Chapter 267 Chapter 267

Chapter 267 Chapter 267
BELLA

I had watched it all play out before walking up the stairs.

The way he’d brutally killed one of the messengers, chopping off his head with no remorse. Much to my surprise, I had felt nothing in my heart—not even the slightest tug—as I watched a splurting rush of blood erupt from where the messenger’s head used to be.

There is nothing in this world that can possibly make me feel the sort of panic, pain and shock than when I’d woken up to find my child dead in a pool of my own blood. I simply turned and walked away. It’s only when I strolled into my bedroom that I felt a slight shift in my chest.

I never knew Brad has the heart to do that. His eyes were filled with so much malevolence and violence I have never seen before. It doesn’t scare me at this point and for some reason, it ironically makes me feel safer in the pack. The walls of my old bedroom feel the same.

A faint smell of the old camphor I used before I’d left the pack still lingers in the room. I look around and a drastic wave of nostalgia hits my nostrils. I pause for a moment, looking around and imagining how much this entire place might have changed if I haven’t been absent.

For the first time in years, my heart feels something that looks like the comfort of a home. I’ve always had to sleep with one eye open—I still do—but this reminds of a time that I didn’t.

I sigh bitterly, taking a deep breath as I brace myself for the pain that’s about to hit. I slowly part the doors of the wardrobe open and my heart pricks with a dreadful wave of sadness as I set my gaze on the various diapers and little baby clothes and toys I had bought two years ago in preparation for my child.

My eyes water instantly with tears as I pick one of the tiny shirts up. I scoff with a bitter smile and hold on to it. My chest suddenly feels heavy, like the full weight of a truck is pressing down on me. I part my lips to ease the strangling breath in my nostrils and turn away from the wardrobe.

I walk out to the balcony, away from the suffocating heat of the room that was once mine. I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a few seconds, letting the fresh air hit my face like cooling water.

When I open my eyes, I hear a slight ruckus below and I slowly walk to the balustrade, placing my hand on it and staring down. The guards form a barricade in front of the mansion again and mounting a horse, the spokesman carries a bag with him, with blood dripping from it onto the floor.

Brad had sent him back to Dominic with the head of one of the messengers while keeping the third one hostage. I can feel an ominous trickle in my bones. This is a recipe for disaster and Brad has just flamed the fires of the ravaging storm coming straight at us.

The door of my bedroom slowly creaks open and my wolf stiffens instantly. She doesn’t react as violently as she would have if I hadn’t rejected the bond, but she still feels his wolf faintly because Brad is still holding on to it.

He walks onto the balcony and I don’t turn around to face him. My heart that usually melts in his presence is as hard as steel. He stands right next to me and I do not feel a thing. That part of me that had craved him for all these years had died the night I broke the bond from my end and walked away.

“I had to do it,” he says, his voice deep and grave, "either way, a war will come at us. We’ve been at loggerheads for decades now and he’s been plotting. I wanted to send a message that it won’t be easy to come at us.”
I nod slowly, “Well, you have. He certainly won’t be able to overlook that now.”

“Yes,” he agrees and a few, awkward seconds that feels like an eternity, he speaks up again, “you can’t leave now, Bella. A war will come and if you’re not within the safety of the pack, he can get you and use you. I won’t let that happen to you. I won’t let you out of my—”

“I’ve been taking care of myself for two years, all on my own,” I cut in flatly, “I can handle myself. You worry about your pack and I will worry about myself.”

“Bella,” he calls, stepping into my path as I turn to walk away, “the pack will be fine. I have spent my entire life making sure the pack is fine, not caring for myself and putting my duties as the Alpha ahead of everything—even my love for you, Bella. I lost you in the process and I don’t want that to happen again.”

The word ‘love’ strikes my chest like a dagger.

He’d loved me? And he treated me like thrash? He’d let the woman he loved get locked up and lose his child? Fuck it. I am not getting fooled by that.

I look him right in the eyes, my jaw set sharply, “Happen again? I am still lost to you, Brad. I only found my way back here and I am staying because of Damien. When this war is done and dusted, I will leave the pack and never return.”

His face pales instantly and his eyes sink deep into his skull, “Bella, I know there is nothing I can say or do to make you forgive me, but please…just give me a chance.”

“To do what?” I snap at him, my chest burning with anger, “a chance for what exactly?”

He becomes tongue-tied, his eyes flickering cluelessly. “I just want to be there for you, Bella.”

“You had your chance, Brad,” I say flatly, “and you wasted it. That has passed now and there’s nothing you can do to get that time back.”

Those words feel heavy in my chest as I walk past him, but I do not go back on them.
There’s a war to prepare for anyway.