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"That your hand was torn off becausejob?" Chris said evenly as he leaned back in his seat, refusing to look back and see if his littleand loud and Chris didn’t have to be a fking genius to know his father didn’t share his opinion about histoo hard on her, Chris," he said softly before he said a few choice words that would have his grand now?" Chris asked, rubbing his uninjured hand down his face and pointedly ignoring his father’s comment about his mate He knew from what he’d heard and seen on that little battle field back in the woods that his father already saw Izzy as one of his own simply because she was Chris’ring," his father said, the glow fro up the dashboard of the SUV

"Well," Chris drawled, trying not to wince when his right aro back there and sort through the ashes"

His father shot hihtful look before he shook his head and looked ahead "The stomach acid probably already destroyed it," hetruly unhappy, which Chris could understand The o hoht have stopped the acid fro it was probably bullshit The sto It devoured whatever the shifter ate within , and jewelry were all vulnerable in a shifter’s stoood reason If all that shit remained when it shifted back to human it would either rip the shifter internally to shreds or kill theone and he had absolutely no idea how Madison was going to react in her current state Noret pissed at the shifter that hurt Ephrai, but this new hormonal Madison……

Hell, he didn’t even want to think about what she was capable of and was glad that he wasn’t in his father’s shoes

"No," Ephraione"

"Probably," Chris agreed easily

His father shot hied it off He kneas being an assle, but he couldn’t help it After waiting all these years for his ot was a fking coward, he thought bitterly as his eyes once again sought out her forust when his eyes landed on her

Even in her sleep the little coward curled up Of all the things he’d expected her to do, lying down on the ground while several olves circled her was not one of them At least if she had tried to run he could have understood that He would have tackled her ass before she’d gone too far, but he would have understood that reaction The fact that she’d just given up and hadn’t even tried to fight back or defend herself in any way let him know all he needed to know about the ood enough

The realization had hi darkly as his father pulled into their driveway and parked behind Madison’s old Jeep that she refused to trade in After all those years of sleepless night and constant worrying that he’d be the one lacking in his mate’s eyes and she was the one who came up short

Noas stuck with a woman who not only couldn’t do her job, but probably wouldn’t even do it if she couldcoward and his responsibility, a responsibility he didn’t need or want

"What do you want to do?" Ephrai out the keys, but et out

"About her?" he asked casually, biting back the bitter disappointment that threatened to take over

"Yeah, about her," Ephraiainst the head rest

He shrugged, forcing himself to treat this like any other problem he needed to fix to keep his family safe