Chapter 75: Seventy-five.

Colt couldn't help it, the moment Elijah wrapped his arms around her she melted into his embrace completely. It felt so good, and so right just being wrapped in his arms. Especially when the cold night air swarmed around them, and he changed her position so she was cradled into the warmth of his strong muscular chest. She was practically purring, and totally lost in the moment. It was only when she forced her eyes open and saw they were in the hotel's parking lot, and headed in the direction of Elijah's SUV, that she remembered herself.

Elijah felt it, the moment Colt's body went from relaxed to rigid. She wasn't happy. He had briefly allowed himself to hope that he could simply get in the vehicle with her and drive away. Just take them away from their problems and their past, and start fresh, a hope that was fuelled further when she snuggled up against him. Despite Colt's now physical reaction, he still found himself wanting to do just that.

"Put me down. Now." Came her cold voice as she started to squirm, desperately wanting out of his reach, away from his touch..

Elijah's grip on his mate's body tightened, as he warred with himself over what he should do. He only just got her back in his arms, back where she belonged. How could he lose her again?

"Mr. Lupus, get your fucking hands off me." Colt all but snarled at him, her restraint hanging on by a thread.

Elijah stopped walking and sighed, as reality washed over him like ice cold water, of course he couldn't whisk her away. If he could have, he would have done so a year ago.

Then taking one final deep breath of his mate's scent, he released her, gently lowering her to the ground, and allowing her a moment to get her balance in her dark blue heels, before he let go of her completely.

"Please, don't call me that, Little Bird." He whispered, sounding broken at her choice of address, as he stood between Colt and the hotel, still hoping they would leave together, if she would only understand.

"How about I don't call you anything?" Colt asked sarcastically, as she began to walk past him and back towards the wedding venue.

Elijah swore, realising he dropped her flowers in his attempt to get her alone. He chased after her, desperation oozing out of him. "Colt, please. I just want to talk. I need you, please?" he begged, grabbing onto her arm tightly.

"Why?" Colt yelled, relieved to actually be in the parking lot and away from her cousin's guests, so she wouldn't have to overly censor herself. Not that she was entirely sure she would be capable of such a thing with how angry Elijah made her. "Why the hell should I give you the time of day? Now, get your fucking hands off of me!" She raged, with tears building in her eyes.

"Colt, please?" Elijah forged on unrelenting. "Hear me out, I know I messed up. I was lost and in pain, you were gone and I shouldn't have done...." He trailed off, not wanting to put his behaviour into actual words, actual words that would reveal his betrayals. He brushed them off with a shake of his head and continued, "It doesn't matter now. I just... Colt, I need you, please. Please, just come home. Just come back with me."

"Done what, Elijah?" Colt sneered at him, ignoring his begging. "Do you mean when you lied to me about Nora? About the fact that she was your daughter? Which for the record, wouldn't have mattered to me. Well except for the fact that it proved you lied to me! Do you remember? Telling me all about how it was only ever me you wanted to settle down with. So which one is it?" She threw at him angrily.

Elijah froze, utterly speechless, but Colt wasn't quite finished yet.

"Or maybe, maybe you mean when you wished I was, what was it again, 'drowned at birth?' " Colt snapped, slapping him across the face hard enough to knock him to the ground.

Elijah hit the ground with an unexpected thud. He looked at Colt in disbelief as he sat himself up again, horrified at the black writing that her movement had revealed upon her neck. She had fucking tattooed over his mark! Not only that, but the amount of strength in her hit could only mean one thing. Colt was able to shift now.

Elijah stood up slowly, his breathing speeding up as his own temper started to escalate quickly. How dare she do this to him? The humiliation that she had inflicted upon him, parading around his old pack, while so openly flaunting their separation and her utter rejection of him! He couldn't bare it, and his control over his temper snapped altogether.

"You heartless bitch!" He spat at her, in disgust, as he began to move forward trying to intimidate her. "You did it then? You chose shifting over us? Over me?" He began to rant, "And what? When that wasn't enough, you had to degrade and humiliate me further, by mutilating my mating claim!" He growled, pausing at the slight unexpected flinch that Colt displayed.

Colt tilted her head to the side as she took in Elijah's words, fully beginning to comprehend what he was saying, or more particularly, what he had revealed without speaking. Elijah's proximity didn't phase her, as she used her own anger to shield against him, even if his admission did make her pause. Time seemed to freeze between them for a second, as Colt added, then readded everything up. Even when she could hear multiple footsteps running their way, her focus didn't shift from the man in front of her. Taking a deep breath she stepped forward towards Elijah, now incandescent with rage herself.

"So," he asked sarcastically, "Will you even dane to tell me what you are?"

"How?" Colt spat back at him, ignoring his question, as she vibrated with rage.

"How what?" Elijah sneered, viciously at her.

"How do you know, that I would have had to choose between our bond and the ability to shift, Elijah?" Colt screamed through gritted teeth, yet still at the top of her voice.

"Aw, Little Bird." Elijah cooed patronisingly. "I did my research. I met a mystic around Thanksgiving last year, he told me all about it. All about how our bond would have to be sacrificed!"

"Thanksgiving?" Colt said appalled, as Elijah realised his mistake. "You knew, for all that time, and you didn't fucking tell me!" She hissed, reaching out and scratching down his face with her claws fully extended, as she became blinded by her own rage. "You selfish, egotistical, Asshole! How could you do that to me? To claim you loved me, but then keep something so important from me"

"What?" Elijah mocked her as his head sprung back, spitting blood from his torn lip as he did. "You're one to talk, you destroyed us! All that we could have been, and you threw it away! You never came back! I needed you, I lost my baby girl, and you didn't even let me know you were back in the fucking country! You didn't even let me know you were alive, you hypocritical slut!"

"Except, I wasn't the one to throw us away, Elijah." Colt snarled back, her body rippling with the need to shift and maul. "You did that! You did that when you fucked Carrie! And I lay there, outside your house in agony for hours, shifting from the pain of a mutilated mating bond. A mutilation, that was caused by your fucking betrayal!" She screamed losing it altogether.

Colt straightened up and stepped closer towards her confused mate. "Were you really so drunk you didn't hear me? I wasn't exactly quiet, my first shift took over four hours to complete! All the while you slept off your drunken state, until you weren't asleep anymore, and then you started fucking that woman again! My heart wasn't strong enough at that point, it gave up on me and I died, Elijah. I fucking died because of you!" She said thrusting her finger repeatedly into his chest as if she was trying to drill her point home. "Zachary saved me, and then I was hospitalised for months, to recover! You fucking moron! I gave up all I had ever wanted, to be with you," She sneered in disbelief at his ignorance, stepping away and flapping her arms in exasperation at Elijah's ignorance. "And you? You killed me!" She half laughed, finding the situation itself so unbelievable, while her tears of rage marred her face, dragging her make up around as they went. "Hey, I guess at least you finally followed through though, the second time around. Though I'd have personally had more respect for you, had finished the act the first time. Do you remember that? When you shifted and went to rip my throat out at your ranch?"

"He did what?" Felix roared, his fury utterly beyond his control at the thought of Elijah attacking his friend. It caused him to rush forward with the need to kill Elijah. With the need to feel his lifeless body, trapped within his jaws as the taste of copper blood flooded his senses.

Colt intercepted him, as she turned to see Harris and Zachary in their wolf forms snarling openly at Elijah, who was just stood there mute, failing to understand everything Colt had just said. Everything it implied about him, and his behaviour.

"Felix, no! Don't." She said making him look at her instead, as his bristling golden coat retreated back through his dark skin at her touch, and he refocused onto Colt. "Breathe. Look at me. Just me." she coaxed, trying to stop any serious blood shed.

The sound of clapping echoed around them. Pulling Colt and Felix's attention back outward as they turned to look at Elijah, who was exageratedly slapping his hands together, in a slow mock applause.

"I never realised before, Colt, just how good a little actress you are? How long exactly was it, that you kept fucking the lion behind my back then?" Elijah spat venomously. "Or wait, by the looks of it you probably still are, you disgraceful whore! You really have no shame, huh?"

Felix started to struggle to get past Colt now, and she had to focus on pulling his attention back onto her again, giving Elijah time to continue.

"What an epic lie to spin, I mean come on?" He laughed, "How much of an idiot do you think I am?"

"You think, I am lying?" Colt said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I'm not! One hundred and eighty-seven!" She threw back at Elijah.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Elijah asked arrogantly, and somewhat uninterested.

"That's the number of times you have betrayed our bond. I know because, I have felt it, each and every time." Colt sneered, making Felix, Zachary and her brother still, in sudden realisation of just what Colt had been enduring.

"Fucking Bullshit!" Elijah called out, finally having had enough, and just wanting to get home. "Now, get in the damn car, Colt. I wont tell you again, I'm taking you home!" He growled moving towards her.

"You want proof?" Colt asked, turning to Felix. "Fine then."

Colt pulled Felix's face to her own, crashing her lips against his, as his arms automatically slid around her, pulling her flush against his body one hand applying pressure on her lower back the other holding her locked in place higher up. Their tongues slowly explored one another, while they occasionally nipped at each others lips playfully. Colt's hands danced in his hair, sending rippling shivers of delight down his spine. Felix couldn't help but put his all into the kiss, he knew from seeing what Colt went through, it was the best form of revenge he could inflict on the wolf. So he kissed her, and would keep kissing her for as long as she would let him.

Elijah felt like time had stopped as he watched his mate in the arms of another man, their bodies crushed together as their faces desperately met, exploring one another's, their rising passion only matched by one thing, pain. His pain, it was blossoming out from within his chest, it was cold like ice and he felt like he couldn't breathe, he was just stood there utterly frozen.

Elijah's breaths were coming in short painful gasps, when the impact from the ground shuddered up through his knees, he hadn't even noticed he was falling as the intensity in his chest built, consuming everything, till all that was left was pain. Pain and the realisation that Colt was telling the truth, and he had indeed been a monster.

Author's Note: Oh my goodness. This scene is where this story all began. I was tired of strong Alpha male leads, who took advantage of women. Locking them up, cheating on them, etc. and thus, Colt was born in my head. A woman strong enough to say. No. I won't put up with it. You're not worthy of me. Don't worry the story is not over. But there may not be many updates left in the Determined section of the story, and i just wanted to give you a heads up that the last chapter and the epilogue will be written and posted together. So, if there is a small delay, that may be why. I will say again at the end, but thank you so so so much for reading and all your supportive comments. I have treasured every single one. B x.