He Used Me 8 Years, I Chose His Rival Alpha

Chapter 4

The pain woke me a few hours before dawn.

It was the wolfsbane scar,the old, knotted thing across my chest,flaring as if the venom had only been waiting under the skin for a quiet enough moment. I curled on my side and the room went black at the edges. My nightgown soaked through with cold sweat. I couldn't get enough air to call for anyone.

When I had lived with Liam, nights like this had earned me only his irritation. Stop ruining my evening, he'd snap, take the pills and sleep it off. He would toss two tablets onto the nightstand and close the door behind him.

Through the dark of my own pain I felt arms slide beneath me. I caught the scent of cedar.

When I dragged my eyes open, I thought,for one impossible second,that I saw Kael leaning over me. Standing. His brow was drawn tight, his eyes wide with something close to fear.

That couldn't be right. He had no legs to stand on. The pain had broken something in my vision, that was all.

When I surfaced again, I was tucked beneath the covers. Kael was in his chair beside the bed, holding a glass of water and a small white pill. His face was composed. His expression betrayed nothing.

Only his fingers, as they passed the pill to me, were trembling.

"The healer came," he said. "Your old wound hasn't fully closed. You need to rest properly."

I swallowed the pill. The warmth slid down my throat and the worst of the pain began to ebb.

"Just now," I said. "Did you carry me to the bed?"

His eyes met mine, steady.

"Rowan did. He has the strength."

I let it pass.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. An unknown number. The message read:

Elena. I know you're sulking. Stop. Meet me at our old place. Break the bond with Kael, come kneel and apologize, and I'll forgive you. Everything that's happened,I'll let it go.

I'd have known the voice of it anywhere.

I held the phone up. I pressed the record button. I made sure my voice was perfectly clear when I spoke.

"I love my mate. I am never dissolving my bond with Kael."

I sent the audio. Then I blocked the number for good measure.

The room had gone very still. I realized, too late, that Kael had heard every word. Heat climbed up my neck. I opened my mouth to find some explanation, any explanation.

"Don't break it."

His voice was a low, hoarse thing.

"Elena. Don't break the bond with me."

He was looking at me as though I might dissolve out of his sight if he blinked. There was something raw and ungoverned in his eyes I had never seen before in him.

I reached out without thinking and laid my hand on his hair.

"All right," I said. "I won't."

Light was beginning to come in through the curtains. It slid across his lashes and across the back of my hand.

I thought, with a strange certainty, that the days ahead might really be good ones.