Page 70 of Outcast
Pressing my lips together into a thin line, I tried to fight back my frustration at the thought of not fighting alongside everyone up there.
"Did you know I was a shifter this entire time?" I asked, switching gears, needing to confirm the suspicion that Selene had voiced during our meeting.
Tilting his head at me, he smirked, "Why, of course I did. I killed your parents and pretended I found you wandering around. They had come to seek guidance from me as Alpha of Alphas when they saw your crescent mark flare. Seeking an audience with the council is impossible for low ranking wolves, so I was their next best bet."
My parents hadn't abandoned me. They hadn't given me up. They had sought help to protect me and get answers.
Biting down on my lip to hold back the tears pricking at my eyes, I listened to him ramble. "Honestly, it was pathetic how simple-minded and gullible they were when I told them through an exchange of letters that they needed to keep your mark a secret and that our meeting must be known by no one else."
My palms itched to summon the sword and bury it through his chest.
I ground out through clenched teeth, "Then why did you keep my wolf a secret? You had me under your control to mold into a weapon."
Fixing me with his dark gaze, he deadpanned, "I had counted on the Daimona killing you the day Maya died. You would have been out of the way and the path to victory clear. But then she had to be an idiot and sacrifice herself for you and that stupid child of mine. That situation has been dealt with, though."
Smothering my outward hatred, I seethed internally.
How could he show such disregard for his dead mate and son? Had he always been this way? How could such an evil man have risen through the ranks to become so highly respected?
"Why didn't you just kill me yourself when you..." I had to force the words out, "killed my parents?"
He rolled his eyes, "I hadn't known yet what the master wanted me to do with you. I'd never go against his wishes. I finally got the green light and had already called in the Daimona to attack when Maya told me of her plans to bring you to the edge of our territory."
I couldn't stifle my rage any longer as I jolted to my feet. "Then why wouldn't you have told them to spare your family? You had control of the situation."
A single dark brow lifted as he explained, "I couldn't make it look like they were only after you, because then you would have appeared special, and that would have raised questions from Maya."
"You are a weak and pathetic excuse for a shifter. I will never help you," I sneered at him. “Why the hell would you ever think I would join you after everything you just admitted?”
He rose to his feet slowly and crossed his arms across his chest, "Because I assumed you would see the value in joining the winning side if you have any regard for your life. And trust me, the Daimona are just a blip in his vast army. No one will be spared."
He’d sold his soul to the fucking devil and assumed no one else cared about being a decent fucking person. His ducks are definitely not in a row up in that brain.
Brushing past his insane logic, I asked the burning question in my head. "If your master wanted me dead, why am I still here now?"
"Because once I reported back that you were alive but shunned within the pack, he saw an opportunity. He tasked me with ensuring you were kept beaten down and thinking you were a pathetic human until your powers manifested." His chest rose as he took a deep breath and blew it out, seemingly annoyed at the way the conversation was dragging on now. "Then, I was to take you to him to be his mate. You'd be harmless and moldable after being stepped on your entire life."
The acid in my stomach churned and threatened to come up at the thought of a forced mating with whomever the fuck his master was. I would rather die than be torn from my mates and forced into servitude.
"With all due respect, Alpha," I mockingly started, ending with a chill to my voice, "you can take youroptionsand shove them up your–" but I was cut off as Seth roared from the entrance of the Pit, "Kira!"
It was like watching a second skin form over the alpha's face as he pulled his usual persona back into place and yelled back, "Come quick! The Daimona hurt her."
As my mouth parted to contradict his statement, the alpha lunged for me before Seth could come down into the Pit, dragging a serrated knife across my stomach several times. My words stayed lodged in my throat, and I lifted my hands to my stomach to try to staunch the warm blood seeping rapidly from the wounds.
Kira, you need to shift! I can heal us much faster.
Pocketing the knife, he gripped my shoulders as I dropped and placed his lips next to my ear. His words made my blood chill, "You will not speak a word of our encounter, and you will not shift, or I will kill your mates before your eyes without hesitation."
Heavy footfalls alerted me to Seth's arrival at the bottom of the ladder, and I turned my head slowly towards him as the alpha pretended to cradle me with concern. Shrugging out of his shirt, he pressed it into my stomach, "Hold this tightly, Kira. We need to stop the bleeding."
Seth was riddled with blood splatters, but he didn't have any wounds that I could see. It brought me some peace of mind, and I whispered hoarsely through the pain, "Milo? Jameson?"
Dropping to one knee beside me, he ran his hand across my forehead to brush the hair out of the way. "They're still fighting. I came to find you because we have quite a few pack members who aren't going to make it with how quickly the Daimona's poison is spreading through them. One of them is Seneca."
No, no, no. I needed to get to them.
Anger bled into the pain I was feeling, and I banged my head against the wall behind me, feeling like I was at the worst crossroads of my life. "Hey, hey, don't bang your head like that. We should never have left you down here with that Daimona," Seth tried to reassure me as he looked back towards the dead shifter on the ground.
