Page 185 of The Alpha's Pen Pal

“I’ll stay out here,” he said. “I already got my hits in, so I’m good for now.”

I opened the door, and Sebastian followed me in, closing the door behind us. Lennox moved his eyes to us. His nostrils flared, and he strained against the silver chains binding his arms and legs to the chair.

“He smells her on you,” Sebastian mindlinked me.

“Didn’t you give him wolfsbane?” I replied.

“Maybe two minutes before you got here. He’s a lycan too, remember? It will take longer to kick in,” he said.

“Right.” I nodded.

“How dare you come in here with Haven’s scent on you,” Lennox snarled.

I growled, and my fist connected with his jaw. I punched him so hard his head slammed into the back of the chair, making it bounce forward again, his chin hitting his chest.

I gripped the arms of the chair and leaned forward, so my face was even with his and only inches away. “How dare you even speak her name,” I said, making sure my breath hit his nostrils. “You don’t deserve to speak her name or even hear it.”

His pupils darkened as he smelled her on my lips and breath. He snarled, snapping his head forward and snapping his teeth at me, but I was already standing straight and moving towards the tray of tools in the room.

“That was gross,” Sebastian said. “Effective, but gross.”

“He needs to understand that she is mine,” I growled out loud as I picked up the pliers. “Should I start with his right hand or his left?” I asked as I stalked back over to him, examining the tool in my hand.

“You could alternate,” Seb suggested. “One from the right, then one from the left.”

“I like that idea,” I said with a smile at Lennox.

He tried to clench his hands shut, but Seb moved behind him and slammed his hands on top of Lennox’s fingers so he couldn’t bend or move them at all.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Seb taunted him. “Did you really think you’d get out of this? That we wouldn’t give you some pain for what you did to our future luna?”

“I claimed her first.” Lennox coughed out.

My lycan pushed forward at that, my eyes flashing and my canines stretching against my gums. The thought that he felt he had some sort of claim over her filled me with a deadly rage. But I held it in, turning that rage into a lethal calm.

My gut reaction was always to lash out like I did when I punched him. However, over the years of watching Sebastian, I’d trained myself to hold it in for longer when needed.

“Your claim is a false claim,” I said as I attached the pliers to the fingernail of his right pinky. “She doesn’t want you,” I told him as I ripped the nail from his pinky, and he let out a choked cry. “And fate gave her to me,” I added as I quickly tore the same nail off his left pinky.

He grunted and squeezed his eyes shut but glared at me as they opened. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, and his jaw clenched shut.

“Why did you want her so badly?” I asked him, remembering the words Haven had told me he’d said to her before he attacked.

“Because I claimed her,” he said.

“But why?” I asked again, attaching the pliers to his ring fingernail.

“Because she’s mine.” I pulled the pliers just enough to lift the nail from the bed, and he blurted out, “Because they promised her to me!”

I looked at him with a raised brow, then ripped the nail off, followed by the one next to it.

“I answered you!” he cried, his blue eyes flashing with rage.

“You’re being deliberately vague,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at him as my pliers moved to his other hand. “Now we can continue this way—you giving me vague answers and me removing your nails and then moving on to breaking your fingers one by one. Then I might let my brother have a turn with you, and trust me, you will not enjoy what he comes up with. Or you can start talking.”

He pursed his lips together and stared at me in defiance, his chin raised.

“I guess we’re doing this the hard way then.” I shrugged, although, on the inside, I was happy I got to drag his pain out longer.

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