Page 17 of My Bad Boy Alpha

A low chuckle left my mouth.“No, this isn’t my piece-of-shit brother.This is Carve.”

“Carve,” she repeated, her face contorted into one of horror.She dropped her gaze to my palm that had split open from seizing the knife, watching as the wound healed almost instantly.“What kind of town is this?These names are ridiculous.”

I chuckled again and leaned closer to her.“Don’t tell him that.”

She tensed and widened her eyes, inching closer to me.

After taking her hand, I led her to Maxine, Sina, and Carve.She was hesitant about meeting other people, but I still pulled her along because she needed to get over her fears one way or another.

“Stone,” Carve said, nodding.

“Who’s this?”Sina asked, smiling at Zuri.

“This is my mate, Zuri.”

Zuri gulped and peered over at them.“H-hi.”

“Hi!”Maxine waved from Sina’s side.“Wanna grab coffee with us?”

“Um, I think we were?—”

“Go,” I said to her, ushering her along.“I need to talk to Carve alone.”

Staring at me through hugehelp meeyes, Zuri sighed softly and followed the girls across the street to a small coffee shop named Chaos.I cleared my throat and walked with Carve out the doors.

“Haven’t seen you in a few days,” Carve said.

“Could say the same about you.”

“What’d you ask me to meet you here for?”

“Advice,” I said.

He let out a lifeless laugh.“Since when do you need advice?”

“Since you’re the only person who has done what I want to do.”

“Done what?”

“Rule the world.”

“You want me to tell you how?Fuck no.Besides, you have a mate now.”

“And?”

“And you should forget about your dreams, about revenge.It will lead you nowhere.”

“Do you think any pack—especially my brother’s—really deserves to live?”I asked, my hand tightening into a fist while I gazed past Carve and toward Zuri, who stood tensely next to Maxine and Sina across the street.“Zuri’s ex-pack abused her—mentally, emotionally, and physically.Goddess only knows what my shit-faced brother will do once he finds out I have found my mate.I need to do?—”

“You don’t understand,” he growled.“If you have done what I have done, killed who I have killed, lusted for power and women, validation, vengeance, then you would not attempt to slaughter your brother.That’s a terrible path to walk down alone.”

“I’m not alone.I have Zuri.”

“And I had Olenna once.”

I pressed my lips together and averted my gaze.“The rumors are lies.I don’t lust for power or women.I lust after wrapping my hands around my brother’s throat and feeling the way his blood pumps through his body while he takes his last breath.”

“Do you think I was so terribly motivated when I began my journey?”he asked.“Because I had innocent motives that were corrupted over time by reality.Not dreams or people.Reality, Stone.If you don’t take this shit seriously, you’ll see for yourself.”

---