The pressure. The endless, crushing pressure pushing in from all sides… like something was about to explode. Like I was about to explode. That was the first thing I felt as I drifted in the abyss.
Then, the darkness cracked open. Violent currents of red lightning tore through the void, screaming and twisting like claws in my mind. It was a storm… a storm made of pain and brutality.
And then I heard her.
Not a howl. Not a growl. A scream.
Cortina. My wolf. She was screaming inside me, her voice so raw and desperate it cut through the chaos like a blade. I clung to her sound, thrashing, fighting to find her in the crimson storm exploding in my head. It was like swimming against a deadly current… my body numb, my mind clawing to break through the surface. She was in agony. I could feel it. And it was breaking me. Breaking me out of the prison I'd been trapped in for so long.
I push harder. I fight through the burning lightning slicing across me. I scream with her. I fight for her.
Then… something breaks. The weight pressing down on me cracks apart, like a wall shattering, and I surge forward into the light.
"STOP!" Cortina screams, her voice a raw wound in my mind. "MAKE IT STOP!"
Stop? Stop what? What could possibly be hurting her in the safety of our mind… in the place we share as one?
And then I hear it.
The sounds.
Moaning. Grunting. The choked whimpers of a woman… and the all too familiar growls from the one who is the source of our pain.
Our mate.
He's fucking another woman… right here… right next to me… while I lie frozen, helpless.
"Right there," the woman moans, breathless and filthy. "Right fucking there. Cum in me, alpha. Give me your—"
"Shut the hell up," he cuts her off, his voice rough and commanding. "Face down. Don't speak unless I tell you."
She whimpers, but she obeys. Of course she does. Everyone obeys him. Everyone except me. I was the one who dared fight him… who gave him hell… and yet, I stayed. Not for him.
For her. For my wolf.
But that's over now.
Cortina's screams rip through me, raw and unbearable. The pain of betrayal is eating her alive. Does he not hear her? Does he not feel what he's doing to us? Does he not care that he's tearing our soul apart piece by piece?
Maybe he never cared.
I'm trapped in my useless body, unable to move, unable to fight… and he's rutting into someone else inches away from me, as if I'm invisible.
What happened to me? I'm not dead… I can't be dead. Death could never hurt this much.
And then I remember. The stairs. Odette. That cursed anniversary dinner I was forced to attend.
His hand touches mine. Sparks. Those damn sparks. They used to feel like magic. Now they disgust me. He's holding my hand as he groans his release into another woman. He's taunting me.
There was never kindness in him. But I never imagined this level of cruelty.
"It hurts," Cortina whispers once it's over, her voice faint and shattered. "It always hurts."
Always?
Her memories bleed into mine and I see the truth. Every day. Every damn day for the past year, he's done this. Bringing his mistresses here. Gripping my hand every time he finishes, so my wolf feels it all. She's endured this hell alone while I was trapped in the dark.
"That was great, Alpha," the woman purrs, smug. "We should go back to—"
"Shut up," he snaps, colder than ice. "You know where to go. Stay in the annex for a week. Don't show your face again until the doctors confirm or deny that you're free to leave."
She scoffs lightly. "So desperate for a pup… maybe you'd have better luck if you kept one of us close."
His grip on my hand tightens, his aura flaring. "Go," he growls, and even I can feel the command vibrating through my skin.
The door shuts. Silence.
Then his breath is on my face. Those damn sparks creep over me, but they can't mask the disgust boiling in my chest.
"This is your fault," he whispers, voice cracking like a wounded animal. "All of this is your fault."
Cortina whimpers, shrinking to the back of my mind.
His forehead touches mine. His hand cups my cheek. His lips press against mine in a kiss so soft I barely recognize it.
Never. He has never kissed me like that.
"This is your fault," he repeats, broken, before his warmth vanishes and the door clicks behind him.
The moment he's gone, Cortina crawls toward me, trembling and shattered. My fingers twitch. Rage burns hotter than any lightning I fought through.
His fault?
No.
The only thing I'll be guilty of is making sure that bastard never gets his precious pup. Not now. Not ever.