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84
Richard

I walked into my private office with Ray trailing behind me. Dropping into the chair behind my large wooden desk, I propped my feet up on the table. The files I needed to sign were spread neatly across the surface, but my attention wasn’t on them.

Ray stood across from me, watching closely, his expression tight. I could feel the weight of his questions, his confusion, and his quiet disapproval. From the moment he stepped into my room, I knew he wouldn’t stay silent about what he had seen.

I should have let him speak first, but it wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. I was still going to keep Jane. She was mine, and I was never going to let her escape. I could fuck her whenever I wanted, and no matter what, she would never get away from me.

“When did Jane come back here?” he asked, sitting down in one of the chairs.

“Yesterday,” I replied. He looked at me suspiciously. Did he think I was lying? “What’s wrong? I already told you she came back yesterday, and you’re still giving me that look.”

“You weren’t here yesterday morning. I looked everywhere for you, but couldn’t find you. Then someone told me you went on a special mission. Was Jane that special mission?”

“Yes. She’s my mate, and I went to bring her back home.”

“You rejected her, Richard. She has a second-chance mate now. Why would you try to force her back? She no longer belongs to you. She belongs to another wolf.”

“He’s not her mate!” I shouted. I would have attacked Ray for saying that if we weren’t such old friends. How dare he say that my Jane belonged to someone else?

“But she says he is her mate. They’ve been together, and they love each other very much. Why don’t you just let her be happy with him?”

“Because she’s mine! Why can’t you understand that? Jane is my woman, my mate, and my Luna,” I snapped. “I don’t care that I rejected her before. I’m the Alpha King, and I have the right to do whatever I want. Now I want her back, and I’m going to have her, even if I have to destroy every werewolf pack to make it happen.”

“But you don’t love her, Richard. You just think you own her, and that’s not right. She’s a person, not a thing that can be bought and owned.”

“Who said I don’t love her?” I asked angrily.

Ray was starting to really annoy me. I couldn’t believe my own Beta wasn’t supporting me. He always made me look like some kind of monster.

This had all started when he found his mate. Ever since then, he’d been acting like I was evil and always took other people’s side against me. I hated his mate for changing him so bad!

“Do you force yourself on someone you love?” he asked boldly. “Do you? Of course not! But I just saw you trying to force yourself on her.”

I was quiet for a moment because I hadn’t expected him to be so direct. But I found my voice quickly.

“That was because my cock was hard, and she wouldn’t let me take her. She kept fighting me off, screaming for that swindler she calls a mate. Tell me, wouldn’t you have lost it too if your mate refused you?” I questioned. “Wouldn’t you have acted the same? I just had to remind her who she belongs to—teach her a lesson she won’t forget.”

“So you want me to believe that you love her and only forced yourself on her because she was refusing you? Is that what you’re saying?”

I had never really thought about what I felt for Jane. I didn’t know if it was ownership, obsession, lust, love, or a strong feeling of attachment.

I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was now with me, and I would never let her go.

“Whether I loved her or not was none of your business. And don’t ask me that again. Had I ever asked you if you loved that bitchy mate of yours?”

“Please stop calling my mate names. She’s not what you think she is. She’s a wonderful woman,” he said firmly.

“Fine. Then stop trying to interfere with me and my mate. Focus on your own relationship, and I’ll focus on mine. Do you understand? Now give me those files so I can sign them and get back to Jane.”

He handed me the files, and I started signing them. There were so many papers, and I was already getting tired of signing. As the Alpha King, I had to sign important documents related to my pack and the neighboring packs.

There were usually not this many files, but since I hadn’t done any official work yesterday, they had piled up.

“Let me ask you one more question, please,” he said again.

“What now?” I replied, annoyed.

“What did you tell Jane to make her come back to our pack with you? I know Jane hates you, and she would never have come here willingly. So please tell me, what did you say to her?”

“I threatened to kill that Vishal guy if she didn’t come with me. My warriors were holding him prisoner.”

“What? Richard, how could you do that? Why would you hurt an innocent man just because you want something? Because of your selfish desires?!”

Innocent? Who? That loser?

“He was a thief who stole my mate without even marking her properly. Jane had no man’s mark on her, but that Vishal guy was still claiming she was his mate. Does that make any sense to you?”

“Not really, but maybe he decided not to mark her yet. Some couples wait.”

“Of course you’d rather take a stranger’s side than support me. You’re just like my wolf, Parker. You two never support me. But I don’t care. I’ll do what I want whether you support me or not!”

I stood up and walked out of the office, frustrated with Ray’s questions.

Out in the hallway, I used my mind-link to contact my warriors who were supposed to be guarding Vishal. It was already morning, and he should have been dead by now.

I didn’t see any reason to keep him alive any longer.

“Your Highness,” the head warrior responded through the mind-link.

“Kill him!” I ordered sternly.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but he escaped early this morning.”

“What did you just say?!”

My blood turned cold. The escaped prisoner was now free, probably planning to rescue Jane. This was exactly what I had been afraid of. I had to organize the largest manhunt in the history of my pack.

That pathetic mate of hers had just made the biggest mistake of his life by escaping from me.