AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was my parents who took the lives of your village, your cousin. I saw you under those blankets, Ava. And you saw me,” he sobbed. “I betrayed you.”
His eyes slipped shut again and a wave of pain and despair rippled through their mating bond. He whispered unintelligible words and his fingers clutched at hers, but all she could do was sit frozen before him, horrified. Then, he repeated the words that tore her to pieces.
“‘This is how Raeths kill their prey. We coerce them into submission, taking as we please.’”
A tortured wail shook her to the core, a hollowing sensation eating away at her stomach and dropping her heart to her feet. “No—no!”
Remmus shook his head, groaning. “Please, I can’t stand. She—she tied them too tight; they’re burning against my wrists.”
It took her a moment to realize it was a memory.
He was no longer in the present; he was reliving the day her parents had died. When Ciru—Remmus—had betrayed her. Her own memories swelled as he spoke, dragging her right back to the moments that changed her life.
Ava, despairing and hurt and angry, wanted Remmus to suffer through it, just as she had.
“Not strong enough to save her—please, fates, why? So many dead, more blood at my feet—but I can’t do anything! All my fault, all mine! I can’t scream, I can’t vomit; you froze my face, coerced me so that I can’t even cry. You always found it distasteful when I felt things, mother.”
His palms pressed against his temples, and his nose dripped red. Horrified, all Ava could do was listen as the memory poured out of his mouth.
“‘Watch, son, see how blood spills until life is drained. See how humans meet their end by our hands.’” Remmus flinched again, his knuckles going white.
“I can’t help you, Zina—I’m so sorry. I can’t even apologize.” He sobbed. “She coerced me—forced me to be silent, and I can’t watch as they take your life.”
Her cousin. She’d screamed as Ciru’s parents murdered her in front of him. She had pleaded with him, but he’d remained immobile, his face frighteningly bored.
Grappling with the horror of Remmus’ memory, Ava jerked the instant his chilled hand touched hers. “And then I saw you, Avelina. I saw you safe. Hidden from my psychotic parents. You—you always looked so much alike, you and Zina.
“What I wouldn’t have given to … to tell you how sorry I was,” he grimaced and sucked in a breath, “to hold you as you cried. They took everything from you, Avelina. So I … I took everything from them.”
When his fingers brushed over her jaw, she couldn’t help her wince. It didn’t matter to him, he followed her backward as though drawn to her like she was his light in the darkness.
A feral mix of fury and torment tore from her throat.
How could Remmus have been the one to betray her? How could he be Ciru, her childhood friend? Why was her mate the one who’d broken her beyond any saving grace? Fate couldn’t be this cruel.
“No!” The vengeful anger that boiled beneath her skin had her wolf claws digging into his forearm without remorse. “No—no—no—no—no! How? Why?”
“Please forgive me, Avelina.” No flicker of pain registered on his features as blood bubbled beneath her fingernails. “I’m so sorry. Please. Please.”
Ava threw herself backward. “No—I hate you! I hate you!”
As he fell forward onto bloodied hands, Ava desperately clung to her resolve while every instinct roared. She trembled, torn between volatile emotions that both drove her forward to see to her mate’s existing injuries and to make new ones of her own.
His voice, broken and pleading with her over and over, met ears that didn’t want to hear him. Remmus reached toward her, blood dripping from his nose to join the growing halo beneath where he’d collapsed.
“Don’t come near me!” she hissed, wrath overtaking the hurt with a keen sense of finality. “I never want to see you again!”
Though a part of her wanted to hurt him as badly as he had hurt her, she couldn’t bring herself to speak the damning words of rejection. Though it would show him the depth of her despair, it would also serve to punish her.
Ultimately, rejecting the mating bond would take both their lives.
Face twisting in turmoil, Remmus’ bloody hands rose to reach for her again. “Avelina, please, please don’t—don’t leave me. I love you.”
Every ounce of disgust she felt for him contorted her features. “My love for you will never outweigh my hatred. Leave the den before my wolf tears you apart.”
Without waiting for his response, Ava shifted to her beast, sprinting from the blood-laden quarters where her ailing mate remained. Overcome by anger, her claws dug into the wooden flooring, gauging deep grooves in her haste to leave.
No one stopped her.
