Page 37 of Forsaken Desire
Eventually, exhaustion took over, and I slipped into undisturbed sleep.
13
With quick strides, I entered the pack clinic. I’d waited until after my mate fell asleep before slipping out, leaving Bruno to keep watch from the vehicle parked in front of her place.
Now that some of the pack’s members had seen me lose control, word would spread. That wasn’t the issue. Word would get to other packs, andthatwas what I couldn’t have. It put a target on her back. She would be used against me—effectively.
Over my corpse would anyone lay a finger on her.
And any who tried would die.
I should have been focused on the land acquisition, but Josephine filled my thoughts.
She shouldn’t have been at the pack meeting. She shouldn’t have discovered who I was in that way. Or about Cierra.
That whore knew what she was doing when she called the meeting. We had a fucking deal to keep our arrangement on a surface level if I gave her more say in the pack. My mistake. One I wouldn’t make again.
Arranged matings weren’t out of the norm. Power and wealth had influence, and as an Alpha in a long line of Alphas, I hadpower and generational wealth, but what I didn’t have was the land her family owned.
That was why the arrangement was spawned between our parents. To inherit the land and construct the new hotel, expanding my pack land. With humans and how they’d advanced, land equated power, and the bastard Alphas surrounding my lands had been foaming at the mouth to get their dirty hands on them.
I’d had blinders on, and because of it, I’d thought I’d lost my mate. Even after I’d rejected her so callously, she’d followed me. Still, I’d gone directly to Cierra, allowing my mate to watch me with her—knowing she watched.
I ground my teeth so hard, a pinch assaulted my cheek. After I’d heard her sob choke off, I’d shoved Cierra’s mouth off my cock, unable to stand her touch after having my mate so close. I’d been so fucking angry . . .
Then she’d died.
The agony I’d felt . . . I’d truly believed she’d been dead. I’d spent months falling apart in my self-hatred.
The three had taken over while I’d drowned myself in alcohol, trying to abate the agony in my gut. The same sensation that slowly turned to bitter hatred. I’d held onto the anger.
Then she reappeared.
I shoved through the door, letting it swing shut behind me. I inhaled, breathing in the scent of the mutt who touched her. I’d memorized the stench on her—just to find and kill the fucker.
I hadn’t been able to bring myself to tell her the truth. She would run from me. My heart leaped at the thought. I would not let her go, and she would hate me for it, but as long as I had her at my side, I was happy.
I’d planned to tell her I was the Alpha, but I wanted a few blissful days with her. I didn’t want her to know I’d had an arrangement . . . I was scared.
My female held me in the palm of her hand. There was no other place I’d want to be, but with how she’d shut down, I’d been right to hold off. I didn’t want distance from my princess.
Her reaction was also proof that I had to complete our bond as soon as possible. If she weren’t bound to me and remembered something . . . she could reject me. I didn’t want a second-chance mate. I wanted her.
I ground my molars, quickening my pace across the rubber flooring. The wolf’s sour scent enhanced, and I turned the corner, my loafers squeaking against the floors.
Carefully, I undid the cuff of my dress shirt and rolled the sleeve up my forearm, then got to work on the other sleeve.
He’d been placed inside the first room down the hall of patient rooms. The low hum and chatter coming from the other occupied rooms faded into the background. I slipped inside.
The male, Dillon, lay in bed, the monitor steadily beeping. With the closing of the door, my steps echoed louder. What was left of his arm was wrapped in a cast. I stood at his bedside, scanning the fucker.
I couldn’t stop dwelling on the image of his hand on my mate. He’d marked his death sentence as soon as he did it, but I’d bided my time. I didn’t want my darkness to touch Josephine.
I leaned down and wrapped my hands around his throat. His eyes opened wide, and the heart monitor went crazy. His pupils expanded and flicked from side to side as his nails clawed at my arms. I would watch the life fade from them. He touched her and would pay for it.
His legs kicked and shoved into the mattress, digging in like he could escape. He wouldn’t stop thrashing, but I kept my grip firm, reveling in the burn working through my biceps. I bared my teeth at him.
A wheeze escaped his lips, and his shoving weakened while each of his blinks slowed. I squeezed harder, digging my fingers into the column of his throat.
