Page 46 of My Possessive Alpha

While this made Iris’ eyes swell with tears all over again, I didn’t care. I wasn’t looking for words or false promises.

I needed to take action, and I couldn’t waste those precious moments on the very people who both hurt my mate in several different ways and lured her into a trap on top of it.

“Let's go,” I said to the others, watching as they all fell into step with me, prepared to let me take the lead as we moved through the woods, following those tire tracks along with the mental map our bond provided me, even if it was somewhat hazy due to my worry and unfettered anger.

Prepared to face Jack once and for all, I knew I had to finish it then and there.

Chapter 26 - Lydia

Something pulled tightly against my wrists was the first thing I registered as my eyes opened.

Finding myself stuck between vaguely familiar walls on a bed that brought me a deep-seated sense of dread, it all came rushing back at once.

I was in Jack’s house. On his pack grounds, all because my parents tricked me. Once again, they lied to me. They betrayed me.

Sitting there on the bed, leaning against the metal-frame headboard, I trembled, hands bound together with a thick rope. It was done so tightly that even my sharp nails couldn’t cut through it.

That anger coursing through me mingled with fear and frustration.

I was furious with myself for ever thinking I could trust my parents. I was angry with them for not listening to me and helping Jack get to me. Even more so, I was undeniably pissed at Jack for his persistence. For not giving up when he should’ve weeks ago.

My entire body was shaking, and I tried to keep it together. But knowing he had succeeded somehow tied my stomach in knots.

After all that time of hiding away and being protected by Sebastian and the pack, I wasted that effort the moment I accepted my parents’ word. The moment I allowed myself to be vulnerable with them, only to have it thrown back in my face in the most painful way possible.

The second I heard footsteps in the hallway, a bitter, icy chill moved through me. Then, the door was pushed open, and Jack came in.

As our gazes met, unfiltered disgust hit me like a wave. It deepened the moment he smiled at me smugly.

At that moment, there was no missing the maturity in his features. While his shifter blood helped him appear younger, his age was still evident enough to a more critical eye. He was old enough to be my father, and that made knots twist up in my stomach to consider.

I felt sick even being near him—the tell-tale sign that he wasn’t for me, and he never would be.

“Welcome back home, Little Finch,” he muttered, visibly caught between triumph and anger. “You’ve caused a lot of problems for me since the day you decided to run. But finally—finally, you’re back where you should be.”

My lip curled with anger as I looked at him, forcing my fear back so that I didn’t give him that satisfaction. “This isn’t my home…it never was.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed at me as he approached the foot of the bed and leaned in. A sneer crossed his face. “After everything I’ve done for you and your parents…and you disrespect me? In my house, you want to disrespect me?”

I winced slightly from his tone, hating how his booming voice filled the bedroom and practically rattled my brain.

When I didn’t say anything, that fury entered his eyes. “Like an ungrateful bitch, you ran from me. You made a mockery of me and this pack when all I wanted was to take you as my mate—A high honor you failed to appreciate. And, of course, you had to make things agonizingly difficult by shielding yourself behind that big-shot alpha.”

Listening to him explain the situation as if he had been an innocent party throughout made my blood boil all over again. He had been far from blame-free, and he was putting me in a compromising position all over again.

There was no doubt in my mind—he groomed me.

He waited long enough for me to turn eighteen to claim me, and before that, he always had his eye on me. Those small touches and glances made my stomach turn to even think about.

As that wrath pulsed within my chest, aware that my situation couldn’t get any worse, I snapped back at him. “I never wanted it. Nobody listened to me, and I had to leave to protect myself from you!”

With a sharp gaze, Jack closed the space between us and reeled back, colliding his palm with my cheek in a harsh slap. My head whipped to the side from the force as shock filtered into my system, and I tongued the flesh inside my mouth, vaguely tasting blood from where my teeth caught skin.

As the pain lingered for a moment, I looked at him in pure betrayal, a gaze full of hatred for him. “It doesn’t matter anyway…I have my mate, and you can do nothing to change that.”

More anger raced across his face at that, but it gave way to bitter amusement as he laughed to himself. His hand came up to grip my jaw, forcing me to meet his eyes even as I wanted to look away. “You may have dirtied yourself by mating with him, but all bonds can be broken, Lydia. One way or another, we will clear your being of him, and we’ll take care of that parasite growing inside you.”

The mention of my child and his pure disdain for it made everything halt around me. A cold, agonizing chill gripped me, and I was afraid for their fate above my own.

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