Page 18 of His Claim
I swallowed, my voice quieter. “That’s not the story the girls told.”
His gaze hardened. “What did they say?”
I looked down at the chipped glass in my hands, tracing the rim with my thumb. “That you were ruthless. That you didn’t blink when you killed men or shifters alike. That you’d sooner tear out a throat than take a breath and grant even one ounce of mercy.”
His jaw worked, but he didn’t deny it.
Finally, he said, “They’re not wrong.”
I looked up, meeting his eyes. “So which is it? The ruthless commander or the man trying to… what? Comfort me with water and jerky?”
“Both. I’m merciless because I’ve had to be. This world doesn’t leave room for softness. Not for wolves. Not for men. And not for women like you. But that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of it.”
The honesty in his tone scraped me deep inside. I hated that I wanted to understand him.
I set the glass down with a small thud, pressing my palms against the counter to keep my hands from shaking. “You want to know what it was like?”
His brow furrowed. “What?”
“In the cells,” I said, my voice tight. “With the other women. You want to know what your Council does with us when you’re not looking? I’ll tell you.”
I didn’t wait for his answer. The words poured out like bile.
“They kept us in rows of steel cages. No windows. No clocks. Just white walls and a single vent that hissed like it was laughing at us. They turned the lights on and off and I assumed that meant day and night. Didn’t know if it had been hours or weeks. They fed us enough to keep us healthy at least.”
My throat closed, but I forced it to let the words out. “The girls… they talked. Whispered to each other through the bars. We told stories about who we were before. It made the dark feel less endless.”
I stared at my hands, nails biting into my skin. “But then the guards came. Always two, sometimes more. And they would take one of us. We never knew who it would be. We never knew ifshe’d come back. Sometimes she did. Sometimes she didn’t. And then her cage stayed empty for a while.”
My voice cracked. “I kept waiting. Every day I waited. For them to come for me. To drag me out. To be forced to spread my legs. To be r—” I swallowed hard, bile rising. “But they didn’t. I don’t know why. I don’t know if they were saving me for someone in particular, or if I was undesirable, or… why they hadn’t come to get me yet.”
Silence stretched. My eyes stung, but I refused to let the tears fall.
When I finally looked up, his gaze hadn’t left me.
“I’m sorry for what the wolves do to you.”
His gaze didn’t waver, and he didn’t blink. He just looked at me like the weight of the world was on his shoulders and he was finally tired of carrying it alone.
Something in my chest cracked.
I crossed my arms, shifting a little, trying not to let him see the way my throat and chest tightened. I wanted to stay angry. I wanted to pout, to cling to the fury that had kept me alive this long, but damn it, he wasn’t sneering. He wasn’t mocking me.
He was telling the truth.
My lips twisted. “You don’t get points for sympathy, Commander.”
“I’m not asking for points.” His voice sharpened, not with anger but with conviction. “I’m telling you I’ve never supported what’s been done to human women. Not the cages. Not the forcedbreedings. Every part of it is an abomination. Every time I’ve looked the other way, I’ve hated myself a little more for it.”
I blinked at him, stunned into silence. Wolves didn’t talk like this. Not the ones I’d seen, not the ones who strutted around the facility with leers and cold eyes.
He stepped up to me carefully, his massive frame moving with deliberate caution. “You asked me why I marked you. Why I claimed you. I didn’t do it to punish you or to remind you of your place. I did it to pull you out of the madness forced into you. To break through the haze before you tore yourself apart or the wolves beat you to it.”
The words sank in, dragging my pulse down with them.
I hated what he’d done, but without it, I wasn’t sure I’d still be breathing right now.
I bit my lip, looking away, cheeks heating. “I still don’t like it.”
