"You scared me!"

The light shone through the kitchen window and reflected off Taine's eyes dangerously. He was too calm. Like a lion just before it seized its prey.

Camila cleared her throat, hating the shakiness of her voice.

"H-h-hi"

She stared at him wide-eyed and confused as he slid off the barstool and moved silently towards her. His eyes never left her. She seemed to be transfixed to her spot.

He moved closer and closer. Camila felt her back press into the cool metal of the fridge door. She could feel Taine's warm breath on her face. Her eyelids involuntarily shut. She was afraid and confused.

Then, Taine pressed his body against hers. Now she was anticipating.

She could smell him. She could feel him. She felt his fingers trail slowly and painfully against her jawbone. Down the curve of her neck. His touch made her body tremble. She felt his lips brush gently against her ear.

He whispered sinfully and slowly. "I've missed you."

Camila let out a shaky breath as he grazed her earlobe with his teeth. Her eyes were still clamped shut.

He pressed his lips to her neck. "Did you miss me?"

She tried to keep her voice steady, even though her heart was beating louder than a drum.

Camila couldn't help herself. She placed a tentative hand on the left side of his abdomen to try and distance herself from him. The bandages were still thick and tightly wrapped around his body, under his shirt.

"You're being awfully affectionate for someone who has a broken rib."

Another kiss.

This time his lips lingered against her skin. Her knees were weak.

He moved his head a fraction. His nose pressed against her cheek. "You don't make is easy to love you, Mila."

He grabbed her cold hand and raised her index finger to the back of his neck. She felt the scabbed skin and the memory of herself creating the cut flashed behind her eyelids. Her hand lifted and moved to his chest as a reaction to pricks of guilt that assaulted her.

"You...you, know why...What I don't understand, is why you let me..."

He continued kissing her neck and she was so close to melting into his touch, forgetting everything.

Taine paused for a moment, hesitating, deciding. He dragged his lips from her neck to her face. He kissed her once, slowly and paused again as if to test her reaction.

Camila couldn't concentrate. She was beyond confused. If this is how he acted every time she injured him...She'd need to buy a baseball bat.

He took her shock as an invitation to continue his mission. This time he kissed her harder. And of course, Camila, being Camila, panicked. Which lead to her squeezing her right hand quickly and tightly around the open bottle of water she had been clutching.The ice water pistoled into Taine's face and all over his clothes. Camila stifled her laughter at the same time as Taine let out a vicious growl and began to take off his shirt to wipe the water dripping from his face and neck. At least it would sober Taine up a bit. And Camila didn't mind the view.

Deciding to go with the flow, literally. She pretended this had been her grand plan all along. Pointing the now almost empty water in his direction, creating some space between them she gave him a look that demanded answers and distance. She wasn't going to let the sight below his collarbone distract her.

"Why did you let me hurt you?"

There was a heavy silence.

"You could have stopped me so easily..."

Camila wouldn't let him leave without answering her question. She knew Taine well enough to understand that he wasn't simply letting it hang in the air. He never threw around words, they were always carefully chosen, deliberate and scarce.

He sighed, which was another rare occurrence. As he exhaled, she could physically see a weight on his shoulders pull him down. A weight that he usually carried so well, concealed even.

"I can never understand what you've gone through. But now I know it was at the hands of my father."

He paused deciding on his next words carefully.

"I will not apologize for what he has done. And I will not rebuke him." His voice was firm and resolute.

A flame of anger rose in her heart. But she wasn't surprised. It was painstakingly clear that Taine idolised his father. This revelation wouldn't change that. Not when his conquests were told to his son like fairy tales. Not when the fall of many led to the rise of one pack. Their pack.

"But that night. The rage and pain in your heart....I have burned in similar flames. And although it will not change what has been done to you...You got your revenge. At least some of it."

Camila looked at Taine in surprise.

"You chased after me, until we were inside and you provoked me until I was forced to attack you. Are you telling me all of that was intentional?"

Taine shrugged. There was a strange twinkle in his eyes. "I didn't expect you to break the chair on me. Or put me in the hospital, but I let you release some of the emotion you've been carrying around for over a decade. And I bet it felt good, didn't it? To hurt me? Make my bloodline feel some of the pain that you felt. To take away some of the hate."

Camila bared her fangs at him in anger. To her, Taine's logic was twisted and skewed. "I felt...I feel guilty, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't satisfying to see you bleed."

He simply nodded in response. "Sometimes our kind forgets we are beasts at our core. Sometimes spilling a little blood, slashing with our claws, is enough. It shouldn't be more complex than that."

Camila disagreed but she held her tongue. Although her wolf was satiated, the trauma of the past would always linger. Always be a faint scent in the air between them. Taine would never be the kind of mate to sit and lament over her losses. And although he would listen, he would never ask for the details, counsel her through her feelings, or curse his bloodline for destroying her life.

She doubted her childhood wolf-psychologist would agree with Taine's version of catharsis but at least now she knew that in his own way, Taine had atoned for some of his families sins. Or at least tried to. She justified some of her forgiveness by seeing that their pack had grown more docile after the change of leadership. Werewolf lives were no longer a commodity and rampant attacks had largely ceased.

She knew he would try to honour both her and his father by looking to the future, acknowledging the bloodshed but never with the intention of immersing himself in it.

Camila relived her past every day. But now that everything she had buried was lain out between them. All the dirty secrets hitting the light. She would need to move forward too. For the good of the relationship and most importantly for the good of the pack.

The name Melissa flashed through her mind and sent a slash of pain to her chest. For now she would settle her curious heart. But soon enough all Taine's secrets would need to be brought out of the shadows too.

"Well, it's nice to have you home." She didn't apologize for what had done. And she knew he wouldn't have wanted her to.

"I heard you and Ivory have hijacked my office?"

She smiled at his comment, also knowing he wouldn't thank Ivory and her for 'holding down the fort.' And she didn't expect it. It was her duty.

"Do you need to rest tomorrow, or is it business as usual?" She knew the answer before she had even finished asking the question.

"Business as usual."