Page 117 of Never Submit

I have to handle her. Which only makes it more imperative for me to walk out of this meeting with a solid plan and a foundation where I know I’m able to count on the others.

“You’ve given your asses a break. Now, your head is so far up Ms. Wexler’s pussy you’re not thinking straight. Good for you. You’ve got a mate.” I give them both a purposely annoying slow clap. “Figure it out before you impact both packs with this new relationship.”

Noble stalks forward. Unease flickers inside of me. Has he gotten taller? More muscled? Something is different about him, as though the mate bond through Mathis has bolstered him to the point where he’s filled with the same inner fire I’ve always associated with Ren.

“Stop calling her by her fucking surname like you didn’t have your dick shoved down her throat.”

I snort. “Have you considered that maybe we’re all attracted to the woman because she has the Moonstone inside of her?” I gnash my teeth. “That it’s not actuallyheryou like but the power of the stone?”

I want that to be the explanation.

Noble glares at me. “No. I loveher. Not a stone.”

“You have a lot of nerve twisting it around like that,” Mathis adds gruffly.

Both of them close in around me. I’m trapped. I’m stupidly out of my depth and drowning. But I can’t let them see it.

Noble’s hair lifts around his head, an aura of power pulsing off him, rolling like waves of flame. “Pull your head out ofyourass, Torin, because you’re not thinking clearly about any of it. Definitely not about Ren. She’s not the problem.”

“Or maybe you’re just still pissed because you wanted me to attack the Grey Valley pack for what Dax did to Kelee, and I refused,” I throw back.

He jerks as if I’ve hit him with silver bullets, his features twisting into a mask of agony and anger, hurt and betrayal.

Mathis growls, but not at Noble.At me. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You were too weak an alpha to do it,” Noble replies through gritted teeth. “Which is why I didn’t talk to you for years until you called and begged me to come back and help you. When you held my parents’ care over my head.”

The meeting is quickly devolving into chaos. Out of control. There’s no way to get it back on track, but I grasp at the pieces and pull them together like I’m playing god.

“And I paid for their nursing home just like I paid for your college.” My cell phone vibrates again. “Godfuckingdamn it!”

I fish the cell out of my pocket like I didn’t just drop a bomb on Noble’s head.

“You…you didn’t…” he stammers.

I glare at the screen, at Catarina’s picture glowing in the dimness of the lodge. Dragging my finger down thescreen, I turn it toDo Not Disturband toss it on the desk. Should have done that from the beginning.

“Of course I did,” I tell Noble. “You think I’d just let you go off and get yourself buried under a mountain of debt? All yourscholarships? You didn’t earn them. They came from me. Everything you are is because of me.”

And he’s just given his loyalty away to Mathis because they share a connection to the same woman.

Fuck the mate bond. It’s not necessary. If anything, it’s a burden. A hindrance. It makes a wolf incapable of being the strong and self-possessed creature he’s born to be.

Noble wouldn’t have hesitated to come to my side and take care of these problems before they began. No one excels at putting out the little fires like he does.

Is it really the stone?

Mathis stands there, silent and superior, watching and absorbing our greatest secrets.

I should feel ashamed. And I do, somewhere inside of me. Why can’t I stop?

I need to stop.

Back up.Get some air.

For some reason, none of that’s possible for me. I’m in the middle of this melee, and I’m going to come out victorious even if it destroys every tentative relationship I have. With the people in this room and beyond.

They have Ren. They’ll be fine.

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