Page 40 of Mated To The King's Gamma
“Because your grandmother was dying, that’s why,” Gannon replies.
“So you never changed her?”
“No, she kept mentioning it and I lost my temper. At that point, I still hadn’t informed the king. Once mates are typically discovered, especially when you’re part of the King’s Guard, the king conducts background checks and most of the time, unless he knows them personally, you need his permission to change them. I hadn’t told the king about her or anyone else for that matter. Something felt off about her, and I feared the king might have refused if I asked or uncovered something suspicious about her. So, I told her no and we argued. She then rejected me.”
“What did you suspect her of?”
“Collaborating with hunters,” Gannon admits.
“That’s why you didn’t want to inform the king because he would have killed her?”
“Yes, and Abbie, you mustn’t disclose this to the king either - not the real reason at least. You’ve seen what he did to Azalea when he thought she was a hunter’s daughter.”
“So where does Liam fit into all this?” I question him, trying to piece it together.
He exhales deeply before answering: “Liam wasn’t aware of Sia being my mate, however, he frequently visited the town she relocated to. He met her there and they started dating. What I wasn’t aware of was that Liam actually knew her before I did.”
“Liam knew your mate before you did?” Gannon nods affirmatively.
“Yes, because your grandmother is human, her mate was a werewolf who fortunately passed the werewolf gene onto his children. He then left her for his own mate but since she had children, she was permitted to stay within the pack. She was a witch and also the very same witch Liam would visit to get location spells done when we had trouble finding people the King would send us after,” Gannon informs me.
“So she was cheating on you with Liam?” I question him, causing him to stand abruptly. I slide over, making room for him and he collapses onto the couch next to me.
“Yes, we were clueless about each other’s involvement with her. I never accompanied him when he went to see your grandmother. Long story short, after two years of enduring her infidelity, I’d had enough and confronted her. To sever the bond from my end, I knew I had to kill her. But when I called her up, she confessed that she wanted to be with me. Little did I know that she’d told Liam I was an abusive ex-boyfriend who’d been harassing her and he intended to kill me in response.”
“And he just stood by idly while you killed someone he loved, too?”
“At first, yes - he was shocked but a year prior, he suspected that I must have found my mate because of my suicide attempt.” He pats his chest where scars are visible: “Liam found me and stopped me from ripping out my own heart in grief over losing the bond. He spent all night feeding me his blood so that my healing process could speed up. Even though it remained unsaid between us, he knew as well as myself, that I’d found my mate.”
I chew on my lip; my aunt was a monster to inflict so much pain.
“When Liam stepped out of the car and saw me, he put two and two together. He was disgusted with her, and she started screaming for him to kill me. But instead, he stepped aside and told me, ‘I’ll start digging a hole to bury the bitch in’, which is exactly what he did. I killed her and he assisted in covering it up.
“You’re nothing like her, Abbie. Yes, you share some similarities. At first, that might have been why I was drawn to you, but you’re nothing like her - absolutely nothing like Sia. Despite my bond with Sia, I never loved her the way I love you,” Gannon assures me.
17
It was hard explaining everything, but she demanded to know, and I was done keeping secrets from her. She knew about Sia and her grandmother, but not to the full extent, so I told her what she wanted to know.
“It’s fine, it will be okay.”
“No, it won’t,” she murmurs. I know she is worried about Azalea knowing her family’s part in it, worried about everything, including me. “You won’t do that again,” she murmurs. My brow furrows at her words as I watch her walk toward the bed.
“Do what?”
“Try to change me, you stole my choice. Just like everyone else did,”
“I wasn’t going to watch you die,”
“I was ready to die!” she tells me. Her words made me sick to my stomach.
“No, you promised me and Azalea. You promised us, Abbie. More than my life, remember?”
She rubs her eyes that are red raw from crying. “I know, I know, but everyone decides for me, I don’t. I don’t want my choice taken, Gannon, and that is what you did. You tried to force me to live, to live with everything,” she tells me.
“I won’t promise that, Abbie,”
“You will, or we are done. I won’t try it again. Whatever Azalea did helped, but I won’t live with you if you will force me to change. I can’t sleep, wondering if I am going to wake up to you trying to kill me,” she says. I swallowed, remembering the look of fear on her face.
