Page 334 of Alpha Mates

Whimpering in agony, he falls back, his lifted paw dripping blood like his dislodged ear and tattered chest. Then real panic chases the red glow from his eyes, and finally, the moment comes, but it’s nothing like I’d hoped it’d be.

Oliver knows it’s me.

He knows this is wrong, that this isn’t who we were ever meant to become. He hurts as much as I do, but not because of his wounds. The pain surfaces in his eyes only when he stops and looks at the scene around us, noting the dwindling number of rogues and the witches being burnt alive by lightning from the sky.

He realises they’re losing, and it’s strange seeing the Oliver I knew come alive for them, not me.

The pain rises again, taking the guise of misery as I step towards him.

He looks at me, tired and uncaring, and that makes this all easier.

He tries to fight, to avoid it, but when I grab him by his neck, it’s child’s play. I drag him behind me, even as he kicks and opens fresh wounds, crying for help from others who can’t help themselves. I haul him away from the thick of it, up one of the valley’s foothills, so what has to be done can happen in private.

Aiden calls for me through our flaring bond and with his howls, but this is between me and Oliver, not him. So, I ignore his panic and his sadness as I dump Oliver’s flailing body beneath a towering tree and call on my shift.

The morning air slices over my skin, raising goosebumps even though inside, everything is too warm. Oliver’s matted fur stands out from the grass like ink on paper, even more so as the sun creeps over the valley’s southern edge to illuminate the war below.

It’s no longer so beautiful or peaceful here. Everything smells like death.

Oliver wheezes as he stares up at me, his gaze empty, before finally, his wounds overwhelm him, and he shifts. My eyes fill with tears again, because for the first time, my brotherlooksat me.

It’s not his wolf, not him from a distance, but the man I looked up to my entire life, even after he was gone. He’s a little older, with a fresh scar just under his eyebrow, but the rest of him is the same.

Dragging himself upright, Oliver fixes himself against the tree’s trunk before his pale lips curl upward.

“Hey, Juli,” he whispers, and somehow, my already-shattered heart breaks again.

I stare at him while tears stream down my face.

“How’ve you been?” he asks, his lungs audibly straining to keep him breathing. “It’s been a while.”

When all he gets is silence, he huffs. “Always so quiet.”

My lips part, but I can’t get a single word out.

I had so much to say, so much to ask. I had it all planned out in case I got to this very moment, but it’s here now, and I can’t speak because I already have my answers.

“I didn’t see Dad out there,” he muses with a nod towards the mayhem. “Is he dead or home?”

“Home,” I hear myself whisper.

He sighs. “That’s a shame,” he mumbles before letting his head fall back. “So, how are we doing this? Are you going to watch me bleed out, or finish it before that happens?”

“Watch you—” My voice breaks and I’m shaking my head. “I don’t get it,” I rasp. “You’ve been alive this entire time. You … you made us think—mademethink you were dead. Why,whywould you do that?”

Oliverpeers at me, his stare frighteningly blank.

“You were going to be alpha,” I whisper, arguing nothing and everything. “You had a great pack, and a loving family—”

“Loving family,” he cuts in with another laugh. It costs him more blood, but he hardly notices. “We both know nothing about them isloving.”

“They loved you,” I protest, rubbing the tears from my eyes. “They loved you most, andIloved you.”

Oliver blinks once, slowly, and then nods. “Yeah, I guess you did.”

I love him still, even now—he knows that.

“Why?” I ask again. “Why would you make me think you were gone?”