JEOPARDY: The Cursed Soldier.

13. Her Cursed Fate 2

She was not going to kill her Alpha's daughter.

Her mama would support whatever choice Kayla made. But what about her father? He was loyal to the pack and his Alpha. He would rather accept punishment — which was execution if she killed Angela — on her behalf than run away like a coward.

For her father, she was going to ignore her wolf and fight it until it gave up.

Plus wasn't her wolf supposed to recognize the superior wolf and bloodline in Angela? Or was her wolf that defective? That rabid?

Kayla had no time to figure her wolf out. She needed to survive that moment without hurting her boss. So she let herself feel every pain inflicted on her. Both by her hand and Angela's. Feeding in the pain to suppress the fierce animal raging within her.

"You've forgotten the warning I gave you, huh? I told you to never overstep, yet here you are. Do you know what I can do to you?" Kayla gave no response, even when she felt Angela's claw graze what must be her vocal cord. "I can rip your vocal cord right off you. Or cut off that tongue that dared talk back at me. But, I will have mercy on you... this once."

Retracting her claws from Kayla's throat, Angela stepped back and walked towards the sink, opened the tap and started washing the blood from her hands. "I will give you two minutes. Think about your actions." She looked at Kayla through the mirror as casually as if they were talking about the weather. "Clean up and fix yourself — I don't want Ivan seeing a scratch on you, or a single blood stain. When you're done, you will come outside and apologize to both Ivan and I. Am I clear?"

"Crystal!" Kayla gritted out, but her eyes were still closed.

She, overheard Angela's lips move and could imagine the smug smirk on her beautiful made-up face. Kayla's wolf growled harder, pushing at their bond. But Kayla only pressed on it harder, keeping it down. She waited until Angela's heels clicked out of the room and she closed the door behind her.

Then she ran to the mirror and watched the red glow fade from her eyes. Tears welled in her eyes of their own accord. But she quickly willed them away.

It wasn't the time to cry. She needed to clean herself up and do what she had been ordered to do. Her eyes welled up even more, this time with more just the pain of having to kill her biggest wish. She was angry. At Angela. At herself. Most of all, at her fate.

She was just doing her job. But she had been punished for it.

Now she was supposed to act like everything was fine and apologize for it like she was the one in the wrong. After that, she was supposed to keep worrying about Angela while she escorted Ivan to his house.

She almost, almost crushed the sink in her hands. But even her fuming self knew better than to attract such unwanted attention.

Her lips stretched into a bitter smile. That was her cursed fate.

She could never express what she truly felt and never got any rewards for it. She wouldn't even be surprised if her wolf sulked and took four more years, or even an eternity, before it made another appearance.

With trembling hands, she started cleaning herself up. Water stained her brown turtleneck, but that was the least of her worries. She needed to get out of that room as soon as possible.

When all the evidence of what she and Angela did to her body—minus the water stains—was gone, she took one more look at her sad blue eyes. And blinked the threatening tears away. She wished she could just fall into her mama's arms and cry. But those days were long gone. She needed to be strong and face her new life head-on.

She was about to head out when her heart pushed her to do something that she considered futile. Still, she would rather try it than regret it later.

So she stood straighter on that sink and looked at her reflection, then with her softest voice, she whispered, "Hi, dear wolf. I'm sorry... I had to do this... We would have been killed otherwise... Please, come back to me later. Come back to me when I call to you again. I want you. I want to know you... I want to talk to you... I-I-I feel empty without you."