Rule Breaker (Breeds 20)
...
She had been a virgin and Rule had known it. He had been her first, her only lover, and didn’t she feel stupid as hell?
Used.
She felt used and cast off.
Unwanted.
The humiliation of it left her feeling so raw, so damned helpless that she didn’t know how to handle it.
He had just jumped off her and all but demanded she leave.
He would take her home after he washed up?
As though she had left him feeling dirty.
Her stomach roiled at the thought, pitching with such agony that she wondered if she was going to throw up. Piercing, white-hot humiliation and such pain she didn’t know how to bear it. Her knees felt weak from it, her stomach tightening with the bitter waves of it. She just wanted to escape. Escape and find some way to hide from it.
...
Lawe flinched.
God, the emotions his brother’s little mate was feeling. This tiny, delicate woman who had been meant to share his brother’s life had such agony rolling from her that he could only stare at her in confusion.
How had Rule managed to hurt her?
Whatever he had done, he had hurt his tender little mate in ways she should never have known after the mating had begun.
His car pulled to the curb then, the Breed driving it stepping from the car and moving to them, his gaze curious as he too scented Rule’s mark on her.
The Breed opened the back door for her.
“Come on, Gypsy.” Careful to keep his jacket between his touch and her arm, he helped her into the backseat of the car, then bent and waited until she finally turned to look at him miserably. “If you need a friend, Diane and I, both of us, are your friends, I promise you. Call us if you need someone to talk to. Sometimes, Breeds, by their very nature, can be incredibly stupid. Perhaps, whatever he did, isn’t something he realized had hurt you.”
She simply nodded before turning away from him, her fingers linking and unlinking as she stared down at them.
Lawe shook his head, straightened, then closed the door gently on her.
“Take her home,” he ordered the enforcer before his gaze hardened warningly. “And if you so much as breathe a word of her scent, even to Rule, then you’ll answer to me. Do you understand?”
The enforcer snorted mockingly. “Hey, Breaker wants to cut his own nose off, then that’s his business, right?”
“Exactly,” Lawe agreed. “Keep believing that. I’ll have a team follow behind you and set up security for her. I don’t want her running around unprotected until Breaker gets his head out of his ass.”
“Or you pull it out for him?” The enforcer grinned before turning and hurriedly moving to the driver’s side, sliding inside, and a second later, the car pulled away from the curb.
Lawe shook his head before returning to the lobby and his mate where she waited. He couldn’t help but stop in front of her, and as her gaze lifted to his, he cupped her face, his lips lowering gently to hers for a brief kiss.
“Have I told you lately how blessed I am in you?” he asked her, adoration rising inside him as tears filled her eyes.
His hardened mercenary had to blink back her emotion and the tears that would have escaped at his declaration.
“And I love you, mate,” she whispered. “With all my soul.”
And his brother would throw his own mate away? Cast her away and live without her? Wrapping his arm around his bloodthirsty little warrior, Lawe drew her into the elevator and led her to their suite.
Perhaps he should have gone to Rule’s room and kicked his ass, but he decided to wait. Once Lawe was in his room and the quiet was close around him, he would do what he had been doing since he’d realized Rule was closing himself off from the twin bond they had shared for so long.