The Alpha's Fated Mate (Book 4 of the Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 46

Once Finn was clean, Liam helped him out of the bathtub and gave him a towel. Finn dried himself off slowly, his eyes lifeless. He seemed to be just existing.

Liam helped him into the bedroom and put him in the bed. He covered his brother up and then walked back into the bathroom to shower himself. Finn just told me Emily is dead, he linked Astrid.

What? Astrid couldn't believe it. Emily was dead?

He said he saw them kill her. He's not even remotely close to being himself.

When we get this over with, we will need to keep a close eye on him or he'll end up killing himself, Astrid warned him.

Liam swallowed at that. He could never see his brother doing such a thing, but he'd also never seen Finn like this before. He remembered earlier when he'd felt that Finn had wanted to die and swallowed. You really think he would?

Yes. I know people who have lost their mates. It's hard to come back from.

Liam placed his hand on the wall and sighed. He didn't want to lose Finn, but he couldn't even imagine what pain his brother was going through.

Finn is disconnected from his wolf enough right now that he doesn't feel the bond. But once the silver is out of his system, it's going to be worse.

He's practically comatose right now. I asked him how Persephone had got him to agree to mark her and he just said revenge, Liam told her.

He wants to kill her. It'll be harder for him to do once he marks her, but then his hatred towards her for killing his mate may never allow any sort of bond to be created, Astrid mused.

Are we actually going through with this?

No. Now that we know Emily is dead, we can end this. Hold on.

Astrid grew quiet, and Liam frowned. He didn't like how delicate this whole thing was, or how badly his brother had been destroyed. He wanted to kill Persephone himself for committing such horrendous crimes.

He finished bathing and got out of the shower and dried himself off. Now he was worried about Astrid. He kept reminding himself over and over again that she was immortal and would be fine, but he hadn't heard back from her.

He walked back into the bedroom. Finn hadn't moved and was still staring at the ceiling. Liam sighed and laid down on the other side of the bed. Now it was just a waiting game.

***

"It's Astrid, isn't it?"

Astrid looked up to see Persephone standing outside of her cell with a man. "I think you know it is."

Persephone smiled. "Liam asked to see you before he mates and marks me, and I agreed to it. But, I think it would be better if you were in the room while it happened just in case."

What?  Persephone was definitely devious. Astrid allowed a frown to cross her face. "I'd rather not watch you steal my mate." She'd purposely said it that way to annoy Persephone.

"But that's the thing. You stole my mate first. Liam was mine. He has been mine since I was born, promised to ME. And you came along and tried to steal him from me!" Persephone growled at her. "So you are going to watch me take him back. You're going to watch him make love to me! And I'm going to watch it break you because he'll never have sex with you again!"

Astrid glared at her. "Do you enjoy making other people miserable?"

"I will take what I want to make myself happy. I don't care who I have to hurt in the process. Liam and Finn have both hurt me. Their pack has waged war against mine. Now they're both going to be mine. You will watch, and if Liam is having problems performing, you will make sure that he is capable of doing his job. If you don't, I'll let the guards here show you how." Persephone's eyes flashed.