AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You were mine,” he shouted, then more quietly. “You were my truth. But you have shattered that beyond repair.”
“No,” I begged. “I am still your Hartwell, your secretary. Before you said it didn’t matter who I was. Has that changed? I haven’t changed…”
“It didn’t matter. When I thought you were honest with me, nothing would have mattered but having you under me and at my side,” he said with cruel calm. He released me, and I crumpled on the floor of the carriage.
“I tried to tell you,” I sobbed. “I wanted to tell you. But each time… I knew it would be like this, that you would hate me. And I couldn’t have you hating me.”
“Commiserations. I hate you.”
It was worse than if he’d thrown me out the moving carriage, worse than being hit, worse than being ordered from his sight.
“Syon,” I knelt, reaching for him, but knowing any chances I had at mending this were long gone.
“Never speak that name again,” he barked, causing me to flinch away from him. His face blanked and those deadly eyes met mine. “Never come within my sight. Never make a connection with another alpha. Because only then will you begin to understand how I feel… Never… No. I can never allow another alpha to touch you.”
“What?” I did not understand his meaning.
He dragged me into his lap, his hand once again bracketing my throat. He forced my head to the side to expose my mating gland. I began to struggle when I felt his teeth against the fragile skin. He was going to mate mark me against my will. It wouldn’t be a true mate bond because I wasn’t in heat nor was he in rut, but it might leave a scar. Marking me irrevocably as his.
“Please don’t,” I whispered. “This isn’t you.”
“Viola,” he groaned and held me tight, his bite relaxing until he was kissing the unbroken skin. He sat back, looking at me in silence, his face closed off. The carriage rocked to a halt. Then he leant forward and pressed a chaste yet punishing kiss on my lips. “You are mine. You will never be with another alpha. I cannot allow it. That does not change. But I will never mate you.”
“Syon…”
The carriage door opened and he pushed me out into the waiting arms of a footman.
“Do not repudiate me in this fashion!” I cried out, not caring who heard.
“Take her inside,” he said and closed the door.
“No!” I screamed. Inside my omega raged as her alpha left us in the arms of some beta. She was feral and feverish with anger. I felt someone pick me up and carry me inside but before the door closed, my vision clouded and my world went black.
* * *
I came to with Mrs Markham and my aunt hovering over me with a burnt feather and smelling salts.
“He’ll come around,” Mrs Markham tried to reassure me.
“Viola? Child...” My aunt took my face in her hands and kissed my forehead. It was the kindest gesture she’d ever bestowed, and a pathetic sob broke free. “Tell me... My Goddess! What happened in the carriage? We were convinced he’d taken you to Orley House.”
The story came out haltingly as I stumbled over what I could say and what was better left unsaid, but knowing the older omegas would know how to interpret the gaps in my story.
“You’ll make an admirable duchess,” Mrs Markham said with an encouraging smile. “I will give your portrait to your—“
“Please,” I begged. My skin itched hot and uncomfortable. My core empty and aching. “My dear aunt, Mrs Markham. Please do not speak of him. It is over. He thinks the worst of me. I was some golem, created by my hubris. My blind belief that I could...”
“Could be equal to any alpha? And aren’t you? If what you say is correct, you have an alpha who loves you regardless of your dynamic. Surely that is an accomplishment?”
“A farce. If he cared, would he not be here?” I wailed bitterly. “If he loved me as he says... He never even said he loved me! Just that I was his like some object. No, you weren’t there. Didn’t see his face. His words,” I could not tell them he’d nearly forced a mate mark on me. That had not been him, but something ugly that had possessed my alpha. He’d stopped when I’d told him to. He knew it was wrong and he’d stopped. Part of me wished he had bitten me. That way I would always have something of him with me.
“If you overset his plans, damaged his pride... Surely he must be granted some chance to evaluate his feelings?”
“He... He knows his feelings. He loved the fake Iris,” I cried. “He doesn’t want me. He hates me.”
My aunt, however, did not seem to care. “Stop being so theatrical. That is Polly’s game. Your blood is still hot from being with an alpha in such, ah, heated circumstances. Child, you are feverish. Best go to bed, my dear, and rest. You cannot expect a man as proud as Orley to just stride through the door after this. Are you certain he will not return?”
“Certain,” I mumbled into the handkerchief before blowing my nose. “I’m ugly.”
