Wicked Cravings (The Phoenix Pack Series - By Suzanne Wright Page 0,63
this was Dante, or Tao, or Dominic, or any of your other ‘boys,’ would you be saying the same thing?” Greta averted her gaze, unsurprisingly. “You know what this reminds me of? The day when Trey was banished.
Everyone stood around, shouting out their opinions about him—claiming he was unstable, a danger, and that he needed to be killed or ordered to leave. I’m getting an idea of how that must have felt for him, how deep that betrayal must have cut him. Well, thank God he had people who supported him enough that they even left with him. Funny how that same supportive bunch is now acting just like the people they once resented.”
“Jaime—”
“No, Trick, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t need to. I think you’ve all said enough.”
“Jaime, honey, wait,” pleaded Dominic.
“You know what pisses me off the most? That any of you could actually question Dante’s competence as Beta. You’ve betrayed him by even thinking that. Not one of you would do better at that position than him. Not one of you could take his place and fill it. And if you tried, I’d kill you.
Even if it meant coming back from the grave.”
Seeing that she was about to leave the room, Gabe stood and took a step toward her. She held up her hand. “I need some time alone, okay,” she said softly. He nodded, smiling.
More specifically, what she needed was to leave the place for good, but if she’d said that aloud, either he, Shaya, or Dominic would most likely have tried to stop her. This was something she had to do whether she liked it or not. It might make her wolf go over the edge, and she might turn rogue within a few days’ time, but she had only been delaying the inevitable. She couldn’t stay here in this place where she was not only unwelcome, but feared. Especially not when it meant Dante’s position as Beta might be in jeopardy. She knew how much he loved his job, and she wouldn’t be the reason he lost it.
“I’d like to think that’s the end of it,” Dante said to Trey as he paced slowly in his office. “But I doubt even the beating they were given will stop them from coming after me again. Or Jaime.” Trey leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on the table. “You say she got involved in the fight but didn’t lose control?”
“Like I tried to explain, her situation with her wolf isn’t like yours. It’s not that she lives close to the surface and so puts Jaime at risk of turning feral. Her wolf is just…traumatized. It means she’s constantly on the offensive, but it’s because she’s scared. Most of the time Jaime’s in control of her, but sometimes her wolf gets enough strength to lunge for the surface. Despite that she’s been doing that for the past four years, Jaime has kept enough control that she hasn’t shifted forms.”
“So that’s why you started training her. You think if she has better control, if she makes herself stronger, she’ll be able to suppress her wolf.” Trey sighed. “I’m sorry, Dante, but I don’t see how that will work. Oh it’ll work for a while, sure. Maybe even a few years. But soon her wolf will gather enough strength again, because what’s happening isn’t natural. Confining her wolf isn’t natural. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you can truly help her, because you can’t.” Dante shook his head. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do, and so do you. It would be the same as the body trying to work without a heart.
Your heart is too much a part of your body just like your wolf is too much a part of your soul. One can’t exist without the other.”
“Maybe her wolf will get used to being confined and stop fighting to surface.”
“You know that she won’t—she’s a dominant wolf. Dante, it doesn’t make you a failure that you can’t help her.”
“And if this was Taryn we were talking about? What would you do?” Trey’s expression was fierce. “Everything I could to keep the crazy woman alive, no matter what it was.”
Dante hadn’t expected any other answer. “Then don’t ask me to give up on Jaime. I won’t.”
“She matters to you even more than I thought,” Trey observed with a frown.
“Jaime’s mine.” The sound of his cell phone interrupted whatever Trey had been about to say.
“It’s Tao,” he told Trey before answering. “Hello.”