Page 85 of The Alpha's Fated Bond

Noah raises a brow. “Don’t look at me like that. I was never going to hurt you, Sophia. If anything, I would have given youthe status of my mate. You’re the one who had to keep whoring herself around.”

“Your mate?” I spit at him. “Your mate is standing right next to you, Noah! Do I look like an idiot to you?”

Noah smirks. “Lily was on board with letting me give you my mating mark.”

“She’s a witch,” I suddenly remember, looking between the two of them. “How is it even possible that you two are fated mates?”

Lily sneers. “My father was a shifter. I have shifter blood in me even if I cannot shift. That’s all that matters. Ultimately, I am an asset to my mate. I always have been.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if Lily wore my mating mark or not,” Noah informs me. “She would have always been by my side. Your job would have been to produce heirs and give me the power that is rightfully mine. I would’ve treated you nicely, Sophia. But you just had to go and fuck it up.”

“I never would have let you mark me!” I hiss. “I have a fated mate, and he is leaps and bounds better than you!”

“You mean Alex Stone?” Noah looks amused. “The Alpha of a dying pack? You certainly have some standards.”

“Alex’s pack is not dying!” I growl fiercely. “He’s an excellent Alpha—”

“He’s an Alpha who’s about to get his entire pack executed.”

I stare at Noah. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Lily gives me a sweet smile. “You don’t know? Alex sat me down and gave me a whole sob story about how he was planning to attack Karina during the banquet, and that if he didn’t make it, I was supposed to deliver you, his grieving widow, to the Central Alliance. I have to say, your fated mate has a terrible sense of judgement. The one person he trusted above all others is the one who betrayed him.”

Confused, all I can do is say, “What?”

Lily snickers. “That obsessed little freak of a girl, Hilda, opened the communication channels and contacted Karina, telling her about both Julia and you. As we speak, Alex is taking his entire army, whatever little he’s gathered of it, to its death. And as a gesture of goodwill, Noah and I will be making sure to reveal the locations of the remaining pack members to Karina.”

Horror fills me. “You can’t do that! There are children—”

“And I should care because…?” Lily looks intrigued by my outburst. “Haven’t you heard the saying that when you kill a snake, you should also kill its babies, lest they come back and bite you?”

“I won’t let you do it!”

“Won’t let us?” Lily chuckles. “Sophia, there’s nothing you can do. In fact, we will be bringing you to witness Alex’s execution. Isn’t that right, Noah?”

I narrow my eyes at the two of them. “And what makes you think I’m just going to sit there and watch? Or that you two have the ability to force me to do anything? I am no longer the weak Sophia that you remember, Noah.”

“Oh, I know,” Noah says cheerfully. “After all, I’m the one who sent Lily to you. If I had imprisoned you and then tried to have Lily teach you magic by force, you would not have learned willingly. Now, we all know you have the ability to practice magic. And if you don’t do as I say, you’re going to find yourself in the same position as your mother, chained like a dog, losing the people you love. Lily?”

Smiling at Noah first, Lily crouches down by my mother, and before I can so much as blink, she pulls a long, thin, metal band from her pocket and wraps it around my mother’s neck.

“What are you doing?!” I grab the band, and as soon as I do, it gives me such a massive electric shock that I’m thrown two feet away.

“Teaching you your new place,” Noah says calmly. “Any other objections?”

“Take that thing off of her!” I struggle to sit up, cursing myself for using up all my power and leaving myself so weak and helpless. Lily walks over to me and presses her shoe down on my chest, forcing me back down. “You’re forgetting the magic word.”

“Take that thing off her neck, you bitch!”

I grab her ankle and dig my claws into her skin, making her expression contort. She reaches down and grabs a fistful of my hair before slamming my head into the ground. Her tone is pleasant and I barely recognize her as she says, “Language.”

In this moment, she reminds me of Noah as a child when he would bully me, with that impassive expression and thedelighted reaction to my pain. No wonder these two are fated mates; they are one and the same.

Lily is an incredible actor. All those weeks we spent together, she had me completely fooled.

The hatred in my expression must be unmistakable, and she looks pleased about it. “What is it? Are you hurt? Are you upset? Do you want to kill me?”

I glare at her, and then my eyes dart toward my mother, who is slumped on the ground, her body twitching. I wasn’t the only one impacted by that electric shock.

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