The Alpha's Mate

CHAPTER 23: SYBIL

My eyes snapped open at the sound of a yell coming from outside. I was still lying on top of Lucian, who was sound asleep. Silently, I untangled myself from his body and tiptoed to the window. I drew the curtains back, my eyes landing on the men running around the grounds. Marius stood in the midst of them all, pointing and barking out orders. I really didn’t believe that they were going through with it. This behavior was ridiculous. Those men had families, yet he was sending them to battle. That too, for pride and revenge? So, according to him, the lives of his men weren’t important, but his dead mate was?

I sighed, still looking at the busy men. If I had the power to stop it, I would. But because I lacked that power, all I could do was watch them destroy themselves.

“What are you doing?” I slightly faced Lucian, who pulled himself to a sitting position on the bed.

“Your friends are ready to go, and you’re here sleeping. Let me guess, you’re not in on the plan?”

“We leave at seven. They’re just prepping up,” he said.

“If I beg you to stay, will you?” I don’t know why I said it, but I meant that. It definitely was the mate bond. Yet a certain part of me knew that I was really concerned about him. Fighting with a vampire differed from fighting with a fellow wolf or witch. A vampire could easily kill you.

“It depends,” he said.

“On what?” I questioned, not that I wanted to do it, but because I was curious about what he was going to say.

“How you’re planning on doing that.”

“You mean something sexual,” I stated.

“I meant how convincing you’re going to be. Let me feel the vulnerability in your voice.”

“In simple terms, you want me to show you emotion?”

“It’s always hard to drive emotion out of you.”

“Why should I show people how I’m feeling?” I asked.

“It helps them to know you better,” he said, and that’s the last thing I wanted. Letting people in meant giving them a weapon they could use to betray you with. Only one person knew me enough, and that was Harley. We had been friends for years, but that didn’t also mean I told her everything. They were thing she didn’t know, including the relationship I had with the man in front of me.

“That’s the last thing I want, and you should go. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“This is my room, and you were just begging me to stay minutes ago.”

“Why should I waste my time when I know you won’t listen to me?” I stepped away from the window, planning to walk out of the room, seeing as it was his.

“I can’t say no to my alpha, and I liked our luna. She didn’t deserve to die like that.”

“Do whatever you want,” I said, taking quick strides towards the door. Before I could grab it, he was in front of me. The sight of him shirtless was distracting, but I wasn’t going to let him win the way he did last night. I can’t even begin to think that he won. It had to be the mate bond that made me. I might have a fair understanding of why he did what he did now, but I wasn’t close to forgiving him.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re angry,” he observed. Well, that had to be an understatement. I wasn’t angry, per se. I was infuriated. Infuriated because I had no say in this. Part of me wanted to stop him, and I knew I could. I had the power to do it. And at the same time, he was one of the Council members. He could use my action against me. Lucian was my mate, but that didn’t mean he had abandoned his mission of making sure I wasn’t the alpha. To him, that position spelled my death. Marius was right though; you can’t cheat death if it’s meant for you. One way or another, I was going to die proving his action futile. He might just let me die now and spare himself all the heartache.