Come for Me 2 (The Hunt #2)

Chapter Twenty

Alaina

A t least he’s no longer suffering is what people will say to me, but they’re wrong. His soul wasn’t the only thing that disappeared with the dulling of his eyes. My ability to sense his emotions through our bond, creating eternal agony for us without the other, also faded.

It was a damning kind of emptiness.

If Dax were here, he would take notes on how to replicate this torture specifically for Colin. I would give anything to feel him. Nothing is more painful than the itching inferno where the flesh baring his mark is burning off my skin into ashes.

The sensation vanishes, and my hand tremors uncontrollably to inspect the damage. The smooth curvature of my neck had been stripped of its character.

I felt nothing. Nothing tangible is left to remind me he was here. I suddenly miss the burning and itching because I am alone. My mate and our bond are gone.

Like a bad case of heartburn, the organ contracts and twists inside of me, giving internal hell a new meaning. My stomach tightens, cramping and contorting to fit whatever black hole it’s being swallowed by.

Here, on my knees, I clutch my heart and stomach and rock with my mouth open. But without air in my lungs, I can’t seem to scream.

He’s gone.

My mate.

I inhale enough oxygen to release a gut-wrenching wail.

The walls shake from the echoes of my despair.

Colin bends down, placing his hand on my back, softly shushing me, touching his head to my temple. “I can’t bear to see you hurting like this. Allow me to relieve you of the burden of grief,” he whispers. “Let me bind you to me.” Colin hovers over my neck.

My grief is engulfed by my pure hatred.

When my talons elongate, I wind them back, aiming for his monstrous face with a growl. Claw marks dawned diagonally across his features. A trickle of blood trails down his cheek from the mangled flesh.

I don’t need Colin to turn me to crave his blood.

My canines are bared to him. I’m suddenly somewhere between suicidal and homicidal, daring and hoping he comes near me again. Fighting with tears in my eyes and despair in my heart has made me reckless.

I welcome death, Colin’s or mine. Whichever comes first. Either way, I win.

Colin stands, circling me. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“Or what?” I stalk closer to him. “You’ve taken everything .” I exhale as tears continue to fall. “You’ve executed your only bargaining chip. I will never be yours!”

My voice rasps, and I’m half crying, half laughing in disbelief.

The worst already happened. There’s nothing left to lose.

Dax is gone.

My mate is gone .

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” he says. “Don’t you want Dax’s men to leave here with their lives? To give Dax’s body a proper funeral?” A pool of blood surrounds Dax’s lifeless body. “How nice would that be? To give your former mate, their king, a proper burial?” Colin says.

Dax didn’t rest when he was alive, and he wouldn’t care to rest in death. He’d want his vengeance.

But not yet. Dax would tell me to wait until I had all my strength to take him down.

“Marriages have formed alliances since before our time. Together, we will become the first hybrid rulers. Your kingdom will receive protection.”

I stop circling Colin.

All Dax talked about was wanting to put a stop to the attacks plaguing his kingdom.

Would Dax want vengeance or preservation more?

“Refuse, and I’ll kill everyone here, and everyone else from Bloodhound and Crescent pack.” Colin slowly moves closer in my direction.

I call on my wolf to strike him once he gets near, but I’m unable to move.

Colin leans in, tucking my hair behind my ear. “I’ve given you no reason to think I won’t follow through with my threats. I can promise I will make for a much better ally than I do an enemy.”

Dax’s men come into view, none a blubbering mess like I am. They stand tall, ready to die at my decision without an ounce of fear behind the mate of their fallen king. I must be willing to do the same for them.

With a nod to Colin, I become the bargaining chip for peace between our two species.

* * *

With a nod of Colin’s head, our warriors heave Dax’s body off the floor and reluctantly follow my orders to return him back to Crescent where he will be laid to rest.

Six men carry my mate out of the room without looking back, and my chest tightens as I let him go.

Olivia’s corpse is gifted to Caleb. Colin considered it a peace offering to take back to Bloodhound. I’ve known Caleb our entire lives, and I’ve never seen him so detached and cold as he was when he rid the world of Olivia.

Once upon a time, it was a dream of mine to kill her myself, but of all dreams that won’t ever come to fruition, this one was on the bottom of my list to grieve.

Caleb, Luna Kathy, and Bloodhound deserves the honor more than I do.

Colin, on the other hand, didn’t seem to grieve his sister at all. With his stoic expression, you would have thought ordering the death of his sister was a mundane task. To him, I was a prize to win, one he didn’t bother to gloat about. I want a reaction out of him, to piss him off, hurt him, anything , but he’s giving me nothing. In fact, he barely spares me a glance when he tells the guards to show his queen to my room.

When a guard reaches out, almost touching me, I growl and jerk my arm away. He retreats and looks at Colin for what to do next.

Colin’s face is stone-cold with his hands behind his back as he watches Caleb turn to leave with Olivia’s body. “Ash, go with our new queen. Make sure she doesn’t kill my men.”

Ash nods to Colin and accompanies the guards who escort me to my room.

I’m ushered down out of the room and into the hallway Dax and I were once in.

We almost made it out together.

The tears keep threatening to appear, but I do my best to breathe through it, at least until I’m certain no one can hear or see me cry.

With vampiric guards and Ash surrounding me, we turn a corridor to find a hallway with as many chandeliers as there are beady eyes dressed in formal 19 th century attire gossiping in the halls. Hissing transpires upon passing each gothic coupling toward the curved staircase lined with a runner. Ascending the staircase, I hear they’ve returned to their whispers. Thanks to my werewolf senses, I’m able to catch enough of what they’re saying about me to piece everything together. They know who I am, what I am, and who I’m being forced to become. They don’t want a werewolf for a queen any more than I want to be a queen for them.

Seems Olivia’s opinions of me won’t be dying with her. Finally reaching the top of the steps, I’m led down another long hallway in silence until reaching what Ash calls the queen’s chambers, and it’s as lavish as it sounds.

Black silk sheets peep above the satin red bedspread. Four posts stand at each corner of the bed, with a canopy draping over it, doing away with the need for a coffin. The room matches the current situation, dark, full of gloom and doom. Its expanse is large, lit by candles to match the moody ambiance.

I have to admit it has its charm, but no amount of decoration will cover up that this is to be my new prison.

Once inside, the door slams behind me, and the lock creaks to confirm my suspicion.

The enslaved queen.

That’s what they’ll call me. The stories people will tell of the poor queen who is trapped in a marriage with her mate’s murderer. The queen who couldn’t save her king, so she settled for saving what he spent his life protecting.

Now I’m alone.

I should’ve let him kill me.