The Mate That Wasn't Mine novel Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Chapter 50

MAXIM POV

Restraining her furious limbs with mine, it is clear that now isn’t the time to tell her I love her. She won’t want to know the depths I sank, to try and keep her safe. The black marks freshly inked on my soul that exist only to spell out her name.

After Luna Sabrina left I was denied permission to leave.

“Remy, Maxim, come,” Alpha Hale commanded. Instead of ascending into one of the packhouse towers we headed lower. Lower than I even knew existed, into the very bowels of the packhouse. The realm of only Wardens and royalty.

“You want me to believe you and your mate told me about Donlon for the right reasons? Prove it.”

The phrase struck me as odd but there was no way to question the hulking giant as we descended out of the reach of sunlight.

The stone walls changed from the usual gray granite into the fiery red sandstone that formed the scars along the packhouse walls. The gloomy lanterns cast shades of rust everywhere, even on the stark white royals.

That is where we found Donlon. Stood tall in his cell. Glaring at his guards, Warden Marshall and Brock.

“As you commanded Alpha,” Warden Marshall nodded politely.

“Leave. When the last skills test ends for the day, sound the bell for the cliffs. I don’t want half the pack on the side of the mountains or stuck inside the

furnaces.”

“Of course,” Warden Marshall answers with a quick bow. His blue eyes appraise me steadily. The slightest nod of recognition. I cannot work out if he is pleased to see me at the Alpha’s side or annoyed.

Separated by silver bars Donlon stood as tall as he could manage, even with the mighty Alpha towering over him, his shoulders twice as wide.

“You know why you’re here don’t you.”

“I do.”

“Why then? Why do it?”

“Because I could,” he answers coldly, refusing to show fear. “Because there was a time before you took over everything.”

Alpha Hale smacked his hand against the bar, but Donlon did not flinch. “You’ve wasted your entire life. Why stick to me, to Sabrina so rabidly to always be second best? Why did you serve me?”

Donlon smiles. It’s an eerie, only–just–sane kind of a grin. His head tilting to the side, threatening to break out into a chuckle. “I guess you’re going to try and find out,” raising his eyebrows.

“No. You’re going to tell me. Because you’re going off that cliff today, even if I have to just roll your fucking carcass off the ledge for show.”

The Alpha clicked his fingers, summoning Prince Remy and myself. “I want to know everything he’s got in that twisted skull.”

There is no option to refuse. No asking to be excused so I can check on Tessa. Paired with a tense, jaw–clenching Prince Remy we had to begin our vile

task.

Together we sank into the abyss. Hot pokers lanced Donlon’s ribs. He said nothing. Remy shoed a hot poker into one of his ears until he howled.

I blinded him. That was all me.

Just as Donlon trained me last year. All the points of extreme pain. Ligaments contorted, tendons snapping and over–extended. Stress positions to make a grown man beg and cry out for home,

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Chapter 50

Remy’s blue eyes met mine frequently. Donlon is a wretched bastard, corrupt and ruined, but these actions felt like malicious vengeance instead of Interrogation. Every blood–spurting action chipped away at my soul until the Alpha finally told us to pause,

Donlon lay in a wretched, blind heap. Hale approached, adding a kick of his own.

“You know Sabrina is appalled. She hates you. She doesn’t even remember. It means NOTHING.”

Donlon just laughed. “But you know, don’t you? You can imagine it. Whenever you hold her, know that she ran to me. Fucking ran and begged me to never let go. My butterfly.”

One punch rendered him unconscious.

Together with Remy, I took out Donlon’s tongue. “Get yourself a black shirt from the stock,” Hale nods. “You are Remmy’s guard now.”

What the fuck. No. But I have no choice, other than look like an abbattoirs apprentice. Poor Remy looks like a freshly slaughtered lamb.

The sun is dropping when we finally carry Donlon on a stretcher, covered with a heavy blanket up an alternative entrance to the Cliffs. Not the devil’s asshole route that everyone else takes. A tunnel directly from the Packhouse.

Luna Sabrina and Princess Hazel joined us halfway through the walk, carrying lanterns. “What is under there?” Hazel asks meekly, Donlon twisting feebly and groaning.

“You don’t need to see,” Remy answers quickly.

Hazel looks up at her brother, those crystal clear blue eyes of hers as perfect as his own. “What has Father made you do?”

“Nothing that an Alpha shouldn’t be capable of,” he answers flatly. “Maxim helped.”

“Clearly,” she adds dryly. “Nice shirt.”

I’m already judging myself enough to not need an ex–girlfriends hostility thrown into the mix. Today has been one long series of disasters. I just need to make it to bed. To hold Tessa in my arms and know she is safe.

I can only give a polite nod. To confess that I would rather not have been there at all is too tempting. That this black shirt is a curse. The respect I’ve spent years craving has finally landed on my back and I’m itching to throw it on a fire.

Luna Sabrina speeds up to get past our groaning cargo and catch the stomping Alpha ahead.

It takes an age to get to the ledge. I stand in the shadows of the royal cave, hidden behind the curtain. I keep Donlon somewhat standing until he is taken to his end. A small hole allows me to view some of the crowd.

I barely hear anything of Hale’s speech. I’m not ‘guarding‘ Remy.

I’m too busy looking for Tessa. My wolf is burning to see her.

So when Marshall and Brock stumbled up the steps, dragging the red–roped, horrific bundle of Isaac and Irene, my jaw hung slack in shock.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Maxim! Maxim help!”

“What’s happening here? She needs to be separated from him,” I hissed, careful not to have my sound carry outside into the cliff space. Alpha Hale is still making pronouncements about Donlon’s betrayal/Going to the tiny gap I hiss. “Hazel! Hazel!”

Just as her mother charges forward to take her yengeance, Hazel looks my way, Only for a second, but she spots Irene and Isaac through the gap. Her face pales in horror just like mine, but within seconds she charges towards her father and takes his hand.

I returned to Irene, messing with the ropes around their neck. Isaac says nothing but then it looks like someone has taken him for a serious beating. His ribs are dipping in and out at all the wrong angles for a start.

“Help us!” Irene stammers.

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Chapter 50

“Hazel will fix it. She’s talking to the Alpha now. It’s sing to be okay,” I promise her.

“What is my family going to think of me?” struggling pointlessly to get his flesh away from her.

“We’re fucked,” Isaac slurs, blood lazily trickling out of his mouth and onto frene’s hair. “Game over.”

Goddess, I thought I was helping Irene. Princess Hazel promised her she would never have to be anywhere near Isaac again, only for her to be tied to his semi–naked body. A terrified marionette who knows the end is hurtling towards her.

Házel is dismissed by her father. My stomach plunges. Warden Marshall and Brock shove Irene and Isaac out into the lethal spotlight. Then turn and point

at me.

“Don’t.” Like commanding a dog.

He and Brock then descend into the Warden’s seats leaving me alone in the cold, squalid space. Every lonely second of Irene’s final minutes will live with me forever.

The fear in her voice. Recoiling from Isaac’s touch. Crying out for Silas. The complete lack of mercy from Alpha Hale. How I stood helplessly, knowing to intervene was to doom myself.

The outright selfishness of my greedy little soul. Because deep, deep down I was so grateful it was not Tessa out there.

Alone in the back space I look out of the small space again. More out of desperation I look upwards. Just as Tessa tumbles backwards from her high balcony. Her copper hair finally catches my eye. But I also see the glimpse of a blade, maybe an arrowhead in her hand. That sends my brief glimmer of joy straight down the pan.

She’s going to do something crazy.

Fuck being Remy’s bodyguard. Screw waiting around to see Tessa’s best friend die. I run.

Barrelling through the tiny cramped, pushing past clamours of idiotic people. Trying to work out her route. But I find her. Thank fuck, thank the Goddess, thank every star in the sky.

Because another few corridors carrying that damaged arrow and they’d have her listed as the rebel traitor she tells everyone she isn’t.

It means I got to be with her when Irene fell. Not that it eases her suffering. I take every hit, slap and kick because it feels like I deserve them.

This morning, my idea to have Isaac banished to the front made perfect sense. Now it’s all spiralled out of control.

“You can all leave. But this is not over! The investigation into Donlon’s web of lies is only just beginning! First years, you will be fitted for armour in the next two weeks. Time to remember what it means to be a pack.”