Page 25 of The Alpha's Rejected Arranged Mate

“It was your mother’s last wish,” Rosemary added quickly.

Finn didn’t look at them. Nothing about what Seth said surprised him. He’d have done the same.

“We spent a month in a standoff,” Seth spat.

His voice continued to shake, and Finn got the sudden mental image of the former Alpha holding a knife in hand, repeatedly plunging it into Finn’s chest with every word. It certainly seemed that he was trying to cause pain.

“By then, it became clear you were a normal baby. You weren’t growing at a freakish rate,” Seth continued, and his voice softened, losing its sharp edge. “You weren’t a demon. It should have made me feel better, knowing my sister hadn’t died for nothing. She’d died for her son, who looked so much like her. It made everything worse. If Rosemary hadn’t stepped in, I would have killed Beth’s baby… for nothing.”

Ah, so he did feel guilty. For wanting to do something he didn’t do. Finn slumped in his seat. The smell of the pasta Elin had cooked wafted up from the table, but the thought of eating at all made him sick to his stomach. All that work for nothing.

“So you couldn’t kill me. But you also couldn’t stand to look at me,” Finn supplied. His tone was matter-of-fact like they were discussing the weather.

“More or less,” Seth agreed.

Rosemary sighed. “This must be very difficult for you to hear. I’m sorry that—”

“I don’t want apologies,” Finn interrupted, wincing. He didn’t want empathy, either, not from them at least. “It’s not important. The only reason I came back looking for answers was because we needed more information on the demons. We need to find a way to drive them off for good instead of continually putting out fires as they pop up.”

“Don’t speak to her in that tone,” Seth said.

Elin reached a hand out toward him. “How about we focus? Tone policing during an intense conversation isn’t going to help. Let’s all take a deep breath and drink some water, okay?”

Finn grabbed his water as a show of solidarity.

“We put you in that orphanage so we could keep an eye on you,” Rosemary murmured. “We made sure that you would receive the care you needed. We wanted you to be close.”

Seth downed his water in one gulp, his expression clearly stating that the ‘we’ was false. “None of that matters. Not if you’re really here to fight the demons. Because Dukiel is back. And he’s looking for you.

Finn put down his glass untouched. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“When Dukiel came back with his little army of rogues, he demanded that we hand you over to him. ‘Give me my son,’ he said.” Seth glared at Finn as though it was his fault for being born. “Apparently, he created you to be the perfect host to house his true form. His current host is failing, and he needs a replacement.

“That’s what he wanted. That’s why he seduced and killed Beth. To create a body that could house an archdemon without falling apart.”

Chapter 12 - Elin

A Luna’s job was to balance out the Alpha. To show compassion against his justice, to provide care, and to calm his anger. Balance. It was of the utmost importance, which meant a Luna had to calm her own emotions and focus on her innate nurturing to fulfill her role. It was the one thing Elin thought she would be good at, swallowing her anger to be a silent support for Finn, even when he didn’t want it.

Right now, though, she was finding it particularly difficult not to let her anger explode. Her wolf, normally shy, cowardly even, snarled with bristling fur. It wasn’t as though she wanted to resort to physical violence, but she would dearly have made some grand speech that left Seth—and Rosemary, to a much lesser extent—a sniveling wreck begging Finn’s forgiveness.

He’d abandoned Finn for all these years and had made him suffer through the pain of not knowing his own history. Worse, denied him having a family when his blood family didn’t even want him. And all for what? To punish him for existing, something he didn’t get a say in?

And now he spat out Dukiel’s plans as though that was Finn’s fault, too. As though this wasn’t something that would terrify anyone, but especially someone who’d seen possessions first-hand!

“At the meeting, you said you have protections,” Rosemary quickly said. “Will they work against an archdemon?”

“We haven’t tested them,” Finn answered. “We know the exorcism works. But we haven’t had a chance to test the protections against an archdemon. We’ve always been under the impression that demons can’t possess me.”

Seth narrowed his eyes. “Would he create you to be the perfect host if you couldn’t be his host?”

“Don’t say that,” Elin snapped. They all turned to her. She jumped to her feet, slamming both her palms against the table. “You’ve already inflicted the worst sort of violence against my mate. Stop acting as though he’s somehow—”

“It’ll be a lot more violent when Dukiel claims that body as his host,” Seth answered, jumping to his feet as well. “If you know what demons are capable of, you should be more worried about what an archdemon will do once he’s no longer constrained by the bounds of a form that will fall apart if he releases too much of his power.”

“It’s not Finn’s fault. Stop treating him as though he’s a ticking time bomb!” Elin’s hands clenched into fists. Her wolf snarled even louder, pleased with her efforts to put this man in his place.

Finn tugged her back to her chair. His gaze remained locked on Seth, but his fingers curled around her wrist and stayed there. She couldn’t tell if it was protective or urging her to keep her cool. Given everything just unloaded on him, he seemed to be keeping a tight lid on his emotions. His mouth was pressed into a thin line, and his eyes were narrowed and hard, but he showed no sign that he was about to explode.

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