Page 25 of Saved By The King's Gamma

“You disobeyed me!” The king growls. “And now you’re injured!” he snaps at her. Ivy groans in pain and tries to defend herself, my hands raise to reach for her when Gannon pins my arms by my sides.

“But Abbie…” Ivy tries to say before he cuts her off.

“I don’t want to hear it!” he growls, Ivy grips his shoulders and she chokes on a sob when his teeth sink into her neck. She struggles for a second before falling limp in his arms. I see red as she goes unresponsive, how could he! How could he hurt her when she was trying to help! And I push Gannon away before attacking the king for hurting her. My hands hit him as I try to stop him biting her.

“You fucking asshole! You prick! You didn’t even let her explain! You just made her submit!” I scream, punching into his side in a fit of rage. He looks at me as if I am merely a small child chucking a tantrum. Gannon grabs me around the waist, tugging me back but I thrash, falling forward in his arms while flailing as he restrains my arms. I snarl angrily, leaning forward and biting the king’s arm like a damn savage before realizing what I just did as Gannon jerks me backward.

The king blinks down at me, where I was breathing heavily in my anger.

“I will fucking kill you! You… You savage neanderthal!” I scream, my face heating and I know I am turning red-faced from my boiling anger.

Gannon growls before snapping at me, his voice below my ear as his arms hold me stronger. “He didn’t make her submit. Stop! Look!” Gannon snarls at me, pointing to where the king lifts Azalea’s shirt. Her wound is already healing, though the king’s hand is filled with her blood. The king shakes his head. “I’m sorry, My King. I will calm her down,” Gannon tells him, but I escape his strong embrace, turning to dead weight and slipping out of his arms. I move to check on Ivy. The king stares at me, a blank expression on his face while he takes me in.

“See? He isn’t hurting her,” Gannon whispers, behind me, and I let out a breath.

“You couldn’t have warned her first? Instead of just going all caveman and biting into her!” I ask him.

“Warn her? Like you did me when you bit me?” The king growls and my face heats with embarrassment.

“I thought… Never mind. Fucking neanderthal men! Anyone would think you were raised by cavemen!” I snap rubbing my temples. My eyes fall on the dead body behind him. Kade lays in the dirt and I blink at what became of my mate. Tears prick my eyes at another person lost to me. Someone who was supposed to be mine was taken away from me. I hated him! Hated him for what he did, but he was mine.

“Can we go home now?” I ask, my voice barely audible to my own ears; I sound defeated and dead inside, and I am. I glance at Gannon and he nods his head.

“My King, we have three cars here. They are on the top road,” Damian says, coming over to us with Dustin tossed limply over his shoulder. Gannon leads me away to where Damian said cars are waiting.

When we finally reach the top, I can feel the tension radiating off Kyson in waves. His grip on Azalea tightens as if anchoring himself, his breathing uneven and rough. I can’t help but glance at him nervously, noticing how wild his eyes seem. Even Damian appears uneasy as Kyson clutches Azalea closer, inhaling her scent like it’s the only thing keeping him from unraveling completely. His entire body looks coiled, ready to snap. Damian and Gannon watch him with an intensity that tells me something is wrong with the king while my mind is on Azalea clutched in his arms; what if he shifts and hurts her in the process?

I slide into the huge modified armored truck that has come to collect us and so does Kyson, sitting across from me with Ivy in his arms, his entire body tense. Damian and Gannon climb in, and I wonder where Dustin was put when I notice a few others climb in I don’t recognize but know they are part of the Royal Guard. I am forced to sit on Gannon’s lap.

The ride back is tense, the silence only broken by the rumble of the engine and the occasional sigh from Damian or Gannon. I sit stiffly on Gannon’s lap, my heart pounding in my chest. Every bump in the road makes me wince, the tight stitches in my wounds pulling painfully, some torn open completely from my struggle with Kade and running. But it’s not the pain in my body that weighs on me the most—it’s the storm swirling in my mind.

Kade is dead.

The words echo in my head over and over again, and each time, they feel heavier. I saw it happen—I saw his body fall lifeless to the ground, felt the bond rip apart my heart when he accepted my rejection, then the last fragments of the bond officially died when he did. I should feel relieved. I should feel free. He was cruel, heartless, and abusive. He wasn’t the mate I stupidly thought he was. He wasn’t the person who was supposed to love and protect me.

But he was my mate.

A knot tightens in my stomach, guilt pressing down on me like a weight I can’t shake. No matter how monstrous Kade was, a part of me mourns him—or mourns what could have been, what should have been. I hate myself for it. I hate that I feel this way. But I can’t stop thinking about the man who was supposed to love me, who instead broke me, piece by piece. Not even fate could force someone to love me and knowing that stings.

I clench my fists in my lap, trying to shove the thoughts aside, but new ones come rushing in, making the guilt sharper, harder to bear. I didn’t listen to Gannon. He warned me. He told me Kade was a bad man, told me not to go with him. But I didn’t listen. I was so desperate to be loved to finally have someone of my own I ignored his warning, and now Ivy—Azalea—is hurt because of me.

If I had stayed, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt. None of this would have happened. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to hold back the tears that threaten to spill. I feel Gannon’s arms tighten around me, his warmth a comfort I don’t feel like I deserve.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice barely audible over the sound of the car. Gannon leans down slightly, his breath brushing against my ear.

“For what?” he asks softly, his tone gentle but curious.

“For not listening to you,” I murmur. “If I hadn’t gone with him… if I had left when you came for me, maybe Ivy wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Maybe none of this would have happened.” My voice cracks at the end, and I hate how weak I sound. “It’s my fault.”

Gannon doesn’t respond right away, and for a moment, I’m afraid he agrees with me—that he blames me, too. But then his hand moves to gently cup the side of my face, turning me slightly so I have no choice but to meet his eyes. His expression is soft but serious, full of a kind of quiet understanding that makes my chest ache. I hurt him, too; I hurt him which in turn hurt me. Shame washes over me as I stare into his intense eyes.

“None of this is your fault, Abbie,” he says firmly. “You trusted your mate. That’s not something you should feel guilty for.”

“But I?—”

“No,” he interrupts gently but firmly. “You didn’t cause this. Kade did. He hurt you, and you did what you had to do to protect yourself. Ivy getting hurt—that isn’t on you, that’s on Kade and on me, I told her about Kade, that is why she was close, she was coming to get you.”

Tears prick at the corners of my eyes again, but this time I don’t bother trying to blink them away. “I should have known better,” I whisper. “I should have listened to you. I—” My voice falters, and I swallow hard, trying to keep myself together. I glance at the king but he seems to be having his own struggles with his bond as he stares at Ivy like she is a meal he wants to devour. My cheeks heat when I lift my gaze to see Damian watching us; he says nothing but turns his gaze to the window like he wasn’t just eavesdropping. Turning my attention back to Gannon his expression darkens, but he doesn’t let me pull away. Instead, he strokes his thumb gently across my cheek, wiping away a tear that escapes.

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