Page 81 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

The very core of me is trembling. “I’m not a monster, Alice,” I murmur, my wolf unhappy.

“To me, you are worse than a monster,” she responds softly.

I stare at her. A monster. All this time, that’s what she has thought.

I step toward her, a storm raging within me. “Everything I did that night was to protect you, Alice. I didn’t stand there laughing while they sealed your dark magic. I didn’t smile when you were screaming. You can call me many things, but a monster I am not. What I am is a selfish bastard. I wanted you to live. I didn’t want to lose you. If that meant I had to make a deal with the devil, then I did.”

Her face is white as a sheet, but she doesn’t back down. “Well, at least one thing you’ve said is true. You truly are a selfish bastard. I’m not naive anymore, Darian. I’m not going to believe everything you say. You had plenty to say before, and what did believing it get me? Just tell me why you’re here.”

I clench my jaw, the distrust in her eyes eating at me.

In response to my silence, she walks away from me again. I take the opportunity to pick up the framed photo that she hid from me. There’s no picture of her husband, just one of her and a small child in her arms.

When I look over at her, her eyes are filled with fear.

“Don’t worry, Alice,” I say bitterly. “I won’t hurt your child. Or you. I heard you married a human. Did you love him?”

She’s silent once again, and I move closer to her.

“Where did you meet him? If I broke your trust so badly, how were you able to trust him? Or was it one of those things where he knocked you up, so you had to marry him?” I’m getting angrier by the second just talking about the man who had everything I have ever wanted: the love of this woman who can never be mine. “According to your friend, Katherine, he was the love of your life. What about me? Am I nothing to you?”

She still doesn’t answer me.

“Well, what was it?” I roar, unable to control my emotions. “You simply moved on from me in a heartbeat? We were fated mates—”

“Fated mates, yes, and you took another woman into your bed.” Alice storms over to me, her eyes tense. “We were fated mates, and you led me around by the nose till you had the one thing I valued, my trust, and then you shattered it.” She shoves me backward, a vicious agony in her eyes. “We were fated mates, Darian, and you watched the woman you are now married to kick me in the face and humiliate me. Don’t make me laugh,” she spits out. “You wanted to punish me because the fates had made the mistake of pairing us together. Well, you got what you wanted. You broke me into so many pieces that I still can’t find them all. You did what nobody was able to do my whole life. You made me wish for death. Does that make you happy?”

She pushes me up against the wall now, and I see the cracks in her facade, the broken woman underneath.

“Did it please you to see me crawling on the ground, begging for mercy? Did it satisfy your anger? Are you here to do it all over again? Did you come here to hurt my daughter? To hurt me, using her? Because I will burn everything to the ground before I let you touch her. She is mine. She’s the only good thing in my life, and I’m not going to let you take her. You are the worst thing that ever happened to me, Darian Kassel. I wish I never met you. I despise you in my very core. If I have hated anyone in my life, it’s you.”

I stare at her, unable to speak, my mouth dry.

Before I can even process her words, the door opens, and her assistant appears, her face pale. She asks, “Miss Lane? Is everything okay? Should I call security?”

Alice glares at me, her chest heaving. Holding my gaze, she breathes, “No. Mr. Kassel was just leaving.”

I stare at her for a few more seconds before moving past her and out the door.

I walk out of the building and down the street. Without stopping, I head toward a park that I know leads into some woods. My pace turns into a run, and once I’m sure I’m away from any humans, I shift into my wolf form. I dash through the trees, trying to escape the agony, this horrific pain that is ripping me apart.

“You are the worst thing that ever happened to me, Darian Kassel.”

“If I have hated anyone in my life, it’s you.”

“I wish I never met you.”

A howl of misery leaves my throat. My wolf, broken-hearted, screams into the silent forest.

And it doesn’t stop.

Chapter 16

Alice

Holly is forcing me to drink the glass of water she thrust into my hand, but I just want to be left alone.

“Can I get you something else?” she asks anxiously. “Perhaps something to eat.”

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