Page 22 of Forsaken Desire (Ruthless Wolves #1)

S he’d been imprisoned. I struggled to breathe—to think .

Boulders had settled on my chest, suffocating me. My ears rang, and I struggled to process the conversation.

She’d been in prison. Fuck me, I had to have heard wron g. My precious mate had been caged. For how long? Where?

Slowly, I turned my head toward my mate. She had lowered her head, and she’d curled into herself as if ashamed.

My heart shrank, aching.

Confusion and pain mingled inside me. I didn’t want my mate hurt, but I couldn’t move. I’d never lost control of my body, but every limb had gone numb.

“That saves me the energy of having to tell you,” Cierra announced, smug. “I looked her up after last night. She killed her father.” Cierra would stop smiling very fucking soon.

Elain gasped. I stiffened. I’d believed I was frozen before, but her words injected ice into my veins.

“A murderer?”

I couldn’t tell who the scandalized gasp came from with the rushing in my thoughts.

Unadulterated rage squeezed my chest, rendering me immobile.

All I could think about was how I’d failed her. The years she should have been with me. Everything I’d thrown away.

Her pain .

She didn’t have a family. She was so alone . . . and I’d left her alone.

If I’d protected her, she wouldn’t have gone through that.

If I’d never rejected her.

If. If . If.

“Excuse me. I have to go.” Her voice was small, and the rushing in my ears muffled the click of her heels.

Like a rubber band snapping, I wrenched free of the numbness I’d been engulfed in.

“Enough,” I snarled, infusing as much of an order in my word as I could. Every shifter within my proximity groaned, their instincts forcing them to listen to my command.

Alex grabbed my wrist, stopping me halfway off the chair.

“You have to give her space; she’s obviously upset.”

I narrowed my eyes at the grip on my wrist. Finger by finger, he lifted off me. I met my brother’s gaze.

He retreated, putting his hands up. I stood so quickly that the chair clattered to the floor. Gazes followed the loud bang, but I had tunnel vision. I strode across the shit color of the carpet they’d rolled over the intricate tile I’d selected for the ballroom.

I didn’t give a fuck who she’d killed. Or what she had done.

Since she’d disappeared, I’d stopped caring.

I took over from my father, Henry, as soon as I turned eighteen, and more and more responsibility was hefted on me while he dwindled and sank into alcohol.

He’d never been present with Elain, and sometimes I doubted he even liked her, but his issues weren’t my problem.

But her causing Josephine any pain would mean instant death.

Only because she’d birthed me did I allow her a single warning.

I combed my hair back from my forehead. That other bitch, Cierra, likely felt powerful because I had yet to fully reprimand her, but I had a perfect plan for her.

They would all see this coming Blood Moon what I would do to those who harmed my mate.