Page 209 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“And, you’re letting them?” I wanted to confirm.

Things were never the best between us. I wanted what my parents had. I wanted that type of love, and while I stillstruggled to understand why I couldn’t have that, I was doing better at adjusting to my life. I no longer cried when he took another to his bed. I didn’t threaten to reject him. I was trying so hard to be the mate he needed, hoping one day we could at least have a mating I could be at peace with.

“Yes.”

“How can you let them kill me? Even if you don’t love me, it would weaken you and your wolf,” I reminded him.

He simply shrugged.

“I’m carrying your pup!” I screamed as tears ran down my face.

All the years. All the insults I took because I wanted to wait to have pups, and he screamed at me that I was a worthless Luna, if I refused to do the one thing I was designed for. Did none of that matter now that he had gotten his wish?

“Too late.”Brandon shrugged again.

“So, you’re just going to let them take your mate?” I asked, a sudden numbness washing over me. I knew now that it would have never been enough for him no matter what I did. He would have found fault with me because he didn’t love me. And, I never would have been happy because I didn’t love him.

“Oh, no. You misunderstand. I’m not handing you over.” His face transformed with the grin that appeared on it. This was probably the happiest I’d ever seen Brandon since the day we left Crescent Moon to come here, and his next words told me why. “I get the honor of killing you.”

Before I could process his cold words, Brandon lunged with a silver knife I didn’t know he was holding aimed at my heart. I barely managed to dodge it, feeling the silver edge cutting my shirt and slicing into my shoulder. The silver burned, but not as much as hearing Coyo howling with heartbreak in the back of my mind, seeing his wolf present in his eyes, and also willing to kill his mate.

We can’t let him win. We have a pup to think about,I reminded her.

Coyo stopped howling and flowed strength into me. I pushed Brandon away, and he stumbled back with some surprise. I used the moment to open the door and run, but I wasn’t fast enough. I was barely able to dodge the knife by diving to the side.

“Get back here, you bitch!” Brandon snarled, swinging the knife in an arc from left to right to slice me.

I backed away just in time, but I wasn’t able to move away much. The office wasn’t that big. I hit the back of the desk painfully, trying to avoid the blade that was inches away from my heart; the only thing stopping it was my hand wrapped around the blade. My lower back spasmed in pain, but I couldn’t give into it. I lost everything, but I need to keep fighting for the life of my unborn pup. It couldn’t end like this. All the sacrifice, the tears, the struggle to be happy. If my pup was the reason for it all, I would still call myself lucky.

Coyo lent me her strength, and I recalled the training Brenda gave me growing up. I brought my knee up, connecting with sensitive flesh. Brandon groaned and released the knife. I grabbed it with my uninjured hand and plunged it into Brandon’s shoulder. He reared back in pain, but I didn’t give him a chance to react. I pulled out the knife and plunged it in again, right in the heart this time. Brandon stopped, crumbling to the ground, finally still.

I slid down to the floor, my good hand covering my mouth as I finally allowed myself to process what just happened. My mate was dead. I was alone, with a pup on the way.

I struggled to stand, the wound on my shoulder trying to mend itself, my back screaming at me in pain. My hand slipped on the hardwood floor covered in blood, making me drop to thefloor again with a cry. I crawled toward the body, pulling the blade out of Brandon and plunging it back into his heart.

Once I was sure he was dead, I let the tears fall from my eyes, wetting my shirt as I moved to cradle his face, wondering if there had been any point in our time together, where we could have made this work. Did we ever have a chance?

A sudden sharp pain rippled through my abdomen. Coyo’s howl as I felt liquid soaking my pants was deafening, as was the sob that tore from my throat.

A rogue crashed through the window, and I scrambled up. It took only thirty seconds for me to rip the rogue’s throat out, and then I slid down the wall in a corner of the room, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Luna, we—” One of our warriors burst through the door, and looked at the mess. “We need to get you out of here. If the rogues can kill Alpha Brandon, we need to get you somewhere safe.”

He hurried over the bodies and lifted me to my feet. Another pain in my abdomen made me bend in half and another sob left me. As we left the office, I felt my twin pulling at the mind-link.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Martha,” I told her, coming back to the present.

“Please. There’s no one else it could have been. The rogues were under my orders not to harm him, and he was going to kill you. It’s the only explanation. I always suspected he was a weak idiot.”

“What did I ever do to you?” I asked, wanting an explanation for why this was all happening.

“You’re the firstborn daughter. We needed to get you and Cory separated, and he was the heir, so we had little choice. We settled on you.”

“Why—”

“He needs your blood. The power running through your veins and your bloodline will help strengthen my magic and help him push into this realm.”

“Tezcatlipoca,” I whispered.

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