Page 7 of Forsaken Devotion: Part 2
My lower lip trembled.
His expression immediately softened, as did his grip around my nape. He caressed the skin on my throat. His touch had the same effect it always did. Tingles exploded over my skin, but before I could succumb to his allure, I yanked back. Since his hold had loosened, it was easy to do.
“Listen to me.”
“I have no interest in talking. I want you to leave.” His shoulders jerked like I’d hit him. “Get out of my way.” I shoved his chest, but he didn’t move an inch.
“Stop,” he ordered, grabbing my forearms. I bared my teeth and yanked and pulled with all my force.
“Josephine, you’re going to hurt yourself,” he shouted. I didn’t stay still. Nor did I care if I hurt myself.
The door banged against the wall from the force of it being shoved open.
“Alpha?” a female voice screamed. “You’ll harm her!” I met her shocked eyes. A woman dressed in scrubs, very obviously a nurse, ran forward and pulled at his arm where the sleeve was rolled to his elbow.
A sting spiked through my chest, right where the bond was. It traveled down to my stomach, making it clench. The fiery sear was just a shade of what I knew it could be.
The familiar pain.
Every time I’d writhed and cried, feeling this, he’d been skin to skin with other women?
Our bond had flared to life four years ago, and Cierra had touched him, placed her lips on him . . .
Since we’d bonded, it no longer hurt to the extent it used to. My nose burned with un-shed tears.
“Oh, Moon,” I croaked. “You let her touch you . . .” Quickly, I lunged to grab the blue plastic bag on the stand beside the bed. I shoved the hard circular lip against my mouth, and I gagged into it. My stomach continued to contract, but nothing came out.
Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes. My mind raced as I connected the dots. The nurse no longer touched him; she hovered closer to the door, terror all over her expression.
Slowly, Lucian approached as if I were a wild animal. Accurate, since I felt like one. My heart thundered in my ears, clenching from the realization as well as the sting from the bond.
“Every time I had those pains . . . you were touching someone—fucking someone.” Because why else would he be skin to skin with a woman for that long? Once a pair’s bond appeared, every time they touched the opposite sex, it echoed through the bond, but on the way there, it morphed into agony.
The bond was something to value and revere. Dad had told me a lot about his bond with Mom and how it dearly affected him. Losing her made him half a person. If I hadn’t been around, I had no doubt he would have killed himself.
Lucian disrespected the sanctity of what we could have had. He’d betrayed me over and over again.
Nausea rose to the surface. His shoulders and torso jerked with his harsh breaths. His hands squeezed my biceps, forcing me to face him. I sneered up at him.
“I never should have?—”
“Do not touch me,” I hissed. His face was pale, he seemed drawn and harsh, but as much pain as I could see reflected in hisgaze, it meant nothing to me. “Let me go.” I writhed in his grip, yanking and wriggling to free myself.
“Never, Josephine. I will never let you go,” he threatened.
I managed to free one arm and slapped him across the face. The sting radiated down to my wrist.
He took it without flinching, still not giving me space, so I slapped him again. He stilled, his eyes welling with moisture as they looked at me. He closed them and dropped to his knees. I gasped, my arm staying suspended midair.
His head bent forward, hair falling onto his forehead.
“I’ll take your punishment.” His husky voice broke. The nurse near the door had owlish eyes that kept flipping from me to my mate.
Every inch of my body went still as I stared down at him prostrated before me. How much did he truly know? Had he been behind the attempt on my life? My dad’s murder?
I stiffened my lips into a thin line so they’d stop trembling. I had no doubt Cierra was part of it because she’d confirmed it when she came for me, but how much had Lucian known? The movement near the door brought my attention to the nurse slipping out of the room and ripped me to the present.
“You disgust me,” I spat, glaring down at him.
