectful. I only bring it up to say that I was out numbered and didn’t have much of a choice at the time.”

“You had a choice,” Deacon grumbled. “You chose to let him in.”

“And I would again!” she shouted at him, riled up all over again because of Deacon’s needling. “I did it to save my life. The fact that you don’t understand that—” She cursed beneath her breath and struggled in my arms. “Put me down, Jac. I’ll walk.”

I didn’t want to let her go. She was injured and I didn’t want her to harm herself more. “Sarah, it’s a long walk—”

“Now!” she demanded.

Reluctantly, I set her on her feet, trying not to feel gutted when she grunted and winced from the pain. When she stood up, her livid gaze was on Deacon. “I need some distance from you at the moment. I’m going to join the group in the front—”

“That’s how you got hurt the last time,” he pointed out.

“Deal with it,” she barked and marched until she couldn’t anymore. Then, she hobbled her way up front with the others.

“She is so stubborn!” Deacon said in a heated tone as we started to walk again.

I gave him a pointed look. “Reminds me of someone else I know.”

He stiffened. “I am not stubborn.”

“Then why are you mad at her?” I asked him.

“You know exactly why I am mad.” He scowled, looking at me in shock. “Are you not mad at her for that betrayal?”

“What betrayal?” I asked him, because I did not see her doing what she had to do to survive the battle as any sort of infidelity.

“She let Rex possess her!” Deacon’s hands fisted at his sides, and a muscle in his jaw clenched. “That is the deepest form of betrayal!”

“Deacon,” I said, trying to make him see reason. “She did not sleep with Rex—”

“No, this is even more intimate, Jac. You can fuck someone and never learn their name. But to be possessed is to know someone’slife.”

I exhaled a deep breath and scrubbed a hand along my jaw in frustration. “Look, I don’t like that part of it,” I admitted. “But I am proud of her.”

He gaped at me. “What the hell for?”

“She is not a fighter, Deacon. Not in any traditional sense, though the trick with the jem’hora was outstanding.”

Even Deacon looked impressed and nodded at that sidenote.

“But she was in a fight, injured, and out of options,” I tried to explain to him. “She used the only tool she had left in her arsenal and kept herself alive. You may not like it, but she would probably be dead if it wasn’t for Rex.”

The tension left his body at the mention of her dying, but he said nothing.

“I am proud of her for surviving, with whatever means necessary,” I said quietly, but firmly. “You should be, too.”

“But did it have to be Rex?” he groused. “Why not Omen?”

“I don’t know how things went down, and neither do you. But you’re wound up about it, because of your history with him—”

“No, it is because she allowed herself to be possessed.”

I came to an abrupt stop, forcing him to do the same. Turning toward him, I shook my head ruefully. “You said it yourself, Deacon. Just now. ‘Why not Omen’. You aren’t upset about her being possessed—you’re just mad that it was Rex.”

We started walking again, quietly for a while, until Rex fell back in the group to join us.Not who I need right now.

I gave the man an amicable nod. The last thing I wanted or needed was to have a fight break out between Rex and Deacon. “Rex, how are you doing after the fight?” I asked, mostly out of courtesy.

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