CHAPTER 163
Kyle's POV
I felt someone's hands touching me, gentle fingers tracing patterns across my chest, and in my drugged haze, I thought it was Lexa. The familiar warmth of what I believed was my mate's touch made my heart race with longing and regret.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice thick with emotion and whatever substance they had given me. "I'm so fucking sorry, baby. I should never have left you alone. I'm going to choose my mate no matter what happens—no matter what my parents say, no matter what the council demands. I'm not letting the woman I suddenly love go again. Never again."
The touches continued, soft kisses being pressed against my neck and collarbone, and I almost kissed back, my body responding instinctively to what I thought was Lexa's affection. But something felt wrong—the scent wasn't quite right, the touch too calculated, too practiced.
My wolf snarled a warning deep in my chest, and my eyes snapped open to see the lady my mother had introduced earlier. Isabella was straddling me, her dress hiked up around her thighs, her lips swollen from kissing my unconscious form.
A growl ripped from my throat that was pure Alpha dominance and fury. I yanked her off my body with enough force to send her tumbling to the floor, my vision still swimming but my rage crystal clear.
"Stay the fuck away from me," I snarled, my voice carrying the kind of lethal promise that made even the strongest wolves submit. "If you ever touch me again without my consent, if you ever try to drug me again, I will kill you. Do you understand me?"
Isabella scrambled backward, her eyes wide with fear and something that looked like genuine surprise at my violent reaction. "Kyle, I was just—"
"Get out!" I roared, my Alpha power filling the room with such intensity that she whimpered and fled without another word.
I staggered forward, my legs still unsteady from whatever they had put in my food. The hallway seemed to tilt and sway around me as I made my way toward the main part of the house, desperate to find someone who could help me clear my head.
A random guard was stationed near the staircase, and I grabbed his arm to steady myself.
"I need my beta," I said, my words still slightly slurred but gaining strength. "Get him here immediately. I need something cold or hot to take away this dizziness so I can function properly."
The guard looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "I'm sorry, Alpha, but your beta is currently busy with the Luna—your mother. He's attending to some urgent matters for her."
"What kind of urgent matters?" I demanded, my suspicion growing.
"I... I'm not at liberty to say, Alpha. But he left strict instructions not to be disturbed."
The evasiveness in his voice set off every alarm bell in my head. Something was very wrong here, and my beta's convenient absence felt like more than just coincidence.
I wanted to leave this place immediately, to get back to Lexa and away from whatever sick game my family was playing. But I knew that witch Isabella might try to touch me again if I was alone and vulnerable, and I needed to talk to someone I could trust.
I reached out through the mind link, searching for my beta's consciousness. Where are you? I projected, putting all of my Alpha authority behind the mental command.
There was a pause, then his voice came back stuttering and uncertain. I... I went for a run, Alpha. Needed to clear my head after the journey here.
But something was off about his response. When wolves went for runs, especially hard ones, their breathing became labored, their heart rates elevated. Through the mind link, I could sense his vital signs, and his breathing wasn't fast or heavy like it should be if he was actually running.
It's okay, I lied smoothly, not wanting to tip him off that I suspected something. Just come to me when you're done with your... run.
Instead of going back to my room where Isabella might be waiting, I activated my full Alpha powers, letting my enhanced senses take over despite the lingering effects of the drug. My wolf was agitated, pacing restlessly as we began tracking my beta's scent through the pack house.
The trail led me in a direction I hadn't expected—down toward the lower levels of the building, toward areas that were rarely used except for storage and... other purposes.
My wolf dragged me toward the dungeon, and confusion filled my mind. What the hell would my beta be doing down there? The dungeons were only used for prisoners or for punishments that required complete privacy.
The guards stationed at the entrance bowed immediately when they saw me, their faces carefully neutral in that way that suggested they had been given specific orders about something.
"Open the gates," I commanded, my voice carrying absolute authority despite my physical weakness.
They complied without question, the heavy metal doors swinging open with a creak that echoed through the stone corridors. I stepped inside, my enhanced hearing picking up sounds that made my blood run cold.
No screaming, no obvious signs of torture, just soft whimpering and whispered pleas that spoke of a different kind of horror. I followed the sounds deeper into the dungeon, my heart pounding with a dread that had nothing to do with the drugs in my system.
What I saw when I reached the occupied cell would haunt me for the rest of my life.
My beta was there, just as I had suspected, but he wasn't alone. Lexa was chained to the wall, her clothes torn, her face streaked with tears. And my beta—the man I had trusted with my life, the man who had sworn loyalty to me—was tying her legs apart with rough rope.
"Please," she was whispering, her voice broken and desperate. "Please don't do this. Kyle will come for me. He promised he would come back."
The sight of her faith in me, even in this moment of ultimate betrayal and terror, nearly brought me to my knees. But it was the sound of my beta's response that filled me with a rage so pure and deadly that my wolf howled for blood.
"Kyle isn't coming for you, little maid," he said with cruel satisfaction. "He's busy getting acquainted with his new mate. A proper mate, from a proper family. You were just a distraction, a way for him to sow his wild oats before settling down with someone worthy of being Luna."
The lies he was feeding her, the way he was trying to destroy her faith in me even as he prepared to assault her, pushed me beyond the edge of sanity.
I stepped into the cell, my presence filling the space with such lethal intent that my beta froze mid-motion.
"Get your fucking hands off my mate," I said, my voice so quiet and deadly that it seemed to suck all the air out of the room.