Page 38 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
All the pressure from the past week. Everything building up after I found her in the woods.
After I found out about her wedding.
That night, I had to break things off with her, and she pleaded with me not to go. Begged me not to leave her. I’ve been carrying that around with me for years, and finally, here’s a good place to bury all the violence built up inside me.
Caspian—either through vanity or sheer stupidity—shifts back as well, and I get my hands on him, throwing him to the dirt with ease. I didn’t spend the past five years of my life trainingtirelessly to fight fires just to lose to some Gucci sweatpants-clad asshole.
“This,” I say, stomping my boot into his stomach, “is for treating my mate like she’s beneath you.”
When he tries to grab my leg, I kick at his arm with the other, making the elbow bend in a way that it absolutely is not supposed to.
“Andthis,” I say, baring my teeth at his yell of pain, “is for every fucking evil thing you’ve said to her over the course of your sham engagement.”
“Please,” he sputters, blood and spit flying up over his face and glittering in the light of the afternoon sun. “Please, stop.”
“You know I could kill you, right?” I ask, crouching down, and I hear several of our onlookers suck in a breath. Xeran makes no noise, but I know what he’d prefer I do. “According to the pack article you’ve invoked, I could rip out your fucking throat right now.”
Caspian whimpers, turning over onto his belly like the worm he is, trying to crawl away, but he can’t get a purchase because the grass is slick with his blood and—
“Oh, yuck,” I mutter, standing and stepping away from him, watching as his pants go dark around the waist.
He buries his face in his arms, and for a moment, I almost feel bad for the fucker.
For a second, we all just stand there, watching him cry into the grass, moaning at the injuries that arenothingcompared to what any of us have gone through, fighting the wildfires. Nothing like the times trees have fallen on us, like thetime Lachlan swam through a burning pool to save Valerie, like when Felix was nearly burned alive by Tara.
Raising my chin, I look to Xeran and gesture loosely down at the trembling figure in the grass. “What do you think, sup? Does this count as afinal endto the fight?”
I quote the article Caspian has invoked, even though I know whatfinal endreally means. When the pack articles were written, fighting to the death was the only acceptable way to win. If you issued a challenge or accepted one, you knew that you wouldn’t be coming out of it alive unless you won.
Either Caspian is as stupid as he looks, or he was banking on us not following through with the actual wording.
“This is sufficient,” Xeran says, something twinkling in his eye. “You’re the victor of the challenge. What are your spoils?”
“He stays the fuck away from Aurela, and her family, for that matter. In fact…” I pause, turning around, staring down at him. “He leaves Silverville. And if he dares to come back, I’ll rip him limb from limb.”
“What do you say, Caspian?” Xeran says, even though the loser doesn’tgeta say.
Caspian drags himself up to sitting, then shakily and embarrassingly gets to his feet, digging into his pocket with his uninjured hand, still coughing and sobbing.
We all watch in silence as he unlocks his nice car, sliding into the front seat and pulling out of the lot with the speed you’d expect from someone with only one usable hand.
For a moment, all is quiet. A butterfly flaps between us. Aurela moves quietly to my side, her fingers lacing between mine.
Then, of course, it’s Felix who breaks the silence.
“Should someone tell him that piss will ruin his leather seats?”
Chapter 20 - Aurela
Call me a cliché all you want, but there’s something satisfying about watching the man you love fight for your honor. And there’s something even more endlessly satisfying about watching the man who’s told you you’re nothing for years piss himself while everyone stands in a circle and watches.
“That’s really how he’s been treating you?” Lachlan asks, the first to speak after Felix broke the silence.
Maeve shoves him in the shoulder for it.
“Yes,” I whisper, though what’s been revealed today doesn’t shed light on the times Caspian’s come to the house when I was alone and came into my room. Forcing me back on the bed, trying to put his hands where I didn’t want them. It doesn’t show how the staff had to start hanging around just to keep his behavior decent. And it doesn’t shed light on every nasty thing he’d whisper into my ear when he knew nobody but me could hear him.
“And this is how you feel about my sister?” Lachlan asks, jerking his head toward the general direction of where the fight took place, where Caspian’s bodily fluids are still stinking in the grass.
