Page 91 of The Alpha's Cursed Queen

“What’s that?”

“It’s something only wolf shifters have the ability to do. Witches have their own version of it. It’s a form of magic. It ties the life of the person who takes the oath to his words. That person cannot lie. If he takes the blood oath, he will tell you the truth about any situation. It’s an ancient ritual, but it’s still practiced to thisday. Not a lot of people use it, though, because it’s very painful. If Darian wants to talk to you, make him take a blood oath.”

I walk into the living room, unable to discuss this any longer. But Mary follows me.

“I mean it, Alice.”

I turn around and glare at her. “It’s not going to happen. Me and Darian having any sort of conversation is not going to happen. I don’t know why you’re so hell-bent on this. I don’t need closure. I don’t need to forgive him to move on. I don’t care if he has a sad life. I don’t care if he cries in bed every night. I don’t care if he has lived in hell for the last seven years. I am not forgiving him, and I am not having a conversation with him.”

Mary rolls her eyes. “If only you were as hard-hearted as that. It would make things easier for both of us. But you’re not. It bothers you, and I can see it. I’ve known you long enough to be able to read your expressions. It upsets you and troubles you that Darian is suffering. You are not unaffected by what he said to you tonight. But—”

She holds her hands up in a pacifying manner when I open my mouth.

“I understand,” she tries to convince me. “You don’t have to forgive him. I wanted you to have all the facts, and you sort of do now. The only thing left is to ask him what happened, and if you don’t want to do that, it’s fine. I won’t push you anymore.”

I give her a suspicious look, and she shrugs.

“What you said is true, Alice. I don’t know what it’s like to stand in your shoes, no matter how much I try. I respect whatever you decide to do.”

I rub my hands over my face. “I’m going to bed. I’m tired. You can clean up the kitchen when you’re done.”

She doesn’t argue with me or tell me to stop. But as I retreat to my bedroom, I can feel her eyes boring holes in my back.

Irritated, I get into bed and pull the blankets up around me. When I close my eyes, all I can see is Darian’s stricken expression as I raised my voice at him tonight, as I told him what he’d put me through. I can’t forget the torment in his gaze.

“It’s good. He should suffer,” I mutter to myself. “I don’t care. I don’t care at all.”

Despite how tired I am, it takes hours for me to finally fall asleep. When I do, I fall into dreams of Darian telling me to listen to him as I shove his head underwater.

Chapter 18

Darian

“I wanted to think that there was somebody out there who could love me.”

“If you loved me, if you cared for me, you would’ve stopped that mockery, but you didn’t.”

The sky is gray, reflecting my dismal mood. As I stroll through the park, Alice’s words and her tears haunt me. I believed that if I could get a reaction out of her, if I could get her mask to break in front of me, I would feel better. I would work with that and convince her to forgive me. But her words stripped me raw.

Did I make a mistake back then? Should I have sent her away immediately when I found out the truth? Would that have saved the two of us from endless amounts of heartbreak?

It doesn’t matter how much I think about it. Torturing myself won’t change anything.

It’s been a few days since the collaboration dinner. Katherine has been noticeably cool to me during our interactions, but I can’t find it in myself to care. My thoughts are too consumed with Alice. I had been angry when I forced her to attend the dinner, but when I saw her in the hall, looking so beautiful, my wolf whimpered in loneliness. Not having Alice in my life hasbeen the hardest thing ever. But now, she’s so close, and not being able to see her or talk to her is killing me.

When she yelled at me that night, I realized I did not care whether she had been with another man and whether she had given her heart to him. I had looked into the matter of her deceased husband, and the discrepancies were obvious. If anybody with half a brain had done their research, her story would’ve fallen apart. I had already begun to suspect that Paul had been made up or perhaps a husband in name only. Or maybe she had slept with him once and conceived her daughter. But never had I imagined that she had taken a number of lovers.

I can’t say it doesn’t bother me. That it was so easy for her to move on from me feels horrible. I was the first man she was with, and then I pushed her into the arms of so many others.

The sound of children playing is fuzzy background noise to me as I sit on a bench in the park. I needed to get some fresh air or I would have gone insane in that hotel room, thinking of the pain in Alice’s eyes. The collaboration with Pinnacle Group is very important for my corporation, but I have not been able to focus on it. The whole reason I chose to make a personal appearance here in Phoenix was to build a relationship with Katherine and her company because their products have worldwide recognition. But business is the last thing on my mind right now.

The way she screamed at me, that broken edge to Alice’s voice—it all haunts me.

If I could just explain. If I could just tell her what happened. If she would just listen to me.

It wouldn’t change anything,the voice in my head whispers. My explanation will not erase the past, like she said. It won’t remove the scars from her soul.

If I had known what was going to happen in that ballroom, the vicious extent of it, I would have taken Alice away from there. But then, Willow’s nails dug into my arm. When I tried to move, she silently reminded me what was at stake. All I could do was watch while the woman I loved suffered.

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