Chapter Sixty Seven
I walked into the cell, Thane remained outside but the cell door was left open.
The room was dark, and the only source of light was the one coming from the entrance. My eyes settled to the dim light, and there Ryker was, but I could barely recognize him. He was a bloodied heap; the only sign that he was still alive was the steady rise and fall of his chest.
“Riley?”
I didn’t know how he could tell it was me; he surely wouldn’t be able to see me with those
wollen eyes that were mostly shut.
The slight fear threatened to rise when I recalled all he had done to me and the pain he had caused me, I pushed the fear away, reminding myself that here he wouldn’t be able to hurt me, not now, not ever. I walked closer to him, close enough that the cold metal gun came into contact with his head. But to my surprise, he pulls forward, as if accepting his fate, the chains around his arm and legs rattled.
“I know what I have done to you Riley; I know I have caused you so much pain, and it is a desperate attempt, but I want to tell you that I’m sorry…”
“Shut the fuck up,” I say to him, my voice laced with venom.
“Please Riley, you could kill me, but hear me out; this is all I ask; I know I don’t deserve it…. but please.
“You are right about not deserving it.”
“Please Riley, you are not like them; whatever you are trying to prove, I know you are different; you are kind and innocent.
I slammed the handgun into the side of his head, and he fell back to the ground, spitting out blood. “Maybe I am just like them after all.”
“No,” he manages to say. “You are not.
I kicked him to the stomach again and again. “You, Ryker, destroyed that part of me; you took from me till I had nothing else to give, and what did you do after that? You discarded me like the dirt I was to you.” I kicked him again. “You made me every bit of a fool, deceiving me over and over again. I thought you loved me; I thought you were a blessing, but no, you were the beginning of my misery“. I kicked him over and over again till he stopped making any attempt to move. “You took my child away from me, you bastard!, and you blamed me; it would have been the only good thing I had left, but you took it too, even before I had a chance of seeing what became of it.” I kicked at his jaw, “You insulted me and yet you wouldn’t let me go; you wanted to torment me more; why? Why would you do that to me? I never did anything to you… why?”
I kicked him more, and he managed to roll away only slightly as he was restricted by the chains binding his ankles and wrists.
Chapter Sixty Seven
“Because… I–I love you,” he struggles to say.
“So is this what you call love? Is this your own idea of loving a person?”
“She didn’t let me!” He manages to say the words without any hitches. “Mother says I couldn’t be with you, that you were nothing but a weakling. Please let me explain, and I promise, I’ll take whatever comes after, but hear me out.
I held back the tears, and all the pain I had felt when he lied to me. When I said no more, he took that as a sign.
“I kept our relationship a secret; I didn’t tell anyone I had found a mate, not my beta, gamma, or even my parents, just as I had told you I would. But mother found out; one night she found us; I didn’t tell you that part; we were together in my room…” He paused. I knew what he avoided saying; ‘we were having sex.” “I must have said something to you, something that gave her the clue, and when she asked, I told her she deceived me, Riley; she made me feel you; she like I would have all her support if only I told her the truth, and I did. But she hated hated the fact that you were chosen as my mate, and she pleaded with me to reject you time and again, but I didn’t. I loved you too much, and that’s when she brought Zara into the pack; she spread the rumours that we were mated, and it got to you. Everyone accepted Zara; she was what they believed was an ideal Luna. Father congratulated me; the whole pack had accepted it, and I was left with the choice to choose between my pack and you. Mother threatened me; she said you being with me meant I was weak and the other packs would think the same, therefore making our pack a target.
But it was always you I loved; it was you I wanted to be with; all those things I did–believe me when I say they hurt me too; I hated it but I wanted you to hate me; I didn’t deserve your love. Never did I think it would cause you to lose the child.
I had returned back to the room earlier to see you on the floor in a pool of your own blood, and I had never felt so afraid in my life, I had never hated myself as I did when I saw you laying there unmoving. I was a coward because I left; I hadn’t helped you; I was afraid; I knew this was the breaking point; I knew I had already lost you, you will never look at me with those loving eyes when you wake and discover what I had taken from you, and so I became desperate; I didn’t know what to do, and then I thought maybe violence could solve it. Thit you; never had I thought things would get so bad… I would never forgive myself for hitting you and for causing the loss of your child, but I was skin deep in this darkness that I just went on with it. I am not innocent, no, not one bit.
But my mother lied; having you as a luna would never have made me look weak, because it sure as hell didn’t make ‘him‘ look weak.”
