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Deciding to take charge of the situation, I said, “You know our fated mate bond was fake, right? That bitch who delivered me to you set us up. You should probably think long and hard about why Pandora wanted to ruin a pack alliance between Ironwood and Frost Fang.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now, does it? You and your new matedestroyed any chance of an alliance when you killed off Nira.”
His words dripped with disgust, but it was the most he’d ever said to me all at once.
I crossed my arms and looked anywhere but at him, trying not to shiver at the thought of him staring at Gage’s mark. Luka was an alpha, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Gage’s dominance. Luka’s power came from having Ironwood at his back, not from his own wolf.
“You know Nira only wanted to marry you so she could kill you and take both packs for herself.” I found myself talking just to fill up the silence of the room. “She probably killed Jameson so there would be one less alpha in the way of her power. You’re both fools for believing she actually wanted an alliance.”
Luka’s chuckle surprised me. “All this talk of Nira makes me think you must be jealous. What’s the matter, Freya? Did the idea of her in my bed frustrate you? What would your new mate think?”
I faced him just so I could see his face when I threw his argument right back at him. “All this talk of Gage… What’s the matter, Luka? Are you jealous?”
Luka lunged forward, shoving me against the wall beside the window. His surprise attack left me unprepared, and the impact knocked the air from my lungs. When I inhaled, the reek of his breath filled my nostrils.
“How could you let him mark you, Freya? You’re meant to be mine.”
I put my hands on his chest and shoved him back. His eyes flickered with dangerous anger, but I didn’t care. I was angry, too.
“Didn’t you hear anything I said? Pandora cursed us — she faked the bond to ruin the pack alliance. We’re not fated mates.”
Luka growled as he started pacing. “I knew I shouldn’t have let her go.” Luka ran a hand through his hair, and his eyes fell to my neck again. “And that witch’s mark… Pandora’s your aunt. You’re half-witch, aren’t you?” When I didn’t answer, he scoffed. “I guess my father was right. You and I can’t reproduce after all.”
I blinked. His audacity left me for an utter lack of words.
“And that mark proves everything else you’ve said. No one else could leave a lasting mate mark on you if you truly were my fated mate.”
My mind latched on to the important part — the part that might help me get out of here.
“Exactly. We’re not mates, Luka. Nira’s dead. There’s no reason to keep me here. Just let me go, and I’ll convince Gage not to start a pack war.”
Luka snorted. “You’re right about one thing. Nira’s dead. It doesn’t matter what she thinks anymore. She was the one who wanted to kill you, not me.”
Then he stepped closer to me, forcing me to put distance between us. I hated having the wall at my back, but it was preferable to sharing space with Luka. Especially when his gaze dipped down to my lips. I suppressed a shudder of disgust — unwilling to let him think I feared him.
“I’m sorry for exiling you, Freya. I know these last few months can’t have been easy for you. But you’re back now, and….” His soft words pleaded for me to understand. I didn’t like where this was going.
When he raised a hand to my face, I snapped, “Don’t you dare touch me again.”
“I never stopped caring about you, Freya. I never—”
I laughed in his face. “Let’s not pretend you ever cared about me. You exiled me!”
“Only because my father had already decided it was that or kill you. I picked the better option. I gave you a chance to survive. And you took it, Freya! You proved how strong you are. You’re a worthy mate for an alpha of my caliber, and you know I always found you attractive—”
“You made me crawl on the ground in front of you and your friends!”
“That’s all in the past…” He tried approaching me again, but I sidled away before he could get too close.
“You watched while they beat me! More than once! You never helped me. As the next pack alpha, you could’ve put a stop to all of it!”
“Things are different now, Freya—”
I snorted my derision and waved at the door. “Really? I saw the bruises on Willow’s arms!”
“She deserved them for keeping you away from me,” he growled. “She and her worthless brother led us in circles, wasting precious time. We could’ve caught up to you before you reached Moonblessed packlands, except for the two of them. They led us on a wild goose chase, and we wasted days tearing Alloy apart looking for you. Luckily, a man named Marius wised up and told us something useful.”
I frowned, remembering the man Gage and Heath had talked to outside the cabin at Alloy. He’d been kind enough to rent us the place, but I hadn’t liked the way his eyes had followed me all the way inside. Still, I felt bad, wondering if Luka had ordered him to be tortured.
