Page 19 of Forced By the Alpha

“Stay awake,” I reminded him. “You said the bloodlust took over? What happened next?”

“I can’t remember,” he said with a sigh. “But when I came to, I was face-down in a field, next to the dead animals I killed.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been hard,” I said quietly.

“Not the hardest thing I’ve dealt with before,” he replied wryly.

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. Anyone would feel guilt finding out that they killed something without remembering the attack.”

“Stop,” Franco commanded harshly.

I obeyed and stopped cleansing him immediately. The alpha order left me no choice. My hands were covered in soap and blood as I stared at him with wide eyes, unsure of how to proceed.

“Not that,” he sighed. “You can keep washing me, if you want. I mean that you need to stop looking for humanity where there is none. Any sense of compassion I once had died a long time ago.”

I returned my hands to his chest and continued washing him, pondering his statement.

“I don’t believe that,” I told him quietly. “You’re not as broken as you think.”

“Or maybe you just don’t know my whole story. Did Killian ever tell you about our childhood?”

“No.”

“Looking back, I’m not sure who had it easier. Our mother was a weak woman with a terrible taste in men. My father abused all three of us until my mother took Killian away and left me behind. That was when my father began to pay attention to me for something beyond a body to punch when he had drunk too much. I was always a fighter, like him, and he decided to turn me into a miniature version of himself: hard, cold, and evil,” Franco spat.

“Your wrist is broken,” I said. “This is going to hurt.”

I said my spell again, and a small pop emanated from Franco’s wrist as he swore.

“How’s that feel now?” I asked.

“Better,” he said with another sigh of relief.

“What happened with your father?”

“After twelve years of waiting, he finally died,” Franco continued. “I took over the pack exactly as he planned. By that time, I had spiraled into self-loathing and hate, along with the rest of the pack, who had been forced to do my father’s bidding for so long. We weren’t a large pack, and I decided we should move away and start afresh. As rogues, we traveled around the country, taking what we wanted and not caring much about the consequences. Our only rule was that we didn’t mess with women or children. Even hell-raisers have boundaries.”

“And Killian joined you?” I pressed.

“I found him when he was part of the Moonstone pack. I had found a place where I thought we could settle permanently, but my beta had just died. I needed someone I trusted to help me fight the wolves who were already in the area. But Ki couldn’thandle everything I asked of him and left me again,” Franco said bitterly.

“I’m sorry,” I replied. “I couldn’t imagine having any of my siblings leave me behind.”

“Half-sibling,” he corrected me with a shrug of attempted indifference. He winced at the movement when it irritated his recently healed collarbone.

“I think you’re clean if you want to get out now,” I said, grabbing a towel. “There are some smaller injuries that I’m going to put a salve on. I’ll grab it while you get dressed.”

I took my time grabbing the small potion I had stored in the kitchen as Franco dried himself off and got dressed. The last thing I wanted was to walk in on him changing, but I had a feeling he would need help getting to the bed.

“Are you decent?” I asked, knocking on the door.

“Never have been,” he joked. “But I’m dressed, if that’s what you mean.”

The door opened, and Franco leaned on me as I walked him toward his room and helped him into bed.

“Don’t fall asleep yet. I still need to put this on you,” I said, uncapping the bottle. “Keep going with your story.”

“You won’t like this next part,” he warned.

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