Page 20 of Alpha's Chosen Mate (Wolf Billionaire #2)

CHAPTER 20

ASHER

I know something is wrong the moment the tether that binds us goes dark. Leilani has always been adept at putting up walls, and I could have convinced myself she was shutting me out, but there’s no reason for her to do that anymore.

Over the last few days, she’s opened up to me, laughing and listening to my stories. She would stay in my room all day, entangled in my sheets. Returning home to find her waiting for me makes me weak in the knees. She makes me vulnerable, and I enjoy being that man, only for her.

I never thought a day would come when I’d enjoy popcorn and movies at midnight, or pulling a woman’s hair out of her face just so I don’t miss her expressions as I fuck her on my balcony. I’ve been to the kitchen more times in these past few weeks than I’ve been in my entire life. To make her breakfast, lunch, dinner—hell, whatever she craves, even at the oddest hours.

Talon thinks I’ve lost my mind, and had the fucking nerve to tell me so to my face .

And I fucking agreed, while scraping the skin off a damned avocado.

Jules howls and Cayden snickers every time I ran into them in the hallway before work. In his words, I look miserable and it’s fucking obvious I don’t ever want to leave my bedroom again. It doesn’t matter that I snarl viciously when they make jokes about how I resemble a lovesick teenager. They’re right, and I’ve never someone for being honest.

Leilani has made me into someone I don’t recognize, and now, she’s just…gone.

Her run takes longer than usual, just like she’d warned me it would. I don’t think much of it until I shower and check in on the training yards and the pups who just had their first shift. Jules is already with them.

I frown, unease spreading in my chest as I make my way toward her while half-heartedly acknowledging the greetings tossed my way. “You’re supposed to be by the creek, with Leilani.”

Juliana’s light blue eyes skim over me, and an angry scowl tightens her features. Sometimes, she looks so much like Mallory, it hurts to look at her. “I would be, if she’d fucking showed up! I waited for hours. If she has no respect for my time, then I don’t have a minute left to waste on her. Or this conversation.”

She turns sharply, and usually, I would laugh when her hair slaps my face, but I barely feel it. My gaze rises, searching for one guard in particular, but I don’t find him. “Where’s Jared?” I ask, my voice harsher than usual.

Cayden halts in the middle of showing our guest, Georgia Anderson, the correct way to hold a knife. He looks around and murmurs something to her, pointing at the target before he jogs up to me. “I haven’t seen him since he followed Leilani out on her run.”

Call me an overprotective bastard, but the discreet guards are only for her safety. It’s become my first priority. “And Thomas?”

Cayden’s expression turns pensive, and I turn and march down the hallway. My fingers twitch as the weight on my chest grows unbearable. A growl rattles in my chest, anger and fear combined, and I’m crossing the busy hall before the entrance when someone steps into my path. “Asher, I?—”

“Not now,” I say, stepping around Sasha. We’ve barely spoken since that day in my study. She’s been ignoring me, I think, but I haven’t really noticed. I’ve been too busy buried between my mate’s succulent thighs.

Undeterred, Sasha pushes forward, her hand snatching mine. “You don’t understand. I found?—”

“I said not now , Sasha?—”

“I found a body.” Her voice cuts through the hall, silencing every conversation. “In the gardens. Talon said?—”

Time stops. The blood freezes in my veins. My heart skips, then thunders back to life, erratic and forceful.

I turn to her slowly, fear cracking my composure. “A body?” Whose? I’m sprinting before I can ask. Sasha leads me to the rosebushes by the creek, where half a dozen guards surround Talon, who crouches in the middle, his jaw tight as he regards his longtime friend.

My fingers are numb as I take in the familiar face and the neck twisted at an unnatural angle—Jared.

My steps slow and the soft crunch of my boots against the gravel alerts them to my presence. Talon looks up at me, and his eyes are dark with worry as he straightens. As if reading my thoughts, he places his hands on his hips and says, “We can’t find Thomas. Or Leilani.” He points at Jared. “He’s cold, been dead for at least three hours.”

Talon’s words echo in my skull as I stare at Jared’s lifeless eyes. Three hours. She’s been gone for that long. Unprotected. Taken. Fear grips me. It’s been so long since I felt it that it leaves me numb. Breathless. The brightness of the sun dims, giving way to shadows I know aren’t real. Anguish spreads through my chest, and a pained breath slips from my lips.

“Track her scent,” I say to no one in particular, blinking to clear my vision. But it only hazes, tinged with red and darkness, swirling unnaturally.

I storm through the trees, my wolf at the edge of breaking free, barely holding back the shift. My senses heighten as I track the faint remnants of her scent, but it’s wrong. It’s so faint that it barely clings to the leaves and the earth beneath me. My heart pounds, my blood rushing too fast in my veins. I can’t stop thinking of the worst possible scenario. I can’t stop thinking of her .

Her laughter, the way her fingers curl around my pinkie in her sleep, her thighs straddling mine as she makes herself comfortable in my arms at night, trusting me with her every vulnerability.

And now she’s gone . I should never have let her out of my sight.

It’s late evening by the time we reach the edge of the borders, and her scent is stronger, but it’s mingled with something else—blood. Not hers. I slow at the sight of the armed male leaning against the tree trunk. My jaw clenches as I drop to a crouch, placing a hand over his cold skin as I inspect his wounds, sniffing for a foreign scent, but I find none. Whoever did this was careful, skilled enough to leave no trace of their scent.

I cock my head dangerously. It has to be another alpha. Talon’s feet barely touch the ground behind me when I whisper, “Have Glade report on Christian Anderson’s movements, his whereabouts, who he’s been meeting with and who he’s been speaking to.” I rise to my feet and turn to Cayden, who’s still in his training gear, slick with sweat. “Get the security footage from every entrance and exit point. There are tire tracks. The cameras must have caught something.” To the men gathering around me, I say, “Fan out.”

I begin to turn on my heels when a voice murmurs, “But we’ll be crossing into rogue territory. It’s not safe?—”

Ian’s collar is in my hands and I’m breathing down his neck before I can think. “Not safe? You want to know what wasn’t safe?” His eyes are wide with fear. “When I went into these woods alone after receiving a distress call from your aunt. When I bargained for your life after you stole from rogues. You know what else wasn’t safe ? Taking a bullet for you when the deal didn’t pull through. You want to tell me why finding my wife, whose guards have been killed, is too much for you?”

Ian’s eyes lower, and sweat rolls down his cheek. “I-I’ll lead them.”

I let go of his collar and he drops to the ground. “Good.”

Talon’s brown eyes are filled with worry as he speaks into his cellphone. He relays the message through the mind-link half a second later: Glade says Christian’s been holed up in a meeting with the pack elders and visiting alphas from the south all day. He hasn’t left the pack. It wasn’t him.

“She didn’t write this.”

Everyone around me wears the same pitying looks I’ve seen for the past week since I lost her. No, not lost. Someone took her. There’s no way in hell Leilani left me like this miserable letter says. I’ve searched endlessly, without sleep, driven my men to the edge, and called in every favor to gather footage of every road and every alley, tracking her phone until the trail went cold. It’s like she vanished into thin air.

“She didn’t write this!” I snarl, my fist tightening around the letter and crumpling it in my fist. Jules looks at me sadly. Sasha leans against the doorframe, her arms wrapped around her, but her eyes convey the same worry Cayden’s do.

Talon’s voice is too soft. “It’s her writing, Asher. And it smells like her.”

I snap my gaze to him, my teeth grinding as I fling the letter into the hearth. But it’s too late. The words have already burned into my skull.

I kept thinking I could ignore reality and pretend that every moment between us was perfect. But every time I looked at you, I saw my mother’s broken body, the way my father died alone. Every kiss reminded me of the anger and rage I felt when you killed my father. I’ve never hated anyone like I hate you. And that’s why it was easy to pretend that I cared. You were so easy to fool. You were so starved for affection that you couldn’t see what was right in front of you.

Every moment with you made my skin crawl. I couldn’t stand you or our marriage.

I suppose this means we’re even now. Don’t look for me. I left because the only other option was slitting your throat in your sleep.

Miserable bastard .

There’s no way in hell she wrote that.

I remember the quiet moments when I caught her gazing at me with something deep in her eyes, like she was on the verge of saying something...but then she wouldn’t. She’d shut herself off, just for a second, like she was protecting herself from me. I never pushed her. I understood the delicate nature of our relationship. She needed more than just a husband. She needed someone to lean on, someone who’d understand the weight of her past without making her confront it before she was ready.

I rub a hand across my face, my body sinking into the couch, feeling heavier than it ever has. “Leave,” I whisper, my voice hoarse.

Talon hesitates, then murmurs, “For what it’s worth, I don’t think she wrote it either. I’ll find out how that letter got here.”

I don’t answer. I can’t. My eyes are on the balcony, searching the horizon as if I’ll be able to catch a glimpse of her. The room is silent until a soft knock interrupts my thoughts. My senses catch her scent first—cinnamon and spice. The door creaks open and Georgia steps in, her lips curling into a smile.

“I thought I’d find you here. May I come in?”

She’s been doing this a lot lately—visiting my room, talking to me. She tells me stories about Leilani, thinking that might soothe me. She cries sometimes and says she misses her. She claims no one else will listen to her, not even out of pity for what her husband did to her. I know she’s lonely, but so am I, and the sight of her stirs nothing but disgust. Still, I let her talk. The shadows in my mind seem more distant when there’s noise. W

Georgia steps in without waiting for my reply, her eyes wandering around the room before she sits on Leilani’s bed. I almost snap at her. The bed still smells like Leilani, and I don’t want Georgia tainting that. But I swallow the urge. What does it matter? If Leilani’s truly left me for good, her scent will fade anyway.

Georgia stretches out on the bed, running her fingers over the sheets. The hem of her dress rides up to reveal her scars. Her hair spills over her shoulders as she arches her back dramatically, thrusting her chest forward. The low cut of her dress is deliberate, putting her breasts prominently on display.

I stare out the glass doors, my lips curling in displeasure.

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” she begins, her voice soft, almost innocent. “They say she sent a letter, and...it wasn’t what you expected.” She bites her lip, as if she’s unsure whether or not to continue. Her performance is so clearly rehearsed it’s almost laughable. Then, in a rush, she adds, “I’m sorry, Asher. I know eavesdropping is wrong, but I was worried about you...and Leilani. She has a history of running off when she’s angry. It’s kind of her thing, you know?”

I don’t answer. I don’t even look at her. My mind is already churning, replaying every word of that letter. Could she have actually written it? Was she just pretending to care for me this whole time? Could I have been so blind?

Georgia’s voice dips lower, more intimate. “I know how much you loved her...but maybe she wasn’t who you thought she was. She’s done things, Asher, things you wouldn’t believe. I love her, but even I have to admit that you were too good to her. Too forgiving.” Her voice breaks on the last word. “Chris would return to me some nights, reeking of her. I knew they were meeting behind our backs. He called her name when…” Her voice trails off. “I?—”

“Stop talking,” I warn, my hands trembling, the anger and pain threatening to break free. I know she’s lying to shake my trust in Leilani, but her words snake into my heart anyway. Did she run off to be with him ?

She stands, her hips swaying as she approaches. “You don’t think she did it alone, did you? Running away from here.” She’s closer now, peering up at me with wide, doe eyes. “Christian is the only man she’ll ever love, but she might’ve used some other male to get out of here. You’ve seen her. She’s always had men pining after her.”

She leans in, her palm resting against my thigh, burning through the black fabric of my pants. Her fingers move higher, and my muscles tense. “What do you think she’s doing right now while you search for her fruitlessly? You think she gives two fucks about you?” Her other hand lands on my shoulder, and she holds on tightly. “Your pack needs you to be the alpha. Your pack needs a strong luna who loves the pack as much as she loves you. A loyal and fierce woman who doesn’t openly express her resentment for you. A woman who doesn’t deceive you.”

My chest tightens and my eyes shut as I try to force a breath in, but before I can react, Georgia lowers herself onto my lap, straddling me. Her chest presses against mine and she licks her lips. “We understand each other, alpha,” she whispers, rubbing her breasts against my chest. “Use me, if that’s what you need to get over Leilani.”

Her lips find mine in an instant, soft and insistent. She moans, her tongue teasing the seam of my lips, desperate for entry .

For a moment, I’m too lost in my own pain to register what’s happening. My body reacts before my mind does, and I recoil when her scent hits me.

My hand shoots out, wrapping around her throat in a vise-like grip. I wrench her away from me, my fingers digging into her skin as her eyes widen with shock and fear. Her pulse hammers against my palm as her breath comes in shallow, panicked gasps. “You’re hurting me,” she cries, her hands flying up to claw at mine.

“You ever touch me again,” I growl, my voice low and dangerous, “and there won’t be enough left of you to fuck another mated male. Do you understand?”

She nods desperately, her lips parting in a desperate gasp for air, but I don’t let go until I see her eyes bulging. When I release her, she collapses, desperately sucking in air.

I stand, my chest heaving with rage. “Get out. Now .”

She scrambles off the ground and rushes out the door without a backward glance.

Clenching my fists, I storm into my room and grab the wrapped painting I’d spent weeks perfecting—Leilani’s birthday present. Angrily, my claws rip through the bright paper and bubble wrap, until they meet glass. Panting, I stare at the painting. It was hard to bring this to life. I’d forced myself to think back on the first time I spied on Mardoc and his family, just so I could paint the moment that made me so bitter, so damned vengeful. The painting shows the night of the winter solstice. Leilani dances around the fire in a white crop top and a long skirt that swirls around her ankles. Her mother moves behind her, her eyes glowing with happiness as she winks at Mardoc, whose smile stretches wide on his lips as his hand raises a glass in a toast to love .

The rest of the pack cheers, raising their glasses with him.

She would’ve loved it.

I hurl it into the wall and it shatters into pieces, just like my heart.