Page 156 of Drown My Sorrow

“Aspyn Montauk. I am surprised to see you here. I was thinking I made a deal for you and your mother to disappear.”

I turn around, feeling sick as I look up at his stony expression. “It’s a party. Everyone comes to parties.” It’s a stupid thing to say, but I seem to have lost my ability to say intelligent things.

“And, yet, I paid your mother to get rid of you. Why are you back?”

I try to act confused. “Why would you want to do that? What did I ever do to you?”

He sneers at me and looks me up and down. “You’re Kelly’s scent match. I supposed he bonded you?”

I refuse to answer.

“No matter. I can talk him around again. One way or another. It wasn’t that hard to talk him out of having a broken omega like you.”

“I’m not broken,” I protest feebly.

“Of course, you are. With that hideous scar across your face and that limp. You were so young and naive. And nothing has changed. You still have a scar and a limp. Tell me, can you still not have children?”

I nod my head. “I was all of that.”

“And what are you now?”

“Not alone,” I murmur and grin at Shale, who comes to stand beside me.

Typhor glares at Shale, but my alpha doesn’t even flinch. And why would he?

“Typhor Raines, I am so glad to meet you in person. It’s going to be the pleasure of my life, snuffing your existence out of this world.”

Typhor’s eyes have widened, his face turns grey, and he sways on his feet.

Kelly appears beside us. “Uncle, how wonderful to see you.”

Typhor seems to draw himself together, finding some inner willpower, though I find it amusing that he can’t look Shale in the eye.

“Cut the crap, Kelly. What do you want?”

“I’m here to stop you from destroying what isn’t yours,” Kelly says with all the power and arrogance he owns.

Typhor lets out a hideous laugh. It sends chills up my spine.

I catch a white-faced Ryn being escorted from the room by her alphas. I’m not running from him. He’s nothing.

I lift my chin and stare him down. For some reason, he’s focused all his rage on me. Even as he directs his words to Kelly, he still maintains eye contact with me.

“Everything is mine. It was from the time I put up with your grandfather’s shit and ever since then. I’m not losing my chance again.”

“It will make things easier if you just accept that you’re not a Raines. You never were, and you never will be,” Lia says from beside me. “You’re just a piece of trash who beats up my cousin and aunt.”

He raises a hand, but Zaden steps in front of Lia. The whole room throbs with menace.

“I’d be leaving if I were you, Uncle,” Raider says casually. “You never know when you might disappear.”

Shale reaches out and takes hold of my hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

“You’re going to regret all of this,” Typhor hisses. “I won’t make her a whore. I’ll ruin everything she has. You piece of shit. I’ll make it so no one will ever touch her again. She will be destroyed.”

Kelly smiles. “You have to get through us first.”

Typhor looks up and seems to realise, all of a sudden, just who is in the room. His expression darkens as he finds himself facing down Bethany, Locke, Lia, Raider, Kelly, Charles, and all their packs. In the shadows, I spot Bailey watching, looking almost as dangerous as Shale.

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