Page 25 of The Alpha's Heart

“Shh, baby. Go back to sleep. We’ve only just started to drive home.”

Home?Home? “I am home. Declan… unh.” My vision is going hazy. The truck jolted, my hands moved, and a renewed wave of pain has me hissing in a breath. “What did you do to me?”

“It’s the chains, Sofe.”

Chains?

No. He… he wouldn’t. Most packs have a pair of unbreakable silver chains they use whenever an Alpha or other dominant wolves are on the cusp of being feral. They temper our wolves, forcing us to get under control; if we don’t, the chains keep us from tapping into our wolves, diminishing the sudden threat exponentially. However, because they’re made of silver, we have to be careful. Prolonged exposure to the element can eat right through a shifter. That’s why, even when a raging Alpha takes the chains, they’re careful to put padding around the shackles to keep from burning their skin.

I guess Declain didn’t bother protecting my wrists. He just slapped a pair on me, almost as though punishing me for choosing to go to my fated mate.

Just as I have that though, he confirms it.

“I’m so sorry, but you forced me to do it. If you would’ve just answered me… if you would’ve just figured that this Alpha was no good for you, that I’ve always been the male you deserved… but you didn’t. First, you teased Guy, letting him think he had a chance. Silly Sofia. Like I’d let that happen. But then you left me. You. Left. Me. And for what?”

“You know what. For my fated mate.”

Wrong answer, Sofia.

Declan tugs my hair.

I can’t stop my scream from escaping. That hurt, but the way he jolted me entire body, intensifying the pain on my hands, made it impossible for me to swallow that scream.

“I didn’t want a response, thank you. I know why you left. Fucking Luna, having to mess everything up for me. But you, Sofe… you should’ve known better. But you didn’t. That’s okay. I have you know. I won. And nothing will come between us ever again.”

I hate to admit it, but Declan’s not wrong. For the moment, at least, it definitely seems as though he did win. Kendall is in River Run. Bishop might be back in Hickory by now, but who knows how far I am away from his territory. And Guy?—

It takes everything I have to focus on words instead of the pain. But I have to know.

“Where is Guy?”

“Somewhere in Tennessee, I guess. That’s where I booted him from the truck. Not before I smashed his phone to bits so he could stop warning you I was coming.” Declan’s chuckle is eerie, a hint of the feral back in it. “Should’ve just gone along with the plan. He challenges Dupuis for you, he dies, you realize you could never be happy with a monster for a mate, and I get the female. But no. Everyone had to mess this up.”

Declan slams the steering wheel with the flats of his palm. He takes a deep breath, calming enough to keep his feral side back.

The conversation tone he adopts as the silver eats its way into my flesh is somehow even worse.

“But that’s okay. I have you with me. We’ll find a nice shelter to hunker down, I’ll bond you to me tonight, and we can forget all this unpleasantness ever happened. Kendall doesn’t need to know. When you’re wearing my bite, Bishop will lose all interest. It can be just you and me, Sofe, like I planned.”

I’d rather die.

He’s insane. I figured he was, going feral as he did, but to think that he can force me into a mating? That’s not how it works. Our Luna has to bless a mating for it to be finalized. When the moon is full, shifters mate and mark their partners, and then ask and receive the Luna’s blessing… that’s what makes a mate.

He could force me to sleep with him. He could mark me all he wants. I’d heal any bite he gave me, and the second I coulduse my claws on his cock, I would. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Without a blessing there is no bond.

He has to know that. Does he care? I… don’t think so.

And that makes him even more dangerous.

I have to get up. I have to get out of here. Bishop, I think, on the edge of becoming delirious. I have to get to Bishop?—

The truck suddenly bucks. No. Itbuckles. Metal scrapes and crunches, like an aluminum can being crushed. I nearly fall off of Declan’s lap. Most of me does, including my lower half and the wicked chains burning me, until I’m halfway on his lap and halfway on the floor of the truck.

He starts to howl. I hear that tell-tale snapping of bones from earlier, and as his lemon scent becomes bitter, I use his distraction to heft myself up, throwing my body against the passenger side door.

And that’s when I see what we hit.

If you would’ve asked me, I’d say he slammed into a tree. Not quite. There, standing in the middle of the path Declan had been moved down through the trees, is a looming Alpha with murder etched into every line of his handsome face.

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