Our disparities are suddenly larger than they’ve ever been.
His next step toward me pulls my gut immediately in the opposite direction.
Sandwiched between him and the door, I wonder how fast I’d be able to make a run for it if things devolved.
He’d never hurt me.
Suddenly I’m not so sure.
I shake my head and proceed a few inches back. “We’re done for tonight, Jrue. Go home and tell my father I’m not ready to come back yet.”
If he’s still alive.
I’ve given him the answer he’s looking for but he doesn’t care. He climbs another step and I press my lips together in a tight line.
“Everyone saw you together. The scouts. Me. You were practically crawling all over the bitten one. And what an interesting choice of conversation, Mandi. Are you moonlocked?”
The word holds not a warning, like it does when my father uses it. The kind where you know you have to shut the hell up before you say something stupid. It’s much worse when Jrue says it.Moonlocked.
Damaged goods.
I flinch. “How much did you hear?”
“You’ve been keeping secrets from me when you should have been honest.” Jrue huffs out a laugh. “You’ve lied to me. For years.”
He somehow manages to cut me down to size with his condescension at the same time.
“Were you ever going to tell me about being moonlocked? Or were you going to go along with our engagement until it was too fucking hard to pretend anymore? You were going to trap me in a mate bond with a wolf who can’t even change. You’re worse than something bitten. You’re human.”
I press against the door, my hand working for the knob I somehow can’t find, fingers flexing around nothing. “It wasn’t about you, Jrue.”
His scrutiny has a keen sharpness to it, and I hate being on the receiving end of this kind of scrutiny from him. “Oh, trust me. I get it.”
He crowds me against the door, his jaw shifting side to side.
Like the thought of sharing the same air is abhorrent to him. At once, I’m not the fiancée he thought I was and a rung lower than a stranger. I’m an enemy.
“You don’t know the whole story. You have no idea what’s going on,” I try.
“I don’t want to know. You’re moonlocked. You’re useless to the pack. Your father should have tossed you out on the street years ago, or done you a favor by putting you out of your misery. A wolf who can’t change is a liability. No wonder you’re hanging around the bitten one. What, does he tell you it’s alright? To be what you are?”
“Stop it.”
He bares his teeth. “When I return to the pack, your father and I will have to have a talk about what a liability you really are, and what to do about the two of you.”
“You have no right to judge anyone else.” Fire sings through my veins at once, unable to hide the spark of rage in my tone. “You have no clue what kind of hell my life has been, and I’ve still stepped up for my pack in any way possible. Not being able to change doesn’t make me any less capable or compassionate. It’s one of those qualities you lack.”
“I’ve been compassionate with you until this point. Do you think turning this around on me is going to somehow make you feel better? Because the way I see it, you were going to trick me into this match and then betray me when you had a ring on your finger.”
My hands curl into claws, the need there, pushing against skin. Unable to ever be fully or physically realized.
“The mating was my father’s idea. Not mine.”
He laughs, the sound designed to sting. “You will never make another match as good as this one, and you know it. Who else would want a wolf who can’t shift besides the damaged goods you’re hiding in this house? No wonder you bolted when those moon-mad wolves broke into the compound. Your family is fine, by the way. Not that you give a shit.”
It’s worse, much worse, to hear him say it, that I don’t care about my family. That I would purposely run, as though I had a choice to stay.
The idea of anything happening to my sister…