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She blinked "Well, I wouldn’t have worded it that coldly"

"It’s not cold It’s fair Just the sa second best for you"

"It’s a little different with me I never met my mate You did You spent a lot of years with her You made plans with her, envisioned a life with her, and no doubt had deep feelings for her I don’t want to be a substitute It sounds bitchy and selfish, and I hate that But I knowa stand-in--that resentment would twist me inside, and then I’d make us both miserable"

Maybe she’d have a point if she and Torrie were anything alike, but they weren’t "You’re not selfish Bitchy, yeah, but I kind of like that" So did his wolf "There’s soed me; I’m not the person I would have been if she’d lived And the person I am nowI wouldn’t have suited her I would have hurt her"

"What do you mean?"

He clamped his hands around Harley’s hips "She didn’t have the type of personality that could withstand the person I ah submissives were physically weaker than doer and braver--his Alpha female was a perfect exa like Shaya, who pushed back when her mate became too forceful "Torrie was very passive and hated confrontation so much that she always backed down She could never have dealt with this version of , but the inescapable fact is that fate paired you with a submissive female because, deep inside, it’s what you need Submissives are built for the kind of relationship you here one leads and the other follows Doed by those types of relationships We’d drive each other insane"

He traced her hip bones with this thumbs "I like control in a relationship, I admit that, but not the kind of control that means my female isn’t ht, demand to be considered and callthis and do what you should have done three years ago"

"What’s that?"

"Ad to me"

Harley sed "Do you have any idea what you’re asking ofyou to forsake your trueyou to step back into a world that let you down I’ you to accept every part of me--a lot of those parts are dark and broken" When he said it aloud, he realized just what a shit deal she was getting

"We all have parts that are dark and broken"

He knew she was not only coive a fuck how many dark or broken parts she had--he wanted her as she was