Page 85 of Ravaged Wolf
His words choke my throat like a hanging rope. I can’t breathe. I can hardly hear through my wolf’s snarling.
Take that thing from her. Smash it.
I couldn’t move now if I wanted to. I’m paralyzed, trapped by the guilt flooding my lungs like tar.
Izzy’s still staring into the middle distance. If she looked at me, I’d burn to ashes from the shame.
“The mate you kept me from until he went into rut,” shesays, very calmly. The hand holding the phone trembles, but her voice doesn’t.
He dismisses her with a sniff. “No one cankeepa female in heat from her mate if she wants him. You knew he wasn’t worthy of you. The door wasn’t locked, was it, Izzy? No one was standing in your way. You could’ve gone to him at any time if you’d really wanted to, but you hid in your room, gobbling down your mother’s little helpers, because you didn’t want a greasy mutt from the dregs of the pack, either.”
“That’s not true,” she says, breathily, as if her lungs are filling, too.
“And sure as hell, no one can keep a male from a mate in heat, either, but that mutt wasn’t knocking down our door, was he?”
“You threatened his family. You said they’d take his dad and brothers’ jobs and throw them out of their apartment, cast them so far down that even the scavengers wouldn’t take them in.”
Her father scoffs. “A real male wouldn’t putanyoneoranythingabove claiming his mate. He was willing to wait because he wanted to curry favor with his betters, just like every low-ranked ass sniffer. He wanted to move up, and he had no problem making you suffer for it.”
It isn’t true, but the truth that is in it tears chunks from my skin. I scourged myself with the same words a thousand times. I shouldn’t have waited. I chose my family over her. A good male would sacrificeanythingto protect his mate. I betrayed her.
“A real male wouldn’t put anything above hispup.” Izzy’s voice is breaking now. Her distress singes the air. “He’d never ask her to suffer for his benefit.”
This has gone on long enough. Every inch of me burns with shame, but the time when I let shame make me weak isover. My mate isminenow. I will allow nothing—especially not my own demons—to stop me from keeping her safe.
I step forward and gently take the phone from Izzy’s hand. “Mr. Owens, Izzy has said her piece. She’s staying here with me.”
“So the mutt finally finds the balls to speak for himself,” he sneers. “If you know what’s good for you, my daughterwillbe on that bus on Monday. Nothing’s changed except there’s no bog left for your family to take refuge in when we throw them out of the Tower like the trash they are.”
The threat hits, but I’m not an eighteen-year-old with no experience of the world anymore. I’ve started over twice. It would be hard, but I know myself well enough now that I know I wouldn’t let my family starve.
“Do what you feel you have to do,” I say. “My mate stays with me.”
I hit end and set the phone back on the table. Izzy is shaking. My wolf howls. He’s pissed that I’ve let our mate get this upset. He thinks I should’ve chomped the phone to bits the instant her father spoke to her with that tone.
I wrap her in my arms, gather her as close as I can, and rock. My wolf calms himself enough to switch his howl to a low rumble.
The shame still crawls across my skin, souring my scent, but Izzy is breaking down, and I’m not leaving my brave mate to comfort herself. My chest muffles her wracking sobs, my shirt absorbing her tears.
“I knew it would go just like that,” she chokes out. “I don’t know why I’m so upset. I knew he’d be just that horrible, and I knew she wouldn’t do anything to protect me.”
“A punch in the face hurts. It doesn’t hurt any less if you see it coming.”
She lets out a strangled laugh. “I guess you’ve got a point there.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I could’ve done that for you.”
“I wouldn’t have let you.”
“I know.” I stroke her back. The sobs are turning to hiccups.
“I’m sorry, too,” she says, nuzzling my chest to wipe her tears, and a spark of happiness flares to life in the dark mess inside me. Our mating can’t be hopelessly tainted, not when she uses my shirt as a handkerchief without thinking.
“You don’t have to be sorry about anything, ever,” I remind her.
“I just wiped my snot on your one clean shirt,” she says. “The others are all in the laundry.” Well, I guess it wasn’t exactlywithout thinking.
Miraculously, after that horrible fucking conversation, I’m somehow almost smiling. “We’ll have to do the laundry tonight.”
