Page 47 of Blood Moon Bound

“I really wish I wasn’t the one to have to tell you this, but you know I tell you the truth because I care.” He sighed again. “They’re lovers, Del. Veera was at the house all the time before you arrived. I assumed he’d given her up, but I’d obviously been wrong.”

I gripped the phone harder. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“He’s a male, an old one. He’s used to having whatever he wants. He won’t go without a female in his bed.”

I sat heavily in the chair behind the desk.

“You couldn’t give him what he wanted,” John added. “So he must have decided to go back to Veera. I can’t help but wonder if she’s the reason he put off mating you like he did. He was pining for her.”

His words sliced my heart in two. I bit my lip, unable to bring myself to tell John I’d been stupid enough to mate with Constantine. He’d known what my life had been like, he’d made me believe he cared, then he left me anyway. Even the bond of mating wasn’t strong enough to keep him here with me, to want only me. When I was so deeply in love with him, I was struggling to breathe from the pain of losing him.

“Veera wasn’t his first love, though, that would be Samara. I don’t think he ever recovered from her death.”

It was as if he’d plunged a dagger into my chest. “What?”

“I think your stepfather knew her?”

“Douglas knew Constantine’s…?” I didn’t know what to call her.

“His love, yes. It’s well known in certain circles that your stepfather took a liking to Samara and made her one of his playthings. This is all rumor, of course, no one could prove Mr. Albertan had anything to do with her disappearance. Constantine believed he did, though. But he hasn’t been able to prove it, either, or he would’ve killed your stepfather a long time ago.”

Constantine blamed Douglas for killing his first love? He’d never said anything about that to me.

“Maybe when he realized whose daughter you were, he changed his mind? Maybe the idea of mating with you disgusted him?”

Then I remembered my stepfather’s reaction when he realized it was Constantine who would claim me.

Oh god.

John was telling the truth.

I knew what my stepfather was capable of. If Constantine thought Douglas had killed Samara, then he had. She was the reason Constantine and Douglas hated each other.

“Del, let me help you. I’ll get you away from there.”

“Constantine will come after me,” I said.

There was a beat of silence. “Honestly, I’m not so sure he would. Not if claiming you was just some way to get back at your stepfather, and that’s what it’s starting to look like. I mean, Constantine made his grand entrance, took you from him, then never mated you, and now he’s, for lack of a better word, stuck with you. I feel terrible I didn’t share this with you sooner, but I didn’t want to hurt you…”

I heard Alice call my name. I swallowed down my sob. “I have to go.” I quickly hung up and slipped out of the office and rushed upstairs.

Alice was coming the other way, and her relief when she saw me was obvious. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Your meal’s ready.”

“I’m not hungry.” John’s words were on repeat in my head. I’d lost my appetite completely. Her look was disapproving, but I didn’t care. “I’m going up to bed. Good night.” It was early still, but sleep was the only escape from the pain and loneliness. I’d been sleeping a lot. Alice said I was depressed.

“You need to feed,” she said as I walked by.

“I’ll feed in the morning.” Constantine had blood stored for me, a lot of it. He’d been letting when I first came here, but I assumed he’d stopped when I started feeding from him again. Apparently, he hadn’t. John had been right, he was the only one who’d been truthful with me. Constantine hadn’t wanted to make me his mate, and only had when I’d threatened to leave. That would’ve ruined his plan for revenge. He’d only mated with me to get back at Douglas. He’d always planned to leave, and he had months and months worth of blood stored for me for when that time came.

I kicked off my shoes, and climbed into Constantine’s bed, my gaze immediately sliding to the rose on the bedside table, the one he’d left on my pillow. I’d carefully dried it, convinced it meant something deeper. That he felt something deeper for me. I curled my fingers into a tight fist. The urge to reach out and crush it, to stomp it into the carpet filled me, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

I turned away. I’d brought it in here after he’d left, but I couldn’t bear to look at it now. My heart was a lump in my chest. God, it hurt. I was in love with my mate, and he didn’t care about me enough to even bid me farewell when he left on a trip with no end date in sight.

My stepfather had treated me like I was nothing, and now Constantine was doing the same.

The thought of him lying to me, of pretending to want me to hurt my stepfather was too painful to bear.

I’d let it happen. I’d allowed myself to be treated like property, like chattel—like nothing.