Page 11 of Heart Broken Mate

A child trafficking ring?

No, it wasn’t possible.

I heard them, but I couldn’t believe it. Am I going to assume my own senses were deceiving me now?

But not James. James saved me. When I was out there in the streets, getting beat up by the sun, rain, and even people, he was my messiah. To entertain the idea that he not only let other children be sold but that he was also facilitating it was damaging to my psyche. Any of those kids could have been me. If he hadn’t found something fascinating about me, he might have just sold me off too.

I heard chairs scrape against the floor and knew they were done with their meeting. I ran to hide behind a wall and watched them. I wasn’t wrong. I heard them earlier, and now I could see them. They walked out of the room, shook hands, and left James alone. He took a deep sigh and walked back into the room.

I remained at the wall for a long time. I knew what must be done, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t even think I could face him. The initial reason I was in the palace was quickly forgotten.

I walked out of my hiding place and to the door. I tried it, and unsurprising, it wasn’t locked. I pushed it open and stepped into the room. James turned around at the sound, and when he saw me, he grimaced in surprise.

“What are you doing here, Hayley?” he asked.

I was speechless. The words formed on my lips, but I couldn’t roll them off.

“Is everything okay? How did it go with lone wolves? Is everyone okay?”

“I…” I started and broke off again. I took a deep breath. “I heard everything.”

“What was that?”

“You and Lenny and those other people. I heard everything. You are selling kids?”

James realized what I was talking about and stepped closer to me. He walked past me to the door and locked it.

“Whatever you might have heard,” he said, walking back and placing his hands on my shoulder, “You don’t understand it. You cannot understand it.”

“I am not a fool, James,” I said and pushed him away from me. “I heard everything! That’s why you pick kids up from the street. That’s what you do. You pick them up as though you’re helping them, but you’re not! You’re selling them off like they are merchandise.”

“Hayley, you’ve had a long day. Go back home, rest, and we’ll pick this up tomorrow.”

I shook my head. “Don’t patronize me. Do you know why I came here tonight? I did something stupid and couldn’t allow you to think of me in that light. I wanted to be the first to tell you, but then I got faced with that.”

“Well, maybe you should have stayed back home then!” James yelled suddenly and came at me. This time, he wasn’t looking to calm me down. He was frustrated. “You need to go. You need to leave me alone, and we’ll talk about this tomorrow and whatever it is that you might have done. We are both not in the right space of mind now.”

“We are going to talk about tonight,” I said. I had no idea what talking about it would achieve, but I felt it was the only thing we could do. After talking, James would still remain a child trafficker, and I would still have that knowledge about him. Things like that can’t just disappear after we’ve talked about them.

“No!” James said. “You will go home. You will talk about this to no one, and tomorrow, you and I will have a conversation about everything.”

I knew what he was trying to do to me. He was trying to get me under his alpha control, but that has never worked on me. I wasn’t just one of his minions that he could push around. I owed allegiance to him because I adored him and was grateful to him, but those two things were nonexistent now. He was just another werewolf to me now.

“Or what?” I asked him, and he was a bit surprised by that.

“Do not make me hit you, Hayley.”

“You can try. But you’ll have an easier chance killing me.”

James's eyes went cold, and they regarded me with disgust and regret. “If that is what you want,” he said and smacked me hard.

I wasn’t expecting that. The force of the slap lifted me from the floor and smacked me against the door. Pain jarred through my body like a lightning bolt. Before I could stand up, James was walking towards me. I saw the look on his face and knew he was going to kill me.

I finally had the answer to my question. I knew how this would end.

With one of us dead.

“You’re a strong wolf, Hayley,” he said as he walked towards me. “One of the most powerful I have ever seen, but don’t for one moment think that makes you my equal. You are just an ant compared to me.”

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