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Mina couldn’t ratulations that went on back at the training pod The alactacarriers had been restored, and apart from minor injuries, no one had been hurt

The teams tried to make her the hero, but she refused

A hero doesn’t get on her knees to service the cried naked to his chamber to be kept as his pet She sure as veck doesn’t need to be rescued and carried out lifeless by another male

Anotheras much as she now

Hehis own deo in Never wanted her to use her body as bait He’d made it plain to her how much it cost him But she’d insisted And then he had to listen to her offer herself to another male

A disgusting rodent of a male

But as much as she cared about Erick and wished she could ease his turmoil, she couldn’t She couldn’t see her way out of her own

And the only answer she could see— the best one she kneas to leave Mina behind

She needed to get back to the palatial pod and figure out a life as Tara Get to know her sister and father Be without a male for a while until she knew her head from her ass

Because she couldn’t sort through her tangled es she’d done

It wasn’t Erick’s fault

But she couldn’t be with him Not now, anyway Not until she kneho she ay from her life as Mina

~~

Escorting Mina back to the palatial pod should have been an honor At least she’d asked him They were the first words she’d spoken to him since they returned from the mission

But knowing she was returning in defeat, knowing she was resolved to permanently turn away from her life as Mina left him cold