Tarnished(35)

“A squeal followed by a slap told me the man wasn’t alone. I guess I was tucked away in the shadows enough they couldn’t see me, or they possibly didn’t consider the likelihood of an intruder in the room witnessing their private disagreement.

“When the woman sobbed, he hit her again. ‘Shut up, bitch,’ he growled. ‘You’re mine now. You belong to me and you’ll do as I say. Do you hear?’ The woman whimpered where he held her to the floor, her face pressed into the cold, hard wood. It was all I could do to remain still. I held my breath, praying to any god who would listen to suck me into a hole in the floor and eat me alive.” Kenzie squirmed and situated herself once again on the couch.

He wanted to see her face so badly, but he didn’t dare interrupt. He ached for the girl in that room who’d witnessed more than anyone should ever see. He knew the rest of the story without her speaking, but she needed to get it out, and he needed to be there for her and listen.

Willpower, Drake. Find it.

“When he ripped the girl’s clothes off her body without letting her get up from the floor, I knew what he was going to do. I was helpless. Alone. Scared out of my mind.” Kenzie started sobbing now. “Drake, I did nothing,” she shouted into the comforter. She whipped the blanket off her face and looked up at him. “I sat there and held my breath to save my own ass while that motherfucker raped that poor girl. I couldn’t even blink or look away.”

God. He gazed into her eyes, the eyes of a mere child who’d seen too much. He bit his lip to keep from interrupting.

“He lifted her naked body onto all fours, pulled his pants down, and fucked her from behind. And all the while he told her to be quiet. That she was his mate now, and he would do as he pleased with her. When he finished fucking her … raping her … he zipped his jeans up and stepped away from her, leaving her collapsed on the floor.” Kenzie took a deep breath before she continued.

“Drake, he left her there. At the door he turned around and commanded her to pick her whimpering self up off the floor and clean up her face before she returned to the gathering. If she thought that was bad, she was in for a world of hurt if she didn’t obey him because he was going to fuck her anywhere and anytime he wanted for the rest of her life, and she was powerless to stop him.”

Kenzie heaved in a breath and looked into her lap. She seemed completely unaware of her nudity as she continued, the blanket having slipped low enough for him to see the tops of her breasts. “He slammed the door as he left the naked wolfgirl on the floor blubbering in fear and surely pain. And the worst part?” She lifted her face to Drake’s once again.

He swallowed the ball of hatred in his throat.

“I still sat there. I didn’t even move a muscle while that poor girl cried and cried. It took her several minutes to peel herself off the ground and crawl around in the darkness to locate her under clothing and dress. She still sobbed. And I watched!” Kenzie yanked the blanket around her shoulders tighter.

“I sat frozen, damned no matter what I did. If I let her know of my presence and helped her, she’d be pissed to find out I’d watched her rape and did nothing. If I stayed where I was and let her find her way out of the room, I’d…” Her voice trailed off, not finishing the thought.

Finally he spoke for her. “You’d hate yourself for what you’d seen and not done.” That was the bottom line, and it was clearly ever-present in her mind every waking hour of every day. Fuck. No wonder she had no interest in mating a wolf. Her only experience was witnessing a fucked-up member of the species raping, molesting, and torturing a young girl into submission.

And then he froze. I just woke up my mate by holding her down in the bed she’d shared with me. Realization of the reasons for her flight hit him in the gut.

She nodded and lowered her gaze again. “I’m broken, Drake. I can’t be what you need … deserve. And I’m sorry I misled you and let you claim me without telling you all this. It was cruel of me and unfair.”

“Oh, baby.” He pulled her reluctant frame into his embrace, blanket and all, and squeezed her to his chest. “No. No, no, no. Don’t think like that. You’re my mate. My life. My world. I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you, but you were a child. Just a girl. There was no way for you to have been prepared to handle such a scene. And you have no idea what might have happened if you’d revealed yourself. The man could easily have raped both of you instead of just the one girl.”

Anger boiled inside him. Who did this? “You don’t have any idea who it was?”