Page 77 of Twisted Mates

“Compliant to what wishes, Clayton? That I would just lay there and let your son have sex with me when neither of us wanted to? That’s just a little messed up, don’t you think?”

He shakes his head, and I can’t help but feel like the gesture is meant to make me feel extremely small. “The arrangement I came up with benefited everyone. Kai would have taken his place on the throne, and you would have been queen.”

“Kind of you to think of us,” I say with a scoff. “But what was in it for you?”

His beady eyes bore into me and the murderous intent behind them burns straight through me. “Let’s be honest. Kai isn’t ready to rule. He still needs time to grow and understand the politics behind running a kingdom.”

“You get to remain in power—the shifter behind the curtain. Sorry to ruin your grand plans.”

He steps forward and grabs my jaw. “A tiny hiccup. Nothing I can’t maneuver around. Nothing better than a tragic love story to tug on heartstrings and make people bendable. The future queen found dead before she and the king could take their thrones. Kai in a deep depression over the loss of his mate. Love has a way of making people do unthinkable things. How could he live without you?” he says in an overdramatic tone.

I shake my head, disgusted by everything he has set in motion. “You wouldn’t... Kai is your son!”

“I would if it meant continuing to build what I’ve started and maintaining the traditions of shifters.”

I swallow down the bile rising in my throat. “Why would you do this? He could have still found someone. I’m not Kai’s mate, and I think you knew that before I did.”

He snorts and pushes my chin up, exposing the X on my neck, covered with clear cellophane but still visible.

He rips it off and I yelp, tears springing to my eyes. “Yeah, I can see who your ‘mate’ is. What a whore. To sleep with your betrothed’s brother. You make me sick. You’re lucky I haven’t already ridded the world of your useless ass. I should’ve just done it when I had the chance that night at the house.”

My mind reels with the new information. “It was you who was stalking me.”

He grabs my cheeks and squeezes, hard. I try and jerk my face away from him, but he just steps even closer to me. “Yeah, it was, and you were too wrapped up in messing around with Xander to figure it out. At first, I needed to stop you from telling your family about Kai leaving. That was a last-minute decision. But that day, I so enjoyed seeing the fear in your eyes. It was like a drug, rushing through my veins, and I couldn’t stop—following you around, watching you in that dressing room, sneaking up on you in the kitchen and spilling your blood, seeing you act like a slut with my stepson’s cock down your throat. My first plan was simply to expose you both to the Shifter Assembly, but then I realized I could have the ultimate rush and kill you myself. There is just something about the thought of your blood on my hands, Alexia.”

My stomach churns and I feel like I’m going to be sick. “Please, Clayton, stop. Just leave me alone. I can’t help who my mate is. I don’t know what you did to mess with the cleansing, but Kai didn’t mate first. Xander did, and?—”

Clayton rears back and his hand cracks across my face before I realize what’s even happening. “Do noteversay that again. Do you understand?”

I know why he reacts the way he does. Just like being intimate with someone else’s mate, tampering with a cleansing is punishable by death. The mating ritual is sacred. That’s someone’s heart you’re screwing with. Shifters don’t play when it comes to forever.

My cheek stings and tears spill down my face as the pain hits. I hate that I have no choice but to let him win. That I have to take it as he hurts me, insults me. But what can I do? I’m completely at his mercy.

“You are going to fix it, Alexia. You are going to make this right. Your deaths won’t be in vain.” He leans in closer, and I recoil from his hot, foul breath. “And just so you know, princess; I didn’t act alone. I’m not the one who tampered with the cleansing. There is another who wanted you mated to Malakai.”

The handle on the door shakes. I squirm in my chair, pounding the metal legs against the floor. I need whoever is behind the door to know that we’re in here. A sob rattles through me as Carrington enters. She looks like absolute shit, like she has gone through hell and back to get here. But she has never looked more beautiful to me.

“You’re here,” I say.

"About time,” Clayton hisses.

“It wasn’t easy finding what you asked for.” She looks at me for less than a second, darting her gaze away and focusing on her father.

“But you got it?” he asks.

“Yeah, I got it.” Her hand jets out and she unfurls her fingers from around a vial.

Her father backs up and throws his hands in the air. “You’re the one who fucked this up. You said you could keep her under control, that she would be compliant with what I needed. When have I ever allowed you not to take responsibility for your actions? This is your mess to clean up, daughter.”

My attention is divided between the two, bouncing back and forth as I try to make sense of it all. “Carrington,” I weakly say.

She finally takes me in, studying me head to toe. “All you had to do was to stay away from Xander and go along with the rest. We all would have been in the clear. Kai would have come around.”

I shake my head and look at her with pleading eyes. “Carrington, you don’t get it. I didn’twantKai to come around.Hedidn’t want to come around.”

“I do get it!” she shrieks so suddenly and shrilly that even Clayton jumps. Her green eyes are wild as she keeps talking, and I realize I have never seen her like this before. It’s like she’s not even in control of her body anymore. “I get that you couldn’t just go along with the plan. I put Kai’s blood in my perfume the night of the cleansing. When I came to see you beforehand, you’d been so sense-deprived that it made you gorightinto his arms. It was perfect. You’d found your mate, you’d be queen, and we’d be sisters. My dad would finally approve ofsomethingI’d done.” Her voice cracks on her last words, but I don’t have it in me to feel sorry for her. I’m too appalled by her confession.

“You didwhat? You sprayed your body with your brother’s blood?” My head is spinning, and I am certain I am going to pass out. Carrington did all of this. My best friend ruined my mating ceremony by doing her father’s bidding and is now going to... what? Murder me on his behalf? Finish the job?

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