Page 31 of The Alpha King's Mate

“Forgive me.”

She nodded, sniffling once, and I reached for a napkin and pressed it gently into her hand, because even now I didn’t trust myself not to hurt her with too much force.

Something ugly began to claw its way up my throat as I thought of her father. Of the woman and the girl who’d taken her mother’s place in that house. They would arrive tomorrow expecting to be treated as honoured guests, as tradition demanded of my mate’s family.

They would learn quickly that I did not honour those who broke what was mine.

Warmth seeped into my thigh and side, dragging me back to the present. She’d pressed her head against my chest, and I could breathe again. A ragged breath tore out of me.

“You owe me,” she whispered.

I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her closer.

“Whatever you want. It’s yours,” I murmured, kissing the top of her head.

We leaned back on the couch. She pulled her legs up and tucked them to one side. The silence grew, but it was comfortable, and I still got to hold her.

“The last person to hug me was my mother,” she murmured.

Eight years without compassion.

“No pack member made the effort. No one remembered when someone was ill, how she used to cook for them, or bring them botanical medicine. If someone needed a babysitter, or a check-in on their pets or livestock—she was the one who went.”

I rubbed her arm. Being an Alpha was difficult, but I trusted my pack members to raise hidden issues before they festered. I welcomed people into the Bloodborne pack—but I exiled them just as easily if they brought harm to our community.

“She sounds like my mother. Minus the pets.”

“I’m sorry about your parents,” she murmured, placing her hand over my heart.

I forced myself not to react, though my muscles went rigid beneath her palm.

“I do not take betrayal lightly,” I said, my voice cold and low.

“Neither do I.”

My body sagged against her.

“You’ll keep me in check, won’t you?” I teased.

“Someone has to.”

Malakh chortled.I love her.

My smile vanished.

When the fuck did that happen?

Chapter 15

Aliana

We were running.

The forest blurred past in streaks of green and shadow, the trees too thick to be real, their branches knitting overhead into something closer to a cathedral than a canopy. Colour bled into colour—moss-dark and gold-lit and something that might have been lavender if lavender could taste like static on my tongue. Scent came in waves I couldn’t separate: pine, wet earth, crushed grass, and beneath it all, something ancient and metallic, like moonlight had a smell.

Malakh surged ahead of us, black and enormous, then peeled back to circle Zira—teasing her, daring her to catch him, and she gave chase with a joy so pure it didn’t feel like mine. It felt like something older than me, something that had been waiting a long time to run.

This was it. Freedom.