Tate exchanged a look of disbelief with Luke, who was leaning against the countertop shaking his head. Beside the Beta, Farrell rolled his eyes.
“When I introduced myself, I could tell by the look on her face that she’d heard of me.” Ashlynn’s eyes briefly lowered. “I guessed she’d heard some highly negative things, which she confirmed. We talked a little about you. She’s bitter that you don’t care for her. She blamed me for you being so closed off and for you ending the fling, claiming it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t come home. She thinks you got rid of her for me. She said a lot of snarky things and then challenged me to a fight. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. I’m sorry that this happened at the Tavern, but I can’t apologize for not backing down. I’m not a person who’d walk away from a challenge.”
“Maybe you should have made an exception last night, because she quite clearly overpowered you.”
Ashlynn jerked her chin up. “She only won the fight because, hesitant to have a brawl in my pride’s hangout, I didn’t use my full strength.”
Tate snorted. “It wasn’t a fight. She didn’t even injure you. She played with you. And then she topped it all off by humiliating you while you were unconscious.” His cat still thought the whole thing was fucking awesome. Tate agreed.
The twin flags of red staining Ashlynn’s cheeks darkened. “All I did was try to talk to her. I don’t even know how things deteriorated so fast.”
“Maybe she didn’t appreciate you trying to get Tate’s attention by embarrassing her,” suggested Luke. “It seems clear to me that you wanted to weaken her in his eyes so that he’d lose interest in her, only it didn’t work out that way.”
“I know you’re angry with me for hurting your brother in the past, Luke, but I think it’s unfair of you to side with a female who isn’t even one of us,” said Ashlynn, prim and haughty. She looked at Tate. “You’re not even giving me the benefit of the doubt. You’re just pinning the blame on me.”
“Because you are to blame,” Tate stated. “Almost every word you’ve spoken here was a lie.”
“It was not! I’m telling you, she wanted the confrontation. She was sure you’d dumped her for me, and she resented me for it.”
Tate leaned forward. “Havana would have no reason to blame you for my ending the fling, because I didn’t end it. She did.”
Ashlynn’s face went slack. She rallied fast. “That’s not what she said when—”
“Let me be very clear,” said Tate, his voice dripping with frost. “I don’t care how embarrassed you are by how last night ended for you. You will not retaliate. You will not contact her—not even to apologize. I don’t want you talking to her. She won’t want you talking to her. She doesn’t exist for you. Understand me?”
Ashlynn’s eyes narrowed to slits, and her upper lip curled back. “If she matters so much to you, why haven’t you let her past those walls of yours? Huh? Tell me that.”
His cat bristled, and Tate straightened in his seat. “I let you return to our pride, but I can just as easily throw you back out. I don’t owe you any explanations for anything. Very few people have earned the right to question my choices—you’re not one of them. All you are to me is a member of my pride. But the behavior you displayed last night makes me wonder if you truly consider yourself one of us.”
She frowned. “Of course I consider myself a member.”
“Really? What you did wasn’t fair or loyal to your pride mates. You let them down. You let yourself down. You sparked conflict and violence in the place we go to wind down; a place we hold celebrations and so is, therefore, special to many. You didn’t care that your behavior could taint that. You cheapened yourself in their eyes and mine.
“Maybe being alone for three years made you forget how being part of a pride works. We support each other. Protect each other. Respect each other. We work together as a community of sorts. If you don’t feel that you can do that, you are free to leave.”
“You wouldn’t care if I left?” she asked, her voice small. “You wouldn’t care if I was alone again?”
“Not in the way you want me to. I don’t say that to be cruel. I say it because you’re not hearing me when I say I don’t want you. Nothing you could say or do would change that. Nothing. Forget about pointlessly trying to win me back. Concentrate on being a productive member of the pride. The alternative? You leave. If you need time to think about what you want, take it. In the meantime, keep your head down if you know what’s good for you. Now get the fuck out of here, and do not bother Havana Ramos again in any way, shape, or form.”