“said I won’t be killed because I carry his,” this time she pointed at Hendrix, “child. I have no desire to carry his child.”
“I think your desire is the reason you carry his child. Did you know, when you came, you were carrying his child? Was that the reason you tried to kill my son?”
“NO! I tried to kill him because he is a monster.”
Gracie always considered herself a brave woman. She had fought, she had killed she was trained. But her training didn’t prepare her to be in a house surrounded by things that only looked human. Well, she modified her thought, it had, but only the kind that had human DNA, not the kind that had teeth and claws. Knives and guns she understood, this situation way beyond her.
“I see. You know the work my son does, I understand you do the same work. Is this the work a monster would do? Did he treat you badly? Did he hurt you? Did you suffer abuse at his hands?”
“No. He treated me alright.”
Mia tilted her head to the side like she was considering the answer. “You either don’t believe that or he didn’t treat you alright. Your words were tinged with a hint of lie. Did my son treat you badly?”
Gracie looked down at her hands, again clasped tightly in her lap. “No, he treated me as though I were made of the most fragile spun glass in the world. His touch was tender and his words even more so.”
“Do you love my son?”
“I did. At least, I was falling in love with who I thought he was.”
“The first words were a lie the last words utter truth. Look at me.” Mia demanded.
Gracie felt a tiny shiver as she looked up.
“The man you were falling in love with is the same man he has always been. His heart hasn’t changed.”
“He doesn’t love me.”
“You blind little fool. You are alive, he loves you well enough.”
“Excuse me? No, I think I know his feelings better than you. If he loved me he wouldn’t have left me. And he has no reason to kill me.”
Gammon, propped up against the wall beside Hendrix, dwarfing Hendrix, snorted which caused Gracie to glance his way. He caught her glance and held it. He was the one who answered her and she wished then she had spoken more softly to Mia.
“Like Mia told you, you live. That is proof enough of his feelings,” he sent a glare toward Hendrix which caused a chill to run up Gracie’s spine. “As far as having no reason to kill you, he had plenty of reason. You came in my territory and threatened one of my pack. That is a death sentence. I have killed our kind for less than that. My orders are clear, and everyone in my pack knows them. You drew a gun on a member of my pack, not just any member but the one I took to my hearth to raise as my son. Drawing a gun on any member of my pack will get you killed, drawing one on my son enrages me. You didn’t stop there. No, you stabbed him and still you live. Little girl if that isn’t love it doesn’t exist. Few people would suffer my wrath for less than love.”
“Except Trina.” Dimitri muttered with a smirk on his face.
Gracie watched as Gammon gave a half nod and agree, “Trina is a special case.”
“I won’t live here. You can’t make me.”
“You will find there is little I won’t do for my pack. You carry a child of my pack. Now let me tell you what that means so you will understand. You job is roughly the same as Hendrix’s but for a different organization, a different government. You hunt down the ones who prey on the weak. You find the weak and you save them. You, with that baby you carry, just became one of the hunted. If you carry a boy your life is safe but you will have to raise him and at some point he will shift for the first time and what will you do? Will you turn him loose upon the world with no pack? Will you watch him become the very thing you hate? He will, with no pack his mind will probably shatter and he will go insane with the need to mate. He will search until he finds a female and he won’t care if she is taken or not. He will kill