than it looked—at least to her.
“Tell me where the missing females are and I won’t burn it.”
“D-don’t.” Chest heaving, she stutter-stepped in his direction, the anguish in her tiny features enough to spark another pang of guilt low in Grif’s belly. He pushed it aside.
Interrogators used whatever was at their disposal. And, despite all she’d been through, she wasn’t simply some poor innocent. She’d taken a mother away from her children.
If he wanted to protect Nayla, and save the missing females, he needed to be the brutal monster he’d been molded to be.
Holding Nayla in that pool, feeling her tremble in sheer panic against him, had only driven that home. Dragging things out would only hurt her more. He needed to end this here and now.
“P-please.” She stretched out an arm, but she didn’t tell him what he needed most to hear.
“I do not make hollow threats.” He tossed it into the flames.
“No!” She dove for it.
“Nayla!” He caught her in time, his arm banding around her waist as he yanked her away from the fire.
“No!” She screamed again.
He’d thought her reaction at the bathing spring was bad. This was a whole higher level of anguish.
Kicking and screaming, she fought his hold.
He held tight.
All this over a dirty pelt. But the interrogator in him recognized the signs.
She’d been so strong until now, nearly unbreakable, but there were thresholds in each person, small fissures that served as trigger points that could easily be ripped into large, gaping holes—and, like at the pool, he’d just stumbled on another one of his girl’s.
This time, however, she was safe and dry and in no danger of physical harm.
Dragging her farther away from the fire, he pushed her up against the wall, pinning her to it with his body. He had no doubt that if he let her go, she’d dive for the pelt again and burn herself in the process.
“No, no, no!” Her screams echoed off the walls as the edges of the pelt curled and burned.
He gripped her chin, forcing her to lock eyes with him. “You wear what I say you wear. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Cruel? Maybe. Ruthless? For sure. But he needed to find the Achilles heel that would have her spilling her secrets.
He was honest enough to admit he also wanted to lance the wounds he sensed in her so she could heal.
She believed she deserved to be punished and rejected. He knew because he’d seen the same certainty in his sister’s gaze. Raina’s body might have survived that first rape by his father, but her spirit hadn’t. She’d stopped fighting. Stopped caring. Stopped thinking she deserved anything but more pain, seeking it out even when it wasn’t warranted. And he’d been too young and too weak to save her from their father, much less herself.
But he wasn’t now. So, until he made Nayla see otherwise, he’d never ease her torment, or get her to tell him what she knew.
She’d just suffer until she broke, and that he refused to allow.
She shook in his hold, her gorgeous blue eyes even brighter as rage sparked within, her small hands clenching and unclenching by her sides. “You ruin me. D-destroy everything.”
“That’s not true. I burned a pelt.”
“Talg not let me back without anazi. Everything I done not matter. I stay outcast forever.”
“Fucking Talg, again. That bastard keeps popping up. He isn’t worthy of your loyalty. That pelt was a thing. I’m trying to save people here, Nayla. You included. Help me fix this situation before those females start dying, my people blame you, and this whole situation gets more screwed up.”
Her head snapped back, her pretty features twisting with rage. “Save people?” With a scream, she pummeled his chest. “My people dying! Starving. Because of Other destruction.” Her voice cracked. “You think you only one trying save people? I try save mine, too. You ruin everything! Without anazi, there no hope Talg remove outcast status and a-accept me as pack member.”
He held onto his cool with a ruthless grip. “I’m sorry for whatever suffering your people are enduring, but my people didn’t realize they were harming yours.”
“Lies.” She shoved at him, trying to escape his grasp. “Others destroy.”
He seized her flailing wrists. Pinned them to his chest. “Either way, those missing females don’t deserve what you did to them. They should not be used as revenge. They need to come home.”
“Home? To beatings? Chains?” Her voice shook. “Rutting? Pain? Never!”
“I don’t want to hurt them. I want to save them.”
“I see how