Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“I’d forced his hand. He had no choice but to bring you in like a stray off the street because of protocol, obligation, yada yada.
The stuffy cunt wouldn’t dare risk his position, and since he had an heir, he had to make her his successor.
It was absolute cinema, every element tumbling like dominos.
” He adjusted in his seat, excitement making him restless—like a spoiled kid on Christmas.
Every movement wafted his vile aftershave in my direction, and my detestation heightened even more.
“You’re really milking the villain monologue,” I vented. “Can we skip to the point?”
He laughed, it was teasing. “Not a fan of foreplay?”
“Not a fan of your voice.”
The quip humoured him further. “Come ooon. I deserve to have this moment, don’t ya think? Imparting my heinous plans to you before you die? It’s the best part!”
“You do realise these speeches never end with the antagonist winning, right?”
“First for everything,” he chirped. His foot tapping against the hollow floor was distracting, but I drowned it out.
“Where was I . . . Oh! The final piece—you’ll be pleased to hear—was finding someone willing to provisionally take the fall.
I was very picky. I couldn’t choose the Veenstras, they were bait.
The Krylovich pack is unstable, already in a feud with the Grimshaws and Ashmores—I wouldn’t bet on them being third for much longer.
The Rovinas were the cleanest option. They might be fourth in line, but they have gumption.
Street smarts. With the Devereux resources and my expertise, they’d be unstoppable—and serve me best when my pack went extinct. ”
My blood boiled in my veins.
“I met up with their leader in secret, offered proof of what I’ve been up to—my plans of killing Caine and taking over as regent so I can transfer ownership of our assets before jumping ship.
They were impressed, and agreed to my proposal and eventual integration.
I just had to taunt my brother once or twice until he played his role .
. .” He raised his hands flippantly. “And that’s how we got here. ”
“You’re razing your pack, your family, for what? To still not be in charge?”
“Better than being the pack dog,” he threw out. “Besides, it wouldn’t matter. Whether I join another pack or go solo, the Devereuxes have done nothing for me. I want the entire corrupt family tree wiped off the face of the earth.”
“Nothing? You’ve lived a life of fucking luxury,” I spat, on the defence. “You have everything you could ever want, and you’re throwing it all away out of spite.”
He hummed noncommittally. “I’m sure it looks that way to a povo like you, but you should have a little sympathy for me.” His bottom lip protruded in a feigned sulk. “You know what it’s like to be oppressed just because of your designation.”
I did know what it was like, but the privileges and freedoms he’d grown up with were alien to me, so we weren’t the same.
“Caine isn’t the one who treated you like dogshit, that was your dad.
That was society. He’s no saint, and he can be a right elitist prick when he wants to be, but he wouldn’t shaft you because you’re a beta. ”
“Then he would’ve stepped aside,” he gritted. “He could easily have handed over the leadership when Father died, but oh no. He wanted to keep it for himself.”
I huffed with impatience; it was worse than negotiating with a damn child. “Again, not his fault. Your peers would never have allowed a beta to be pack leader. If Caine had abdicated, the title would’ve gone to Malia. You know this, you’re just being difficult for the sake of it.”
I was a hypocrite, sue me.
“He’s just the same as the rest of them.
” He waved a dismissive hand, but he backtracked, wagging his finger instead.
“No, actually, he’s worse. He detests tradition, hates the natural order, and yet he did shit all about it.
Until your bitch of a daughter turned out to be an omega and poof . . . Look, Ma, he’s a fucking activist.”
I bared my teeth. “Don’t ever call my daughter a bitch.”
“You’re so feisty,” he observed, his eyes flaring with delight. “No wonder he’s ready to burn the city down for you. You’re not prim and proper like other omegas.”
“So I hear.”
“Did he tell you everything about our father?” he asked, changing the subject. “How he didn’t think twice about beating the shit out of us for being failures?”
“Yes,” I bit out. “He told me.”
He sniffed derisively. “A beta and a defective Alpha. Unluckiest cunt alive.”
“Caine’s not defective.”
My statement earned an eyeroll, but he mowed on.
“He was vicious. Didn’t even bother sending me for training because—out of his two wonderful choices—I wasn’t worth the effort.
I learned it all myself, trying to prove I deserved the succession.
I had the drive and capability, but he couldn’t have given less of a shit. ”
“Look, I won’t deny your dad was a dick, but what has that got to do with Caine? Why bring down an entire legacy because of a dead man’s redundant opinion?”
He glanced at me as if I was the stupid one. “Why not?”
“Seriously?” I drawled, my tone drier than the dessert.
“Don’t pretend you wouldn’t do the same in my position.”
Hypotheticals were irrelevant, but I considered it, considered the world he’d grown up in—what I’d learned through Caine’s recollections—and though it didn’t alter my judgement, it made me recognise how little it mattered if I deemed his reasons sufficient or not.
He did, so what was the point in trying to convince him otherwise?
“Maybe,” I answered finally, shrugging. It startled him. “I mean, I wasn’t abused by my parents, so I can’t sit here and say I wouldn’t have wanted them gone if the narrative was different.”
He pointed at me, chuffing a stunned laugh. “I knew I liked you,” he repeated. “Glad we’re on the same page. I’m almost disheartened you have to die too. I mean, I could take you as a mate, but you’d slit my throat at the first opportunity.”
“Definitely.”
He stood, stretching out his back and shoulders before wandering over to me.
“The Devereux pack is done,” he declared, smiling arrogantly.
My thoughts briefly strayed to the knife in my belt, and the illusion of driving the blade into his smirking face.
“They’ve had a decent run, but the power’s fizzing out.
Caine proved that, and your omega daughter won’t do jack, so for self-preservation, my loyalties now lie elsewhere—with a pack who’ll soon possess the ability to keep us on top. That’s life.”
“It’s not going to work,” I predicted, a laugh hovering on my tongue. “You think the Rovinas will trust you after pulling this shit? They’ll blow your brains out as soon as you sign those papers, or they’re even more fucking moronic than you are.”
The backhand across my cheek was unexpected.
My head jolted to the side as static trickled behind my eyes.
I blinked, flexing my jaw. My lip was cracked, copper seeping into my mouth.
Good. Caine would go ballistic when he saw it.
He’d tear this fucker’s limbs right from their sockets, and I’d beat him up with the limp appendages.
I swallowed down the stab of heartache in my chest, the burning in my throat. My eyes stung, but I forced back the tears with an exhale. I’d shattered in front of the lackeys who took me, but I wouldn’t show my vulnerability in front of this bastard.
I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of getting a kick out of my fear.
I lifted my gaze, glaring with the force of a thousand suns, hoping he’d incinerate on the spot. He was wiping his hand on an antiseptic wipe—the hospital stench was pungent in my nose—as if he’d touched something dirty. I raged harder.
“You just had to goad me,” he complained, sighing at the inconvenience. “Can’t have Caine smelling you on my skin. That would give it all away too early.”
“If I wasn’t tied up, you’d be dead already,” I threatened, my voice surprisingly level.
This was the man responsible for Minnie’s abduction, the man responsible for my reluctance to leave the house, for my panic every single time my daughter walked out of view.
For shaping me into a parent too afraid to let their kid experience life because of the consequences. I hated him. I wanted him dead.
I wanted him destroyed.
“I’m sure you believe that,” he crooned, his tone patronising.
He discarded the wipe on the floor and clapped his hands together.
“Well, this was fun, but I have to call my brother and let him know I’ve found you, so you can both die together.
That’s infinitely more entertaining, right?
Nothing like a bit of family massacre on an autumn afternoon. ”
“You’re going to die,” I promised, maintaining eye contact. “What a waste.”
Aaron’s fingers curled into a fist in the air in front of my face, his teeth grinding, visibly suppressing his urge to hit me again.
He ripped his arm back with a sound that merged laughter, frustration, and mania all into one.
“You really are a little shit,” he stated, as if it was a fact I wasn’t already well aware of.
He reached into his jeans pocket, fishing out a scrap of fabric.
He prised open my jaw and shoved it between my teeth like a horse’s bit before tying the ends around the back of my head.
He stepped back, assessing. “Fucking hell. That’s actually kinda hot.”
My stomach roiled.
“I’ll have to send Dodge in to put tape over your mouth so my dick doesn’t spring up while I’m putting your Alpha down.
” He had that look in his eyes again—psychotic, like he yearned to peel off my skin and wear it as a coat.
Mercifully, he clicked his teeth, spinning toward the door. “Get comfy; be back soon!”
He waved as he left, and as soon as the door slammed closed, all of the anxiety and stress I’d been concealing flushed out of me on a breath. I slumped forward, my chest and shoulders heaving as my tears dripped onto my jeans, darkening the denim.
I couldn’t give up. I had to fight for Minnie, for Caine, and for our family—our pack. But realistically, what could I do?
I was defenceless. Powerless. I didn’t want to admit defeat, to surrender to the conclusion that my sweet baby girl wouldn’t even see her second birthday—and I wouldn’t get to tell Caine I loved him.
I didn’t want to be useless again, to sit idly by like the feeble and delicate omega they all believed me to be while some conceited fucker tore apart the bonds I’d waited so long to have returned to me.
My anguish morphed into dedication, into pure, unbridled vengeance.
My eyes and throat were searing, a paternal kind of wrath simmering inside my core.
I had to protect what was mine. I had to trust this wasn’t the ending to our twisted and imperfect fairy tale.
That fate wouldn’t hand me everything I’d always longed for only to steal it all away for the second time.
I would defend it until my last fucking breath.
I wouldn’t lose everything again.
I can’t.