Saving Scarlett Read Free Page B

minutes and when Scarlett finally looked at her she realized her mother was trying not to cry.  She stopped in front of Scarlett’s apartment building and put the car into park.  “I begged him not to destroy it.  I wanted to save it for my own daughter to wear someday.  He…didn’t care.”  She opened the glove box and pulled out a plastic zipper bag with a few scraps of lace in it.  “I saved these pieces.  They’re all that survived.”
    Scarlett opened the bag and touched the beautifully detailed lace.  “How is it possible that this is all that’s left of a dress?”
    Her mother’s lips thinned into a white line for a long moment and then she said, “I was a virgin, and he wasn’t kind.  The dress was shredded.  I always thought he did it on purpose, that he knew the dress was important to me because my grandmother had made it, and he wanted to destroy any tie I had to my old life.  That night was the first of many painful times for me.  Eventually I grew to understand my own body and it wasn’t such a burden, but the joy of the mating bed was never mine.”
    Scarlett hung her head.  “Damn it, Mom, this is so unfair.”
    “We’re Breeding Queens, Scarlett.  I’ve been praying to the spirits of our ancestors since you were born that your father would choose a kind male for you.”
    “Do you know who he is?”  The announcement had come earlier in the week, when Melody, her mates, uncles, and two young males had come to visit.  What should have been a happy day had been marred by just how little time Scarlett had left on her own.
    “No, your father won’t tell me.”
    “I guess I’m glad I’m not a virgin.”
    Her mother snorted.  “Your generation knows more about their bodies earlier than mine ever did.  There was a time when a queen’s virginity was jealousy guarded by her father, to save for her future mate.  That time is over, although your father did try hard to keep you away from males who might try to claim you for their own.”
    Scarlett’s mind flitted to the two males who had claimed every inch of her heart.  Even now, so many weeks later, she could still feel their hands on her skin and hear them whisper her name in pleasure.
    “I’m going to get back to packing,” Scarlett said as she unbuckled her seatbelt.
    “Would you like me to send Christian to help?  I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
    Christian was the youngest of Scarlett’s twelve brothers, and the one she was closest to.  She didn’t want to see him right now, though.  He was as much a part of the problem as her father; all her brothers were.  If they would stand up for her together, twelve against one, they could have put a stop to this.  But her brothers wouldn’t go against their father. No one would.  Scarlett was a cog in the wheel of her father’s plans, a stepping stone in his grand scheme to be the most powerful alpha in North America.  She was betting he wished he had more than one daughter to barter.
    “Thanks, but I’d rather be alone.”
    “I understand.  Call me tomorrow.  We can have lunch this week.”
    Scarlett nodded and got out of the car.  Shutting the door, she waved at her mom and then watched her drive away.  A black sedan followed, and Scarlett knew it was the guards her father had sent to follow them.  He never let her mother go anywhere alone.  She watched the scene, a glimpse of her own future, and turned on her heels to walk into the Luna Arms apartment building.  She needed to decompress in her own place.
    Her apartment was a single-bedroom on the first floor of Luna Arms, a pack-owned apartment complex that catered to unmated pack members.  Her brothers also lived at Luna Arms.  The entire first floor was occupied by the Jamison family, all thirteen of them.  Her oldest brother, Joseph, was thirty-five, her youngest a bare year older than she at twenty-five.  Her mother had spent thirteen years being pregnant and having children.  Once Scarlett was