Page 99 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

“Weaknesses?” I’m trying to follow him, to think past this fog of fear and worry.

“Ever since Willow discovered that you have the dark witch bloodline, you have been my weakness. Both her and the white witches have used it to their advantage to get their way. Now, with Mira, they will have two weaknesses to use against me.”

Darian lets go of me and sighs. He looks weary, as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders. I have to stop myself from touching him. He tucks his hands in his pockets, and for the first time, I see his head droop.

“Willow was convinced I’d grow to love her once she got me in her bed and I gave her my mating mark. She was cocky, arrogant, and she tried to woo me. She did everything she could think of, even dyeing her hair the same color as yours. On our wedding night, she discovered that I had no intention of ever touching her. She couldn’t force me to sleep with her. She tried threatening you again, but I told her that if she went after you, no matter where you were, I’d publicly divorce her.”

His back is to me now, almost as if he can’t look me in the eye.

“All this time, the only reason she has sat on that throne beside me is because it was the only way I knew to stop her from looking for you. The white witches wanted to instate Willow as the queen for reasons unknown to me. What I do know is that Thomas Elvin has had dealings with them that span years. But if Willow or the coven knew how to get to you, they would have captured you years ago, and Mira with you.”

When I don’t say anything, he turns around to face me.

“I should’ve handled that situation better. I should’ve done something, even if it meant involving my father. But I felt cornered because Willow had already contacted the white witches before confronting me. Even if I had gotten rid of her, the white witches were already aware of your existence, and they would have done something to you. All of this is my fault, Alice, but I need to do the right thing now. Surviving without you has been hard. It’s been next to impossible. I’ve been existing, but I haven’t been living. The day I first saw you again, it felt like the chains that had been holding me down finally broke. It felt like I could breathe again.”

He sits down on the bench now and looks up at me.

“I never ripped out our fated mate bond. I never gave Willow my mark. The bond between us let me know you were alive somewhere because I could feel it. Even when I began to convince myself that you were gone and that I was just imagining the bond’s existence, it was still a source of comfort. I—I know you spent all these years hating me. I spent them breaking over and over again, living an incomplete life, reliving what took place in the ballroom in my nightmares, feeling like I had killed you with my own hands.”

My heart is beating at an uncomfortable pace, the wealth of pain in his quiet voice fueling my own. “Why not make it easy on yourself? Why not just give Willow the mating mark? You didn’t have to live like this.”

The flicker of anguish in his eyes shows me the torment this man has endured for years, and it has me blinking away tears. “I could never willingly touch the woman who put you through thathell. She laughed about it later, on the day of our wedding. She warned me during the ritual that if I so much as lifted a finger to help you, the witches would kill you. She made me her puppet to hurt you. I may have been the prince, but I was helpless. And you suffered as a result.”

I sit down beside Darian, staring straight ahead, tears burning in my eyes but not yet falling. “But you did marry her. She got what she wanted.”

Darian’s smile is cold now, humorless and empty. “No, she didn’t. She thought she’d won. Two birds, one stone, right? She got rid of you, but she has never gotten more than a title from me. She isn’t allowed in my bed. She isn’t allowed to touch me. She has no power in the royal palace. Even the servants detest her. She tried to punish them once, and I punished her. She spent a week in the dungeons without food and water for striking a servant, and then two weeks for attempting to fire Jimmy.”

I can see out of the corner of my eye that he is looking at me, but I do not respond.

“I haven’t made life easy for her, Alice. She has become a laughing stock in the kingdom because it is obvious to everybody that she doesn’t have the king’s favor. I’m being harassed by alphas and betas who are parading their daughters in front of me in the hope that I may choose a mistress or another queen. There are rumors that Willow is unable to conceive. Still, she is persistent. She believes I will roll over eventually. But she can’t do anything. She can’t use you against me because you aren’t there.”

“But if she finds out about Mira—”

“I’ll protect you both this time,” Darian vows, his tone dark and heavy. “Alice, I need to be in Mira’s life. I’m going to divorce Willow, but if you don’t want to expose Mira to the Wolf Kingdom, I won’t force you. It’s probably safer at the moment, anyway. But I need her to know that her father didn’t abandon her. I’ll do whatever you say; you have my word. I want to get to know her.”

I could say no, but despite my better judgement, I’m once again being dragged into this whirlpool of emotions that I thought I escaped a long time ago.

When I’m silent again, he says, “Alice?”

“She has never asked about her father,” I finally murmur. “But she will. I know her. She’s smart. I don’t want her to think that she was abandoned, like I was by my parents. I know how that feels when the people you love turn their backs on you, leaving you wondering if the fault lay in you, whether you weren’t enough. I don’t want her to think that, ever.”

“I won’t hurt her,” Darian says in a low voice. “I want to meet her properly. I want to love her, spoil her, be in her life in every way.”

My hands twist together nervously. “This—If I let you meet her, it doesn’t mean anything has changed between us. I’m not—I’m too badly messed up inside, Darian. I only have room in my heart for Mira. That’s all. There’s no space for anybody else. So, if you think that once you divorce Willow, things will work out for you and me, they won’t. I will always be waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

He’s quiet for a few seconds before asking, “And what if I prove to you that it won’t? Will you give me another chance then?”

I look over at Mira, who is sitting on one of the swings as Jimmy pushes her higher and higher. My daughter is laughing hysterically. For her, I would do anything.

“Just prove that you can be a good father to Mira, Darian. I won’t begrudge you taking another woman after Willow. I know you need an heir. You have every right to—”

“It’s either you or no one.” Darian’s voice is filled with finality.

“You want to be foolish, that’s on you. I’ve already told you: I’m not that person anymore, and I don’t have room in my life for anyone.” I get to my feet. “I understand what happened, Darian, but I can’t undo the damage that resulted.”

He also stands up, and before I can stop him, he seizes me by the waist, pulling me toward him in a kiss so heated that my toes curl. For one moment, one glorious, dazed moment, it’s just him and me, one of his hands on my back, the other in my hair, holding me to him. His mouth is hot and wet, and it shoots a spark of need to my lower belly.

Just one kiss, and I feel the wet desire in my panties.

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