Page 39 of Fated to the Enemy Alpha

He knows everything.

I fumbled for something to save me. “And I suppose I organized the attack on us on the way to the airport? The one I almost died in.”

“Damn right, you did,” Stephen said, fire blazing through his eyes as he stared me down. “The day of the attack, Magnus informed me the van our attackers used was leased through Boden, a company we’ve linked to the shadow company before, one I just saw listed in these files. So, yes, you organized that attack to divert suspicion from you,” he said unquestionably.

Shit. I’m completely exposed.

He ran a hand through his jet-black hair so that it looked distractingly tousled. I thought bitterly that even now when all my instincts should be on my survival, he still managed to get under my skin.

“So that’s it, is it? Now, you sell me out to Magnus?” I blurted out.

He flinched, his looming figure suddenly deflating. “Of course not,” he said as if he’d never put his father’s interests above mine.

Anger flared through me, and I laughed bitterly. “Sure. After all, you don’t have a track record for putting your father’s needs above mine.”

Urgency pounded through me. I needed to alert Emily and Matthew to take Betty and escape before Stephen could sound the alarm. But as I began to move, he quickly blocked my path, his arms boxing me in. He’d rolled up his shirt sleeves earlier when cooking, and his muscular arms, covered with black hair, had me as distracted as I’d been at the dinner table.

“Wait. You don’t need to run again,” His voice was firm yet pained, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “You never need to run from me. I couldn’t intervene between you and Magnus years ago because—”

“Because your duty to your father, despite the bastard he is, won over me,” I interrupted, my voice rising as I buried the pain behind fury.

Stephen’s green gaze flashed with fire. “I stayed by his side because he killed my mother, Lina.”

The weight of his words slammed into me like an avalanche, burying my thoughts and leaving me dizzy. Whatever I’d anticipated, it wasn’t this. “What?”

“The last nine years, I’ve been gaining his trust, all so that I can pull his world apart like he did mine when he killed Charlotte Blackthorn, my mother and our pack’s alpha.”

I saw it then, the flicker of grief mixed with righteous fire in his gaze as the past descended. The urge to soothe that pain was all-consuming and I reached out, my hand going to his arm, which brought him back to me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know.”

I knew his mother had passed away. Given my extensive research on everything Magnus related, Charlotte Blackthorn’s death was just a fact like any other, and it was easy to find out online. But I hadn’t known she’d been murdered by Magnus, her own husband.

“Lina, I should have told you back then. But…” his expression softened as he frowned, the lines of worry now tracing his handsome face, “I was so consumed by vengeance that I…hurt you. I’m sorry. So sorry.”

In that moment, as he gazed down at me with such heartfelt longing, I felt myself melting under his honesty. My breath caught in my throat. Could it really be true? The years I had believed he’d chosen an allegiance with Magnus over my safety weren’t true.

I knew something of being consumed by vengeance. Hadn’t that been my driving motivation against Magnus these last five years, too? To enact revenge for my parents’ murders, just as my motivation was to rescue my mother from Magnus now that I knew she was alive.

At the thought of my mom, I needed to be sure that Stephen hadn’t been keeping that from me. The worry that he had been aware of that had gnawed at me over the last month and secured the belief that he was just like his father.

I ventured my own truth, “Emily, Matthew, and I hacked Blackthorn Corporation network and found footage of my mother. Magnus has been keeping her prisoner since the attack at the mate ceremony. That’s why I came back to New York. I need to save her.”

I watched shock flicker over his face. He hadn’t known. No one was that good a liar. I knew we were both skilled at harboring secrets, but the look of astonishment, swiftly followed by an intense look, told me he hadn’t known. The certainty that he wasn’t his father’s son had the rush of warmth and attraction filling me again.

“We’ll find her, Lina, I promise,” Stephen vowed. That vengeful light in his eyes returned, and yet the warmth remained as that word “we” resonated between us.

Stephen’s own path of vengeance wasn’t so different than mine. Unknowingly, we’d been sharing that path. I felt as if my mission was reflected in the fire burning in his gaze, tightening his taut shoulders, and threading through his arms. My body pounded with adrenaline, and there was a rush of blood in my ears as I finally realized we had been united in our goal from the very beginning.

As I allowed the thought to fill me, I whispered, “So, we both want revenge?”

His green gaze smoldered with an intensity that sent shivers down my spine, the heat pooling deep in my lower belly. “I want revenge, Darlin’, but for a long time now, I’ve wanted you even more.”

The confession made my heart gallop. A blush crept across my cheeks as my hands slid up his strong arms, tracing the taut muscles beneath his shirt. The memories of our shared moments flooded back, and I was swept up in the realization that he was choosing me over everything else.

The look of hunger on his face made my knees feel weak.

I felt the warmth radiating from his body as desire hung heavy and thick between us. “I’ve never stopped wanting you,” I admitted, allowing myself to be exposed beneath his searching gaze.

---