Chapter 25: 25: Defiant Rescue

BELLE

My mouth fell open as I stared up at the back of Grayson’s head. I couldn’t believe he had just spoken to my boss like that! He seriously didn’t care if I got fired, did he?

I shoved at his shoulder, trying to get him to take a step forward so I could get out of the corner he had caged me in. Of course, he wouldn’t budge.

“I’m fine—” I started.

“And who exactly are you?” Jerry asked before I could continue. I could hear the challenge in his voice. Oh God, this was not good.

“I’m her... husband,” Grayson stated. “Belle is my wife.” He sounded far too pleased to be saying that.

“No,” I immediately disagreed, shoving at his back even harder. “You’re not—”

“So ~you’re~ the asshole who broke my door,” Jerry said.

I huffed. Seriously, why was no one letting me talk? Stupid men. Now Jerry knew that Grayson was back here, even though I had promised him that my so-called ex wouldn’t ever return.

“I hate to break it to you, buddy, but you’re the reason she’s even working right now,” Jerry continued, scanning Grayson’s massive form with a sneer.

The fact that he wasn’t intimidated by Grayson was just further proof that he was an idiot.

“Belle isn’t scheduled for a break tonight because she’s working to make up for the loss of revenue she caused this morning.

“So I suggest you let her get back to work before I decide she doesn’t have a job here anymore.”

I could feel Grayson starting to shake. His square jaw looked like it was ready to pop free of its hinge. “Belle’s not getting paid?”

He looked back at me, his eyes darkening, starting to swirl with black once again. “You’re not getting paid to work?”

I swallowed. “Just for tonight,” I told him, trying to speak calmly so he wouldn’t lose his cool. “It’s fine though, really—”

“No. It’s not fine. It’s the furthest thing from fine.” His voice sounded like gravel. He turned back to Jerry, openly glaring.

Jerry finally seemed to come to his senses when he saw Grayson’s furious expression and took a step back in fear. “I’m taking Belle home right now.”

Jerry’s brows rose in surprise. “Excuse me? She’s not done with her shift.”

My pulse started to pound. “Grayson,” I whispered. I hated how desperate I sounded. The last thing I wanted to do right now was beg, but I didn’t have a choice.

I squeezed his arm, hoping that the contact with him would make him more understanding, even if I wasn’t his mate anymore. “Stop. ~Please.~ I can’t lose my job.”

Grayson looked down at me, studying me for a moment. It seemed to cost him an effort to inhale steadily.

He turned back to my boss. “You will allow Belle to go home for the night. You will not speak of this again. In fact, you won’t even remember it happened.”

Then, before I could even comprehend what was happening, I was abruptly thrown over Grayson’s shoulder and marched straight past my boss and all the other people in the diner.

“Grayson, put me down!” I screamed. I was able to lift myself slightly, shocked when I saw Jerry walking in the opposite direction from us. My brows furrowed.

What the hell? He was giving up just like that? “Grayson, put me down right now!” I screamed even louder, pounding on his back and kicking my legs.

I winced when my fists felt like they were connecting with solid rock rather than flesh. I doubted that this man had any sort of body fat on him at all.

“Stop,” Grayson ordered, tightening his hold on my legs until it became nearly impossible to move. I huffed in anger. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

He carried me through the back entrance of the diner, where thankfully, no one could see the embarrassing predicament I was in.

“I’m not done with my shift!” I yelled.

Grayson shrugged his massive shoulders, lifting me up and down with the movement. “Don’t care.”

“I cannot get fired, Grayson! Please! Put me down!”

Without warning, Grayson stopped walking and shifted my body so that his arms were under my butt, holding me up, so my feet were dangling a few feet off the ground.

We were at the same eye level in this position. My breathing hitched when my gaze met his black eyes, showing me just how close he was to shifting into his wolf.

“You will not be fired,” he growled out, his tone deep and definitive. “If you want to keep that damn job where they treat you like shit, then so be it.

“I’ll ensure that you do not get fired for leaving tonight. But I’ll be damned if I let them force you into working like a dog for hours without paying you.”

“You don’t know my boss, Grayson. He’s let people go for far less. And he hasn’t liked me since I started working there. How are you going to keep him from firing me? By threatening him?

“I don’t think that’s going to work in my favor.”

“I have my ways,” Grayson replied calmly, completely unbothered by my panic. I gave him a dubious look.

“Stop worrying. Everything will be fine, I promise.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead gently.

I whipped my head back, disgusted that he would even think to put his lips on me after all he had done.

Grayson’s eyes darkened even more, obviously not liking my reaction. I took a step back. Would he take his anger out on me like he had done so many times in the past?

“We’re done talking about this,” he fumed. “Where do you live? I’m taking you home and making sure you get something to eat and then a good night’s sleep.”

I immediately shook my head. “No. I’m not telling you where I live.”

One of Grayson’s brows lifted in a challenge. “You think I don’t have ways of finding out, baby?”

My heart fluttered when he called me baby.

I never thought I would be much for pet names if I ever got into a relationship, but there was just something about Grayson calling me those things that made me feel…loved. Special.

Ugh. Gross. Why did I suddenly feel like puking?

I must have gotten caught up in my thoughts for a while because I felt Grayson’s large hand massaging my hip as he continued to hold me, his touch bringing me back to reality.

What the hell was I doing? He was able to make me lower my guard far too easily.

“Put me down,” I snapped yet again, wriggling in his arms. “And don’t call me baby.”

“No and no,” he shot back in the same final tone I had used. His grip on me never faltered. “Tell me where you live.”

I nearly screamed in frustration. “You don’t get to make demands of me, you…you buttface!”

Grayson’s eyes glittered in amusement. “Buttface?” he repeated.

I couldn’t even let myself be embarrassed over the terrible insult I came up with, too consumed by my anger. “Yes, you’re a buttface! And a jackass and a…a jerk! Now put me down! And leave me alone!”

Grayson ignored me, chuckling with amusement as he once again threw me over his shoulder like I was nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

I screamed in fury and kicked my legs, but nothing I did made him loosen his hold on me even the slightest bit.

~“Stop!” I finally screamed as loud as I could manage. My irritation was so intense at this point that I couldn’t help my cries of frustration. “Put me down! Put me down ~right now!~”~

To my surprise, that actually made Grayson pause. He stopped and lifted me from his shoulder, placing me on the ground gently.

His brows tugged together with concern when his dark eyes met mine. “Belle, baby, why are you crying? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

I hadn’t even realized I was crying. I wiped away the tears quickly. God, why did I have to be so weak?

I shoved his hands away from me harshly when he made a move to reach for me again. “Don’t touch me!” I screamed. “Don’t you ever touch me!”

Grayson looked like he was in physical pain as he watched me. “Okay, I won’t touch you,” he agreed. “Just tell me what I can do to make you feel better. It fucking kills me to see you cry.”

I laughed in disbelief, the sound getting clogged in my throat. “~You’re~ why I’m crying!” I yelled. “If it weren’t for you, if I hadn’t ever met you, I wouldn’t be crying right now.

“I would be back in Minneapolis, completely content and oblivious to the fact that there is a man as evil and manipulative as you out there.” I sucked in a breath, my voice dropping to a hoarse whisper.

“I wish I hadn’t met you.”

Grayson stiffened. I had to look away from the expression of pure torture he was sporting. “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh, don’t I?” I asked. “Don’t you understand what you did to me, Grayson? You ~ruined~ me. You completely and utterly ~destroyed~ me.

“I’ve been in agony for months, walking around like a zombie, only a shell of my old self. I’ll never be able to recover from what you did to me. It’ll forever plague me.

“And now here you are, acting all sweet and messing with my brain and making me think you might want me again and asking me to listen to you when I ~know~ what you did wasn’t right and…”

I paused, my lip quivering and my throat constricting as I desperately tried to hold back my tears.

“I-I want you,” I cried quietly, my words barely comprehensible. “I want you so bad that it hurts to look at you and be near you and just… I ~can’t~ want you. I can’t have you.”

Grayson stepped forward. “Yes, you can—”

“No, I can’t!” I interrupted. “Not after everything you did to me, and especially not when I know what you’re really capable of.”

I wrapped my arms around myself, shaking my head and sniffling through my runny nose.

“What you’re doing right now is cruel. Acting like you care about me when you and I both know you don’t. It has got to be one of the most horrible things a person could do to another person.”

“I’m not acting, Belle,” Grayson said, a muscle sliding up and down his throat. His eyes were back to their normal green, boring into me like he wanted to make me permanently drown in his gaze.

“I ~do~ want you. I want you more than anything in this entire world.”

I angrily wiped at my tears, hating that I was letting him see me cry once again. I didn’t want him to know how much of a hold he still had on me.

“You mated with someone else. You rejected me. You-you left me on my own during the worst pain of my life after you decided you would rather have someone else.

“What would you do with me if you took me back? Huh? Would you keep me hidden away somewhere like some whore you screwed in secret because you’re too ashamed of having me as your real mate?”

Something that resembled realization flashed in Grayson’s eyes. “You still think I mated with someone else,” he whispered. He cursed under his breath. “Fuck, Belle, no wonder you’ve been so upset.”

He reached for me, but I dodged him, stepping back. I searched his eyes, confused as hell.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

Grayson took in a deep breath. “Belle, I never mated with that she-wolf.”

My heart turned upside down. I stared at him for several seconds, suddenly feeling dizzy. I couldn’t have heard him correctly.

“What?” I choked out.

“I never mated with anyone else,” he repeated. He took a step closer to me, so he was now less than a foot away from me. “Nothing ever happened. You’re still my mate. You’ve ~always~ been my mate.”

“You…You never slept with anybody else?” I asked, needing to hear him say it one more time.

Grayson shook his head, bringing his hands up to cup my cheeks. I was too busy trying to suck air in and out of my lungs to fight his touch this time.

“No. God, no, baby. Shit, I thought you knew. I thought you felt that we were still connected. This should’ve been the first thing I told you when I found you.”

He took in a deep breath, leaning in so close that I felt his breath fan over my face. “It’s only ever been you. You’re the only person I will ever be mating with. I’m still your mate, and you’re still mine.”

“But… But I saw…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. The memory hurt too much.

“I know what you saw. I know. And I promise you there’s an explanation for it, just like there’s an explanation for every other terrible thing that happened to you because of me.

“Kyle stopped us before anything happened.” He wiped away the tears streaming down both my cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.

I could feel his pain radiating off of him through the bond in the same way I was sure he could feel mine. It only made each other’s pain worse.

“I can’t believe you’ve thought I was mated to someone else this entire time. Didn’t you feel it when Kyle stopped us?”

I remembered feeling them stop but… “I-I thought it meant you were… finished.” I shut my eyes tightly. I didn’t want to think about this.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t tell what I was feeling through all the pain. I-I…” My voice trailed off, my throat constricting.

Grayson made a whimpering noise. I opened my eyes, barely able to see him through my pooling tears. He took another tentative step forward, so his body was brushing up against mine.

“Will you please let me hold you?” he asked.

I should have said no.

But I didn’t.