Page 84 of Feral Werewolves
I was glad, though. I didn’t want them dead. And I definitely didn’t want them to be dead if the end result was the same, if Red and his wolves got me anyway.
“I wonder if they’ll come for you,” said Noah.
“What happened to Griff?” I said. “To Madrigal? She was pregnant. Did your mate kill them, too?”
Noah eyed me, hearing the sourness in my tone. “You’re angry with me.”
“I’m not…” I looked away. “I get that you don’t have a choice, and I don’t have a choice, but he’s still—you’re still—you’re kissing him. You’re in love with him.”
Noah was quiet.
“Sorry,” I muttered, hugging my knees up to my chest.
“Griff’s still alive. So is Madrigal. Red wouldn’t kill Griff, you know? They’re close. Or at least they were, before Madge showed up. She came between them, I guess. Anyway, Red locked them up in a wing on the other side of the building. They’re comfortable enough, even if they can’t get out.”
Interesting.
Noah sat up straight and looked at me. “No,” he said firmly.
“I didn’t say anything,” I said.
“But you want me to help you let them out,” said Noah.
“I didn’t say that,” I said.
“Maybe I thought about it,” said Noah. “When I got here, things were in flux, and Griff was in the middle of changing everything. Tithes who stay out here, most of them are here because they’re mated, and they stay with a mate most of the time. But things happen, like, mates get killed—”
“Seriously?”
“And once the tithe is out here, she can’t leave,” said Noah. “I think also that there are certain women who were just kidnapped kind of like I was and brought here because wolves wanted them. I don’t think they’re mated to anyone. They’re sort of prisoners. So, when Griff first said that all the women were off limits, most of the women were fine, because that meant they were with their mate—which was where they were most of the time, anyway, except if some higher ranked wolf demanded to fuck her, which she had to do under the original rules.”
“It’s disgusting,” I said, clenching my hands into fists.
“Right,” said Noah. “It is. I forget how desensitized I am at this point. Anyway, the point is, there was a group of women that didn’t have anywhere to go, because they didn’t have mates, and this was a source of contention from the start. The wolves started trying to fight over these women, to claim them individually for themselves, and Griff stepped in and said that it was the women’s choice, that no one was allowed to have sex with a woman who didn’t want to have sex with him, and that if anyone did, he would personally shoot them in the head.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, I liked him,” said Noah. “I do want to let him out.”
“But he used to be just as bad as all of them,” I said. “He just changed his mind because of his mate.”
“And why can’t I change Red’s mind, you mean?” said Noah.
“I didn’t say that at all,” I said.
“He doesn’t listen to me like that,” said Noah. “He talksabout everything he’s going to do right in front of my face, though, and he lets me give him opinions, but he never changes his mind or anything. He says that of course I’d think that way, and says I don’t understand anything, and then he just ordered the attack last night anyway.”
My nostrils flared.
“What’d they do to you?” Then Noah flinched. “Sorry, I promised I wouldn’t make you talk about it.”
“They brought us all here in a van, handcuffed, and they threw us into that room downstairs and they all, you know, had their way with us.” Honestly, I was pretty sure I’d had rougher sex with my mates, but that had been different, because I’d wanted it.
“I mean, was it different than a gathering?”
“You think I’m overreacting?”
“I didn’t say that,” said Noah. “Maybe it’s just different after you’re mated. I haven’t had to have sex with anyone except him since.”
