Page 60 of Betrayed Alpha Mate

His eyes are open, glassy and unfocused, staring past me blankly, not focusing on me. The sight shatters something deep inside my chest, something I don’t think will ever get pieced together. The dark, treacherous claws of doom are about to consume me, and now that there’s nothing left to live for, there’s no fight in me. None at all.

How am I going to live without my fated mate? Without Sean?

I try to scream, but no sound comes out when a chill slices through the air, and the forest goes eerily silent.

Then, out of nowhere, yet all around me, there’s laughter.

It slithers through the air, soft and pleased, curling around my spine like cold fingers. The shadows around the clearing stretch, lengthen, bleeding together until they form a shape behind me. I don’t turn. I don’t have to.

I feel her, and my heart gets lodged in my throat. I lift my eyes only enough to see her morphed, shadowy figure hovering over me, cast on the ground, cast over Sean’s lifeless body.

“Little witch…” the voice whispers, brushing against my ear like a lover’s breath that sends a chill down my spine. “Did you think power came without cost?” She laughs again, her breath blowing the hairs tucked behind my ear. “He dies when you rise….”

My eyes snap open to find myself back in Sean’s bed, his arm lying across my midriff like a safety harness to keep me pinned to the bed.

Taking my first breath after waking up from a nightmare is a nightmare on its own when the air scorches my dry lungs, and I stifle a wheeze so I don’t wake Sean. He’s sound asleep, but I know any sudden movement or sound will wake him.

It’s why we’re sleeping in the same bed, not as lovers, but with Sean as my protector, while I’m left to be the damsel in distress, even with all my powers. Something inside me cracks with the last bit of courage I have for this whole thing—being a witch, taking down Grimes—and I can barely look at Sean’s sleeping face anymore.

I mean…I want to. I want to wake up to this every morning, watch the sun rise across his tanned cheek, and listen to the rhythm of his breathing as his breath falls from parted plump lips. But what I’ve been seeing in my nightmares and visions lately has me spooked.

And what’s worse is what the others told us last night—that my powers are so intricately woven with the mate bond that if either of us gets hurt, the other one suffers.

I feel responsible for Sean’s life now, and it’s a heavy burden to bear.

What if he dies because of me?

Unable to live with myself or with this condition set upon us, I slip out from under his arm and grab my phone off the nightstand as I head to the bathroom.

Delilah needs to figure something out to either break our mate bond or untangle my powers from it.

***

Walking into training today feels different, and it’s mostly because I’m shutting down again. I can feel it in the coldness of my lips when I smile, the emptiness in my eyes when I greet someone.

I know Sean senses that I’m not myself today, but he hasn’t asked why. I’m just trying to protect myself from getting hurt, because if there’s one thing that could break me, it’s watching Sean die.

And that can’t happen. It’s why I sneaked off to the bathroom this morning before he woke up and called Delilah to speak to her before they arrived for training today. She’s the only one who knows about what I’ve been seeing in the visions and in my nightmares, and I begged her to find a way to break the bond.

I also asked her to keep it a secret from everyone else, which is why she exchanges a knowing look with me as she greets me before training, and proceeds without saying anything about our call.

“Sean, I want you to do something differently today,” Delilah instructs when we’re already halfway through training.

He steps forward, arms still behind him as he awaits further instructions. My brows furrow lightly as I wonder if this is the part when she breaks the bond between us.

Instead, she calls on Hunter with a gentle nod that prompts him to step up in front of Sean, as if there’s a prior arrangement between the alpha and luna of the Shadow Fang Pack.

My frown deepens as Hunter nods at his luna, then cracks his neck to either side.

“Wait.” I step forward, my fingers still tingling with remnants of the magic I just used during training. “What’s going on?”

Delilah gulps as she cautiously steps toward me, checking over her shoulder as if she’s afraid someone might hear her.

“I’m testing out a theory—” she begins, but I cut her off.

“No more testing theories, D. We’ve done enough of that,” I grumble under my breath. “Is this how you’re gonna break the bond?”

“Emily, I—”