When He's An Alpha (The Olympus Pride #2) - Suzanne Wright Page 0,72

me for what happened,” she said.

“You instigated the whole thing. It was bad enough that you had so little respect for the pride as to start a fight in our own damn hangout. That the person you targeted was under my protection only made it worse. It meant she should have also been under your protection.”

“She struck first,” Ashlynn defended.

“Yeah, devils tend to do that. You knew that when you provoked her,” Tate accused. “You were counting on it so that she’d later get the blame for whatever occurred.”

Generally, pallas cats didn’t pick fights. They didn’t bother you so long as you didn’t bother them. So it might have been easy for people to believe that Havana had been the one to start that shit if Ashlynn hadn’t spent hours shooting her challenging glares.

“You were looking for a fight,” Tate added. “And when Havana didn’t give you one, you took it to the next level and confronted her.”

“No, I just wanted to chat with her. That’s all. I heard about the Gideon situation, I reassured her that our pride would take care of it and that you’d take it seriously. If I’d been her, I’d have wanted that reassurance. I was being nice.”

Tate exchanged a look of disbelief with Luke, who was leaning against the countertop shaking his head. Beside the Beta, Farrell rolled his eyes.

“When I introduced myself, I could tell by the look on her face that she’d heard of me.” Ashlynn’s eyes briefly lowered. “I guessed she’d heard some highly negative things, which she confirmed. We talked a little about you. She’s bitter that you don’t care for her. She blamed me for you being so closed off and for you ending the fling, claiming it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t come home. She thinks you got rid of her for me. She said a lot of snarky things and then challenged me to a fight. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. I’m sorry that this happened at the Tavern, but I can’t apologize for not backing down. I’m not a person who’d walk away from a challenge.”

“Maybe you should have made an exception last night, because she quite clearly overpowered you.”

Ashlynn jerked her chin up. “She only won the fight because, hesitant to have a brawl in my pride’s hangout, I didn’t use my full strength.”

Tate snorted. “It wasn’t a fight. She didn’t even injure you. She played with you. And then she topped it all off by humiliating you while you were unconscious.” His cat still thought the whole thing was fucking awesome. Tate agreed.

The twin flags of red staining Ashlynn’s cheeks darkened. “All I did was try to talk to her. I don’t even know how things deteriorated so fast.”

“Maybe she didn’t appreciate you trying to get Tate’s attention by embarrassing her,” suggested Luke. “It seems clear to me that you wanted to weaken her in his eyes so that he’d lose interest in her, only it didn’t work out that way.”

“I know you’re angry with me for hurting your brother in the past, Luke, but I think it’s unfair of you to side with a female who isn’t even one of us,” said Ashlynn, prim and haughty. She looked at Tate. “You’re not even giving me the benefit of the doubt. You’re just pinning the blame on me.”

“Because you are to blame,” Tate stated. “Almost every word you’ve spoken here was a lie.”

“It was not! I’m telling you, she wanted the confrontation. She was sure you’d dumped her for me, and she resented me for it.”

Tate leaned forward. “Havana would have no reason to blame you for my ending the fling, because I didn’t end it. She did.”

Ashlynn’s face went slack. She rallied fast. “That’s not what she said when—”

“Let me be very clear,” said Tate, his voice dripping with frost. “I don’t care how embarrassed you are by how last night ended for you. You will not retaliate. You will not contact her—not even to apologize. I don’t want you talking to her. She won’t want you talking to her. She doesn’t exist for you. Understand me?”

Ashlynn’s eyes narrowed to slits, and her upper lip curled back. “If she matters so much to you, why haven’t you let her past those walls of yours? Huh? Tell me that.”

His cat bristled, and Tate straightened in his seat. “I let you return to our pride, but I can just as easily throw you back out. I don’t owe you