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“Not my problem.” He spoke like a man who had every confidence in his position.

“Why are you acting like this? If it bothers you, it’s not even your emotions you’re feeling but the mating bond. If you thought about this for a few minutes and acted like the rational person I used to know, you’d remember that. It’s not like I haven’t been hurt before. It’s no different than when I took a beating in Nowhere, and you didn’t kill them.”

He walked across the dresser, leaning his arms on it, not responding.

Why wasn’t he replying? Or arguing with me? Telling me why this situation was different in his opinion? Because if he thought this was the same, and he was determined to kill Mason…

“Did… You didn’t…”

“Not all of them. I couldn’t find some, but I got the major offenders. Some of the smaller contributors ran. Banishment seemed enough in a few of the cases.”

He’d killed them? He’d killed the people who’d hurt me? He’d avenged me?

“You killed them.”

“Isn’t that what they were trying to do to you? What they almost achieved? If I hadn’t gotten there when I had, or have as much knowledge of healing as I do, they would’ve accomplished it. You think Mason won’t try to kill you? If he found you alone, and he could get away with it, you’d be dead. I don’t leave people like that an opportunity to finish the job. So yes, I’m going to kill him when I find him, because I know who and what he is. If that makes me a monster, so be it.”

I stared at his back, not believing what I’d just heard. I turned, lying down on the bed, not knowing what to say. It had to be the mating. No one could treat me the way he did and really care. It was guilt initially, and now the mating bond. When he was calmer, I’d talk to him. Tonight was useless.

Chapter Eighteen

I woke up on my stomach the next morning, fresh air on my back. Kaden was sitting on the bed next to me. How had he gotten my shirt off while I slept?

“Good. You’re awake,” he said, getting up and walking over to the dresser.

“Yeah, I’ll be ready in a few minutes.” Practice was going to be hell today, but so would sitting down for breakfast, walking and moving in general.

“No, lie back down. I have some grease for your back.” He came over with a pot and a brush, similar to what he’d used on me after I was beaten in Nowhere.

“I thought you didn’t have that stuff here?” I asked, or had I been in so much pain last night I’d been delusional?

“I went and got some while you were sleeping. I didn’t like the way your back was looking last night. It’s not healing as fast as I’d like it to.”

Had he checked it again while I slept?

“It feels better. I’m fine.” It wasn’t a total lie, as it did feel slightly improved. Nota lotimproved, but a smidge.

“You’re not.” He was moving around the room, fidgeting with some more creams and powders he had on the dresser.

“I think I know how I feel.” I reached for the shirt next to me.

“If you put that on, it’ll get ripped off like the last one. I am putting this on you,” he said, watching my every move.

“It’s just going to rub off when I’m out at the field, knocking out whoever you drag there.” I took a deep breath, hoping the girls weren’t near the stair landing, as I’d raised my voice. They already knew what was going on, but I’d tried to act calm, like nothing was wrong. Hearing me nearly screaming at Kaden wasn’t going to help.

He let a few seconds pass before he said, “We’re not practicing today.”

He still looked tight enough to snap, but at least one of us was managing to keep their voice calm.

“Aren’t you always the one saying we have no time to—”

“If somehow you scar, and I have to be reminded of what he did to you every day for the rest of my life, I won’t just kill him. I’ll torture him for a month before I do it.”

The deadly look in his eye, the chill in his tone, made me believe every word he had just calmly pronounced. That was why he didn’t scream. He didn’t need to.

“Fine.” I held the shirt to my chest but sat with my back to him. I didn’t like Mason, but having a man tortured for me wasn’t something I could live with.

I waited, letting Kaden do what he had to while everything he’d said sank in. If I didn’t think he’d follow through on his threat, I might’ve told him that there were so many things wrong with what he’d said. First, I wasn’t going to scar, but he knew that better than I did. Second, if somehow I did, he wouldn’t have to see it anyway. We weren’t going to be together.