It was all discussed without me. in theory, I could have chimed in and said my piece. Hell, I probably should have. I knew in my heart they wouldn't listen though. Who in their right mind would? If the roles had been reversed, Armond and Dawn would have burned all of them at the stake by now. Ryder could have spewed a thousand reasons why he was good and pure and none of the hunters would have listened. We'd be having a barbeque to celebrate by this point.

So, I stayed silent as they argued about the logistics of the options at hand. Ryder would be the one to watch me. As my mate, he wouldn't let anyone else take the honor and as the werewolf who had been studying my group the most closely, he would be the best person to see it first-hand. Keiko insisted we stay at the cabin with them, under heavy lock and key of course, but there was only one bedroom and Hades feared that news was traveling too fast. A furious werewolf might try to take matters into their own hands. Or, I could wake up and decide that my task was not completed and slit their throats while they were sound asleep. Hades pointed out that I lived in town, but that was shot down on the grounds that the hunters might still be watching the home and no one other than me knew what weapons lay inside. Ryder was to go to my home and pick up some of my belongings. I needed to look as normal as possible as to not throw off Milo. We would spend the night together in a hotel so we were both in unfamiliar territory, then we would pay Milo a visit.

I didn't say a single word while we were in the car together, just the two of us driving away from the cabin, the tree where I perched for hours, the shed where I had my finger nails ripped from me. I stared at the nubs, wondering how we would hide them from Milo, but sure that Ryder would come up with some clever plan. He seemed to be full of them now.

He asked me what I wanted from my house. I just stared at my reflection in the passenger side mirror and shrugged. He disappeared into the darkness. He returned to the car with a tee shirt, nude underwear, and a clean pair of black leggings. i snagged the clothes and the toothbrush from his hands a little too quickly, knowing that he would read my discomfort so easily.

The rental car was left behind in the hotel parking lot. The woman behind the front desk gave me an odd look when she saw I was only carrying a plastic grocery bag, but quickly turned her attention to Ryder. I absently wondered how many times he had checked into random hotels like this, duffle bag slung over his shoulder, credit card in hand.

The room was small, but nice and had a mountain view. Perfect for tourists who wanted a glorious Instagram post without trekking up a mountainside. However, my eyes narrowed on the singular bed sitting against the wall.

"You couldn't get two beds?" I spat.

"I didn't think you'd care either way," he reasoned.

"Well, I do care, a lot actually." About a million things, but at this point, this was the hill I felt I needed to die on. Did I not deserve my own space after everything I had been through?

"Georgia, we've already had sex for god's sake. We've slept in the same bed before, a much smaller one than this. It's going to be fine."

"How is any of this going to be fine?" I demanded.

"It's a bed! Just calm down," he said.

The restraint within me snapped and all of the things that I had kept silent came ripping out of my throat. "It's not about the fucking bed! How is any of this going to be okay? I can't go back to my people. I don't even know where they are. And the one that is left is probably going to have to endure this too." I thrust my damaged hand towards his face. "They even took my parents with them, promised that they would take care of them if anything happened to me."

"Georgia, come on. Let's not yell about this here. I don't think the walls are particularly thick," he warned softly. And just for a brief second, I saw the man who begrudgingly cuddled a senior kitten. Then again, that had all been a lie too.

Still, he was right, so I lowered my voice. "Don't go after Milo, please," I whispered.

I didn't realize that I was welling up until I felt something wet drip down my cheek. I didn't care, didn't waver. I stared right at him and hoped he saw the crazy completive girl who laughed too loud at video games, not a woman who would prefer to use a knife in combat instead of a kitchen.

"Jesus, George, what do you want me to do?" he asked, turning away. "Even with Hades' decision, they wanted to kill you, Keiko more than anyone. This is the best compromise that I can think of. I am burning all of my bridges down just to keep you alive."

"Then just let me go!" I said.

"I can let you go a hundred times. It's not going to matter. That's how the mate bond works. We'll keep coming back to each other. You'll go through your heats a thousand more times if the moon goddess thinks that's what we need. And even if I could cut you lose, do you honestly think I would? What would you do? You'd go back to killing people that have families, that have jobs and purpose in this world just because you're afraid of things that you don't understand!"

My mouth opened and I prepared to thunder back at him for all I was worth. But then his words stuck me. what would I do? Could I draw another bow, throw another knife, knowing that it was going to be buried in someone like Ajax who cooed and coddled his daughter, like Keiko who screamed the second she knew Ajax was in danger? No. I couldn't. Even when I tried to think of my parents, mouths flopped open and eyes vacant, I couldn't conjure up the rage that I used to. It had gotten lost somewhere between my fingernail removal and being pinned between a wall and Hades.

"I guess you wouldn't let me go, even if I swore on my life not to kill again," I managed. My throat felt like it was closing around each word.

"No, I wouldn't," Ryder ground out.

I couldn't fathom handing over Milo to Keiko and Ajax. I couldn't stand thinking about the fear he would feel when he saw Hades. And it would be my familiar smile, the face that he knew and trusted that would send him to his fate.

But if Ryder dumped me right now, left me here on my own, what would I do? What purpose did I have? If I wasn't grinding for my parents, if I wasn't hunting down something that hurt hundreds, maybe even thousands every year, what was the goal? What was my reason to get up every morning and keep fighting?

~~~Distraction Section~~~

Bonus update because why not (and maybe someone threatened to send Duolingo to kidnap me)!

Question of the Day: How many languages do you speak?

I speak English day to day, but grew up in a Slovak household so I understand that at least!