Page 30 of Brutal Alpha Bully

Once I think the thought, however, I realize that they might just let that happen.

“Okay, okay,” Soren says, shaking his head and running a hand over his face. “I’ll—uh—”

Then, to my surprise, he slides over the hood of the car and to the other side, where he slips into the passenger seat at the last moment before I throw the car into reverse and the doors lock.

I hit the brakes and look at him. “What are you doing?”

“Coming with you,” he says. “Xeran told us about his brothers. That they cornered you.”

“So what?”

“So, I’m coming to protect you.”

“I can protect myself,” I snap, glaring at him. “Get out of my car.”

“Respectfully, no. I don’t think Xeran would like that.”

“Oh, for all thegods,” I growl, reaching forward and grabbing the gearshift, throwing the car into reverse. Soren curses and grabs the dash as I whip out of there, rolling down the windows and cranking the music.

If he’s going to insist on coming with me, I’m not going to make it a good time for him.

By the time we get into town and I whip into the parking lot outside the market, Soren’s curls have been whipped into a tangled mess on his head, and his freckled face looks green. He gets out of the car with one hand gripping it, like he’s getting off a spinning ride at an amusement park.

I hurry into the market, not concerned about whether or not he’s following along behind me. I realize he is when I start to get some strange looks. People aren’t used to me having a man with me.

It’s not like Soren is very high-standing in the pack. As far as families go, his is rather in the middle, though Soren himself gets a boost from being friends with Lachlan and Xeran.

It’s enough that, for the first time in my life, I walk through the store without anyone “accidentally” bumping into my cart. There are no dirty stares thrown my way. Not even a single whispered comment under someone’s breath.

When he stops to look at the cookies, I continue on, turning the corner. I nearly run into someone heading my way.

“Seraphina?”

The name rockets through me. When I look up, I see my mother standing there, a box of pasta held loosely in her hand, her mouth dropped slightly open.

“Where is Nora?” she asks, lowering her voice and quickly shoving the pasta back on the shelf. “How are you? I heard—well, I heard that they took you to… that Sorel boy. The one who left.”

As pissed as I am at Xeran, I bristle at those words coming from my mother’s mouth. What would she know about showing up for people?

“Nora is safe,” is all I tell her, because for the first time in my life, I have the startling realization that it may not be a good idea to share everything with her, especially not when it comes to my daughter. “And yes. Lucian brought me to Declan.”

I see her flinch at the mention of my brother and wonder if she’s remembering how he dragged me out of our house. How I called for her, begging for her to help me. For her not to let him take me.

“Well,” she says, shaking her head and raising her hands to push the hair from her face. “You shouldn’t be… staying with that man. You should come home.”

That makes me laugh, as does my sudden bravado. I thought she and I were on the same page, that she had no right to tell me how to live my life.

“If Iwas,there would be nothing wrong about staying with him—”

“Do you think it’s going to help matters if the town thinks you’re playing the alpha’s whore?” she hisses, loud enough that someone passing by us turns to stare, her eyes widening when she sees who we are.

My blood runs hot, flushing my face. Something worse than embarrassment shudders through me—shame. Shame at my mother, shame at myself. Shame at the fact that this is what my life looks like now.

“What thefuckdid you just say?”

We both jump a little when Soren comes around the corner, the expression on his face thunderous as he glares at my mother.

She stammers, “N-nothing—”

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