Page 125 of Red's Beast

“Corbin, until I have to fulfill my part of the agreement with you, consider the tension as being caused by anger. Okay? My wolf is riding me hard because she knows I need a mate for the pack and she’s not happy it is you. Until we exchange marks, I will not crave you or want you.”

I turn and quickly walk toward the shed without looking back. Once I find the ax, I pick it up and then I feel him behind me again. When I turn around, he has his hands up with his eyes locked onto the ax.

"Don't swing that at me. I just want to talk."

"Depending on what you say determines if I'll swing this ax at you. I don't know that you'd recover from a severed head." Ismile, my canines lengthening at the thoughts of carrying out my plans.Oh, how I would love it and it's no one's fault but his.

"Look, I know how we were in the past, but I think we'd be great together. Do you really want to bring the beast home? Think about it for a moment. Right now, he is off in some other world and probably happy.”

“He’s with his family, but they all deserve to be here. Why wouldn’t we bring him back?”

“And do what? Though I don’t know everything about the curse, I know they are from two hundred years ago, right? Their family would be dead by now, so it’s just them. Do you really want to bring him back with them? What is going to happen then? They’re going to be angry if he comes home, just to stay in the woods because that is what you are dooming him to. He will have to watch you lose feelings for him. Not only that, he is going to watch you grow old with me and have children while his family ages as well. Your life will go on while he rots in the woods. Then when you pass, he will mourn you. At least if he is in that other realm, then he gets to live with his family until who knows when. They don’t have to suffer.”

"He deserves to be home just as much as we do. So does his family. No one deserves to be sent to a realm like that.”

I turn with the ax in my grasp and head for the trees near the shed with Corbin hot on my heels. “He’s just going to haunt the woods, Lillian. He won’t even be a man. Don’t you think you’re doing him a small kindness by leaving him somewhere elsewhere he doesn’t have to watch you be with someone else? Think about his family. He has to watch them die too and then he’ll truly be alone in the woods. Why would you want to doom him to that life?”

I pause in my steps near a tree and drop the ax to the ground. Everything Corbin says is true. If he doesn’t mark me like I hope, then Corbin gets me and I doom Lucian to a life in the woods without anyone here. He will watch everyone grow old and die and never know true happiness.

At least if I leave him in the other realm, then he gets to stay with his family, where he is loved and roaming freely in a world that looks like this one.

It’s going to hurt him either way.

"I don't know how to respond to that."

"You know what I'm saying is true. Why can't you just mate with me and be done with it? We could start our lives now and rule this pack as it should be. I'll even let you take the lead on new policies and things my father wouldn't budge on. Would it be so bad to be with me? I don’t have to be the villain in your story."

I turn, only to catch him coming closer, so I take one step and brush against the tree. “How do you expect me to believe you? After all you have done, you think a few sweet words will make me fall for you? I tried, Corbin. Right before the full moon, I convinced myself that I could dim myself down for you, but that isn’t the case. This is me. I’m an alpha and I will not submit.”

Corbin has never been one to give in. So when he falls to his knees before me, his hands outstretched, I feel like I might lose it.

“Maybe I am a tortured soul who has a horrible family history and grew up without being shown how to love. You’re not the only one who was abused while my father was alpha, Lillian.”

Slowly, he strips off his shirt and throws it to the ground. For the first time, I look past the muscle and the way he looks and see the tiny scars all over his chest.

“Take a good look, Lillian. Truly look at me. Do you see all these scars? Do you see how many there are? It’s more than you or I can count. Some are repeats from multiple strikes in the same spot. So, tell me, little alpha, are you the only one who faced his wrath?”

“No,” I whisper.

I’m in complete disbelief. Though I’ve seen him shirtless on a handful of occasions, I have never seen him quite like this.

He stands and turns, showing me his back. “Look across my left shoulder blade around the wolf tattoo.”

“These weren’t there earlier.”

“Yes, they were and have been. You just never took the time to notice them,” he says as he turns around to face me. “All I’m asking for is redemption.”

“Redemption, even now, seems too good for you. You are so much like your father. How can I forgive you and give you redemption when you have treated me so horribly?”

He closes the gap between us, his arms encircling my waist and pulling me until I’m flush against his chest. “I’m begging you to take me as your mate and I will give you everything you’ll ever want. Can’t you at least think about it?”

I’m appalled by the way he holds me. It actually feels warm and somewhat pleasant, but it disgusts me to even enjoy it. This man, who once told me I would serve him on my hands and knees, is now begging me for his redemption.

Does his desperation to have me know no bounds? What is he thinking or is he?”

“Begging me won’t work.”

"If I have to, I will. I'll do anything to be with you."

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