Page 110 of Rejected By the Alpha King

Wrapping my arms around myself, I blew out my breath. “I don’t want to leave you,” I told him. “And I hate that.”

“So don’t fucking leave.”

But how could I not? If all Emerson wanted was me, how could I not leave and save everyone here?

“You would sacrifice the pack to keep me here?”

“If the coven is right, Anna, apparently I’m willing to sacrifice the whole goddamn mountain.

Keep that in mind next time you decide to have a friendly chat with him.”

50

Jax

She was cowering in the mud again, her father’s body dead at her feet. Water poured over her head and lightning struck as she stared at me. “What are you waiting for?” She whispered.

“Kill me.”

“I can’t,” I told her. “You’re not the same woman, and I’m not the same man.”

“But you’re not a man at all, wolf. You’re a wolf. A shifter. An alpha. A pack to guide and protect. What am I? You’re the only one who is going to miss me when I’m gone. I’m barely a wolf. I’m a freak of nature.”

Still, I couldn’t kill her. Not to save my pack. Not to save the mountain. “You’re mine. That’s all that matters.”

“Then you’re not the hero I thought you were.” Her eyes turned dark, like ink spilling from the pupils. Slowly, she rose to her feet, but she didn’t stop there. Shadows appeared at her wrists, and they lifted her into the sky. As she hovered, she smiled sadly down at me. “I wonder if that makes you the villain.”

“What are you doing, Anna? What’s happening?”

“You know what’s happening. You knew it the moment the crone told you I had to stay with you. You tried to save me, but you couldn’t. It’s all right. I didn’t deserve to be saved.”

Suddenly, her head shot back and shadows poured out of it. Desperately, I tried to call out to her. To tell her to stop. To fight it. But there was nothing but darkness.

Then, the picture froze.

“Interesting,” Lunessa said as she walked out to study Anna. “And slightly weird. Clearly, she is the villain here, but she’s calling you the villain. Or rather, you’re calling you the villain, since it’s your dream.”

Tearing myself away from Anna, I stared at the witch. “You can walk into people’s dreams?”

“The Darkwyn coven are witches of the moon. There’s not much I can’t do that’s touched by the night. I’ve been trying to reach your mind all day, but something is shielding you. I imagine it’s one of the other witches trying to cut off communication.”

I was so caught up in the dream that I almost lost touch with reality. This wasn’t real. “Is this what a null is? Darkness inside?”

“The opposite, actually. If you’re asking me if this could happen, the answer is no. Anna is not a void that can be filled with dangerous magic. But…perhaps…well, that’s not a thought I want to entertain right now. You need to wake up. I’m here, and I don’t have much time.”

“Here? Where?”

“In your bedroom, alpha. Wake up.”

Instantly, I was awake. Next to me, Anna slept peacefully. The sheets were twisted around her waist, so I pulled the blanket up to cover her bare breasts.

At the foot of the bed, Lunessa smirked. “Your concern for her modesty is touching.”

“How can you be here?” I growled. “I have security. Good security.”

“You do, but any wards that Irene put up against magic failed when they took her magic. I’m guessing she hadn’t considered that. I will put the wards back up when I leave. Something happened in the woods tonight. I felt death. Explain.”

There was no fucking way that I was going talk to a witch while I was naked in my own bed, so I got out and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. Only then did I explain Amaya’s death.

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