Page 2 of Bonded and Betrayed

Monte chuckles under his breath, clearly noticing the voracious sounds that prove him right. I scowl back at him. The video plays in the background, splitting my attention between him and the scene I’ve watched so many times I have it memorized. I almost refuse the offering, but that smell is too intoxicating to resist.

How longhasit been since I last ate?

“Just eat,” Monte urges, taking the seat across from me. “I promise I won’t rub it in.”

I reluctantly dig into the sandwich, letting loose a small sound of appreciation as the delicious baguette hits my tongue.

“Too much,” he adds conveniently once I’ve taken my first bite.

“Very funny,” I say between bites.

“Have you been able to find anything?” Monte asks cautiously, clearly already knowing the answer.

Placing the rest of the sandwich down, I glance back at the screen and replay the video, my appetite completely forgotten with his reminder.

“You can’t keep doing this, Skylar,” Monte pleads. “I can’t keep watching you wither away like this. It doesn’t matter how many times you watch it, it isn’t going to change.”

Monte reaches for the monitor, about to pull the chords from the back when something in me snaps.

“Don’t touch it,” I growl, clasping the screen like it’s my last lifeline.

Despite the evidence playing on a loop for the last week, I can’t help the tiny flicker of hope. Something isn’t adding up, and until I have those answers my heart keeps screaming at me that Zeke didn’t do it. Which is why I need to keep watching it until I can squash that little voice for good—or until my contact finally does it for me.

“Skylar,” he breathes, dejected as he slumps back in his chair. “We can’t let them get wind that we know. We need to strike decisively before they attack us.”

“We still don’t know—” My protest is cut off by the sharp vibration of my phone against the wooden desk, and I grimace at the name that pops up.

Everett.

A mix of anger and loss swirls within me at the sight of that name. I’d just been about to defend the others, claim that they may not have known what Zeke had done, but could I really keep fooling myself? Arsenio and Zeke might both be alphas, but Everett is the Alpha of the pack, and regardless of their claim to work together as a team, if Zeke was going to make a power move like this, Everett had to know ... and Arsenio too.

Which is why I’ve been ignoring all three of them for the past week—four if you include Zayn. I’d pulled myself together for the burial, but thankfully they were at different locations and Monte had made sure they were gone before I went back down to join the rest of my pack.

“See what I mean?” Monte scoffs, and I hurriedly reject the call and throw the damn phone into the desk drawer. “If you keep ignoring them, they’ll know something is going on.”

I’ve been ignoring everyone, not just them. Monte is the only person I’ve allowed into my office, and I begrudgingly eat the food he brings at intervals each day. I’ve been keeping up with my work, but watching the short clip every free second I have until sleep finally claims me, and I do the whole thing over again the next day.

“We can’t just attack them, Monte,” I groan, scrubbing a hand over my face in exasperation. “If there’s a chance—”

“You’ve watched that tape how many times now, Skylar? It’s not going to change.”

His words hang thickly around me, an echo of what I’ve been telling myself all week. I should strike first, I should eliminate them before they have a chance to do the same, but I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right.

I have to stall Monte, at least until Jasper gets back to me.

“Don’t you see Skylar, this is perfect,” Monte breathes, and pushes back from his chair. “You were hesitant about us before because of the mate bonds, but now we can—”

“Monte,” I say in warning, not wanting to get into this again.

“Don’t say anything yet,” Monte says as he eases closer, cutting off my rejection. “Just think about it. There’s no rush.”

I reluctantly swivel in my chair to face him, and he lowers to one knee before me. Monte hesitantly takes my left hand in his, running the pad of his thumb over the place where his mother’s engagement ring had sat.

I expect to feel something—excitement, sorrow, regret—instead, a shiver of unease runs up my spine at his proximity. Bile rises in my throat with each swipe of his calloused skin against mine.

“It wouldn’t change anything, Monte,” I sigh, pulling my hand back from him. “I’ve already told you how I feel. We aren’t meant for each other, regardless of my mates.”

The rush of emotions that flooded me when I first saw Monte after ten years apart hasn’t resurfaced since those first few days when I returned. It was nostalgia for the familiar, my heart clinging to the comfort he offered, that final piece of the past when I still had my mother and father with me. But after the way he’s acted, pushing things when I say no, coupled with Seline’s recount of him willingly accepting my father’s decision to keep me away, I know that those feelings are long since buried—never to see the light of day again.

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