Alpha Ryder, You Have Lost Me Forever

Eight

Chapter Eight

Seraphina’s POV

I groan as pain shoots all through my body, holding my waist. Clenching my teeth, I try to sit, but the pain only intensifies, and a strangled groan escapes from my lips.

I remove my shirt, which is stained, leaving my bra on.

I can’t believe what just happened. Ryder actually let them punish me in the most barbaric way—whips? Despite the evidence of what just happened, it still feels unreal that he would allow that. I almost can’t reconcile this cruel version of him with the version I first met. What happened to the kind man who helped me take care of the wolves who wanted to kill me?

I probably judged him too soon, and perhaps it’s better this way that I finally know his true colors.

The door slides open, jolting me, and a petite woman wearing a distressed pair of jeans and a grey sweater walks in. “I brought you first aid,” she says, walking towards me with a box in her hand.

“I don’t need that,” I say, trying to pick up my stained shirt to cover myself, but she protests.

“Please, let me take care of you, Miss Seraphina. I’m a nurse,” she adds, removing her ID card from the pocket of her jeans and waving it at me.

“Still no,” I say without even glancing at her. “I can take care of myself. I don’t need your help. You can go back and meet who sent you that your services are not required,” I insist, my voice taking a higher tone.

“Miss Seraphina—”

“You may leave, Kathleen,” a rather familiar voice booms in the air, cutting off the nurse. My stomach tightens. “I’ll take it from here,” Ryder adds, his eyes on me, even though his words are directed at the nurse.

Anger suffuses from my belly at the mere sight of him, but I do my best to remain poised, even though I want nothing more than to punch him right in the gut.

The nurse doesn’t delay. She gives him a curt nod and exits the room, and when his eyes drop lower once we’re alone, I suddenly remember that I’m in nothing but a pair of jeans and a bra.

I immediately try to reach for my cloth, but it’s too late. It isn’t there.

“If you’re looking for your dirty shirt, I’m afraid it isn’t here. Kathleen might have picked it up for a wash at the laundry,” he says with a straight face as he approaches me, and I press my lips firmly together, barely containing my rage.

“What the f**k are you doing here?” I ask, unable to hide the irritation in my voice.

“Language, woman. I’m the alpha of the pack, in case you don’t remember,” he says as he grabs cotton pads from the box Kathleen dropped.

“You think I give a f**k about that?” I ask, my teeth almost gnashing. “You should go back to where the f**k you came from because I don’t need you!” I snap, covering myself with my arms crossed over my chest, but he doesn’t even act like he hears whatever I’m saying because he holds me down with his strength and begins to wipe my back with cotton pads.

“Why do you even care?” I ask, still attempting to free myself from his grasp. “This was your doing in the first place. Don’t you think playing the hero after being the villain is rather distasteful?”

“Be still,” he says in a gruff voice, infuriating me further, and all I want to do in that moment is to rip off all the hairs on his head. Instead, my body succumbs to his words, and for a moment, I think I’ll cry for letting myself get soft on him. Or maybe that’s just an excuse to conceal why I really want to cry.

He gently wipes the marks of the whips on my body, his actions careful as if he’s afraid he will hurt me, and to be honest, his actions are confusing me. One moment, he orders them to punish me accordingly, and in the next, he’s being all sweet and wiping my wounds clean.

What the hell does he even want from me?

“If you hate me so much, I really don’t know why you’re here,” I croak out, but he doesn’t answer. He continues to clean my wounds like he can’t hear me.

I’m about to say something else when I feel him stiffen, and I’m forced to glance up.

There is confusion in his eyes. “What?” I ask, blinking.

“Blue marks?” He asks, and I swallow. “I know them,” he adds. Then, for a moment, he just watches me. He doesn’t say a word.

Until—

He shakes his head. “No way. You’re not a full-blooded wolf, are you?”

I avoid his piercing gaze. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I can feel a sheen of sweat on my forehead.

“You’re hybrid,” he says without mincing words.

“No,” I say, answering immediately. “I’m not.” Then, a brief pause. “And even if I was, what does it have to do with anything? You already rejected the mate bond. It’s useless now. I really don’t see why you’re doing this to me. Why are you messing with me? I never hurt you in any way, but you?” I scoff, feeling almost pathetic for myself.

“I’ve only known you for just a short time, and you’ve been the bane of my existence, even though I can f*****g tell that you’re attracted to me.” I nod. “I can see it.”

“Stop it, Seraphina.” His voice is a maddening calm.

“Why?” I ask with a shrug, my full attention on him. “The moon goddess chose us for each other, but you insult me while knowing full well that something like this is rare.”

Then, my voice takes on a lower tone. “Look, I know we haven't known each other for so long, but I’d like to think that you’re not much of the asshole you try to portray yourself to be. I’d like to think that it's all a facade to prevent anyone from penetrating you.”

“You don't know me,” he says, his reply sharp.

“I know fragments of you, and I’ve seen some good in the parts. You know—I know your uncle can be a lot. If he’s the reason why you’re pushing me away, we can figure out something. You don't have to let him be the reason why you’re refusing something as special as this,” I say, hoping to get him to see that he’s making a mistake by choosing to reject our bond.

“You will not talk about Blake in that manner again. I forbid you!”

“What?”

“I won’t tolerate any disrespect towards my uncle. He is the only one who cared about me as long as I can remember. You can't come in between us.”

“Who said anything about—” He cuts me off mid-sentence.

“The worst thing that can happen to an Alpha is to have a hybrid as a mate. It’s preposterous. You are the opposite of everything I want in a mate. The last thing I want is to have someone weak as my Alpha-pair. You’ll only ruin things for me. You’re nothing I need in my pack, and I’m sure the Moon Goddess made a mistake creating a bond between us in the first place.”

His words sting like many bee bites, crushing me whole. It’s worse because he just said all of this right in my face—in private, which means that it’s not a mistake. The first one might have been to save his face, but not this.

He doesn’t want me. The door clicks, and I glance up to see that Ryder has vanished. Just like that. The tears I’ve been trying hard to hold break free from my sockets, and my throat burns. I let them fall down my cheeks, and then a resolve settles in my mind.

I’m done. I will not talk to Alpha Ryder ever again. Tomorrow, I leave this goddamn city without turning back.