Page 81 of Unclaimed Bonds
Alpha Rhineheart growls. “One word, boy, and I will strip you of your title and banish you from our pack!”
“No, Alpha. It’s really not his fault. The poor boy is part of this tangled web of lies and manipulation woven together by this horrible monster.”
I attempt to stand. I will not let this asshole spread lies about me. But Luke continues to hold me down and tightly squeezes my shoulder. “I can’t believe you. Whatever happened to you having my back, too?” I hiss.
He doesn’t respond or show any kind of emotion, looking expectedly at the Beta.
“Your Majesty, I’m so ashamed to involve you in this. This really should have been pack business. I tried my best to raise my daughter to be an upstanding member of my pack.”
Daughter? What the fuck?!
“She was always a difficult child, telling lies, manipulating young men to do her bidding, and causing fights amongst the pack members. We punished her to correct this behavior, but she ran around the pack and claimed we starved her, beat her,and locked her out of her home. She made us look like monsters when she was abusing us.”
I squirm, trying to wiggle out of Luke’s grasp, but he bears down even harder.
“She manipulated the Young Alpha into taking her side, pitting him against his own father, against his best friend, my son, Bart. She used the betrothal contract between the Young Alpha and herself to manipulate him, knowing the contract was binding.”
“Betrothed?” my father and I say in unison.
“No fucking way! You’re lying! There is no way I am betrothed to anyone!” I scream.
The Young Alpha’s eyes avoid mine, and he shakes his head. “The contract is real, Grit,” he replies softly.
“What the fuck did you just call me?!” I shout.
“Grit, your name. Come now. I know you never liked it, but don’t be so dramatic.” Beta DuPont feigns sincerity.
I want to scratch his eyeballs out with my fingernails.
He chuckles. “Your Majesty, I can supply you with the contract, if you like. It was formalized a few months after her birth. It’s legal and binding. Of course, it’s written under her original name, Grit DuPont.”
My father stares at the Beta. “Yes. I want a copy of that contract in my office by the end of the day.”
I turn to my father. “No! I am not the horrible monster they claim me to be! I will never mate with anyone who thinks so little of the opposite sex!”
“Grit, I?—”
“That is not my name!” I yell at the Young Alpha. Luke squeezes my shoulder. “Let go of me, or you will regret it!”
He ignores me and addresses Beta DuPont. “Why did you think she died?”
“Well, you see, she had made so many problems among the pack that even her peers began to hate her. She started fights and then cried that she was being bullied. My poor son tried everything to save her from herself. We were told that she had a fight with one of her best friends, uh, Kat, I think. She messed around with Kat’s boyfriend behind her back.
“Anyway, a group of friends and peers confronted her about it. According to my son, it was a bad fight. When it was over, she returned home. Bart, my son, said he found her in the bathroom, indulging in wine she stole from my cellar, mutilating herself. She told Bart she planned to kill herself and make it appear like she was murdered.
“Bart tried to stop her and called his friends for help. She’s a strong girl, even though she’s quite petite. They chased her all the way to the falls, but then he lost track of her. She was missing for—what—a week, almost two. The entire pack searched for her. Then, my son found her body in a ravine near the falls. Her body was so unrecognizable, we could only identify her by the color of her hair.
“My son never recovered. He was so devastated that he couldn’t help his sister. My mate never forgave herself for not doing more for her daughter, as well as for me… How do you recover from losing a child?”
“You are not my father, you horrible piece of shit!” I struggle against Luke’s restraining grip. I swear I am going to break his fucking hand!
“If she is here,” my father asks, “then whose body did you find?”
Beta DuPont shrugs. “Your Majesty, we had no reason to believe it wasn’t her.” He hesitates for a moment. “She’s a very smart girl. She attended senior year courses when she was only a sophomore. She’s a musical prodigy. We wanted to place her in a special school for gifted children, but we were so afraidof the trouble she would cause outside of the territory. I can only imagine that she found another child similar in height and weight to look like her.”
I glare at Beta DuPont.
“You murdered a child, Jessica?” Slowly, I turn to look at Luke. My body trembles, and I ball my hands into fists. “You accused my mate of setting up the murder of your best friend, Emily. This makes me wonder if?—”
