Page 29 of Bound By My Alpha Mate

“And David, you expect us to serve your son in your stead? The one seduced by cowardice?”

Looking over my shoulder, I found myself spotlighted by the sunlight in the gaping entrance of the cave. Everyone stared at me, my flight on full display.

Kipling narrowed his eyes. He already knew where my allegiance lay.

“Colt…” snarled David.

But I had made up my mind. I wasn’t going to continue defending myself to a legion of killers who would sooner skin me alive.

Without a word, I turned and fled down the mountainside, making my escape from the mine. I ran and didn’t look back. But I knew nobody was following me.

I could have gone in any direction, but my feet led me down the trail left behind by Kiara. Up ahead, I knew their escape had been hindered by the few shifters that had pursued them. I could hear snarling and howling, and I had seen a couple of human corpses discarded in the trees. I had smelled the blood once I was far enough away from the silver mine. After transforming into a wolf, I left my clothes behind for the weapons of my teeth and nails, and the instant I saw the human bodies of Gavin and Everett fighting unarmed against one last dragon, I lunged.

All the rage against my father that was pent up inside me guided my fangs into the spine of the dragon. Blinded by emotion I couldn’t control, I sank my teeth into the dragon’s flesh just below its shoulders. It arched wildly as it thrashed, trying to throw me off of it. Gavin was hurled to the ground, and Everett stood back, shocked, as I ripped chunks of flesh out of the dragon’s back. When it dislodged me, I hit the ground and rolled to my feet, jumping back into the fight. The damage I’d done to the dragon’s spine had slowed it down too much for it to counter effectively. Its arms trembled, unable to hold themselves up. Its wings flared in the sunlight, but nothing intimidated me anymore. I wanted to destroy this dragon the same way I wanted to destroy all of the Inkscales for bringing so much death and destruction into my home. This was equally as much their fault as it was my father’s. My first act of defiance would be to kill this dragon.

The moment I got its throat in my jaws, I squeezed, taking unnatural pleasure in crushing the life out of it.

When the dragon collapsed to the ground, I backed away, staring at what I had done. I’d never killed anyone before. Not even when we’d raided the Mundy house and set it on fire—none of those deaths were on me. I’d just been a bystander. But this dragon, dead at my feet—this was all my doing. Without looking back at those watching, my wolf ejected me out of its body.

I knelt in the grass, naked and panting.

Within seconds, two sets of hands each grabbed my arms and hoisted me to my feet. They turned me around, facing me towards Gavin and Everett, whose eyes were hard and hateful. One after the other, they punched me hard in the face, dropping me to the grass again.

“Fucking bastard!” spat Gavin, kicking me in the stomach.

Everett pulled Gavin away. “Why did you follow us, Colt?”

Groaning, I propped myself up on my elbows and stared blearily at the men towering above me, then past them, at the stragglers of Mythguard—a few humans, unarmed, including that Sebastian Hicks guy—and the girls. Aislin. Billie. Kiara, with her hand over her mouth, unwilling to relent to her tears.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Gavin echoed incredulously. “After everything you’ve done, now you’re sorry?”

“I had no choice.”

“You always had a choice,” Everett fired back.

“He killed my sister,” I said hoarsely, glaring at Gavin, then looking at Everett. “What did you expect me to do? Forgive him and turn my back on the only family I had left?”

“Your father is a rapist,” snapped Gavin.

“And a killer,” added Everett.

“I said I’m fucking sorry!” Breathing hard, I sat up straighter, desperately trying to climb to my feet.

Gavin lunged to attack me again, but Everett stopped him and guided his attention to Kiara, who was grimacing from the pain through our fated bond.

I stood up and let my arms hang limp, too much of my body aching for me to clutch any one part of myself. “Look. I know nothing I do or say can excuse the past; I just…watched it happen. I can’t take back that I tried to mark Billie. I can’t…undo what we did to Aislin’s family. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I let it happen. But I don’t want to be a part of it anymore. I can’t…keep…standing by…watching people suffer…”

The men stared hard at me.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me. You don’t even have to let me live. I know Mythguard are planning to exterminate me. I just wanted you to know I…I don’t want to be like my father. Please believe me.”

By following them, I had resigned myself to death. Mythguard would kill me on the spot, or if they spared my life, they would relocate me somewhere far from here. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that I escaped from Dalesbloom. I couldn’t be responsible for my father’s madness anymore.

Gavin and Everett retreated, sharing quiet words with the girls and Sebastian. I wiped the blood out of my eyes and forced myself to square my shoulders. As much as I tried to separate myself from my fated mate, I couldn’t help but glance at her, and when I saw she was looking at me, my chest quivered. Her eyes were red and puffy. She looked devastated, like the world had just been ripped away from her, and all I wanted was to hold her close. I wanted to atone for every terrible thing I had caused her to experience.

After what felt like an eternity, Everett and Gavin turned back to me. Billie gazed sadly over at me while Aislin frowned, displeased.

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