Page 335 of Alpha Mates

Oliver’s eyes drift, looking over the foothills, and a familiar fondness shines in them as he takes in the open, endless expanse. He breathes in, savouring the air as the wind rushes around us as if to greet him.

“You should see the world, Juli,” he sighs. “It’s so much bigger than we ever dreamt, and so much better.”

I know.I want to tell him.I know. I’ve only seen a little, but it’s great. Why didn’t you wait for us to see it together?

“It’s not all bad,” he continues softly. “There’s good out here, and it comes in spades. There’s freedom.” His eyes glide back to me. “I wanted freedom.”

Freedom from them? From the pack? From me?

“From them,” he answers, reading my mind like he used to, and the tears swell again. This time, his eyes fill too. “I needed … I needed out, Julian,” he says, shaking his head. “I was never going to be alpha. Not a good one. I knew that, so I got out.”

“And you joined the rogues?”

Whatever sentimentality I’d dug out locks itself away as Oliver’s stare turns hateful in a split second. “The kind of freedom I get out here with them, you’ll never feel in your entire lifetime,” he snarls past the blood leaking from his mouth. “You can be more without the ranks,experiencemore, and everything you do is all up to you.”

“And you’d do anything for it, huh?” I spit as my own anger rises. “You’d do anything, including working with rogues who kidnap and torture children?”

Oliver’s rage sputters out like a snuffed-out candle, and as he pales before my eyes, I uncover another answer to a question I wish I hadn’t.

“You know what they did to Aiden.”

“I didn’t know when they found me,” he starts, but it’s as weak as he is.

“But you know now and you’re still with them,” I snarl with disgust. “They took him when he was seven. Theytorturedhim, all so you could have your precious freedom.”

Oliver looks away, but I read his shame, even as small as it is.

I also read the implied truth—whatever they’d been after with Aiden, they succeeded enough to offer rogues an escape from the madness of a feral mind. It must not be perfect though, otherwise there wouldn’t have been so many feral ones, and I haven’t forgotten how Oliver looked in our fight.

“So, you and Aiden, huh,” he mutters, glancing back at me. “I didn’t see that one coming.”

Oliver chuckles shakily, only to wince as the movement forces blood to spill from one of the holes in his stomach. He presses his hand to it, but the blood pours nevertheless.

“Mates, or is it true love?” he asks with a crooked grin. “I guess it’s gotta be love—even if you’re mates—with the way you hated each other.”

“You used witches to make your death look real,” I state, ignoring him, and he nods.

“The Vorgium are particularly nifty with dark magic,” he says before looking towards the skies that are now empty. “They were.”

“You said Reon found you?” I ask, and his scarred brow lifts. “I know who he is. I know you’re working with him.”

“Always been too smart for your own good,” Oliver tsks with another loose chuckle. “Yeah. He found me—made a point of it, actually. Not every day an alpha wolf wants to leave their pack.”

“And you just gave them everything they wanted,” I sneer, and he nods.

“Why wouldn’t I? They did the same for me,” he replies, tilting his chin just an inch higher. “They cared about me.”

“Icared about you!” I shout, slapping a hand to my chest as I step towards him. “I caredonlyabout you, and then you fucking left me with them—to live with rogues!”

“… Yeah,” he rasps past a wheeze, staring up at me. “And you still turned out better than me.”

I gape at him again, tears flowing, and this wound he’s carved keeps growing larger.

It’s pain on pain, and it won’t stop, no matter how I try to breathe past it. Because this hurts, and I’mangry. Angry at him,withhim, and everything he left me to deal with.

“You know our pack is pretty calm. We don’t let ourselves get angry about much, but if there’s one thing we all hate more than anything, it’s betrayal,” I say, as I stoop down and allow one of my sharpened claws to extend. “Ialways thought you leaving me was a betrayal,” I whisper, pressing the tip of the claw against his shaking fingers. “I just believed it wasn’t up to you. But it was.”

It digs into his skin and slices it open. He flinches, scrambling back, but there’s nowhere for him to run this time.