Chapter 44: Amalea

“I don’t have Stockholm’s syndrome,” I say with a laugh. “Darius isn’t what he seems. The terrible things he’s done, that he continues to do—I’m not making excuses for him—but I mean, he’s just as caught in the gears of the system as we are. Our culture made him what he is, and he doesn’t know how to be anything else.”

Liza scoffs. “He’s an alpha. He can be anything he wants to be, and he decides what we are too. He’s not caught in the gears, Amalea, he’s pulling the levers.” “He wants to change things. He’s tried,” I argue. “Not very fucking hard from what I can see,” she counters. “I don’t know how you can stand to be near him after what he did to you, to all of us.”

“I feel alive with him, free, like for the first time in my life I’m choosing my own fate, who I love, rather than being a slave to the mate bond.” Liza slumps against my shoulder and sighs. “Free? None of us are free.”

“Does that include Darius?” I ask. She goes quiet, before pushing up off the bed and moving to leav