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Lachlan looked entirely too pleased with himself.

“Most men stop thinking when she tells them how powerful and desirable they are,” I whispered. “She learns what they want to hear and feeds it to them until they’ll do anything she asks.”

“I’ve never enjoyed being told what to think.”

“I noticed.”

The humor left his face as he watched me fold the bloodied cloth inward.

“You heard what she did.”

It wasn’t really a question.

“Yes.”

“All of it?”

I could’ve lied and spared him the knowledge that I’d listened from beginning to end. But a comforting lie would’ve made me no better than the people who used deception to control others.

He valued the truth, even when it was ugly.

“Yes, every second.”

A hard line formed around his mouth. Not shame. Fury.

“Then you heard her beat the shit out of me, shove my head in a bucket of water, and have Pedro suck my dick.”

The words were blunt enough to steal the air from the room.

“My body reacted,” he continued. “That’s what a body does when someone works it hard enough. Doesn’t mean I wanted it, and it sure as fuck doesn’t mean she owns a goddamn thing.”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

“I heard you refuse every demand she made. I heard you bite through her lip rather than give her one look or one word she wanted.” I held his stare. “If she owned you, she wouldn’t have left this room bleeding.”

His eyes locked onto mine as though waiting to see whether disgust or pity would appear.

I felt neither.

I knew his body had reacted to what Isabeast forced on him. I’d also heard him defend every choice that belonged to him. She had hurt and humiliated him, but she’d never received the surrender she claimed.

“What your body did wasn’t submission, and none of it belonged to her.”

His expression remained guarded.

“I don’t pity you, Lachlan. I’m angry for you. There’s nothing I want more than to see her dead.”

“Get in line,” he huffed.

He looked away for a moment.

When his eyes returned to mine, some of the tension around them had eased.

I reached for the water bottle and unscrewed the cap.

“Drink slowly.”