Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
His mate had defenses a mile high and apparently, he was the only one she was willing to lower them for.
He couldn’t blame her.
“So, you know enough now to understand that Callie and James are in the hands of a ruthless bastard. We need to get them back.”
“What we dinnae know,” Grace spoke up, her voice loud and clear, “is what this lass is. Why he so desperately wants her?”
There were murmurings around the pack.
Conall spoke out to the room. “We dinnae know what Thea is. It doesnae matter. What matters is that Ashforth wants to exploit her particular gifts. He held her captive for years. He hurt her”—the growl burrowed out of his chest—“and he will not do the same to Callie or James.”
“Conall.”
His eyes flew toward the voice. Hugh MacLennan rose behind a table in the middle of the room. He was an older wolf and first cousin to Grace. “I’ve seen the mating bond several times now. With your parents it was a wonder. But I’ve also seen how a true mating can blind a wolf to the faults of his mate.” Hugh’s gaze flicked to Thea and then back to Conall. “The bond can interfere with your rational thinking. Who is to say that this Mr. Ashforth is the one in the wrong here? Your mate may have lied to you, Conall, and you wouldnae know it for the bond confuses things. If her gifts are as dangerous as they sound, perhaps Ashforth is right. Perhaps you’ve been manipulated.”
Fury flamed in his gut and swelled in his chest. The pack grew still as they felt the mounting energy building from their alpha. How dare they! How dare they question his rational thinking and mistrust his opinion. How dare they look at Thea as others had her whole life.
Bastards.
His own pack.
“Conall.” He felt Thea’s grip on his arm. “Conall.”
Her touch soothed him enough to bring him out of the haze of rage. Discomfort pinched his gums as his canines shortened. His fingertips tingled as his claws slowly retracted.
The room was eerily still.
And then Thea’s clear, melodic voice filled the room. “I know you’re just trying to protect your alpha and your pack, but I’m not lying about Jasper Ashforth. Caledonia and James are in danger. He … Ashforth experimented upon me until he finally found a way to hurt me.” She turned back to Conall, anxiety in her eyes. “I need to show them.”
No.
Shaking his head, Conall refused to let her. “You dinnae owe them that.”
“But you do. And we’re a team now.” Her smile was weak. “They’ll never believe us otherwise.”
“I dinnae care.” He stepped toward her. Conall remembered how she’d run from him when he saw the truth. This was too much to ask of her.
“I care. It’s time to stop hiding. They have to know.” She gestured to the pack. “They need to know what a monster Ashforth is. They have to understand the magnitude of trouble your sister and beta are in.” She faced the waiting pack, whose eyes had never left her. “But first I need a sharp knife.”
There were a few murmurings, but it was Hugh who stood up and walked around the tables toward her. He pulled a penknife out of his back pocket and held it out to her.
Thea reached out slowly for it. “Thank you.”
The older wolf nodded cautiously and stepped back.
“First, I need to demonstrate my healing abilities. It’s the reason Ashforth wants me. And it’s the reason Conall came after me for my blood—to give to Callie.” Thea flicked the knife and lifted her wrist that wasn’t scarred from the iron blade. Conall flinched as she sliced it open, but Thea didn’t move a facial muscle.
Gasps, disbelief, and curse words filled the room as Thea’s wrist didn’t even have time to drip blood before it healed over.
The noise level in the room grew and grew until Conall shouted, “Enough!”
His mate wiped the blood from the knife on her shirt and returned it to Hugh, his own expression slackened with shock.
“There’s not much that can hurt me,” Thea announced to the quieting room. “But Ashforth found a way.”
Conall’s stomach knotted as Thea turned her back to the gathering. She looked at him and he wished like hell she didn’t have to do this. Not for him. “Thea,” he begged. “This is too much.”
“Do you trust them?”
“Even then,” he said, his voice gruff, “I dinnae … I dinnae want you to look back and resent me for this moment.”
Her smile was sad, weary, far too weary. “Never, Chief MacLennan. Never.”
Then she drew her shirt over her head, exposing her bare back.
There was an inhale of breath and then utter silence.
Conall knew what they were seeing.
The crisscross of raised scars that covered the entirety of her back was evidence of not just a lashing, but of a brutality that horrified. It was obvious that the whipping she’d taken had torn her apart.