- Knox ~

She's recoiling from me, I can see the pain in her expression. My wolf is howling at me, thrashing at me internally to stop talking, to accept her, to take her as ours.

But I can't...how can I keep her safe, keep her away from the destruction that still follows me today.

She doesn't have a wolf, and I really don't care...it doesn't make her any less special to me.

She is perfection, except for the fact that she can't defend herself against the atrocities that I have witnessed with my own eyes.

If my father couldn't protect my own mother, who was a fierce warrior in her own right, what hope is there for me to protect Red.

Far better for her that she stays here, stays with her family...who will always keep her safe.

She has no risk here, no need to fight...no need for the external shifter community to know she is different.

As much as I fucking hate myself for thinking it, for even imagining another male touching her...judging by the queue of alphas and betas waiting to dance with her last night, it wouldn't take her long to replace me if she does want a future with somebody. Far better a beta, they could move here and join the pack. She wouldn't need to leave then.

"What are you doing? You fucking fool..." My wolf angrily growls at me as my hands lace around her, pulling her closer to me.

I don't want to do this, I don't want another touching her...she was mine, she is mine.

But I can't give her what she needs.

Far better to break her heart now than break it later on, and hurt her family at the same time when they would know about us.

"If you do this, I will never forgive you. She is mine." His demonic voice growls out to me from the darkness recesses of my mind.

"No, we can't be selfish...do you remember what happened to Mum, to Dad. To all of them. We can't put her through that."

"She's strong, besides that was almost 20 years ago. If you deny me her I'll make the rest of your life a living hell." He threatens. I could survive that, survive his daily torture...what I couldn't survive is something happening to her because of me. She only just escaped a fatal motorcycle accident...that was my fault. That was a warning I need to take on board.

Tears pool around her eyes as she fights hard to not show any signs of the hurt I am causing her. That I am inflicting on to her. But it isn't weakness to want to be with someone, just not me.

"Red?" I tighten my grip around her, inhaling her scent to momentarily calm my wolf. It doesn't work, he isn't so easily fooled.

"You should go..." Her body stiffens under my hold and I drop my arms again, her body rigid..her chin holding high.novelbin

"It's fine, I understand. You should go..."

"I can't leave you like this..."

"I'm fine...I will follow in shortly. We wouldn't want them to think we were outside together." She sharply replies as she angles her body away from me, looking out towards the night sky.

"Josephina.." My chest tightens to know I have caused her pain, that the excited bubbly red head that arrived in the meadows only a few minutes ago has retreated in on herself, has accepted my rejection so easily. But that is what I want isn't it, by far easier this way.

"It's fine, honestly. I get it...I don't have a wolf. I can't do anything about that...but I won't be made to feel any less deserving because of something I can't control. To say I can't defend myself just because I don't have a wolf is a pathetic excuse.

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