Ch. 11

Cole’s POV

Cole’s wolf growled in his mind as Cole’s heart sank.

He reached for her again, keeping his arms around her when she stiffened.

“Cassia, please,” he murmured. “Come on, baby, lay back. It’s alright. I know - at least in part - what they did, as we said earlier. I can imagine the rest. And I can promise you, I still very much want you. And so does Garrett.”

She didn’t relax, just shook her head, her tears starting to leak through her fingers and drop onto the bed.

“He marked me, Cole. I can’t be anyone else’s mate. He marked me.” She turned her body to face him, wrenching herself from his grasp, and ripped the bandage off her neck and shoulder, revealing ugly bites up and down her neck, chest, and upper arm - and a black, oozing mate mark in the delicate spot where her neck met her shoulder.

Cole marvelled at how she could be so fragile one moment and so fierce or certain the next, but he wasn’t surprised by the mark.

He and Garrett had already dealt with that shock h