Page 46 of Arranged Wolf's Nanny
Rick didn’t understand. How could he? He was so strong, so powerful, so connected. Nobody would dare talk down to him,insulthim, or seek to control him through the threat of violence. He wouldn’t let them. So how could he possibly understand what it was her father was doing to her?
No doubt he thought protecting her would be as simple as snapping his teeth at her father, sending him scurrying away. He didn’t know John Heath like she did. He didn’t know the grudges he could hold, theangerhe could nurse within him, the patience he would have in making her one day pay for it.
And she had no idea how to explain it to him.
Better he just stay out of it. She’d always weathered her father’s storms; she’d always survived. She could keep on surviving.
Rick would only make things worse.
She thought of him standing in her room, eyes ablaze with fury, fists clenching as she refused to just acquiesce to his demands.
The heat in his gaze. The power in his body.
It had to be a trap. It was too seductive an idea, thinking that he could just make everything better if she simply handed herself over to him.
It wasn’t because he wanted to protecther. He just wanted to protect his image, his reputation, hispride.
He was an alpha male. And yes, he may not have hurt her, but he was a predator, and she’d be an idiot to forget it.
A wave of emotion crashed over her as her energy waned, and her precision faltered. She was crashing into more trees than she was swerving, her eyes blinded by tears, her lungs burning.
She crashed to a halt, her breath clouding as she hung her head, legs trembling.
She could not cry. Not as a wolf. And so she shifted back into a human and howled out her grief into the silent forest. Her shoulders shook with the force of her sobs as she finally allowed her emotions to take control.
There was no use denying it.
She wanted him. Wanted Rick. Wanted to trust him, let him in, let him make everything better for her. She wanted to be free of this aching weight in her chest. The suspicion, the fear, the guilt, all of it kept her dragging and clawing through her life.
Why couldn’t she just let it go?
She thought of Eva, of her happy smiles and fearless optimism and unendingtrust. She was so good and pure and innocent.
Rosalia wanted that. She wanted it so badly she thought it would burn her up.
But she couldn’t have it. Not in the way Eva had it. Eva was a child, protected and sheltered, and Rosalia wished with all her heart that she would always stay that way.
But Rosalia…
She had lived in darkness for so long, she feared she would never find her way out again.
Collapsing to her knees, she buried her fingers into the earth, feeling the life of the forest around her.
At least she had this. This one moment, where she didn’t have to be anything for anyone. She could sit, cradled in the dirt, naked as the day she was born, and finally juststop.
Rick would not come after her. He had said he wouldn’t, and for better or for worse, Rosalia believed him. He would not chase her down.
Her father had. Back when she had been foolish enough to believe she could run away from him.
Even though she was a shifter, the wounds he had left her with took three days to fully heal.
John Heath didn’t like it when his property tried to leave him.
Herfather.
He didn’t deserve the title.
John Heathwas a cold, cruel man. A manipulative abuser.
