Page 114 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

The sound of footsteps on the dungeon’s cobbled floors reached me, and I raised my head, hoping for help of any kind.

The person was heading right toward my cell, keys in hand.

“Micah,” I breathed, and my former best friend smiled at me.

CHAPTER 19

ELEANOR

Iwas drowning.

Drowning under waves of anger, confusion, and a deep-seated fear that today would be the day I lost him.

My mate.

An image of Alexander flashed through my mind: hair as dark as night, stormy ocean blue eyes I could drown in, lips I longed to feel against mine, and a body that could drive a woman to sin.

Alexander, with his cutting words and contradictorily gentle actions.

My mate, who’d hidden so much from me. Who’d apparently altered my memory, as crazy as that sounded. My mate, who had a lot to answer for, but to whom I wanted to apologize.

I had to get to him.

But first, I needed to survive this.

“I have your penchant for desiring men who aren’t yours to thank for my freedom.” Micah’s smile was as vicious as it was sweet. “Anastasia sends her regards.”

The door shut ominously behind her as she stepped into my small cell.

Anastasia had set Micah free. I doubted it was out of goodwill.

“Now, it’s just you and me,” Micah crooned, a familiar glint in her eyes. “Just like old times.”

The last time I’d seen that look on her face was the night before my bonding ceremony.

The night everything had gone to hell.

It felt like an entire lifetime had passed since then, not just a handful of months.

But unlike that night, I could read that look. Micah had made her decision.

She was here to kill me.

“Micah, please—” I started, but she didn’t let me finish.

“Did you know my grandfather was the wolf your grandfather deposed to steal his position of alpha?”

The shock that raced through me was almost enough to shatter my concentration as I subtly tested the give of the silver manacles around my wrists and my eyes assessed the length of my chains.

Micah tilted her head to the side, her gaze bitter and distant as she spoke.

“Some days when I listened to a lucky bastard complain about how shitty her privileged life was, I wondered what could have been if my grandfather had won that challenge. If my inheritance had been something other than a failed bloodline.”

So our entire friendship had been a lie from the beginning. However, instead of betrayal, I felt…pity.

How lonely must it have been for Micah to be so caught up in her own bitterness and resentment that she could never let anyone in?

“I never knew that,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”

---