Page 8 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
I shrugged it off, responding. “I highly doubt that. If this is what you’re referring to, it’s just my job,” I said, pointing to his leg. “It is not preferential treatment, but just how I am with all patients.”
“Well, I say I don’t believe that, and what I believe is that now is the time for us to finally consummate our relationship, seeing as you’re off the market.”
Swallowing and rising to put some distance between us, I asked. “What do you mean by consummate our relationship, Simon? Since when did we enter into one?”
He stood, towering over my height now, and my survival instincts kicked in, urging me to run.
“I’m just saying, now that Alpha Alexis has rejected you, and it’s obvious no one else would touch you with a pole, I can have you to myself. I’ll be good to you, Selina,” he said, lifting a finger to touch my cheek, but I took a quick step back, slapping his hand away with mine.
“I think you should leave, Simon. It’s really late.”
Maybe it was what I said, how I pushed him away, or just the pent-up frustration from constantly saying no, that got Simon to lose his mask because the next thing I knew, he was on me, eyes flaring with madness, and his hand was wrapped around my neck in a chokehold, while I flailed.
“You’re going to be submissive, Selina, because I’ve been nothing but kind to you. Nobody else wants you, so why do you make this hard on both of us?” He yelled, choking the life out of me.
I fought against Simon’s grip, clawing my hands and thrashing my legs until our bodies jammed into the shelf I’d been arranging earlier, sending us both to the ground.
“Simon, stop! Please,” I managed to choke out, but one hand of his had started to rummage through my shirt now, and my blood ran cold. I fought as hard as I could, tears gathering and rolling down the corner of my eyes as I thought about what a terrible mistake I had made by entertaining him. I should have escaped when I had the chance. “No. No. No. You don’t want to do this, Simon,” I cried.
“Be still, bitch,” he yelled, and I saw him ball the hand that was trying to rip my shirt open into a fist, rearing it back and aiming for my face.
I froze, shutting my eyes tight, ready to receive whatever was coming my way, when I felt Simon’s entire weight lift off me and crash into a wall nearby. I hadn’t heard anyone come in, but they had in thenick of time to save me. Panting and weakly peeling my soaked eyes open, I saw him, standing mightily and in all his glory over a hunched-over Simon, rumbling like a wounded jaguar.
My hero, my mate.
Chapter 4
Alexis
“Alpha, Alexis, thank you for coming in again today. I can say that we’ve achieved quite a lot during your time here,” Lucian said, grinning from ear to ear behind the table.
As I let my eyes drop to the wide table separating the fifty-year-old-plus man and me, splayed with drawing plans, as well as trade and territory protection treaties, I couldn’t help but agree with a small nod.
“It is the least we could do for each other in the kind of times we live in now. If the Black Moons are not attacking directly to plunder our hard-earned resources, they are employing the help of dark witches to cause even more vile damages,” I explained. “We cannot underestimate the power of strong alliances.”
Lucian nodded, leaning forward over the table and wringing his hands together. “Yes. Ah…speaking of our alliance,” he began, and my brows deepened, already sensing where he was headed, but I still let him speak. “I understand that we’ve come a long way with the sublevel safe houses, something we would have never been able to do on our own,” he added in a coaxing tone, then continued after a calculated pause. “But would you maybe consider starting a new project here with usnow? I was thinking you could let us in on some concealment tricks…”
“Alpha Lucian,” I called, cutting him off abruptly, as that voice rang in my head again, reminding me that my father-in-law-to-be wasn’t a man of honor. Was he selfish to the point where he did not care that one of his daughters had to be hurt in place of the other for his benefit?
Yes.
On that thought, my mind traveled to Selina, and my wolf reared on high alert, my damn heart tripping over itself, but I shook her off as quickly as I could manage. I had told myself that I was going to avoid her after almost losing control of myself in her presence days back, but I was doing a poor job at that—not once had I considered going against everything I stood for just for her.
Clearing my throat and keeping my voice leveled, I put Lucian in check.
“We agreed to kick off these projects before the marriage just so we could start on the right foot together and not so we can exploit each other. I hope you understand that?” I asked, letting him know that I saw right through his greed.
“You’re right,” Lucian laughed, raising his hands in mock surrender. “It was just a trivial thought. Let’s move on to lighter topics, yes? How are things with your fiancée? Will you be seeing her again today?” Lucian rambled in his attempt to wave the matter away.
I stood from my seat on that note. We were done with today’s meeting anyway, and there was no need to sit around, chit-chatting with a two-face. I also didn’t miss the suggestive tone in which he had just spoken about meeting Marissa.
“It’s way too late for our usual hangouts, Alpha Lucian, but if daylight breaks and Igaluk allows it, then we shall see,” I responded curtly, extending my hand for a parting handshake, and Lucian promptly shook it as he stood too.
Stepping out of his office, I headed straight for my cabin, which was supposed to be around a ten-minute stroll from Lucian’s royal house, but barely a minute into the quiet walk, a bang sounded, followed by a searing wail cutting through the silence around me.
My eyes snapped in the direction of where I thought someone must have fallen badly, and I moved on instinct, following the sounds of one’s hushed whispers and another’s wracking sobs. An odd sense of familiarity trickled into my system at the voices, and as I tried to shake it off in disbelief, two female frames cornered behind a hut became tangible in the dim moonlight, confirming my suspicion.
The paler, younger female between them was standing in front of a broad tree, hands clasped loosely in front of her, and her body shook like a leaf as she sobbed, letting tears mixed with blood from an injury flow down her cheeks. My heightened eyesight caught a wide gash on her lower lip that must’ve been hurting like hell, amongst many other scratches on the visible surfaces of her skin, and…most holy Goddess…Marissa, my Luna-to-be, was hurling more than average-sized rocks at the young girl, aiming for her already battered face.
