Alpha Darrell’s Redemption: Fated to the Betrayed Alpha

Who is Darrell?

FOUR

Darrell’s POV

Even as she gives me a sinister look, I can’t comprehend her actions with my mind reeling in. The evidence of her betrayal stares at me as I look down to find my blood dripping, pooling at my feet, and when my wolf shifts back from the pain, I kneel in front of her. My mate. My fated mate and the Luna of my pack. I hoped everything was a dream, and that my wolf was deceiving me by showing me my Luna, but even in my human form, I can see her lips are pursed in an evil grin now, and when she pulls the sword from my belly, I gasp, clutching my belly, before rolling to the ground. I turn to see her cross over to Raul’s side, the sword still in her hands, and when my eyes zero in on Raul’s hand, which is planted at the small of her back, my heart twists in more painful knots.

The night is still new. Brace yourself.

Was this what Raul meant when he said those words to me? That I was in for more surprises? I watch as she rips her clothes from her body, her bloody clothes, revealing an inner bodice that is long enough to reach just her thighs. She wipes blood off her body with the ripped dress, and I glance up at Raul, who has been laughing the entire time.

“What’s going on?” My eyes rove all over her body, which looks completely fine. Raw pain shoots from my head, intense ones from my wounds, but nothing compares to the betrayal of my mate, not even my Beta’s betrayal. I watch as Raul holds Kimberly tighter, and she wounds her arms around his neck, kissing him fiercely like her life depends on the kiss, and he lets her.

My wolf screams within me, feeling the betrayal of my mate, and I growl, dragging my fingers on the hard floor.

“How could you do this to me?” I rasp with clenched teeth, my eyes on Kimberly. “What about the baby? Your wounds? Is that all a lie?”

“Will you do the honors of telling him, love?” Raul whispers in her ear, loud enough to be heard by me without my wolf-hearing instinct, and she c***s her head before standing only a few meters from me, still holding the blade of her betrayal with my fresh blood tainting it.

“You think I was going to be your Luna? The thing about you, Darrell, is that you’re too weak and gullible. It took me meeting Raul face-to-face to determine that I wasn’t going to be tied to a weakling like you when I could have someone as strong as Raul by my side. I loved you, Darrell, but you never listened to me. You always want to do everything your way. When Raul reached me many months back with his plan to dethrone you as alpha, I seized the opportunity and desired him that instant. You’ll never be half the man he is to me. You’re nothing compared to him. As for the baby, he’s healthy. All it took was faking blood for you to s**t on your pants. I knew that was going to work too.” My head spins with every word that comes out of her lips, and I feel my eyes rolling to the back of my head.

My mate has been fooling me all this while? Right under my nose? How didn’t I see it?

“Things would have been a lot easier if you’d taken your dog out of the way just as I asked you. I wanted to make you believe he was a traitor and send him to exile or even rip off his throat. It was satisfying to watch him die in Randall’s hands. I needed to pass the secret door to be able to let Raul’s men in. I was going to kill that Miguel dog of yours when he got a hold of me. He was being a nuisance by remaining alive. Having him bring me back wasn’t part of the plan, but you can applaud me for being smart enough to see this coming, hence the fake blood.”

She chuckles, and my mouth suddenly begins to taste sour, more pain shooting through me. If my heart shattered at the betrayal of my Beta, it was pulverized into ashes and thrown into my face at the betrayal of Kimberly.

“And the baby? Whose is it?” I ask, snapping my eyes up at her.

“What do you think?” Raul’s deep voice cuts through me like a knife, and when Raul rubs her belly, I feel all the blood in my body drain out of me, the fight leaving me. “You’re more gullible than I thought if you think the child is yours. It’s mine. My baby with Kimberly.” They kiss again, with the tongue now, and all my body suddenly feels like air. The desire to live no longer appeals to me, and I find myself staggering on the floor.

“Darrell Carter, I, Kimberly, reject you as my mate!” My body trembles, and I almost convulse as the mate bond leaves me from her rejection.

“Goodbye, Darrell.” Before I can fathom what’s going on, another arrow shoots at my chest, and the last thing I see is Kimberly’s bow stretched at me, indicating that she shot me.

“Goodbye, brother,” is the last I hear, and a sinister bark of laughter in the air as I fall headlong down the cliff with my back and feel my body becoming even lighter. All my memories come rushing in the last moments of my life; the nightmare that’s my reality, which begins from my half-brother’s betrayal to my Beta’s, culminating in my mate’s betrayal, the duality having my head spinning.

She didn’t just betray my love for her by choosing my brother; she also lied to me and made me believe I was the father of the child she’s carrying.

The last thing I see before I feel my body sink into the abyss-like water is pitch black even as my eyelids are closed.

***

My eyelids quiver, and I feel my body tremble, although I see nothing. Pain courses through my entire body, and my head bangs so hard like there’s a clanging sound there, and a menacing bark of laughter after the repeated words, “Goodbye, Darrell.”.

What is happening to me? Where am I? Is this the underworld? Is this where the dead live? I remember that I must have died.

I keep shaking my head, my body convulsing, and I hear a creaking sound as it continues, until there’s a warm yet cold sensation on my forehead, and that’s when my eyes snap open. My large palm suddenly snatches the object, giving me the sensation on my forehead, and I squeeze it hard, except that it’s not an object because what follows from my squeeze is a shrill cry of a feminine voice.

A woman.

I’m seated on a bed right now, I can tell because it’s soft on my butt and my head snaps to the direction of the feminine cry, and it’s then I see her. An unfamiliar face, yet she looks like someone I’ve always known.

Her skin is pale, maybe almost too pale because it looks like one that has barely seen the sunlight. Her eyes, brown with crystals in them, look innocent, too innocent that I’m certain that she’s never seen the ugliness and darkness of this world. Not those eyes from which tears escape, and my eyes travel to her lips. They are parted as the cry escapes from them, and I trace her eyes to her wrist, and it’s then I realize that I’m still holding her hand, which I immediately let go of. She falls with a thud on the hard wooden floor, rolling over.

The door snaps open just then, and what follows is the shrill voice of another feminine voice and the clang of an aluminum plate. “Sheila!”

Sheila? Is that her name?

The new lady is crouched in front of the innocent one who touched my forehead, and her eyes are widened, almost bulging out from her sockets. “What happened? What did he do to you? Did he touch you?” Her eyes are shooting daggers at me now, familiar ones, except that I don’t know where I’ve seen something similar. But I’m sure I have.

“Oh, no. No. No. I—” The innocent one chokes on her sob. “I’m fine. I just tripped. Nothing happened.” Her hand is hidden in her long dress, and the second woman who appears like she’s skeptical eyes the innocent-looking one. But the latter jumps to her feet and comes to my side.

“You’re awake. How do you feel?” If she’s a right-thinking woman, she should be terrified of me right now, but fear isn’t what I see in those innocent brown eyes of hers. All I see is concern.

What? Concern for me? Who the hell is she anyway? Some kind of saint or angel?

I’m not sure what she is or why she should be terrified of me, but I practically almost broke her wrist, and she’s still crouched beside me.

“I was lucky to find you still breathing at the riverbank. You were badly injured, and I was so scared that you wouldn’t make it because you’ve been unconscious for two weeks now.”

My brows shoot up at that, and my eyes widen. What? Two weeks? I examine my body and find that bandages are wrapping around some parts of my body.

I don’t know what this is, but I’m pretty sure I have just died. What is this? A form of rebirth, reincarnation, or something? I almost laugh at the thought.

“We were pretty worried about you. Well, maybe not “we.” The concern was mostly from Sheila. I thought someone would have come for you by now or would have probably come looking for you, but no one has come to claim you. You should thank Sheila for saving you even after I strongly advised against it,” the second one says, and it’s now that I observe that even though she’s female, she’s dressed in male clothing, a warrior’s clothing even. What is she? A female knight or something?

“So, who are you? Got a name? Why were you badly injured as if you survived a blood battle? Judging from your wounds, it’s a miracle that you’re still breathing. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you were some alien of some sort,” the warrior woman says, with her hands folded across her chest, leaning on one leg.

And it’s then that it dawns on me. My identity. Who am I?

The voice returns, following a splitting headache, “Goodbye, Darrell,” and I press my hands to my ears, hoping it will stop the banging in my head, and my eyes shut. Then, I open my eyes again to find Sheila’s face hovering around me.

“Are you okay?” She asks again with that concerned voice.

“Darrell,” I say, and she pushes her head back, confusion written all over her face.

“My name is Darrell,” I repeat, and I can hear the authority in my voice.

“My name is Darrell,” I repeat inwardly. That’s my name, but that’s as far as my memory can go. I don’t recall any other thing. Who am I? Who is Darrell?