Page 172 of Ruthless Legacy

He steps forward. “This isn’t a party. This is your punishment.”

I keep my eyes on Pax. Or I try to, but he spins me around to face Holden, who grabs my face, forcing me to look at him in the eye.

“Huh? What did I do?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly.”

“You didn’t tell us that your challenges are harder, because you’re trying to hyper speed your prospect status.”

“What?”

“Why would you want to speed through this?”

“I don’t. I just-” It’s stupid. It’s gonna sound stupid to them. Pax will laugh, and I’ll be stabbing my second asshole of the day. Fuck, I need to figure out what happened with the first one. Are the cops on their way?

“Just what, Pet?”

“I didn’t want you to say you’re better than me or that you outrank me.”

Pax shifts me again on his lap, so I’m sitting sideways. He turns my head to look at him. “You mean me, don’t you? You didn’t want me to say I’m better than you and that I outrank you. Because of what I said about women joining The League.”

I jerk my head up. “You’re not tougher than me. I can do this. Iamdoing this, and you better not get me into trouble or use this conversation to sabotage me. I took an oath not to talk about it. This is strictly need to know only.”

He shifts around and lays me on the bed, pulling the blankets up over me. “This conversation never happened. Just like us being here didn’t happen.”

Holden leans over and says, “I’ve talked to your mentor. He agrees that corrective action for putting yourself in harm’s way is warranted. When you get back to the dorms, your punishment will be waiting.”

They all drag chairs closer to my bed. “What are you doing?”

“Standing guard.”

“I don’t need a babysitter.”

Finn adds, “Someone challenged you. You don’t want to tell us who it is. That’s fine. I’ll just question everyone until I get an answer.”

“I’m fine, I don’t-”

Pax folds his arms across his chest. “You can complain and bitch all you want, Nem, but until the threat is neutralized, we’re not leaving your side.”

* * *

Holden

I step into the hall to mount another security camera above Thea’s door and find Pax leaning against the opposite wall. “You don’t have to stand guard outside of her door, Pax.”

They discharged Thea from the hospital this morning, and she still refuses to tell us exactly what happened.

“Who else is gonna do it? We can’t ask Connor, Austin or LJ to watch her because this is League business, and she doesn’t have any friends that she can rely on from the prospect groups. This time is a competition, but it’s also supposed to be teaching them about loyalty and brotherhood. The people she should be making alliances with are the ones she needs protecting from.”

It sucks that even with the built in support system The League provides, Thea is still an outsider. I wouldn’t trust Eloise not to have the other girls ganging up on her, or the guys not to touch her with their dicks, even if she wasn’t working on an advanced protocol. I agree with Pax that she needs a guard. I’m not sure why he thinks it should be him.

“Finn and I can stand watch. I’m sure you have other shit you’d rather be doing.”

“Thea’s my assigned companion. It’s on me to make sure she’s safe.”

The fucking irony in that statement. Months ago, he was the reason Thea needed protecting to begin with, but by Pax’s own admission, he’s trying.

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