Page 104 of Alpha Ruined

He nods. “We’ve been gardening together since I was a child. And when we weren’t doing that, we were tending to cats.”

The kitten continues to drink with Cole’s gentle guidance while Bree struggles to wrap her mind around what he said.

“She’s about four weeks old. She could eat wet food, but she prefers the bottle.”

“She?”

He nods. “It’s incredibly rare for an orange cat to be female.”

She blinks, shocked that he’s dropping random kitten facts after blasting her neighbor with a shotgun.

Stunned that he can be so gentle after everything he’s done.

“Do you want to try feeding her?” he asks, his voice low.

She doesn’t know what she wants anymore.

But they’re bonded, now.

So, she tentatively nods, and he joins her at the edge of the bed.

“When did you get all this stuff?” she asks him as she peers at the kitten. Its tiny face is covered in milk, and it looks up at her, letting out a soft meow.

“While you were sleeping. I went to the animal hospital in Elmwood and asked them for supplies.”

He hands her the kitten, and Bree cradles it in her lap.

“Like this,” Cole murmurs, reaching over and guiding her hands. In seconds, she’s bottle feeding it, delighted at the suckling noises the kitten makes.

It’s a far cry from what happened hours ago.

They sit there in silence, Cole watching her as the kitten takes its fill until it unlatches from the bottle and closes its eyes in bliss. He takes the kitten and bundles it back into the blankets tenderly.

It makes her heart ache.

“You owe me the truth,” she says lowly when he turns back to her. “All of it.”

He nods. “Ask me anything you want.”

He takes her hand, and she doesn’t stop him. Their bond sings, and a sense of completion fills her at his touch.

She swallows. “Are you responsible for the murders in Elmwood and the others near there?”

She wants more than anything for the answer to be no.

If her mate is a serial killer…

His eyes soften. “Yes.”

Her gut churns and her blood turns to ice. She puts a hand to her mouth and closes her eyes, trying not to let a sob escape.

Her mate is a serial killer.

The man she’s tied to, her Alpha, is a killer.

She wants to scream.

“How many people have you killed?” she chokes out.

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