Page 21 of Alpha's Chosen Mate (Wolf Billionaire #2)

CHAPTER 21

LEILANI

“ M r. Anderson requests your presence in the dining hall.”

I clutch the sheets tightly and release a pained breath as I shiver underneath the blanket. “I’m not hungry.”

The maid pauses. Her name is Adele, I think. “It wasn’t actually a request.”

I turn slightly and smile through dry, chapped lips. “Well then, I suppose you can tell him to shove his orders up his asshole, where his head currently resides. I won’t be coming for down for dinner, or breakfast, or lunch.”

She nods, though her brows twitch in irritation. I sigh, sinking farther into the pillows with a tired sigh. Initially, it had been just a fever, but over the last few days, my health has worsened. I eat and sleep all day, and I only get out of bed to throw up and shower the bile off my skin.

Everything hurts, and the desperation to escape this place has left me. I can hardly think past the constant pounding in my head, and moving makes my very bones ache .

It’s the food. It has to be laced with something, but I don’t understand why he would abduct me just to poison me. I don’t know what day it is. I’ve lost track of how many nights I’ve spent in here. Some nights, Christian comes in here to watch me sleep. Sometimes he sleeps beside me, but I’m never strong enough to push him off the bed. He hasn’t touched me yet, out of fear that will break me further than he already has, but I’m unsure how long his concern will keep him away from me.

A tear rolls down my cheeks and I sob. I miss Asher so much, it makes me feel ill. I need his warmth around me, his soft kisses, his deep, vibrating laughter, and his masculine scent. I need him so badly, I might just die if I spend another night without him.

I’m drifting off to sleep again when the door slams against the wall, startling me awake. Rough hands yank me out of bed. “My patience has worn thin, Leilani,” Christian barks, his green eyes bright with anger. “You want to be depressed and angry? Be my guest, but don’t think for a second that you can disrespect me in my own home. I’ve had enough of your tantrums.”

“Alright,” I whisper tiredly.

Christian tugs me forward by my wrist, and it takes the Goddess’s mercy to stay on my feet as he pulls me out of the room. I stumble over the train on my wrinkled gown to keep up with him, and the sudden motion causes bile to rise to my throat. I shove it down and wipe a hand across my forehead. “Chris...” I whisper. “I don’t feel well.”

He ignores me and kicks open the door that leads to the dining hall. The aroma of roast chicken assaults my nostrils, and instead of stirring my hunger, it worsens the nausea. I gag, but there’s nothing left to throw up, and when Christian plants me on the chair, my world begins to spin.

The maid—Adele—moves around me, serving me a plate and filling up my glass with clear wine. I reach for it, suddenly parched. The alcohol burns as it runs down my throat, pushing the nausea farther down and clearing my head for a moment. I drop the empty glass against the table with a clink and stare up at Adele. “More.”

Her glare quickly transforms into a smile when Christian turns our way. “Yes, ma’am.” Her voice is sultry, and her movements are slow and deliberate. She twists, angling her chest in Christian’s direction. When she bends to pick up the wine, her skirt hikes so high, white lace peeks out from between her thighs. I could tell her she could fuck him right here at the dinner table and it’d mean nothing to me. All I want is the bottle of wine in her grasp.

“That’s enough, Lei.”

I blink, startled when I find my fingers wrapped around Chris’s glass. My eyes rise to his, and they’re hard and cold, as always. I jolt when a warm hand lands on my thigh, burning through the thin material of my dress. “I would much rather have you sober for this discussion.”

“And I would much rather be home with my husband, but then…” I smile. “We don’t always get what we want, do we?” I take the glass and down the contents in a single gulp.

The hand on my thigh squeezes painfully and I flinch, scooting back in my chair. “Don’t touch me!”

Christian yanks me forward, his fingers rising dangerously high as he flashes me a fiendish smile. “It’s best you got reacquainted with my touch. I’ve made plans with the priest for our mating ritual. It’s scheduled for the end of the week.” His thumb strokes my flesh as his eyes rake over my figure, rising once more to rest on my right shoulder, where his mark has become a faint bruise. His grin falters, but he says nothing, nodding instead toward the food. “Eat.”

When I don’t obey him immediately, flustered by his announcement and irked by the hand possessively massaging my thigh, he suddenly roars at me, “Fucking eat the damn food, Lei!”

My hands fly to the cutlery, my fingers trembling as I grasp the fork. My lips purse as I stab a piece of meat. “I don’t want to marry you.” Funny, I remember saying the same words to Asher months ago. From experience, I know how little what I want matters in these sorts of situations. The fork clangs loudly as I drop it onto the plate and glare at him. “How can you look me in the eye and talk about spending the rest of your life with me after all you’ve done? You want us to have a mating ritual? I’d rather die than go through that with you. The thought of your hands on me makes me want to rip my own heart out, swallow my tongue, or jump off the damned cliff outside and crack my skull open.”

Christian chuckles like I just made a joke, but his nails pierce through my gown and I bite down a pained grunt. I know what this is. I can feel it in his trembling hands, the calm before the storm. I brace myself for the surge of violence, but Christian has never been a predictable man.

He sets down his fork gently and stares at me. The seconds tick by in complete silence. My muscles tense, but he just keeps looking at me with those dead eyes. Then he lurches upright and flips the table, sending dishes and food flying. I scream, covering my ears as glass shatters. “I’m trying!” he roars, and his chair flies across the mess, crashing into the wall. “Why is it so damned hard to get through to you? Georgia understood. Why don’t you?”

“Because I’m not a fucking psycho! Should I be grateful? Should I grovel at your feet and thank you for killing my father ? And yours? Should I somehow forget that you lied to me for years, cheated on me, rejected me because you thought I was unfit to be your luna? After all that, you expect me to welcome you with open arms and spread my legs for you?”

He grabs my arms and jerks me forcefully to my feet. He leans in so close, our noses touch. “You did it for Asher. What makes me any different?”

“You could never be half the man Asher is,” I snarl. “Other than fuck up my life with your selfish schemes, what have you ever, truly, done for me? Give me one reason I should go along with this madness and profess my undying love for you. Even when I hated him, Asher saved me without ever expecting anything from me in return. He cared about me even before I knew his name. He…” My voice cracks. “He knew what I was to him and held back, because he thought I still loved you. He let me put all my anger on him, even if he never did anything wrong. All you’ve ever done is deceive me, and I curse the day I met you!”

Green eyes flare gold, and his hold on my arms becomes painful. “Asher, Asher, Asher. If he’s so damn great, where is he now?” He gestures around the house. “You think he could have done this for you?” Twin pools of gold narrow at the mark on my left shoulder, and he bares elongated canines at me. “It’s the mark, isn’t it? It’s affecting your mind, making you feel things for him.” He inhales, and I see it in his maniacal gaze—the moment he decides to rid me of Asher’s mark .

“No,” I cry. “No!”

But he has me cornered, his head bearing down on my neck. I push at his arms, screaming, because this is all I have left of Asher. If he takes this from me, I don’t think I can bring myself to live through another day. I can’t be Christian’s chosen mate. I’d rather slit my own throat.

I succeed in pushing him off me, but the force only propels me backward, and I fall, hitting the ground with a thud. I scramble back, but I only get halfway to my feet when he grabs my ankle and pulls me back. My nails claw at the marble as he pulls me toward him, my throat raw from screaming. Something sharp tears into my palm as I slide down, and I grab the piece of glass, turning at the last second and plunging it into Christian’s thigh as hard as I can. Blood splatters across my skin.

He snarls, letting go of me to tear the glass out, and I take my chance, shooting to my feet and fleeing down the hall, adrenaline surging through me.

My hands are an inch away from the doorknob when I feel the malicious presence behind me. He wrenches me back by my hair and a crack explodes along my left cheek, filling my mouth with blood. Another hit whips my head in the opposite direction and the ground beneath my feet shifts as another sickening crack fills the air. And Goddess, the pain .

Dizziness pulls me under and for a moment, I have no idea where I am, or where Christian is. It takes a minute to hear my dress ripping open, and another to feel the horror of cool air kissing my skin. My head lolls right and my eyes flutter open. I’m pressed against the wall and Christian’s lips are on my neck, his breath hot as he licks me. His knee between my thighs holds me up, and his hand is in my hair, angling my head for better access to my throat .

Black and white dots scatter in my vision. I’m positive that my nose is broken. My hands are weak by my sides, twitching pointlessly as Christian’s hands circle my waist and pull me closer. “You have no idea how much it kills me to think he got to touch you like this.”

His hands dip down, grabbing my ass cheeks. Dread runs through me as his hard length presses against my lower belly. “Christian, stop.”

He grunts, snaking his hand up my side and cupping my breast, almost bare through my torn dress. He strokes my neck with his tongue, running his canines across my skin. He moans, squeezing me through my bra, and I start to tremble with undiluted fear and panic. “No, stop it!” I cry, pushing at his chest, but I might as well have been fighting against a boulder.

Christian’s mouth slides up my neck in hungry, desperate kisses, and he rocks his hips forward, pressing himself harder against me. He grunts, pulling back and thrusting forward again, his hold on me tightening. “Fuck,” he breathes, pulling back to look at me. His eyes are hungry, and there’s nothing of the man I used to know in them. “I wanted to wait. I swear, I did. I tried not to think about it, but you fucking tempt me, Lei. I need to fuck you.”

My chest heaves as I hyperventilate, shaking my head profusely, even as my head pounds and my vision doubles. “Please, stop,” I cry, reaching up to try to hold the pieces of my gown together. “Don’t do this to me, Chris. Please.”

He leans in, forcing our lips together. A sound rumbles deep in his throat as I taste my tears on his lips. “I love you,” he says, like that should be reason enough to take me by force, against my pleas. “I love you so much,” he says again against my lips, biting hard when I refuse to part them for him. He shoves his tongue into my mouth, groaning as he tastes my cries, stealing them from me. He cages me in with his body, pulling my hands from my chest roughly.

He pulls back only long enough to say, “Did you beg him to stop when he touched you?” He grabs my bra and tears it off, and my mind reels as he stares at my bare breasts. “You were his slut, and if I need to fuck him out of your system, I will. You’ll be mine again. Only mine. Every damn hole in this body is mine, and I’ll fuck you until you believe it again.”

His eyes latch onto Asher’s mark, and his head snaps down to it. I scream as fire erupts in my neck. His teeth rip into my skin so viciously that my legs give out. My body responds, the fear morphing into something else, something I refuse to recognize. I desperately hold on to the thread that binds me to Asher. Maybe if I hold on hard enough, Christian marking me won’t snap the bond between us. For a heartbreaking moment, the bond flickers.

Something strange happens then.

Christian suddenly jerks away from me, his lips red with my blood. His eyes are wide with surprise as he wipes his lips. He blinks, shaking his head. “It can’t be.” He holds my shoulders, keeping me from sliding down the wall, and he buries his nose in my neck, taking a deep, long sniff.

And then he pushes me away, howling so loudly that pain lances through my skull. My legs won’t hold me, and I fall onto the ground, shivering and sobbing. Christian spits out my blood like it’s poison, and he growls, “You’re fucking pregnant.”

Pregnant.

I used to wonder what it would be like to be the mother of Christian’s pups. I’d spoken to him once about it, expressing my fear about becoming a mother. Christian had his own reservations about having children, and I understood why, so I stopped thinking about it.

Still, I sometimes used to worry about what would happen if I found out I had a little pup growing inside me. Mother always said wolves had the strongest maternal instinct, and she was right.

I grab a butter knife from the breakfast tray and point it at my chest. “I’ll kill myself if you come any closer.”

I can’t wrap my head around this. I’ve only had one day to come to terms with this pregnancy, and now Christian has arrived at the conclusion to get rid of it.

I never thought about having babies with Asher. The possibility of our many trysts leaving me with child never occurred to me. I just wanted him spilling inside me. I pushed for it, and he would laugh, his body tensing with each release, before he flicked my nose and called me greedy.

And now, I’ll never get to see the joy on his face that I’ve seen so many times when he interacts with the children in the pack. I’ll never hear the giggle of our child when he picks him up and tickles him. Or when he kisses her cheek and promises our daughter that he’ll marry her.

The doctor adjusts the glasses perched on his long nose, and he cuts Christian an unsure look. “You said she was willing. Aborting a child goes against the Goddess’s will, but doing it without the mother’s consent…” He shakes his head. “That’s an unforgivable sin. ”

Christian cocks his head and a guard steps forward, bringing a dagger under the doctor’s chin. The man stills, his watery eyes widening with horror. His hold on the silver box shakes, and Christian clucks his tongue distastefully. “A sin would be leaving your children without a father, orphaned and packless because you refused to do your damn job. Your choice, Walter.”

Walter’s eyes flicker in my direction, and I shake my head. “Don’t do it,” I tell him, but I can already see the remorse and resignation in his eyes.

I grip the edge of the knife and hurl it at Christian, aiming for his head. He plucks it out of the air and I lunge at him, screaming and promising to kill him. He doesn’t move an inch, watching as the guards take hold of me and drag me to the doctor.

Tears spill from my eyes as they force me to my knees in front of him. “Please.” I have no idea why I try to plead with him, when it is so obvious he has no other choice. He doesn’t look at me as he extracts a syringe from the box, nearly filled to the brim with black liquid. I turn to Christian as he inserts the fat needle into my skin. “If you do this, I’ll never forgive you.”

His eyes are empty. “I don’t need your forgiveness.”

I thrash, kicking the box out of Walter’s hands, sending the syringe flying. It shatters against the wall, and Christian cusses. “Hold her down!” he orders, as Walter retrieves another syringe.

I’m a sobbing mess when the doctor leans over my pinned-down frame and whispers, “I’m sorry,” and the needle sinks into my neck .

The hands around me loosen when the needle leaves my skin. I clutch at my neck, staring up. Christian frowns. “Nothing’s happenin?—”

A loud bang rocks the house, the ground shaking under my feet. Shouts come from outside, causing every head in the room to turn toward the noise. Another bang, and Christian orders the guards to go check it out. Christian pulls me up off the ground, scanning me for…I have no idea what. I suppose something should’ve happened by now. But I feel nothing.

He tilts his head toward Walter. “If you tricked me?—”

My chest seizes. I frown, confused at the sudden movement. A violent tremor wracks my body, bending my back in a cruel arch. My limbs jerk uncontrollably as my muscles twitch in sharp spasms. I fall, crying out as something sharp tears through me. The first wave of pain hits hard and fast, exploding in my chest and slicing down my stomach. It feels like claws are ripping me apart from the inside out, slashing at my core.

Christian catches me, and my fingers cling to his white shirt. It’s the one I got him for his birthday last year. Fear gleams in his green eyes as I scream again, pure agony spreading slowly from my belly down to my abdomen, twisting my insides in unending torment. “Is this normal?” he yells in wild panic, caressing my forehead as he cradles me against his chest.

“Individual reactions differ,” I vaguely hear Walter say over my screaming. My body twists in a violent shudder, like I’ve just been electrocuted.

“Help her!” Chris yells, turning me onto my side as I convulse. My teeth grind together and liquid pours from my mouth .

I lose sense of time. Someone runs into the room. “We’re under attack,” he says to Christian, but Christian doesn’t leave my side. I’m scared, and I don’t know what’s happening to me. The pain is tearing me apart, and I claw at my belly, desperate to stop it. I call for Asher. I call for my father. I call for my mother. I even call for Christian.

Only pain answers my call, and I fall into it and the darkness it brings.