Their bond

His eyes glazed over. I wasn’t sure if he was speaking to me or just uttering his memories out loud. “Deep down, I knew she truly wanted it…because it killed her to watch me fuck other shewolves…which I frequently did in front of her, because she just never learned. On the outside, she was the perfect example of submission, but on the inside, I saw her obstinate refusal to face the truth right in front of her! So I forced her to face it, I wouldn’t let her turn away. I made her watch me fuck wolf after wolf, just to remind her what she could have had, but she choose to throw away! Her tears told me the truth. Her mouth was full of lies, but the tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched me pleasure other wolves and heard them scream my name…no, she couldn’t deny her true feelings!”

I thought I’d heard every ugly and the vile story possible about him. I was wrong. So ridiculously wrong. He was far worse than even my worst nightmare. I swallowed thickly to keep the bile from coming up my throat and spewing out onto the fur rug. By this point, I was beyond speech…words were lost to me.

It didn’t seem he needed me to respond because he just continued ranting, “Over the years, when she would get out of hand, become stubborn or willful, she was easily brought back under control, made docile again by the simple threat of turning you rogue.” His eyes focused on me as if remembering I was in the room. A cruel smile curled his lips. “The first time was when you were four. I thought it would have been fun to cut your ties with the pack and drop you across the border, and then I could sit back and enjoy watching her tear you apart limb from limb. She would have, you know. She would’ve killed you herself.”

I struggled to keep from panting as adrenaline raced through my body. Who could sit back and enjoy watching a four-year-old innocent pup getting torn apart either own mother? What sort of black-hearted individual was capable of such a thing?

Alpha’s mouth turned down into a frown. “Of course, the bitch threatened if I did that, she would kill herself next. And she was just stupid enough to do so. I couldn’t have that. I wasn’t done with her yet.”

’He wasn’t done with her yet,’ those words niggled in the back of my mind, churning unrest in my very soul minute I couldn’t ignore...because somehow…now I knew the awful truth. The truth that would ruin me. I was deathly afraid to ask. Still, I forced myself to say the words. I bit my lip to keep it from trembling as I whispered, “How did she die?”

It was the first time in our conversation when genuine pain crossed his expression. His words were low, almost a whisper like mine had been. “It was an accident…I, I didn’t mean to…”

All of the air was sucked out of my lungs. I felt numb…a numbness so gut-wrenching and so devastating, I might very well never feel anything else again. I could barely speak, my voice wavered and broke, “You killed her…didn’t you?”

Alpha’s expression twisted. “I wasn’t trying to. I just wanted her to come. She refused to come…she was a selfish bitch who refused to give me anything I wanted. So I choked her…cut off for airway to enhance the physical pleasure as I rammed in and out of her body. And for just an instant, her eyes opened wide with pleasure. Her pussy contracted around me. Finally, her body was responding to me. I came harder than I ever had before and released her neck, collapsing down on top of her, thinking that we’d finally had to break through. That maybe we could start all over…maybe after all that time and even her unforgivable mistake in having you, that maybe we could put it all behind us and start again…finally be the mates we were meant to be.”

I listened in horror, desperately wishing I’ve never asked because now, for as short as the rest of my life might be, I would never be able to get that mental picture out of my mind. I would never be able to un-hear his lunatic ravings of a madman. And he just continued on like he wasn’t casually explaining to a girl how he raped and killed her mother.

His tone dropped low and thick, his voice rough with emotion as though the weight of those moments was too heavy to bear. “But when I lifted my head to kiss her, I found her eyes were still wide open. Unseeing. Unmoving. Unblinking. I realized then that she wasn’t breathing. I tried to bring her back. I did everything I could to bring her back. But she was gone. She left me…just like she always said she would.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks, and hatred welled up in my heart. I spat, “You’re a monster!”

His head snapped up. He snarled, “Why?! Because I wanted my mate? Because I was willing to do anything it took to keep her? Why did that make me so evil? You don’t think Coal would be willing to do whatever it took to keep you?”

I hissed through my tears, “Coal’s nothing like you! He doesn’t have your black heart. He’s a good Wolf.”

I could see my words escalating the anger in his expression. And then his lips curled into a cruel smile of anticipation that made my blood run cold. Alpha eyed me up and down. I squirmed uncomfortably beneath his intense scrutiny.

He purred, “Okay. If you think he’s so noble, let’s see how good of a Wolf he is…when I take his mate.”

I heard his words. My Wolf was screaming, howling her fear. But I didn’t quite understand. I shook my head. “What do you mean ’when you take his mate’…you’ve already done that…you’ve already kidnapped me.”

His gleeful dark laughter caused tingles of fear to run up and down my spine. His words were like silk, “Did you know your bond is still breakable? It’s weak…just like you are...and just like he is. It won’t stand up against a stronger Wolf like me.”

My heart thundered in my chest, sounding like helicopter blades beating inside my mind. I knew the bond Coal and I shared was incomplete. It wasn’t entirely sealed yet. We hadn’t finished all of the couplings and markings. There were several more to go before our bond became unbreakable.

But surely, Alpha couldn’t…