Page 111 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

“No. That’s not possible.” I shook my head, even though I’d come to a similar conclusion. This couldn’t be the end for us.

Besides, he saidallthe firstborn sons, right? Someone would have noticed if every alpha of the Nightshade Pack died at thirty. Besides…

“Your uncle lived past thirty, and he was a firstborn son,” I reminded Dylan.

Elena had given me a rundown on the Nightshade Pack’s history in the days before my mating ceremony with Dylan.

And from what I could remember, Alpha Maximus, Dylan and Alexander’s father, had only taken up the position of alpha after the death of his older brother, who’d died young and without an heir, but had definitely surpassed thirty.

Dylan shrugged like my words meant nothing.

“That’s because after Bernard acquired his power, he wanted to live longer. So he revisited the piety, and she gave him a solution that was almost as terrible as the initial curse…but it worked, and he lived out his normal lifespan.”

I should have been ecstatic that there was a way to save Alexander. But why couldn’t I shake the feeling that I didn’t really want to know what that solution was?

Maybe it was the fact that Dylan was so readily offering up the information, while Alexander had done everything to hide it.

“What was it?” I asked. “The solution.”

“It’s the reason Alexander marked a woman he despised.” Dylan’s expression grew darker as his gaze turned inward. “He spoke big when he left the alpha heir position. Claimed he wasdifferentfrom the firstborn sons before him. That he would accept his fate. Then his thirtieth year rolled along, and he stole my bride.”

Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for Dylan’s next words.

“The solution the piety gave the Hawthornes was death—a life for a life. The Hawthornes had exchanged their lifespan for power, so to live longer, someone else would need to pay the price for the terrible power they’d been given.

“But not just any life would work for this sacrifice,” Dylan continued, his gaze focused on me as he delivered the cruel truth. “It had to be a partner who loved them. If this partner who loved them died, naturally or not, before their thirtieth birthday, they would retain both their powers and their lifespan.”

Dylan kept talking, saying something about how he’d wanted to tell me this from the beginning, but I was no longer listening to him.

My mind was too busy replaying every moment Alexander had pushed me away. From refusing to touch me during my heat, to coldly pushing me away, to his cruel words after every bonding moment, he’d continuously put up walls between us.

All the while knowing that he had less than six months left, and his only hope of survival was for me to fall in love with him and die in his place.

He should have been cozying up to me, acting like he was madly in love with me, putting up a front to make me fall in love with him.

Instead, in our last argument, he’d been as vicious as ever.

I don’t want you at my side. No matter what you believe, Eleanor, it doesn’t change the fact that I. Don’t. Want. You.

Then he’d said even more hurtful words, breaking my heart all over again.

Those weren’t the actions of a man trying to save himself by sacrificing me.

Can you try to trust him? For my sake?

I recalled Seraphina’s words and the way she’d trembled as she spoke. I realized Seraphina had known as well. And she’d known Alexander wouldn’t let me sacrifice myself in his stead.

You make me want things I have no business wanting, Eleanor.

That night, when he’d said those words, I’d been equal parts elated and confused. Elated because he’d finally admitted he wanted me. Confused at the depth of sorrow in his voice.

“Do you see it now?” Dylan said, once again misunderstanding my silence. “He’s been manipulating you into falling for him so that he can sacrifice you. He wants to stay alive no matter the cost, like all the Hawthornes before him.”

But that was the thing. He hadn’t.

“Even the feelings you think you have for him are fake, Eleanor,” Dylan continued eagerly when I stayed silent. “Every firstborn son has a unique gift in addition to the other powers they inherit. Alexander’s is psychic. He has short-term memory manipulation.”

I lifted my eyes to meet Dylan’s as he explained what that Alexander could alter recent memories before they were stored as long-term memories in the brain.

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