03

Katie

I looked down, hiding the bruising on my cheek, I should have known better. Brenton didn’t do personal boundaries apparently because he casually put his fingers under my chin, and forced me to look up at him.

He gently brought his other hand and cupped my injured cheek. I closed my eye for a moment, taking pleasure in his touch. My wolf teased my mind, but I ignored her. I couldn’t have him. I wasn’t good enough for him.

I wasn’t clean enough. I could feel how disgusting I was after taking a beating from Jacob. I couldn’t let him get close to me. I take a deep breath and jerk away from his touch and lower my head and pat my leg for Rex to follow me inside as I open the door to the shelter. Aria followed Rex inside and let Brenton in.

I ignore him as I open the door to my little office, Rex follows me and plops himself down onto the dog bed behind me. I go to my snack drawer and pull out a XL Hershey's candy bar and open it as I plop down in my chair, and start up my computer.

“Can you get Brenton a badge?” Aria asks me, “He came to check out what we may need, he is donating his portion of his inheritance to our shelter.”

I want to snap and be rude by saying, it must be nice to throw money at people. But I took a deep breath instead and ignored the pain as I created him a temporary pass for the shelter.

“What happened to you Katie?” he asks, leaning against the ledge in front of the window to my office.

I bounce my leg and ignore him.

“Ignoring me doesn’t work, I will find out. You are my mate. I want to protect you, take care of you. Please.”

I glare up at him, “I am not your mate.” I rolled my eyes, and ignored the pain in my chest. “Trust me, I’m trash compared to you.”

He leaned forward and snarled, really snarled at me, “Don’t ever talk about yourself that way. I would murder someone else if they said such a thing about you, but I will spank your ass if I hear you say it again.”

I cross my arms and growl, “Really, threatening to hit someone who just got assaulted, must make you feel like such a man.”

He glared back at me, “Baby you know the difference between getting assaulted and getting spanked for being a bad girl. Now, are you going to tell me or will I have to ask Aria?”

I push my hand through my hair, rolling my eyes, “My ex husband just beat the shit out of me this morning. I just got out of the fucking e.r. So can you please just leave me the fuck alone?”

“Do you have a safe place to go, what did the police say?” He starts asking questions.

I raise my hand and roll my eyes again, “Dude, stop. I quite obviously have a place to stay. I waved my hand, indicating the shelter, “Duh. And it isn’t any of your business what the police say.”

“It is because I am now your lawyer. I am going to get this monster life in prison for what he has done to you.”

“You aren’t my lawyer.” I say as I move myself subtly, my whole body aching.

“Baby, you can’t stop me.” He says leaning forward and pulling me toward him.

“Let me go!” I cry out as he lifts me.

“I am going to protect you with my life.” He whispers against my cheek. “I am going to prove to you that I am the mate that you deserve.”

I swallow, “It isn’t you that's the issue.” I whisper my eyes darting between him.

“What do you mean baby.” he says, pressing gentle kisses to my bruised cheek.

I bite down on my lip and tamper the moan in my throat trying to keep it from coming out. 

“I'm not good enough for you.” I whisper.

He leans back and looks me in the eyes, his wolf looking at me instead of Brenton. I took a deep breath at the anger I saw there.

“You are everything I couldn’t have ever asked for and more.”

I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I pulled away from him. “Go. You need to go.”

He looks at me and nods, “I’ll go for now, but you need to know, I’m not giving up on us. I want you as my mate. I want to know you, but my wolf isn’t going to be patient for long.”

He turns away and walks down the hallway toward Aria’s office. I hadn’t even realized that she had even walked away. I turn everything in my office off and close the window before opening the door and slap my leg for Rex to follow me. He grunts as he stands up and walks out the door at my side. I make my way down a different hallway and nod at the other women that the shelter was currently housing. 

I turned to the door to my usual room and unlocked it, letting Rex inside. Once I close the door I walk over to the bathroom and flip on the water in the shower. I grab a plastic wrap and carefully wrap it over my cast. Trying to not cry out in pain as I move. I then slowly take off my top before walking over to the mirror and wincing, causing my swollen eye to throb in pain. “Fuck.” I whispered, taking in the clear boot print against my stomach. 

I then looked at my face and wanted to break, even for just a moment. My throat had bruises around it, my face black and blue, my eye swollen shut. 

No wonder I had a migraine coming on. It looked like I had gone three rounds against Mike Tyson and lost.

I snarl at myself, and try to force my wolf forward. “Why won’t you shift? Damn you. Why aren’t you strong enough to save us?” I whisper. Before turning away from my reflection. I push my jeans off and step into the shower and finally let myself break.