Chapter 144

• Dante
• She met my eyes, hesitating for a second. “€œBecause I saw the guilt you were already carrying," she explained simply. "Over Stella. Over your pup. Over the attacks the pack was facing. And I knew if you found out how much your treatment of me reminded me of Alvin's back then, it would only add to it.” She finished on a whisper. I mulled her words over and over again, feeling the guilt she was talking about starting to creep in. She'd kept the truth of relationship with him... for my sake?
• I pressed my lips together, realizing she wasn't wrong. I might not be a complete asshole like Alvin was, but I hadn’t treated her any better than he had, when she'd first arrived. No, when I'd literally forced her to come back to the back with me so she could have her wound tended to. Only, that hadn't been the only reason I'd wanted her to come back. I'd ended up roping her into shit she had wanted nothing to do with. All the while, taunting her with the chance to be free. I had been cold, distant. Unwilling to accept her as my mate. Treating her as nothing more than a slave.