Page 83 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

I refused to accept it.

I lashed out at West, but he bore my attacks stoically as he lifted me off the ground and carried me away from the podium where my mate’s whipping was about to begin.

“If you insist.” Micah shrugged and nodded at the wolves who would carry out the sentence.

They approached Alexander, each of them holding a barbed whip in their hands.

Alexander stood still, his eyes on the now-silent crowd.

“Please let me go,” I begged West.

I would take the damn punishment; I would apologize to Micah. Anything at all, so long as nothing happened to Alexander.

West’s hold on me didn’t budge.

“I’m sorry, Eleanor.”

The square was so quiet now that I could hear my uncontrollable sobs as the whip hissed down to Alexander’s back and came away bloody.

My mate didn’t flinch. His gray eyes found mine across the crowd that separated us.

“One,” the wolf counted.

CHAPTER 14

ALEXANDER

Fragments of memories drifted in and out of my mind.

The sensation of Eleanor’s silky hair slipping through my fingers, the sublime heat of her lips on mine, the fire in her emerald eyes as she came apart in my arms.

My brother’s mate had threatened the life of the person who was most important to me. She’d have to die for that, but first, I needed to regain control of my thoughts and my body.

I should have been as far away as possible from Eleanor in this volatile state, but my mind was so messed up that I couldn’t make myself pull on a change of clothes and leave.

I’d drawn too much from the part of me I’d sworn off, and now I had to face the consequences.

It was no longer a question of if I would break, but when.

My bed dipped and when my eyes flashed open, Eleanor was sitting next to me, a first aid kit in her hands.

I bolted to my feet and put as much distance between us as I could.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I growled.

I saw Eleanor flinch at the viciousness in my tone, even though her expression straightened out almost immediately. There was no sign of her earlier tears.

“You refused to send for the physicians,” she said dryly. Then, with steady hands, she began to unpack the first aid kit.

“Don’t bother,” I bit out, fighting the irrational urge to close the distance between us and bury my nose in her nape to reassure myself that she was fine.

Even though it had been an emergency, I shouldn’t have left her defenseless and alone.

Eleanor pulled out the bandages as if she couldn’t hear me. She didn’t realize that the one in danger here wasn’t me…it was her.

A regular wolf would’ve died or had to recover for weeks from that sort of torture.

Not me.

---