His Lover, My Mate

Forty-Eight: The Villain

UPDATE: Idk how this chapter became private but I just posted this and the prologue again as public!

For those of you who don't know, I posted the prequel to Don't Love Me. It's about Maddox and Isabelle (not Iyla yet). It revisits their pasts and all the abuse. If you wanna check it out, it's on my profile. It's called "DON'T BREAK ME."

Anyway, enjoy this chapter! :)

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*Aletha*

He just vanished.

Before she could race up to him and take him firm against herself, he gave her a haunting look before leaving with the Death Alpha. He had tears in his grey eyes. They'd streamed down his cheeks and fell against her palms. She could still feel how hot they were, how they seared through her skin because they'd been so painful.

"No," she whispered, only looking at the air that was left of where he'd been moments ago. "No! Where did he go, Sirka?"

"Don't worry about him," said Sirka, keeping her tone neutral. "He will be alright when he comes back."

"When he comes back?" Aletha repeated. Something dark and possessive coiled inside her. That male was hers, and she'd just let him go. She couldn't save him from that anguish. Then what the hell could she do?

The small green flames flickered across her nails. She should have been frightened, or maybe a little curious from all the anomalies that were just popping up right and left from within her, but her mind was fixed on her mate. Rush. He was such a tragedy. Everything about him was horrifying but it only made her want him more, the Moon help her. She wanted his pain. She wanted his torture. She wanted all of him.

Her head pounded painfully, and her eyes stung. "I'm never going to be good enough for him," she said, looking down. The ground was blurry. She couldn't see her feet or the grass or anything. Everything was muddled, like how she felt. "I can never take away what she did to him."

"Hey, stop talking like that," Sirka ordered, a sudden flare to her voice. "No one can take away what Vicera did to him, just like nobody can take away what happened to you. It'll be there forever, and you can't do anything about it. So you better cut that shit out with blaming yourself."

Aletha glared up at Sirka. "I feel useless right now! Rush just left with the Death Alpha, because he knows it'll get bad. They think I can't help. They think..." She shook her head. "That I won't understand."

Sirka stared at her for a good while before softening her expression. "It's not that they don't believe you won't understand. Our Alpha knows you will, but his blood runs inside of you. If you were anywhere near him right now, all his thoughts would spill into you. He doesn't want to give you any pain—"

"—Well that's my decision, not his—"

"—Considering what you've already been through. And it is his decision, because it's his most private memories, and trust me, they are fucking vile." Sirka realized her tone took a harsh route, and she lowered it. "Aletha, he will be alright. The only reason the Death Alpha went with him is because he's Alpha Rush's soulkeeper. He knows how to save him. None of us really understand his past. As much as we've all suffered, Alpha Rush is still haunted and even if he seems alright, he's really not. He'll never be completely alright."

Hearing that only made Aletha more frantic. "I must go help him," she declared, trying hard to sense where he was.

Sirka's fingers came wrapping around her arm. "Oh no you don't. Like I said, some things, you can't heal. You may think you have more of a claim on him than anyone else, but the hard truth is that you don't know him like his brother by soul does. Leave it for now. If you see him...you'll freak out."