Enemy Queen [2]

m a t e

"It's you?" I couldn't break eye contact.

His eyes were the color of liquid gold. Beautiful yet dangerous.

This was the best the Moon Goddess could give me—the King of the enemy pack? Alpha's blood ran through our veins but that was where the similarities ended. I was mated to an absolute monster.

"Who's asking, blondie?" He smirked and I flinched at the nickname. How could something so harmless make me lose my mind.

I gripped the knife tightly in my hand and all rational thoughts telling me to control my emotions were thrown out the window.

"Murderer!" I screamed and visioned myself plunging it deep into his heartless chest. "You're a murderer!"

I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to feel everything I'd felt that night when he took them away from me.

Troy didn't react. He was right where I wanted him—helpless as I could have hoped.

"Murderer!" I growled.

My emotions were split down the middle. Love and hate. Was I happy to see the man who killed my parents rotting away in a cell? Yes. Even when this man was my mate? The answer was not so clear.

"You murdered my parents! How could you do that to me?"

Troy closed his eyes.

A mix of rage and despair consumed me. I had saved all of it for him but he barely reacted. Did he even care? Did he even feel anything at all?

"I won't insult you by feeling sorry for what I did. I'll take whatever you got." He lay motionless on the floor.

Tears streamed down my face.

"I'll kill you."

"No. You won't."

We'll see about that.

He was wide open. I leaned over him and pressed the tip of the knife to his chest. It would take just one slight movement of my wrist and he would be gone. It was what I wanted.

Then why did my heart lurch at the sight of him so damaged? He was injured, he shouldn't have been here. He could be saved.

I wrestled with myself. It was like my mind and body were being controlled by another force. I physically could not hurt him. It would be like killing myself.

"Fuck you." I exhaled under my breath. The knife was heavy in my right hand so I placed my left hand on his chest to steady myself.

His skin touched mine. Electricity shot through my arm all the way to my fingertips. From the way he locked eyes with me I could tell he had felt it, too.

"Are you done?" His voice was hoarse.

I ripped my hand away but the spark was still keeping my body alive.

There was no sound except for the erratic beat of his heart. So I'd been wrong, he did have a heart. . . but that wasn't all. It was pounding at the speed of a hummingbird.

We felt the same thing.

I dropped the knife and it fell to the ground.

"Murderer." I stifled a sob. I hated him.

Years of wishing for my mate and dreaming of our future together turned to ash. The Moon Goddess betrayed me. My mate was my enemy.

Sadder still was that our souls were connected. It was why I couldn't kill him. If anything happened to him, it would happen to me. My eyes would bleed like Mom's and we would share the same fate. It all led to him.

There was only one solution.

"I need you to reject me."

Yes, it would destroy me. Maybe more than that.

I had been waiting for my mate to arrive for as long as I could remember. It wasn't fair. I would reject him myself but only the higher ranking wolf can say the words to end the bond. Because he was an Alpha, I was powerless.

His gaze made my face hot.

"I will if you free me."

Typical. "This isn't a negotiation." He wasn't in any position to be making demands. He was just lucky I couldn't hurt him or he'd be cut up in a hundred tiny pieces right about now.

"Help me escape and I promise I will reject you. Then you can kill me all you want."

He could give me what I wanted most. But it could risk everything my pack had been through to capture him. How could I even begin to trust him?

"And why would I help you escape?" Was he assuming I would be civil because we were linked? "You're a murderer."

He sighed. He actually sighed. "Yes, I think we've established that."

"I want a refund." I retorted. It was a serious moment that left me emotionally wrecked but I didn't know how to cope without making a joke.

"You don't always get what you want."

I didn't know what to do. Help him escape and risk him keeping his promise? Or leave and risk my wolf weakening? What did the universe want me to do?

Troy tried to sway me.

"Look, I want this as much as you do. I don't want a mate, I never have. You help me and I help us both, then we go our separate ways and we never have to see each other. I'll leave you alone and that includes your brother. Deal?"

Making a deal with the devil was not going to look good when Ares found out. But what choice did I have? I didn't want this. I needed him to reject me so we could forget this whole thing ever happened.

"Fine." I reluctantly agreed. This could be another mistake. "But you better keep your promise."

His amber eyes tracked mine. "Then get me out of this."

Since he was sentenced to life we used the strongest of iron to chain him down, which had no key. The only way to break it was with special pliers from a locked box upstairs. Only a select few of our wolves knew where.

I got up and made my way out of his cell. I closed the door.

And with that I went to help the man who murdered my parents.