Page 77 of The Alpha's Heir

“I usually pull every fingernail and toenail out on the people who slight me. I once even pulled someone’s teeth, but I’m not going near your mouth after you just puked up. My other favourite thing to do is to cut off people's eyelids and then they have no option but to watch as I end the world they live in. That would be appropriate, seeing as you ended the world I lived in when you killed my papa.”

I cry out, and my knees buckle. The thought of losing my eyelids is grotesque. I need to talk this out with Salma, but she won’t let me talk. Panic and fear fill my entire being. There is no way out. I am overwhelmed with terror and Salma’s self-controlled, cool as a cucumber façade is frightening the living daylights out of me.

“I could have granted you a quick death, a bullet right between the eyes just like that backstabbing whore, but you don’t deserve the dignity and swiftness of relief that would give you.”

Right now, I would give anything for a quick death. I don’t want to plead for my life. I just want this to end soon. I can’t take much more.

“I could have given you a drawn-out death. Scaphism… I’ve always wanted to do it but it's so messy and time-consuming. Hung-drawn-and-quartered… I didn’t want so many people being able to take credit for killing you. I want that pleasure all for myself.”

A small grin spreads across her face at that anecdote, marking one of the only times she has shown any emotion in front of me.

“The newest torture I’ve found is the Spanish Donkey… you’d love it. It’s a large triangular shape that your victim sits on like they are riding a horse or a donkey. But it has razor sharp edges, you would have your legs tied up and they would slowly be pulled, forcing your body to completely split in half.”

Her eyes light up and I thrash my body about as hard as I can to try and escape. I don’t want to be slowly split in half. I’m crying and trying to plead. It’s all futile as there is no escape for me now.

“You killed my papa. And now I want you to know that I am going to kill you, but I am going to do this my way. I am the Donna here now, and men like you have been oppressing women like me for years. Telling us we aren’t good enough, or we aren’t able, or that you are superior. Forcing us into marriages because we are told we cannot do it because the Mafia is a man's world, and I am just a girl.”

The hair stands up at the back of my neck and my skin puckers into goose pimples. I get the overwhelming urge to defecate, so great is the fear building inside me.

“Well, look at this girl. Look at me. It’s my turn to conquer the world and I am going to start with you.”

*** Amber ***

This is not the outcome I have been anticipating. The more I discovered about Nikki, the more convinced I had become that I am going to rip her throat out. She went after MY mate. She tried to hurt me through the sacred bond I have with Preston. She promised to destroy me. She made this personal against me. And I get it. I truly get it. I killed her mate.

Everything changes the moment I see her pleading desperately for her unborn child’s safety, as Junior, the fucking big bully, pins her to the wall by her throat. She is just as broken and fucked up as I am, except I have my family, and most importantly, I still have my mate and the promise of our pups to come. She has nothing left.

I am not a cold-blooded killer. I didn’t kill her mate in a premeditated or targeted attack. There hasn’t been a day and night when I haven’t thought about the man whose life I snuffed out when I responded to what I thought was the second abduction of my brother and Alpha. The weight of my sword as it connected with the junction between his neck and shoulder still wakes me during the night. The sight of his open body will haunt me until my dying day.

So, as this broken, bedraggled woman accuses me of destroying her life, I do the right thing. I hold my hands up and apologise, because ultimately, I did. I didn’t intend on doing it, I didn’t set out with that objective, but nevertheless, that is what had happened. I killed her mate and her hopes and dreams with him.

I don’t expect her to accept my apology. If I am being truthful, I wouldn’t. I probably would kill her on sight if our roles were reversed. But she does accept it and my own guilt and discomfort ease when she does.

I’m not completely naïve. I know what Nikki is capable of and so to prevent her escaping, I cuff her to me and give her the same serum she injected into Gamma Max. It is only a tiny dose, but it is enough to subdue her wolf and mage powers until I get her back to the Onyx Moon and hand her over to my brother and Alpha Xavier.

We travel in silence for a short distance before Nikki turns to me, concern lining her face. “Is that woman going to kill Junior?” Without much thought, I give a short nod to her question, and she loses all control. “Let me out! I have to help him. I can save him; I don’t want him to die. Not again.”

Her gut-wrenching screams fill the car, and it takes all my might to hold her down as she thrashes against me, the car door, and the seats. I panic when I hear my arm snap. It’ll heal fast enough but it will make holding Nikki a bit more tiresome.

“It's too late. Nikki, stop. It's already too late. The Mafia have him and he’s done some serious shit, including killing a powerful Spanish Don and critically injuring a human, causing her to miscarry her baby. He made threats against his sister and tried to hurt her daughter. He’s got no chance of surviving tonight, Nikki. I’m sorry, but you seriously cannot want to be mistreated by him for the rest of your life?”

Her shoulders shake as she inconsolably sobs into my chest. “You should have just killed me. I don’t think I can survive another dead mate. I can’t go through that pain again.”

Onyx River can be seen in the near distance, so I periodically try to mindlink Preston to get back up to help me, hoping we are close enough for me to reach him, but there is no reply. I know he is helping Aiden and Eva today with Eva's mother and therapy, but I thought he would be finished by now.

I try Aiden but he blocks me. Not now, Amber. Try Billy.

So, I mindlink Delta Billy, who arranges a Delta contingent to meet the car. “Be gentle with her, she might be pregnant. Can you get Alpha Xavier and Luna Lydia here, please? I need to discuss something with them. Tell them we will be in the hospital.”

We enter the hospital and the first person I see is Gamma Max. “What the fuck is she doing here?” he growls at me.

“She’s my prisoner and she has been assaulted and needs to be seen. We’ll stay on this side. Go back to your mate, Gamma.” I try to use my authority as Lieutenant, but Max’s anger overrides me. He is riled and his back is up.

“I’m not happy about this, Lieutenant. I don’t want her here. Make sure she stays away from my mate.”

He walks away, leaving me under no illusions of how hard my task will be to get them to spare Nikki’s life, a life she now no longer wants. For fucks sake.

Nikki continually whimpers and cries, and her thin and emaciated body trembles. By the time Alpha Xavier and Luna Lydia arrive, she is talking manically and incoherently to herself too.

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