Page 83 of Scapegoat

The moment Anna launched herself at her mate, I swooped in, grabbing the kid by the waist and then swinging her around to set her down on her feet some distance away.

“I don’t know what sick shit your mum and my dad fed you, but what you think isn’t real.” I let my alpha authority tinge my words, forcing Anna to hear me. “You are our sister. You smell like family, not like our mate.”

“No…” Perfect tears beaded in the girl’s eyes. I could see why everyone was so bloody enamoured by her. She couldn’t even cry ugly. But that didn’t say anything about the person behind the facade.

“Atlas claimed Kai before we were accepted as heirs.”

“No…” Anna groaned.

“Even if we weren’t related, a bond formed before we bit you negates anything that happened on that day.” I poked my finger at her neck. “You’ve got scars, kid, and ugly ones at that.”

When I turned to face a pale Kai, her eyes burning with fury, Xavier stepped up behind her and pushed her hair away to reveal her neck.

“Kai has mating marks,” my brother told her. “Our mating marks.”

“No!” the girl screeched, all beauty gone now as she transformed into a screaming harpy. “No!” she shouted as she pulled items off the shelves and then tossed them to the floor. She stamped her feet down on chip packets, sending the food flying across the floor, crushed biscuits and loaves of bread, then stomped on a bottle of red cordial that fell to the floor.

“What the hell is going on here?” Elsie asked, bustling around the counter before looking up at us. “You’ll need to pay for this mess.”

“We need to pay for this?” Kai looked like an angry cat, fluffing up bigger and bigger by the minute. “We didn’t make a mess, Anna did.”

“But Anna wouldn’t do that, not unless she was provoked…”

The four of us watched Elsie’s expression transform, her eyes softening, a fond smile forming.

What the fuck…? What the fucking fuck…? I felt like I was watching some kind of horror movie play out in real time and all I could do was stare.

“Fuck this place,” Kai said, spinning on her heel. “I can make far better tasting burgers at home.”

Elsie started to splutter and Anna’s little buddies worked hard to get their own bit in, but Anna’s voice cut through the lot of it. She said the one thing that would stop my mate from walking out of the milk bar, the street and this town.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back.” Her hands went to her hips. “You can be the one that stays home and looks after Dad like Mum said you were supposed to, while I get my mates back.”

Chapter 47

“That fucking little bitch…” Jayden swore but I just stared at him, the milk bar’s facade and Elsie standing in the aisle, shaking her head at the mess, I knew. This was all a big shock to him, but not me.

“Don’t,” I said, not bothering to clarify what I meant by that. “She’s just saying all the shit she was taught.” I forced my lips to curve into a smile. “She’s the chosen one and I’m just the slub who’s lucky enough to serve her.”

“No,” Atlas said. “No, Kai.” I let him put his hand on my shoulders, felt the squeeze of his grip before he pulled me close. “Never.”

But it was then I saw clearly the dynamic of our relationship. There was the reality I’d been brought up in and then there was my mate’s view of me. I pressed my face into Atlas’ chest, then wrapped my arms around him, holding tight to my mate, to this version of me. We should never have come back here. Kai didn’t let sixteen-year-old girls dictate anything to her, but Anna…

“Let’s go,” I said finally. “Please.”

I’d thought we would head straight home, but instead Xavier drove us to the local fish and chip shop and grabbed us some food before taking us somewhere else. I glanced over at him when I saw our final destination, knowing then that he was mine. We parked at the old playground we used to go to when we were kids, and it was more than memories that I found there. The moon shone on the play equipment and as we all went to sit on the roundabout and eat our food, something else settled over me.

Not everything in this town had to be traumatising. Here I felt a sense of peace. Small at first, but then welling up, growing and growing as I breathed the quiet of the night air.

“Kai, I’m—” Jayden started to say.

“Don’t.” I crunched on my potato cake, chewing, chewing, as they waited, the trees waited for me to continue. “It’s just until the thing with Ned is resolved, right?”

“When the coroner’s report is delivered and his death is ruled an animal attack, we’ll get the fuck out of here,” Atlas promised. “And never come back.”

I nodded, grabbing another chip and another. My guts rebelled at the thought of greasy food, but my body craved it. Hot, salty, fatty food, it helped fuel my body, replace some of the nutrients I’d lost in not eating all day.

“So we’ve just got to get through this then.”

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