Page 18 of Cuffed By My Mate

I flinch and pull the phone away from my ear, my heart hammering.

I need to handle this. Now.

I won’t let them have control over me anymore. I won’t let them manipulate me or make me feel like I owe them something.

I have to find the courage to say what I should have said a long time ago.

“He’s my mate.”

Silence.

The kind of silence that drowns.

Then—

“NO!” My father’s roar shakes through the phone. “You are not being mates with some prick from Twisted Oak!”

I pull the phone away from my ear again as shouting erupts on their end.

I hear my brother’s voice, filled with venom. Jim is screaming something about me being a whore and a traitor.

I knew this was coming.

And yet, it still stings.

I grit my teeth and hold my ground. “He’s my mate, and I’m staying here with him. I’m not spying for you. I’m not coming back to the Red Fog Pack. I’m done with you. With all of you.”

My heart pounds, but I refuse to take the words back.

“You’ll be dead to us,” my brother warns.

I force out a slow, steady breath. “I know.”

“You’ll regret this,” Jim snarls.

His voice is different this time—there’s something personal in his anger.

Maybe it’s the fact that another girl escaped him. Maybe it’s because I was his way in, his leverage, and now I’m gone.

I don’t know, and I don’t care.

I don’t have anything left to say to them.

Then—

My dad’s voice. Quiet. Calculating.

And somehow, that’s worse.

“You’ve always been a stupid bitch,” he sneers, his words laced with venom. “Just like your mother.”

I go rigid.

My grip tightens around the phone as my breath catches in my throat.

“You were worthless to this family and this pack,” he continues, voice smooth, cruel. “And you’ll be worthless to them too.”

A sharp, cruel chuckle from my brother follows. Tears prick at my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall.

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