Page 78 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
“You ran,” I said, my voice a blade, cutting through her excuses. “When Tyler revealed his plan, you chose him. You left me, left Natasha to die. Matt stopped Tyler and saved what was left of my pack, but you were gone. Because of you, I lost my sister.”
My wolf’s growl vibrated through me, my hands fisting, the torn paper crumpling in my grip.
“I was scared!” Rielle cried, her voice shrill, her body trembling. “Tyler was my brother. I thought he’d protect me. When you broke our mate bond, it drove me mad and feral. I lost myself, Damien, until I clawed my way back for you.” She sank to her knees, her hands clutching at my legs, her tears soaking the floor. “I killed that human to reach you, to beg for a fresh start. Please, Damien, forgive me. We can be what we were.”
I said nothing. I remained still and unmoved.
The words spilled from her anyway.
“Please, Damien. The time we’ve spent apart has been the hardest of my life. I can’t bear to be without you any longer.”
Still, I stayed silent, and her voice only grew more desperate.
“Do you know how much I love you? For years, I chose not to have children with you because I couldn’t stand the thought of you neglecting me… of you giving your attention to anyone else. That’s how much you meant to me. Please, Damien, think about what we had.”
It was strange, hearing her admit that all those years without a child were by her design. That she’d been taking things to keep herself from getting pregnant.
But what was even stranger…was that I felt nothing. Not anger or sympathy. Just completely nothing.
It was strange because for years, I thought this was what I wanted. I’d clung to the hope that Rielle’s betrayal hadn’t really been hers. That there was some explanation, some truth that would absolve her. That maybe she had been a pawn in her brother’s scheme. That maybe we could fix what broke.
But now, hearing her confess and beg, there was nothing left inside me.
Whatever hope I once had of being with her had turned to ash,burned away by the fire that rose in my chest at the thought of another woman. Raven. My heart thudded, a truth crystallizing, sharp and undeniable: Raven was the one I wanted, the one I loved, not this ghost of a past I’d clung to too long.
“I could never forgive you,” I said, my voice cold and final, as I stepped back, her hands falling away. “You’re a traitor, a liar, and a murderer. You’re nothing to me, Rielle.” I mindlinked Sinclair, my command simple as it was sharp: Bring guards. Arrest Rielle. Now.
In a brief moment, the door slammed open, and Sinclair and three guards stormed in. Rielle struggled, her claws extending, her voice a desperate wail as they seized her arms. “Damien, please!” she begged, her tears glistening, but I turned away, my resolve iron, my heart fixed on Raven.
She twisted in their grip, her voice turning venomous, a hiss that stopped me cold. “You’re too late, Damien,” she spat, her eyes glinting with a sick vindictive glee. “Raven’s gone. By the time you reach her, Ivy will have torn her to shreds.”
My heart stilled, my wolf surging, its roar deafening as I whirled back, seizing her shoulders, my growl shaking the room. “What the hell do you mean?” I snarled, my face inches from hers, my vision red with terror. “What have you done?”
Rielle’s smile was cruel, her scent sour with malice. “I am your mate, the one the Goddess chose for you,” she said, her voice low, taunting. “Raven is nothing. I sent her to the Ivory Moon Pack. I lured her with a lie about her parents’ death. She’s on her way there now. Ivy’s waiting, and she’ll rip that child from her womb. You’ve lost her, Damien.”
A cold chill tore through me…sharper and deeper than anything I’d ever felt. Nothing in my life had ever scared me like this. Raven was out there, exposed and in danger. For a moment, it felt like my heart stopped. My roar shattered the air.
I shoved her toward the guards, my command coming out in a growl: “Take her to the cells.” As they dragged her away, her curses echoing, I was already running, my feet pounding the hardwood, my wolf howling for Raven.
I burst into her room, the door slamming open, and my heart sank. Her clothes were gone, and her scent faded.
She was gone, walking into a trap, pregnant and alone. Terror gripped me, my heart racing, my only thought was to find her and save her, before Ivy’s claws took everything. I tore through the hall. I had to reach her. Raven was mine, and I’d burn the world to protect her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Raven
My heart felt like it held its breath as the Ivory Moon Pack’s territory unfolded before me, a maze of shadowed pines and mist-wreathed hills, their silhouettes jagged against the midnight sky.
My car’s engine hummed faintly, the tires crunching gravel as I drove deeper into the land I called home. My hands gripped the wheel, my knuckles white, my swollen belly pressing against the seatbelt, the baby’s faint kick a spark of life amid the ache in my chest.
Despite the magnitude of what I had come for, my mind still lingered on where I had just departed. Damien’s words echoed within me like a relentless drumbeat in my mind. The accusation in his eyes when he called me reckless. The way he accused me of endangering myself and my child when I was the one wronged. His defense of Rielle, even as her choking sunflower scent lingered where my nest had been, felt like a betrayal that cut deeper than wolfsbane.
My heart splintered right there and then. Tears burned in my eyes as I realized I’d fallen in love with a man who’d never see me, not the way I saw him, not with Rielle, his fated mate, still holding his heart.
And the worst part of it all?
It had been my fault.
