Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Paxton: I don’t hate you, Volana. I don’t know you.
I carefully considered my reply.
Me: Most people would say you already know all you need to know to hate me.
Paxton: Those people don’t know why you killed Castor.
I went very still—reading that once, twice, twelve times.
Me: And you do?
The scritch-scratch-scritch-scratch sounded up a storm behind me. Paxton was writing a whole novel in reply, and I held my breath—waiting for every word.
Paxton: I know you went your whole life without hurting a single soul. More than that, the people who knew you from before say you were the nicest, sweetest person they ever met. Kind to omegas, alphas, and everyone in between.
I accepted a long time ago that something must’ve happened between you and Castor. Something horrible. Something that you still can’t talk about.
Of course you snapped when Luame named the person who hurt you as your soulmate. If someone did something like that to me, and then suddenly all my rage and pain became lust and wanting for a monster. I couldn’t stand that either.
I’d snap too.
I hesitated. It wasn’t hard to read between those lines. Paxton couldn’t conceive of me attacking an innocent man unprovoked, so he decided Castor wasn’t innocent, and I was very provoked.
A shocking pang of conscience struck my heart. I did have a reason for what I did—a good fucking one—but it was not that. It wasn’t right to let people believe Castor was a rapist or the like, even if they came to that conclusion on their own. Castor did do something, but it wasn’t that.
I put pencil to paper.
Me: You need to know that Castor
A hand snatched the note from my grip. “Hey!”
“Hey yourself,” Nyx said, grinning. “You two look to be having quite the intense conversation. Didn’t even notice me staring at you for the last minute.”
“Give it back!”
I lunged and he snapped back, whipping the paper high above my head, and looking pretty proud of his six-foot-tall self while doing it.
“What’s going on over there?” Hall demanded.
We had the attention of everyone in the room now—all of my fates included. Edric, Badr, Orion, and Paxton jumped to their feet, narrowing on us.
“What were you two talking about?” The smile Nyx gave Paxton would’ve been charming, if I didn’t know a predator when I saw one. “Something we should all know, Pax?”
Paxton stiffened. “Nyx, it’s not a big deal. We were just talking.”
“Talking about what?” Badr hissed. “What the fuck do you have to say to her that can’t be summed up by fuck off and die?”
“Give it back!” I shouted, lunging again.
Nyx bent back and I splayed across his chest—scrabbling and climbing the mountain of a man like a baby koala. Nyx snapped his arm around my back and held me fast.
“No, thanks. I think we’d all rather know what the most famous omega in a century has to say to the most infamous psychopath ever born.”
“Second-most infamous!” I jumped and flailed against him, straining for the note. “Your hairy-ass, buck-tooth mama still has me beat out!”
Nyx laughed out loud, not fazed in the least. Our audience was hooting and clamoring for him to read the letter out loud. All except for Hall who busied himself sorting papers on his desk.
He wasn’t coming to my rescue.
Shaking open the note, Nyx read, “Ugh, sorry they’re such assholes. And Paxton says, it’s cool. I’m used to it.” Nyx turned the confusing, predatory grin on his friend. “Assholes? Who the fuck are you talking about?”
“You!” I screeched.
“No, not you,” Paxton rushed, jumping for the note himself. Of course he was. The last thing he wanted was for Nyx to read to the end... and let Badr find out what he thought of his late brother. “It’s not like that! We were talking about something else.”
“Why are you talking to her at all?” Badr bellowed. “Nyx, give me the fucking note now!”
“Psychopath says, but you don’t take it lying down. I’m the one who takes it lying down. And on my knees, and in the ass, and in three holes at once. Twice.”
“Damn, girl,” the guy crowed. “If only you weren’t so crazy, I’d give it to you in every hole you—”
Growls split the air—so ferociously they made my skin pebble. Edric, Badr, Orion, Nyx, and Paxton sounded off at the disgusting jerk, their fangs ripping from their maws.
“Watch your fucking mouth!”
“I’ll send you back to your mama in pieces!”
“No one told you to speak to her!”
“Fuck off!”
“Losing that big mouth would be an improvement on that fugly face,” Paxton roared. “Test me, alpha!” His eyes changed as his wolf—as all of my fates’ wolves—fought to the surface. “Give me a fucking reason!”
The catcalling moron backed down quick, though his claws were out and he was rocking back and forth on his arches like he was waiting for an attack. But he wasn’t stupid. He didn’t even think of making the first move.