“You tried to leave me.”

Jaime blinked rapidly, surprised by his gruff words. She was sort of expecting a lecture for sneaking off. “I couldn’t stay there.”

“Why?” His tone was harsh.

“You know why.”

He arched a brow tauntingly. “Giving up so soon, Jaime?”

She barely managed to keep her anger in check. “I have no choice but to leave, even if it does make things worse.”

“No choice?”

“I’m not wanted there.”

“If you weren’t wanted there, you’d have been banished.”

“That’s certainly what most of the pack want. I heard that much for myself.” His entire body stilled. It was then he noticed the flickers of pain in her eyes. He wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t trust himself to touch her right now. Fury was thrumming through him, and his wolf was urging him to bite her, to remind her that she was his. “Who upset you?”

“They only said what I already knew. Then they started questioning your competency as Beta, all because you want me to stay. I couldn’t have that.”

Although that touched him, he couldn’t soften his voice. He was still so damn angry with her for leaving. “So you thought you’d scuttle away without a word?”

“You would have tried to stop me, just like you are now.”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “No, baby, I am going to stop you. Where would you have gone, anyway? To Shawn?”

“To Ivy, actually. I was going to stay with her for a couple of days and ask her to give me an injection when I do finally shift.”

“An injection that will kill you? Damn it, Jaime!” He felt sick at the mere idea of it.

“Look, I get that it’s hard for you to feel like you’ve let down one of the wolves you’re responsible for, but I’ve left. I’m not part of the pack now—you’re not responsible for me anymore.” He fisted a hand possessively in her hair. “You. Are. Mine. That’s it, that’s all there is to it.” His wolf fully agreed.

She struggled against his grip, but he only tightened it. Her wolf bucked at his dominance, both liking and disliking it. “Fucking me doesn’t mean I belong to you!” She gasped as suddenly his mouth came down hard on hers, giving her a punishing, possessive, demanding kiss that told her he meant every word, that she was going nowhere but with him.

When he finally broke away, they were both panting. “Like I said, you’re mine. I protect what’s mine. You are going to come back with me, and you are going to learn every single skill I teach you to make you stronger, and we’ll deal with what comes together. Now get in the SUV, Jaime.” His voice was softer now, but his tone was unmoving.

The picture he’d painted was so tempting, so very much what Jaime wanted, but his possessiveness made no sense. The protectiveness, sure. But not the possessiveness. “You told me you don’t do relationships.”

“I don’t. It only ends up a mess when true mates come along.” The hurt in his eyes made her chest ache. “Then why? Why ask for more?” A slight pause. “Because you matter.”

Her stomach fluttered at his words. No, it wasn’t some kind of romantic declaration. It was a simple truth delivered in a no-bullshit manner, and she liked it even more for that.

“Before you think to scoff at what I’ve said and tell me that I don’t matter to you, know that it won’t make me leave you here. You’re coming back with me either way.” Denying her feelings might have been smart, but she wanted to take the hurt out of his eyes, not make it worse. “You know you matter,” she said sharply, which earned her a cocky smile. Then his arm was around her and he was drawing her to him. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply. “Tell me what happened, Dante.”

He stiffened, knowing what she meant. It was the last thing he wanted to talk about, but she wasn’t going to totally understand everything until he told her. He kissed her forehead and went to sit on the tree stump a few feet away. “Her name…was Laurie. My wolf went crazy whenever she was around, just like he does with you.” He almost smiled at the surprise on her face. She really had no idea what she did to him.

“To be blunt, we f**ked like rabbits. But it was more than that, I…well, I cared about her.

Loved her. Three months later imprinting began without us even consciously deciding it, but both of us were glad about it. A few weeks later, her true mate came along—though she hadn’t realized it, because she was partly imprinted with me. That blocked her ability to feel the mating bond. But he knew, and he set out to make sure that the imprinting stopped.” Hearing the pain in his voice, she opened her mouth to tell him that he didn’t need to say any more, but he shook his head and lifted his hand to stop her.

“He seduced her into cheating on me. I could actually feel her pleasure through the partial bond. I knew that she was with someone else, knew how much she was enjoying it.” Oh God. Before she’d even thought about it, Jaime was straddling him and curling her arms around his neck. “You really don’t have to—”

“No, I do.” He took a preparatory breath, rubbing his hands up and down her back, taking strength from her. “I hunted them both down, ready to kill him. She stopped me, said she chose him.

That was painful enough, and the breaking of the imprinting bond was even more painful. I had migraines all the time, this weird empty feeling, and sometimes I was close to being medically depressed. What added to it all was that her true mate…is actually my brother.” Jaime gaped. “What?”

“You remember Blane, right?”

The name made her wolf growl. Blane was the oldest of the six and had been the worst when it came to taunting Dante. All of them had tormented him. But Blane…She’d often wondered if he was stable. She’d been relieved when he mated into another pack four years after Dante had left. She hadn’t once thought that his mate had been half Dante’s at the time that he found her. “He made me eat a spider once. I spat it at his face.”

Dante chuckled. “Good girl. As you know, my dad was Beta when I was a kid, and he was pretty caught up in his job. When he chose his position over Mom, she sort of…deflated. She became a shadow of her former self. She didn’t live, she just existed, going through the motions.”

“You think that was why she died when you were seven? Feeling the bond weaken made her weak?”