"I know you don't trust me," he continued. "I know you don't trust any of us. But if this bond is real, if you are our mate, then everything changes. We're bound to protect you, to cherish you. It's not a choice, it's written into our very DNA."
I laughed bitterly. "DNA didn't stop your brothers from making my life hell before."
"Because they didn't know. None of us knew what you were to us." His eyes were pleading now. "The aggression, the way they've always singled you out, it might have been the mate bond trying to surface. Sometimes it manifests as hostility when the connection is being suppressed or denied."
I shook my head, backing toward the door again. "That's convenient. Blame their cruelty on some mystical bond they didn't know existed."
"I'm not making excuses for them," Lia
