After My Alpha Mate Marked Someone Else, I Left

My Alpha mate slept with his childhood sweetheart to suppress her wolfsbane poisoning using his Alpha power. At dawn he knelt in front of me, holding a woman whose clothes were half off and whose body was covered in bruises. "Lilia was poisoned saving me. As the Alpha of this pack, I couldn't stand there and watch her die in agony!" Certain it would move me, he cut himself seven times with a silver dagger to atone. But the wolfsbane was still in Lilia's blood, and every time it flared, my Alpha husband went to save her. Afterward, he would cut himself once more. Six months later, he came to me bearing ninety-nine scars. A man who had never bowed to anyone lowered himself to beg me. "Dora, I've repented with my own flesh and blood. Lilia can't bear to give up the baby. I'm begging you to spare that small life. "You have trouble conceiving. Once the pup is born I'll send Lilia to the border and let the child call you mother. You will always be the mate the Moon Goddess chose for me." My heart felt as if it were being torn apart. I held back my tears and answered calmly, "All right." I crushed the pregnancy report I had been hiding into a ball and threw it into the hearth fire. Chapter 1 The smoke made Lilia cough twice. Looking anxious, Alpha Eric held her tightly against him and frowned at me. "Dora, Lilia has promised me the pup will be given to you to raise. There's no need to be angry. She won't disturb our life." The firelight made my eyes burn and redden. I spoke without any feeling. "Eric, I want to dissolve the mate bond." Eric's pupils contracted all at once. He let go of Lilia abruptly, took a long stride forward, and seized my wrist, his grip painfully tight and his voice full of impatience. "Dora, are you out of your mind?! Lilia grew up with me. She shielded me from a vampire ambush, then was poisoned with wolfsbane while saving me. I owe her my life twice over. "Why can't you see the bigger picture? Do you really have to hold a grudge against a pregnant Omega?" Every word of it was a reproach to me and a defense of Lilia. Seeing my dark expression, he shot the Beta and the Gamma a look. They all knelt down in front of me together. "Luna, you may not like this, but today we have to speak up for Lilia." "She's a pure, spotless girl who lost her innocence because of the Alpha. It wouldn't be going too far to call her Luna!" "Luna, you handle the logistics. You don't know how hard Lilia worked at the border, how she pulled the Alpha out of danger. Everything she's given to the Alpha and to this pack, we should all be grateful for." "If you ask me, Lilia is the one fit to be Luna, and now she's the one being wronged..." "That's enough!" Eric turned and roared at them, then looked back at me and tried to soften his gaze. "Dora, you will always be my mate, my only Luna! "But I have to take responsibility for what's in Lilia's belly." With that, he turned and stroked Lilia's cheek, his face full of concern for her. Something bitter rose in my throat. I opened my mouth and no words came. The others didn't know, but Eric knew perfectly well. Eric and I had once fought side by side. At the border, during a battle against the vampires, I took a blade to the heart for him. I was unconscious for three months that time, and when I woke I had lost the ability to fight at full strength. He knelt at my hospital bed and swore that his loyalty belonged to me alone and that he would protect me all his life. Now he knelt in front of me again, and it was to protect another woman. Not only that. He had cut the mind-link between us. It had been a week since I found out I was pregnant, and he hadn't sensed a thing. I turned in silence and left. Eric caught up quickly, took off his coat and laid it gently over my shoulders. "It's cold out here. Don't catch a chill. Dora, you never do take care of yourself properly." My hand went to my stomach without thinking, and I almost told him about the baby, and then he cut me off. "Dora, Lilia gets cold easily. Give her the climate-controlled house in the city center. I'll send you to the border castle to rest." The words stopped in my throat, and I forced them back down. When I took that blade for Eric, I was left with a heart condition, weak and unable to bear the cold. He had built that climate-controlled house for me to ease it. And at the border the winter wind tore through everything, and my body simply couldn't take it. Besides, that castle had stood abandoned for a long time. He used to bring me the best of everything. Now he wanted me to hand all of it to Lilia. Was she the woman he loved enough to defy his own mate for? His heart had left me long ago. I lowered my eyes and answered quietly, "All right." He kissed my cheek, delighted. "Dora, you're always the one who understands." He hurried back inside, lifted Lilia into his arms, and his fussing voice drifted to me on the wind. I closed my cold fingers into a fist, shaking a little. Chapter 2 I lay alone on the operating table. The doctor held my hand and said reassuringly, "Luna, I'm glad you made this decision. "Your heart condition is serious. The risk of carrying a child really is too great." The first time I saw that tiny sac on the scan, everything in me went soft. No matter how the doctor tried to tell me my body wasn't fit to carry a child, I never once thought of ending it. This baby was born from the love Eric and I had shared. I would have risked my life to keep it. But now there was no need for that. The moment the instrument entered my abdomen, the pain made me clutch the sheet, and tears slid silently past my ears. Just then the phone on the table suddenly rang. The nurse jumped, answered it quickly and held it to my ear. Eric shouted furiously over the phone, "Dora! You vicious woman! Why would you do that to Lilia?" The pain made my vision go dark, and I could only whisper, "What are you talking about?" "Lilia's been kidnapped, and the address they sent is right near the border castle!" Eric continued hysterically, "Only the two of us know exactly where that castle is. Who else could it be but you?" The pain took my voice, and all I could do was shake my head desperately. I forgot Eric couldn't see me. When he heard no answer, he snapped, "If anything happens to Lilia, I'll make you pay a thousand times over!" He ended the call. The nurse looked a little uncomfortable. I shut my eyes, and there was nothing in me but a cold kind of grief. After the surgery the doctor wheeled me out of the operating room. Then several of Eric's personal guards appeared out of nowhere and dragged me off the bed. They locked my hands and my feet with silver chains by force. "The Alpha's orders. We're taking you to the castle, and if they won't let Lilia go, the Luna pays with her life!" "What are you doing? The Luna just came out of surgery! Let go of her!" The doctor ran forward in a panic and was kicked aside by the Beta. Ever since I was injured, my wolf's healing ability had been a shadow of what it once was. And I had just come out of surgery, with the anesthetic still in me. I was powerless to stop them from forcing me into the car. Their rough handling made the pain in my abdomen unbearable. My vision went black and I passed out completely. I don't know how long it was before ice water woke me. I jerked in fright and opened my eyes, dazed. Eric slammed the basin down on the deck and closed a hand around my throat. "Dora, have I been too good to you all these years? How could you be this cruel? You wouldn't even spare an unborn child!" I was cold all over and my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. "I... didn't..." Eric didn't believe me. His eyes were red as he dragged me down off the boat. On the shore, Lilia lay on a stretcher with her big belly, weakly clutching the hem of Eric's coat as she cried out, "Eric, let it go. Don't dirty your hands for me." She turned her head and looked at me struggling in the freezing water. "Dora, why can't you make room for me? All I wanted was to have Eric's child..." I struggled in the water, and the cold had my muscles locked in cramps. All I could do was shake my head as hard as I could. "It wasn't me, I didn't do anything!" A few of his men swept the area. "Alpha! The kidnappers are gone." Eric gathered Lilia into his arms, his face stricken with concern for her. Chapter 3 "Dora, you went too far this time. Stay here and think about what you've done!" Eric dropped the words coldly, then turned and left with Lilia in his arms. Several Betas spat at me in disgust. "Pah! And to think we called you Luna. I never knew you were this disgusting!" "Exactly. She's vicious to the core. She's beneath even an Omega of this pack!" "Some Luna. You're not worth a hair on Lilia's head!" I lay in the freezing water, helpless. And as their figures went off into the distance, I saw Lilia turn a smug smile on me. It was three days before I slowly came around, and by then my whole body had gone numb. Just as I was sure I was going to die there, a blurred figure came slowly toward me. "Help... help me..." I pushed out that faint sound with everything I had left. Before I lost consciousness, all I heard was a small sigh. "Dora, what am I supposed to do with you?" When I woke I was lying on the floor inside the castle. The moment I opened my eyes, I met Eric's conflicted gaze. "You're awake?" Eric was crouched in front of me, holding a cup of warm water to my mouth. I turned my head away without thinking and avoided the cup. Eric's face darkened instantly and he smashed the cup down on the floor. "Dora, has your temper gotten worse? I'm willing to let Lilia's kidnapping go, so don't push your luck." I lay on the floor and suddenly found it funny. He hadn't even looked into it before deciding I had done it. If I really wanted to move against Lilia, I wouldn't have needed to wait until now. I could have done it half a year ago. "Eric." Lilia's frail voice came from outside the door. She came in slowly with one hand on her belly. "Why are you here?" Eric went to her at once and drew her carefully into his arms. "Eric, I was worried about Dora. I wanted to come and see her..." Lilia walked over to me, and when her eyes met mine she shrank back against Eric in fear. "Don't mind her. An Alpha female doesn't die that easily." Eric swept a disgusted glance over me and said flatly, "You'll stay here for the next few months, until Lilia has the baby safely." With that, Eric put his arm around Lilia and left without looking back. The door slammed shut, and I barely managed to push myself half upright with both hands. In the corner of the room I felt around for the encrypted phone I had hidden long ago, and dialed the only number in it. "I'll do what you asked." "Really? Where are you? I'll come for you right now." "Wait. Give me a little more time. I still have things to deal with." "All right. However long it takes, I'll wait." Chapter 4 I hung up, forced myself to crawl to the door of the room, and knocked on the iron door again and again. The guard outside snapped impatiently, "What?" I said weakly through the gap in the door, "Get me something to eat. I haven't eaten in three days." "Then how are you not dead yet? Wait here. I'll go ask the Alpha." The footsteps went away. When the guard came back, the door finally opened. A rusted iron tray was dropped in front of me, full of rotting meat that stank. I gagged. "How am I supposed to eat this?" "Eat it or don't!" I picked up the tray, resigned, and was about to bring it to my mouth when something occurred to me. I looked at the guard. "Come here a moment. About Lilia being kidnapped... you go and tell Eric..." Hearing that it had to do with Lilia, the guard hesitated, then came closer anyway. "What...?" The instant his head came through, I got my arm around his throat. Days without food had left me terribly weak. Even using every ounce of strength, it took me a long time to choke the guard unconscious. I got the keys off his belt and unlocked the chain on my legs. Back in the army, I was better in a fight than most men. And badly hurt as I was, I was still an Alpha female, and the instinct to fight was still there. I kept clear of the patrol and ran out along the passage. Just when I thought I was about to make a clean escape, Eric came charging in with the pack's medical team. When Eric came face-to-face with me, he fixed me with a vicious stare and strode toward me. Before I could speak, he raised his hand, and the slap landed hard across my face. The force knocked me to the ground. Blood immediately trickled from the corner of my mouth, and my ears rang. The unhealed wound in my uterus tore wide open. "Dora, who gave you the nerve to do this?" I had no idea what he was talking about. The pain was so bad I was nearly in shock, with nothing left to fight back with. Eric was still out of his mind. He kicked the back of my knee. The Beta behind me came forward at once, wrenched my arms back and forced me to my knees on the cold floor. Eric smashed the blood-smeared ceramic figure covered in runes against my face. The pieces flew apart and cut my face open. "You've kept quiet these six months, and it turns out you've been using black magic to curse Lilia! Dora, you make me sick to my stomach!" I looked at the broken infant figure on the floor, and I didn't even have the strength left to be angry. Eric's expression darkened. "I hadn't gotten around to settling the score with you, and here you are trying to escape. I'd almost forgotten what you're capable of, General." The pain in my abdomen was excruciating. I had started bleeding, and my body could no longer regulate its temperature. Eric saw the blood on the floor and clearly froze. But a second later his brows drew together in disgust. "Playing the victim by hurting yourself again?" He sneered without a trace of pity. "You think a little blood means I'll let this go?" I was held down on my knees, and I looked up and forced out a wretched smile at him. "Eric, I'll say it one last time... I want to dissolve the mate bond!" Eric raised his hand to strike me again, but stopped mid-swing. He glared at me, his teeth clenched. "Dissolve the mate bond? What gives you the right to reject me? The Moon Goddess arranged this mate bond. Unless you die, don't ever expect to break your link to me." I laughed at myself. All these years together, and it had come to this. I had failed badly. Just then, Lilia cried out in pain from a short distance away, "Eric! My stomach hurts!" Eric's face changed instantly, and he rushed over and carried her to the nearest room. It was a long time before Eric came out of that room. He looked at me lying in a pool of blood. A flicker of pity crossed his eyes, but he still turned away coldly. "You hurt Lilia and the child. I sentence you to exile." The Beta dragged me into a car and dumped me beyond the border. The sky went dark quickly. I walked along the border for a long time, the smell of blood from between my legs spreading on the wind. I could feel more than a dozen pairs of red, hungry eyes locked on me. There have always been plenty of rogues outside a pack's territory... Eric knew that perfectly well, and he left me here anyway. I was desperately weak, unable to fight, and even my blood regeneration had begun to slow. Just as my consciousness began to fade and I was about to pass out, a crazed wolf lunged at my throat. I had lost too much blood and gone into shock, and I didn't have the strength to lift an arm to block it. In despair, I closed my eyes. The pain I expected never came. What I heard instead was a scream. Then a pair of warm hands caught my falling body and held it steady. I opened my eyes and looked up from his broad, solid chest into a pair of golden wolf eyes filled with anguish. "Why are you here?"