Page 85 of Scapegoat

“Anna can be a little bitch,” he said, pouring the tea and when he handed me my cup, I nearly dropped it.

“I’m sorry—”

“I know what your mother did.” Dad didn’t bother to clarify or expand upon that, making clear it was all of it. “And let me say, your sister has not dealt well with being deprived of her greatest champion, but…” He brought his tea to his lips, staring into space before taking a sip. “We’ve rubbed along the best we can. She’s more dominant than I am, as you are.”

I frowned at that admission. No one in the house dared speak of my dominance, lest it give me ideas above my station.

“So I am limited in my ability to keep her under control, but…” Dad smirked. “She’s too lazy to get a job and make her own money, so she knows that I won’t give her any, not unless she behaves, so…” He looked at me. “What did she do this time?”

“She and some of the town think the guys are her mates and that I’m just a jealous bitch, trying to keep her away from them,” I replied, the sharpness in my voice feeling weird, wrong in a place like this.

“Christ, they’re still on about that, are they?” Dad paled.

“They?” Atlas stepped forward then. “What do you mean they?”

Chapter 48

Xavier

I hated this shit, this house, the weakness of Daryl, Kai’s father. It wasn’t his fault. The gods knew why some people were born with more dominance or less and why the hell they would make this man Abby’s fated mate, but still. As soon as we’d stepped into the house, I felt like hopelessness, horror leached from the walls. I wanted to bundle Kai up and drag her out of there.

Just as I had for as long as I’d known her.

When we were kids, it was just an instinct, something simmering below the fake facade of happy families that Abby forced everyone in this house to play along with. But now?

“Kai, maybe we should—” I started to say.

“What do you mean ‘they’?”

Atlas was a wolf on the hunt, his eyes bright silver, and when he stepped towards Kai’s dad, it was with the stiff legged stance of an angry wolf. Daryl’s eyes went to the floor, his head tilting sideways, baring his throat.

“Abby and Anna…”

Kai’s father was having to force the words out, making me glare at Atlas. My brother didn’t need to squeeze the information out of the other man. He’d volunteer it anyway. Because while Abby’s heart had seemed to harden against Kai the moment she was born, her father’s hadn’t. She was his daughter and while he was powerless to keep her safe, we weren’t.

I’d fucking take control of this whole pack, expel every damn person who thought to slight my mate, if that’s what it took.

“Abby was expelled from the pack, but she couldn’t let it go. Couldn’t let Anna go.” His breath came in long, shuddering breaths, the stink of fear rising in the room. “Abby sent Anna a mobile phone and your mother calls her, calls plenty of people in the town. Abby keeps pouring poison in people’s ears—”

“Until she gets what she wants.” My mate’s eyes became hard and flat. “Mum will never stop until she has…”

When Kai turned to look at me, there was such longing there, but also just as much pain. As if we’d fall in with Abby’s plans the minute we got back to this fucking town.

“No.” I grabbed Kai and held her tight. “No, never. We didn’t play along with her bullshit back when we lived here and we won’t now.”

“Except for that day.” Her voice was muffled by my chest, but I could still hear the pain there. “When she—”

“Abby won’t do a fucking thing to you again,” Jay promised, moving closer. “No one will. We’ll leave if it worries you. I know you love Jamie but—”

“I want to offer for you to stay here,” Daryl said, “but I can’t. You need to stick with those boys of yours.” He straightened up, our dominance no longer forcing his submission. “They have always been stronger than Abby and they can protect you…”

From what, that’s what we all wanted to ask, but we couldn’t, not now. I stared over my mate’s heads into my brothers’ eyes and made clear we’d be back here at some point, without our mate. If there was something her father knew, some threat…

“Maybe we should be getting home?” I suggested to Kai. “It’s been a long day and you’re tired. We can come back anytime…”

But please don’t ask me to, I wanted to say. This place was toxic, the air filled with invisible pathogens that were infecting us with their poison every second we stayed here. Her father seemed happy enough to live like this, but Kai wouldn’t, not while we were with her.

“It’s good to see you, Dad.” Kai pulled away from me and gave her father a hug, a sincere one this time. She relaxed into him, pressing her face into his chest, while at the door she had been stiff with tension. But when she pulled away I was glad, not able to take another breath until she was settled into my side. “But you should get the fuck out of here. Anna is another man’s daughter. Let Greg take care of her. Find another pack, one where you’d be protected.”

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