Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Nine
I hated the fact that Axel simply accepted it all. It was my fault, not his, yet he still wanted to protect me.
“Thane I am at fault,” I say to him, and that gave him a pause. “He had wanted you to know, but I didn’t. I begged him not to tell you, and despite knowing I was doing the wrong thing, I forced him to do just that too.” I had never seen thane this so angry.
“I’d expect him to know better.”
“I forced him into this; this is not his fault.”
“You would have been killed a few hours ago if we had a way to prevent that and didn’t…”
“But I wasn’t,” I said, cutting him off.
“Riley, he is right; I did the wrong thing, and I do not appreciate you trying to defend me,” Axel says.
“No. I am wrong; I am to be blamed; you keep making me feel like some kind of baby; I could be at fault too, and I am now, so if you are going to punish him for what was totally not his fault, then you would have to do the same to me too.”
That was it.
He had been holding back the furry, and I knew it, his eyes had shifted when he saw me on the floor, wounded, and now… those same eyes had turned completely back again.
Axel might never have witnessed how it looked like to see Thane lose control, but he was quick to act, shoving me behind him; he used his body as a shield. Of course I hadn’t taken the
gun along, but even if I had, I wouldn’t have done a thing.
“I don’t want to fight you, brother, but I would if you come any closer,” Axel promised.
“No! You can’t hurt him.”
“And I can’t let him hurt you either.”
Thane turned away, as if fighting an internal battle, and when his eyes found me again, they were normal. He registered my position behind Akel, and that was all he needed to figure out what would have happened here.
I saw pure fear in his eyes and I wanted to remind him so badly that it wasn’t his fault, but I knew he hated those words. Thane always took control of things, and now he wasn’t in control… he blamed himself.
There was a tense silence; I had to break it.
“I don’t think Beatrix is involved in this. Except she planned to disappear from this pack; she wouldn’t risk it, not when we knew the truth.”
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Chapter One Hundred and Fifty Nine.
Axel nodded in agreement.
“Are they even our pack members?” Axel wondered aloud, just like me, he was trying to lighten the mood.
“They might be some of the new members, but I doubt it; now that I can think about it, I thought they smelled foreign.” Thane finally spoke up. We were all going to pretend like nothing had happened.
“Is there anyone alive?” Axel questioned
“One… barely,” Thane responds.
“He has to be questioned,” Axel says, and Thane easily agreed to that.
Thane didn’t want me here, but I wasn’t going to stay behind this time.
I had been to the underground chambers before and had seen the dungeons, yet returning here felt… different.
Just as Thane had said, the man was barely alive. I noticed his ear was missing, one of his eyes had been slashed off; his left arm hung awkwardly at his side; there was so much blood I couldn’t tell the areas he had been injured and where he was not. How was he still alive?
“This is how we would work.” Thane told the man, “I ask you questions, and if you give me the answers I like to hear, then your death would be quick; if not, I would make sure your last hours are worth my time.”
I shivered at the threat. I didn’t even know if the man could still speak, and if he could, I wondered what would be worse than what had already happened to him. Yet the man nodded. in agreement, knowing fully well the depths Thane could go just to get what he wants.
