It's her war clan and she's got the battle scars to prove it. They riddle her body and there's practically no part of her left unmarked any more. Duncan likes to brag that she can remember how she got everyone but it's a lie. There's too many of them. And the stories usually blend together. Still, lies are good enough for the life she leads so she uses them instead.
The men she brings to her bed are just as scarred as she is, inside and out. That's how life was in the Wastelands. Tough and tougher. Only the strong survive here and Duncan is the strongest of them all. Or at least she intends to be. She'll tolerate no weakness in her life, not even from her lovers.
But there are scars and then there are scars. And when Sebastian Monroe dropped into her lap (in more ways than one), he's scarred in a different way than most of them. Oh there are scars on his body to be sure. He's been in battles himself being a General and all. But there are scars inside of him that no one sees. No one except Duncan because she's scarred inside too.
She's a woman leading a war clan which isn't quite interesting enough to warrant news but it's hardly the norm at the same time. Most of them have husbands or some other male relation helping them out. Duncan does not share power. She rules with an iron first, damn anyone who says otherwise. But to say that she isn't insecure once in while would be lying. She lies to everyone else. Duncan tries very hard not to lie to herself when she can help it.
A part of her wonders if he would have even looked twice at her when he was President Monroe instead of just down on his luck Jimmy King. It's a stupid question. People are prejudice against the tribes. They think her kind are brutal and backwards and incapable of actually caring about anyone. It wasn't true but you couldn't change out people thought. She would have been just another annoying enemy to be wiped out if they had met before now. Duncan doesn't quite understand why that bothers her so she pushes it to the side.
It doesn't matter anyway. She doesn't need Jimmy King or Sebastian Monroe. She has a war clan that she bore the scars for and it's all she needs. They're her family and her protection. Sure, she'll bed the blonde man with the lost blue eyes but it doesn't mean they're in love. Hell, it doesn't even make them friends. He's just another in a long line of warm bodies to keep the cold nights at bay.
Which is why she's so short with him when he comes asking for men. He knows they're her war clan. She leads them and no one else. The scars that cover her body are proof of what she's willing to do to keep them. If he had asked her to come along with the men, she might have actually considered his proposal. Duncan's been itching for a good fight. Seems like these Patriots are providing one. But something has changed with Bass. Apparently gaining a son and his old name back made him arrogant. He was back to the President Monroe that looked down on war clans as a means to an end.
Fine, if he wants men, he can pay for them. And steeply. Monroe needs to learn that he can't get everything he wants just by batting his pretty blues at her. It's her clan. And she's got the battle scars to prove it.