Page 79 of Ruthlessly Mated
“You’re not my father, and you never will be,” I reply. “You’ve got your explosive heart. We’re done here, right?”
“You came into my home, you stole an artifact from me, you put yourself and everyone else in your general vicinity at risk. You got a port razed to the ground. You caused a war here. You have caused the deaths of hundreds of humans and countless vampires.”
“No,youdid all of that, by overreacting. You could have just chilled.”
Nobody wants to hear that they could have just chilled less than an ancient warlord whose go-to response has been to slaughter a village every time he’s been inconvenienced since the dawn of time.
“Do you want me to drain you?” Alexander hisses. “You have been increasingly provocative. Are you looking for some kind of final showdown? Tired of living?”
“You killed my parents, you monster.”
“I killed your parents, and I gave you life. What would you have been if I left you with them, a runt of a wolf, bullied by her pack, likely traded off to a low status mate early on who would have bred you relentlessly before you knew what it meant to be a person?”
“That would not have happened.”
“Yes. It would have. Have you ever gone back to the place I took you from? Have you gone to see the family you lost? You were trash, Kita, and I made you royalty.”
A loud slap echoes through the night.
I just smacked him in the face.
I just slapped one of the most powerful vampires in all of history in the face.
He smirks at me, fangs long and dangerous.
“I have killed people for less.”
“You kill people like you breathe.”
Alexander snorts. “You know, you are quite correct. This is not the time to re-litigate the sins of the past, even the most recent ones. The future will prove all I have said, one way or another. You need to discover these things for yourself. You’ve always needed to put your hand on the metaphorical stove. I do not have time to argue with you, child. Besides. You have bigger things to worry about.”
“Like what?”
“Like your mates.”
He looks over my head. I turn and follow his eye line and see three tall, broad figures standing silhouetted against the burning city. I can feel their stares, and start to feel as though I am withering under them.
I turn back to the ancient evil who ruined my life and almost got us all killed and probably wants to kill me now, even.
“Don’t you want to threaten me some more?”
He laughs. “No. I am going to leave you to the mercy of fate, of three, as it turns out, wolves who have taken you on as their own. Makes sense. I thought you had run me over. It was the missing wolf, wasn’t it? The dark one with the heavy soul. He’s your favorite, isn’t he? The one who never recoils from your darkness or tries to contain your wildness. He’s not like the big one. The one who dreams of taming you.”
Alexander is describing Conroy and Damon with incredible accuracy and insight.
“Maybe,” I say, noncommittal.
“I wish them the best of luck. Let me know when the wedding is. I expect an invitation. Now go. I need to rehydrate the heart before it explodes. Fortunately there is plenty of blood flowing in the city.”
I’m being dismissed. I turn and I run as fast as I can on human feet to my missing mate. My eyes are locked on him, and only him.
“Damon!” I rush at him, then pull back at the last moment, not wanting to hurt him.
He steps forward, wraps his arms around me and holds me impossibly tight.
“I heard you ran away,” he says, his voice rough and low.
“That was so long ago.”
