Page 15 of Bound to Enemy (Wolf Billionaire #3)

CHAPTER 15

ALESSANDRA

I could not believe that I had done that in front of him. The nightmares were an on-and-off thing. They had been much more frequent when I was younger, but now that I had grown up, they were rare.

So why did they have to return the first night I spent with Daxton Vale? He had not only watched me cry but he had consoled me. I never wanted anyone to see me like that, least of all the very man I was supposed to hate.

And then there was the sex.

It had been like no other kind of sex I had experienced. The man had set my body on fire in a way that it had never been before. It was this scorching kind of burn that left me feeling flustered and so alive.

The plan was never to fuck him, but my wolf, she was so drawn to him now. The mating bond had connected us firmly to each other. So much so that I felt like I could feel him. I couldn't quite explain it in words, but there was this invisible tether that always made me hyper-aware of him.

I wasn't sure which emotions were mine and which were his anymore. After he left in the morning, I felt this overwhelming feeling of confusion, but I knew that the confusion was not mine. It was his.

I had been warned that the link could cause such things, but now I worried about him feeling what I was feeling. I didn't want him knowing those kinds of things, especially when I didn't trust him.

Fucking him was one thing, but having him know my emotions was another. It felt far too intimate and left me vulnerable.

We had consummated the bond, but there was still one more thing we were yet to do. We needed to solidify our bond with the marks on our necks; only then would we reach full actualization of our bond.

That was a big fat no in my book. I didn't want to mark him, and I didn't want him to mark me. That was far too intimate and it wasn't needed to continue our bond. Full bonds were incredibly sacred and held a lot of meaning.

I stared out at the sun looking at the rays that glistened on top of the water.

Hiding out here was cowardly, but I had no idea how I was going to face my husband.

Shit. I tilted my head upward towards the sky and squeezed my eyes shut. I had to attend that strategy meeting tonight. We were going to discuss the moonstone and how we could extract its powers to fortify the walls to give us more time against the rogues.

"Maybe I could call in sick," I turned my gaze back to the water and pulled my knees to my chest. "Don't be dumb, Alessandra."

I picked up a rock and skipped it over the surface of the water.

I always loved the water; it had this calming effect on my soul. The gentle push and pull of the liquid lulled the chaos within.

"You're up early, Luna," Elliot came to stand beside me, his kind eyes beamed down at me with pride and elation. He was one of the few people in this pack who were happy about our union. "Mind if I join you?"

I gestured to the space beside me, and he sat down by the bank with me. He was silent for some time; neither one of us said a single word.

"How are you feeling, Luna?" Elliot finally broke through the thick silence.

"You don't need to call me Luna, my name is Alessandra."

He nodded slowly and turned his head to look at me. "Will me calling you Alessandra make you comfortable?"

I nodded, "I'm not used to the title Luna. It wasn't the title I thought I would be inheriting."

"Ah yes, of course."

The thick silence covered us once more. I didn't know what he was trying to do or why he had even come to join me. We weren't friends; he should not have wanted to be anywhere near me. He had his loyalties to his alpha.

"So how are you? You didn't answer my question before."

I opened my mouth to tell him I was okay, but then it would be a lie, and I didn't want to lie to him. That was usually my go-to when I didn't want people to pry, but after this morning's theatrics, I was feeling highly emotional. But I also didn't want to do a deep dive into my emotions.

"I'm dealing as best as I can." That would suffice.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He nudged his shoulder against mine. "I have been told that I am a great confidant to have."

I shook my head, "I don't think that you could help me. Unless, of course, you can rewind time."

"Rewind time?"

Dammit, I shook my head trying to shake off the stinging that had started behind my eyes. "Nothing, it's fine."

I lifted my head to the sky again, but this time I blinked back the tears that had started to well in my eyes. I could not believe that I was crying again in the face of my enemy.

'He is not our enemy.' My wolf tried to calm me, but it did nothing for me.

"I'm sorry about your family; what happened that day was a tragedy. The blood that soaked that soil will be avenged." His words held so much kindness and sincerity I almost allowed my guard to fully drop. But I made sure to keep that extra layer of protection around myself.

"Justice will be served in due time, but I feel some on this side will have to pay for their involvement." The message I was trying to convey was clear-cut. "Your alpha is the reason so much of our soil is soaked in blood. He and his family."

Elliot held my gaze, not once did he turn away from my silent fury. I had half expected him to match my anger with his own due to his loyalty to his alpha, but he simply shined with kindness. That was different.

"I know you have your reservations about Daxton, but there is a lot that you may not know about him."

"Like? The man knew no worries or cares the moment he was born. You all were not only blessed with a plethora of resources, but you also had the most powerful army of all the packs. I was born into bloodshed and war.

We all say that we are in the war together, but truly it's my pack that takes the brunt of it. You took our moonstone to shield yourselves from the rogues and left us out there as good as dead."

I could feel my wolf getting riled up. Whenever I thought of all the bloodshed and war that my people had to endure because of Blood Moon, my blood would boil. Now that they were seeing more blood, they wanted our help, but where were they when we needed them? Where were they when we were screaming in the flames that they helped to fan?

Fuck.

My body was a toxic mixture of sadness and rage, and that was not good for my wolf at all. I was already barely hanging on by a thread. The last thing that I needed right now was to lash out and possibly shift.

"I'm sorry," were the words that came out of Elliot's mouth. The remorse and shame in his eyes were unexpected and a little heartwarming when I thought about it. He was the first wolf from this pack who actually looked like he regretted the actions taken by those who came before him.

"What happened to you, your pack, your family... there are no words to express the sorrow that I feel for your people. It is unfair and unjust what you had to endure."

"But? There is something in your tone that tells me there is a 'but' coming."

He huffed with a small smile on his lips. "These are the sins of those who came before us. I know you don't care much for Daxton, and he can be a little crass even on the best of days, and this is coming from a man who has known him all his life."

I waited for him to continue speaking.

"Daxton has done many things all in the name of the pack. You may not agree with his methods, but he has never done anything with the intention of hurting anyone else. He cares for all wolf kind."

I scoffed, "If that were true, why did he call me vermin?"

"He called you that?"

"His words implied it, and he made no secret of wanting to eradicate my people. You guys don't care for my pack; the people here only now accept me because I have bonded to their alpha."

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is."

Elliot clamped his mouth shut and looked at the water. He may have found it hard to believe that his people were hard and cold, but the truth was always hard to accept at times. They believe themselves to be kings of the wolf world when they bleed red like the rest of us.

"But that day, the massacre, that was not on him. He was not to blame for the call not being answered."

I ground my teeth in annoyance, "Then who was to blame?"

"The alpha who made the call. Just because Daxton shares similar blood to the alpha does not mean that he should pay for the sins of his father. How is it fair that the future should pay for the wrongs of the past?"

"His father is dead and cannot answer for the crimes of Blood Moon." My words were laced with a lethal kind of poison that burned my tongue. "So let his sins fall on his son."

"Even you understand how unfair it is."

I didn't care. What had been unfair was to take the moonstone from us and leave us defenseless. Now that they couldn't extract the power of the stone, they wanted our help. Only after they had allowed the rogues to lay waste to my pack, they now wanted to come and pick up the crumbs of what was left.

"Do you know how Daxton lost his mother?"

I turned my face to meet his eyes, "From what I was told, she was killed in a rogue attack. But if you are going to try and make me sympathize with his story by likening it to mine, I don't want to hear it."

Elliot shook his head, "That's not what I was going to do. I simply wanted to humanize him. You look at him like some kind of demon from the deepest darkness, but the Daxton I know is an honorable and kind man. Granted, he carries a lot of scars that have marked his heart, but don't we all carry pain that forms us?"

I didn't say a word. I didn't want to allow his words to sway me. If I decided to humanize this man, then I would find myself in no man's land regarding these confusing feelings.

"He was just a boy when she died, no more than ten years old." The breeze blew a little harder and the air chilled slightly. The sun had now fully peeked beyond the horizon and morning had broken. "There had just been an attack by some rogues two nights prior; it had been a bloodbath. Daxton, always one for adventure, wanted to go and see the remains of the rogues that had been left there. His parents, of course, said no. But he was stubborn and rebellious. He had a friend at the time, his name was Andrew—my older brother."

Why did I have a feeling that this was not going to be a good ending to the story?

"Andrew and Daxton snuck out to see the site. There weren't enough wolves covering that piece of territory that night, and they found rogues. They ran as fast as they could, but luckily the luna had tracked them when she found them missing. She fought the rogues off bravely, but the last rogue that had remained standing was able to deliver a final blow that took her life.

Daxton watched his mother die right in front of his eyes at the hands of the rogues. My brother Andrew was meant to be Daxton's beta. Even at the age of 12, he understood that his job was to protect his alpha. He fended off the rogue in order to protect Daxton and save the succession of the pack. Daxton not only watched his mother die in front of his eyes but his best friend too."

The area grew eerily quiet. Not a single sound could be heard bar the soft rippling of the water.

"To this day he blames himself, and for some time I blamed him as well. Had he not taken my brother out there that night, they would have all survived, but in his recklessness, he had bargained the lives of two people.

It took time for me to heal this wound and come to a place of resolution. I knew my brother, and he was just as rebellious and radical as Daxton had been at that age, if not more. He would have never gone somewhere he didn't want to go, and I knew that seeing the rogues would have been high on his list."

Wow, of all the things I had heard of this man, this was not something I had expected. Daxton didn't look like a rule-breaker. He was crisp and stuck to the lines. But it now made sense why he was so rigid.

"So you forgave him?"

A look crossed his eyes. "Eventually, but it took a lot of grace. He already hated himself; why did I need to add to his misery? Daxton understands the cruelty his father displayed when he lost his mother. He knows the iron grip his father developed was detrimental to many, but he also saw that it kept his pack safe, and that was all he cared for. He is not a bad man; he is simply a man who lives in fear of repeating the same mistakes, and that makes him seem brutal and cold."

Those words echoed in my skull for the remainder of that day. Not only had Elliot given me a new perspective on Daxton, but it had also made me look at my life differently too.

Had the tragedies of the past forced me into callousness? Was the woman I was today simply a trauma response to the scars on my heart? And if so, who was I truly underneath it all?

I returned to the lake that evening after a successful day of ducking and dodging my mate. Was I a coward? Yes. I just didn't know how to face him after this morning. I knew that eventually at the meeting I would need to face him, but I was going to prolong that for as long as possible.

I don't know how long I sat by the bank of the river; my mind was too busy with all of the various scenarios that had been racing through my thoughts.

When I finally decided to get up, I felt a shift in the air. My wolf surged forward, but it was already too late. Three wolves with bright crimson eyes emerged from the tree line, all staring at me with matching looks of vengeance.

Shit.

Rogues.