Lowering her hands, she gripped the edge of the vanity and took several deep breaths. She wouldn’t cry here. Not in this house. Not in a place where anyone could walk in at any time. When she did let loose, and she knew she would, it would be the kind of uncontrollable crying she hadn’t indulged in since her mother died sixteen years earlier. It made sense. Psychologically, she knew there was nothing so cathartic as a good cry. She just hadn’t indulged one in so long she was afraid it would incapacitate her.
She was so distracted, so wrapped up in her thoughts, that she didn’t hear the door open or shut. She wasn’t aware that anyone was in the room at all until his hands came to rest on her shoulders and she damned near jumped through the ceiling.
“Go away. Just do me a favor, and get the fuck out of my life,” she said quietly. She was so done fighting with him. Done arguing, always being on guard. She met her own gaze in the mirror, knew what choice she had to make. Straightening, she turned around to face him.
“After this hunt, I’m leaving. Julian has been trying to get me to give this up for years, and well, he’s right. I need a break. I need to get away.”
He huffed. “You aren’t going anywhere, Gia. Not alone.”
She could hear the tears in her laughter and knew she was close to snapping but she didn’t care. “You really don’t get it, do you?” Oh, what a bitter twist in the heart. She shook her head. “I can’t stay here. Not with you around. Not with any werewolf around.”
Anthony’s expression could only be described as shocked. “There is no way I, or your uncle, will let you leave here alone.”
She almost smiled, and she lifted her hand to touch his face. “Do you really think you can stop me, Anthony?”
Anthony couldn’t believe what she was saying. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little. “Yes! You’re mine, Gia. You’re my mate. Do you really think I’m going to let you go?”
Instead of arguing, she paled and shrank back. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I want you, sure. But I don’t want that. I don’t want you like that.”
“It’s the truth,” he answered calmly. Soothing. Her reaction was over the top and when her heart started to race, when she struggled to breathe, he was alarmed. He moved towards her but she shrank back. It looked like the action of a scared woman. An abused woman. What the hell? Julian hadn’t given him the impression she’d been her father’s victim. The idea she could ever be afraid of him cut to the bone. He followed softly.
“Baby, I would never hurt you. Never. But I need to know where this is coming from. I can’t help if I don’t know why. And I can’t walk away. Surely you know, I can’t walk away.”
It physically hurt to see her so shattered. She’d backed herself into a corner and slid down to sit on the floor. How the hell had she gotten so traumatized and Julian not done anything about it? He dropped to his knees and walked to her. She needed help and her uncle was not fulfilling that need.
“Julian’s got a lot to answer for,” he said harshly when he reached her, wiping the sweat off her brow.
“He did enough,” she said between wheezes of breath. He realized this was the beginning of a panic attack. “He buried his sister. He took me in. I never chose to burden him with more.”
“He’s family. And even I can see he loves you.” In retrospect it was crystal fucking clear. “He would have done whatever was necessary.”
She smiled a bitter smile. “You think? My father is a rogue.” She paused, he was sure it was just long enough to let it sink in. He didn’t interrupt to tell her Julian had filled him in on that much. He needed to know the rest and couldn’t risk her clamming up again. “I was sixteen. My mother…she grew up in this world. My world. My father was a Hunter. They crossed paths and ended up together. He made her quit.” She sent him a hard glare. Stubborn to the end. “And she was miserable. He tried to control every move we made, every thought we had.”
She sighed, clenched her jaw, and then finally met his gaze before speaking again. “I came home from school one day, and he’d killed her. He waited for me.” He wiped away her silent tears, his own heart bleeding for her. “Told me he was sorry. That he’d called Julian to come get me. And then he disappeared. I haven’t seen him since then.”
He put two fingers under her jaw and lifted her chin so she would meet his gaze. “You know we aren’t all like that, baby. You know we aren’t. I’m not.”
She cut her eyes away and he could see she was struggling not to break down. She shook her head. “There is a part of me that will never believe that. And it doesn’t matter. I didn’t want to enter into this agreement with y’all because I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with you. I’m not the only one who feels this way either. I’m just the one that got stuck with you.”
“And most of you have been hurt by rogues?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“I can’t do anything but show you, and the rest, that I’m different. No amount of talking is going to change anything.”
One corner of her mouth curved up in a half smile. “I know. That doesn’t mean I have to stay here and watch it, though.”
She finally stood up but kept her back pressed to the wall. “Please leave, Anthony. I need to change. You know everything there is to
