Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

She’s safe enough there.”
    â€œI’m listening.” All that anger had been swallowed until the only emotion I could smell in the room was Ben’s.
    â€œA rape victim…a rape victim who fights…They’ve been violated, made helpless and afraid. It breaks their confidence in the safety of their little world. It makes them afraid.” Terror and anger and something else pushed Ben until he paced all the way to the bathroom and then back to the bed in quick, frantic steps.
    â€œAll right,” agreed Adam in a gentle voice, as if he understood something I’d missed. Not surprising. After Ben pointed it out, I realized that I wasn’t exactly firing on all four cylinders.
    â€œIf—if you don’t fight. If the rapist is someone you’re supposed to obey so you can’t fight or don’t think you can fight or they’ve drugged you so you…” Ben stuttered to a halt and then swore. “I’m making a muddle of this.”
    â€œI understand.” Adam’s voice was a caress.
    â€œFine then.” Ben stopped pacing. “Fine. If you don’t fight, it’s not quite the same. If they make you help, make you cooperate, then it’s not clear to you anymore. Is it rape? You feel dirty, violated, and guilty. Most of all guilty because you should have fought. Especially if you’re Mercy and you fight everything.” Ben’s breathing was rough, his voice pleading. “You’ve got to see it from her point of view.”
    I crawled all the way under the bed until, still hidden in a fall of blankets, I could see their faces.
    â€œTell me.”
    â€œSamuel told you…told us that she’d flirted with that one. She hadn’t meant to, but you don’t always see it until it happens. Right?”
    â€œRight,” Adam agreed.
    â€œSamuel said he told her that she better not do that in front of you.”
    He waited for Adam’s nod to continue. “But she needs to help her friend and that means going to this man’s house. It’s all right, though, because there will be a lot of other people and she won’t flirt because she knows that it’s a danger. And she doesn’t flirt. She behaves just like an interested guest—which is going to piss him off at her.”
    â€œHow do you know she didn’t flirt?” Adam asked, then in response to something I hadn’t caught, he moved a hand in a negating manner. “No, I don’t doubt you. But how do you know?”
    â€œIt’s Mercy,” Ben said simply. “She wouldn’t know how to betray someone she cared about. Once she noticed, she’d stop and not start again.”
    He kept his gaze on Adam’s face, but his head was canted so he was looking up into the Alpha’s eyes rather than challenging him. “But she knows that she’s skirting the line. She knows that you wouldn’t like it that she went to his house…not that she’s done anything wrong…but it feels that way.” He started pacing again, but he’d calmed down. Now that he was talking about me. “I don’t know why she went back again. Maybe he tells her that he knows who killed Zee, or that he knows something about O’Donnell or the stuff that was stolen. He would know, wouldn’t he? He lured her to his house because he thought she posed a danger to him—or maybe just because he knew she had that damned walking stick that followed her around and he wanted it. Or maybe he just wanted to get even with her for rejecting him.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œRight. So she knows that you won’t like it if she goes back. She knows that you’ll be all territorial about her going to a man’s home even if she’s just trying to keep Zee safe. Did you know that until a couple of days ago, she thought that your declaring her your mate was just politics? Just a way to keep her safe from the pack?”
    There was a little silence.
    â€œHoney told me that last night. She explained to Mercy that it was a little more. So Mercy learned more than you intended her to.”
    â€œPressure makes her run in the other direction,” Adam said dryly. “I thought I’d wait to explain until matters became critical.”
    â€œSo she knows that it’s more than words. She knows that your declaration makes you vulnerable.”
    â€œMake your point.”
    â€œSo, she knew she