“Stay.” Taking a page from her training manual, he began to pet her. “We’re so good together.”

He stroked her hair...down her arm...up her stomach and between her breasts... Only when she had gone taut with anticipation, the very air she breathed burning her with awareness only this man could elicit, did he circle her beaded nipple.

“If we’re parted, I won’t be able to touch you like this, and I desperately want to touch you. Stay,” he repeated. “Please.”

His resolve was a tantalizing throb against her skin. The problem? He’d couched the words as a request this time, and yet they were still a demand.

“Your plea is too little too late, warrior.”

The gentleness evaporated from his expression. “You’re a human. You don’t know what’s good for you.”

“So you keep telling me.” She pushed him away. “Well, I know beyond a doubt you aren’t good for me. Now move!”

He moved, but only of his own volition, the bastard.

“What do you want from me?” he snapped.

“From you? Nothing.” Head high, she bent to pick up the bag. She stuffed her belongings inside. “I want a man who sees me as his equal.”

“That,” he said, his voice now devoid of emotion, “is something I’ll never do. I can’t. Not when I could break you.”

Just. Like. That. Hope that their relationship could survive this withered. Disappointment and sorrow welled up and bubbled over. Won’t beg him to reconsider.

She wasn’t leaving to teach him a lesson and calm herself down, she decided. She was leaving, period. Their story was over. The end. She’d thought she could prove her worth. He’d just admitted he would never see it.

“We’re done,” she told him, and she meant it.

“We aren’t done.” He reached for her but let his arms drop before contact was made. “We will never be done.”

Stay. Strong! The very strength he thought she didn’t have. “When you start to miss me, and you will, don’t come looking for me. This—” she waved a hand to indicate her body “—is now off-limits to you.”

“No. No! I won’t let you—”

“Katarina is still talking.” She stomped her foot. “I’m done trying to train you. You failed my class. F plus plus.”

His nostrils flared as he bared his teeth. “You were training me? Like one of your dogs?”

“Of course.” She fluffed her hair. “You’re a beast, are you not? Beautiful but deadly.”

“I am. And now you’ll see my worst.” With a roar, his eyes glinting with red, he toppled the dresser. The drawers split down the middle, the contents spilling out. At the bed, he yanked the iron headboard until a bar came loose. A bar he hurled into the wall.

What had brought on this fit? Certainly not her admission to training him. It had made him angry, but not enraged.

The fact that she’d called him a beast?

Ignoring him as if she hadn’t a care, she finished packing in silence, picking her garments off the floor.

Once upon a time...

Today, a new story began. One of her own making. She would use this heartbreak as an opportunity to patch herself up into a new and better person.

When she had everything she needed, she called, “Galen!”

Baden stopped his tantrum and glared at her. “He won’t dare take you from me.”

“He will. And you’re going to give him the order or I swear to you now, I won’t just fight you, I’ll run every time your back is turned. I’ll provoke this beastly side of you at every opportunity, and—”

“Enough.” He was panting, his hands fisted. “You want to go? Very well. We’ll let you go.”

We, he’d said.

Relief battled with sorrow. Don’t want to lose another loved one. But she didn’t love him. She couldn’t. “When my brother is well, you’ll have Galen bring him to me, wherever I am.”

Silence stretched between them. He nodded stiffly.

Galen soared into the room without knocking, irritation painting his features. “You rang, doodlepop?” He saw the naked Baden and covered his eyes. “Seriously, dude? Come on! If I’d wanted to be part of a sausage fest, I’d have visited my butcher.”

The dogs moved to her side and licked at her hands. Chin trembling, she slung the bag over her shoulder and hooked leashes to the collars. “I’m ready to go.”

“Uh, ready to go where?” Galen asked, confused.

Baden turned away, the muscles in his back knotted. “Take her somewhere else.” He paused and gritted, “Somewhere safe.”

“Somewhere of my choosing,” she corrected. “And you won’t tell Baden where I am. You won’t ever tell him, even upon threat of death.” There would be no sequel. She would make sure of it.

A sob brewed in the back of her throat.

Tears? For him? No!

Galen blinked, as if certain he’d misheard. “Are mommy and daddy getting a divorce?”

“Yes, and mommy has full custody of the fur children.” She pasted a bright smile on her face, ignoring the thick veil of tension in the air. “Now let’s go before I divorce your ass, too.”

* * *

Baden battled an unholy rage. Katarina was gone. But even if she’d stayed, he would have lost her. She, like so many others, thought him beautiful on the outside but ugly on the inside. Despite her boast to the contrary!

His one bright light in a world of darkness now flamed out of reach.

He drove a fist into the wall again and again, creating new holes, tearing skin and cracking his knuckles.

Destruction prowled through his mind. I want my woman back. Get her back!

I will.

He must.

A hand came to rest on his bare shoulder. No pain. He whipped around, expecting to see Katarina. She’d realized her mistake! He came face-to-face with Fox instead.

“What?” he snarled, hating his desensitized skin.

Her gaze swept over his nakedness. “How about you get dressed? You’re hot and all, but I prefer my men with a little less obsession for another woman.”

He wasn’t bashful or shy by any means, but he didn’t like another woman’s eyes on Katarina’s property. He strode to the closet and tugged on a pair of pants. He would give Katarina time to calm. Then he would mount a charge to win her back.