"Yes. Because I knew if I went back to Asher, I would die. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. He would have destroyed everything I am until there was nothing left."
Asher makes a sound of disgust. "You're being dramatic. I never would have killed you."
"No?" I turn to face him directly, and the mate bond flares between us, painful and wrong. "What about the time you choked me until I passed out because dinner was late? Or when you threw me down the stairs because I spoke to another male at a pack meeting? Or the night before I left, when you hit me so hard I couldn't breathe properly for two days?"
"You're exaggerating," Asher says, but there's something in his eyes, a flicker of uncertainty, maybe even shame.
"Am I? Dr. Winters documented all of it. The bruises, the fractures, the
