Page 180 of Unforgivable

Odina wasted no time.

"Wolf, you will care well for your mate and male," I tell him coolly.

He smiles at me, "a male?" he says quietly.

I just nod, no smiles for him from me. I have given everything I can to this male and his mate. There is nothing left of me to give away.

I turn back to the field, idling watching as Rhet hauls Abigail away from a proud Odina before she can try to kill the mountain female. Too bad for Abigail; she raised a simpering coward of a daughter.

"No," I stop Thjis from collecting Cloe's body for burial, a look of faint disgust on his face. My males won't touch that female, even if it's just her corpse.

"It is her mate's duty to burn or bury," I say. I make sure that my voice carries, loud and clear, to all of the hidden watchers in the woods.

A stillness settles over the field. Most of the wolves turn to look at Daan, but he doesn't move his eyes from me. He's just standing there as the lifeblood of the love of his life paints the grass crimson.

Other wolves, the smarter, sharper ones, begin to look around in confusion. They are beginning to understand, to put it all together. They know that Daan is not Cloe's mate, and they know that I wouldn't show that sort of mercy to them, to allow Daan to decide what happens with his dead lover's corpse.

Devel limps onto the field on feet. I wasn't sure if he would show this form or come on paws. I'm happy he did come this way because he chose to be completely nude, and his tattoos of rank are very impressive. The scars of his self-maiming are even more unbelievable. He may be a little vain, to tell the truth, because now that he's healed some, I can see how he carefully littered his body with slices to his flesh that create a pattern of pain.

Daan lifts his head only when Devel stops next to me and greets me.

"Moon-Luna," he says solemnly.

I can see the hint of tears in his eyes. He broke his bond with Cloe, but this still hurts him.

"Devel," I greet him in return.

Devel turns from me and stares at his dead mate. His eyes harden in anger.

"Burn her here. She is nothing that I want."

He walks away from Cloe's body, disappearing back into the forest.

The whispers have grown, a din of noise. Several wolves are staring at the alpha family with increasing anger and betrayal. I can hear the cracking, the fissures growing. The reckoning for Alpha Jax is close. I need to push them, to show the alphas that they have lost.

I walk to Daan, knowing that my males hate this part of Teague's plan. It hurts them to even see me near my former mate. I understand it. If Thjis or Rhet's mates still lived, I wouldn't want those females anywhere near my males.

"Alphason," I almost smile when I say the title. The title won't be his for much longer.

"Lyri," he breathes. His eyes are blown out, pupils large and dark, bleeding into the blue. "You are alright?"

I almost slap him across the face when he asks me that. Unfathomable jackass.

"Are you asking after my welfare?" I scoff openly. "You only care because I'm standing here in front of you, whole and alive and cared for. Tell me, alphason," I sneer, "If I had died that night, would you have stopped your charmed existence and your false love, even for a moment, to mourn me? Would you have ever truly cared that your one truly fated mate was dead because of your actions?"

The pack is hushed, straining to listen to every word. Some of the females are openly crying. Fathers are edging in front of their females, their wolves understanding the threat that is their alpha family.

"I care," he rasps out.

I shake my head, "now you do because your wolf is angry and feral, and it's just hitting you what a fucking disaster you and Cloe created for yourselves. And don't think that I don't entirely blame you. I do. This is all your fault. You killed me. They," I jab my finger to my very agitated males, "saved my life."

"I made a mistake," he mutters.

I take a deep breath. He inhales with me. Blue eyes shine with his wolf. "You replaced me with another female."

"I loved her," he says weakly, softly, trying to explain himself. To excuse his behavior.

"And you hated me." He tries to interrupt, to deny my truth, but I just speak over him. "They love me. You spurned and rejected me. They accept and shelter me. You betrayed me. They have earned every bit of trust I have in my soul to give to another."

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