Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 255
Kyan POV:
We laid Marabella down on the ruins, and panic coursed through me at seeing her like this, blood gushed out of her neck, and I felt the weight of this place suffocate Kaif, f0rce him down and away from the surface where she was safest. Marabella was bleeding profusely, but since bringing her here, I could feel her healing, feel the pull on Kaif as he took it from her.
The bond caused by bringing her back all those years ago was strong when I felt Jonah drop. I knew he did by the cold feeling that settled over me. Kaif felt it too.
A Domino effect as Marabella bled out, Kaif pulled on her life f0rce, keeping her here, while Jonah took it from Kaif. It was moments like these that I truly realized I was purely a vessel. Yet I had a different view of Kaif now.
Understood him better and why he did the things he did. Seeing it firsthand as I was there to witness it all. The things his past mates tried to do, heartache he felt at K*lling them.
Pulling Marabella into my lap, I buried my face in her neck before running my tongue over her wounds, sealing them closed along with his mark. It didn’t work as good since I wasn’t in his form but hel ped a little, and I felt her stir as she came back to the world of the living. The shadows filling me from Kaif were tortuous.
The darkest parts of his past would forever haunt me, the sickening things he had endured and all out of spite. “That happens every time you mark them?” I ask Kaif.
His voice was muffled but still there. He couldn’t reach the surface here, not that he was willing to come out anyway. Fearful he would hurt her again.
“Yes, I believe when Luna was trapped in the stone, Hades cursed all mates to share her hate, share her heartache at losing her son, forever to live with the darkest pans of her once marked.
I have tried, and a few times we thought we broke it, turns out each mate becomes a little wiser, it is my punishment for turning her so n against her, for taking her as my mate, for Celestes sins.”
“But you didn’t,” I tell him, and he shrugs.
“I didn’t defend her either; I let him believe his mother was dead. I didn’t think she would come back,”
“So there is no way of breaking the curse?”
“No, it’s an endless loop. No one can live with the shadows once released, no one is strong enough to block out their hate, no one can live with what I have done,” Kaif said, and I looked down at Marabella in my arms. She stirred, and I brushed her hair from her face and her nose wrinkled as she frowned. She looked like she was in a nightmare
before her eyes fluttered open.
” Kyan?” she murmured, and I sniffled, looking away from her.
“You will be okay, Marabella,” I tell her, scooping her up in my arms. I sense for Kaif to make sure he was secure before I stepped out of the ruins. Terrified, he would come back and finish the job of the shadows tried.
It made no sense to me. They tried to K*ll their own sons, all of them. Not one was able to live with it. The shadows grew so strong they couldn’t take it and gave in to their demands, but the shadows tried to K*ll their vessel this time. Which confused me.
I trudged through the forest back towards the manor. Guilt was eating Kaif, and sorrow filled me. Getting closer, I mind
-linked Lucas to open the door as I walked across the lawns, it had started to rain, and I needed to get out of here for a few hours. Needed to get away so I could think.
Marabella had dozed off and remained asleep until I put her in the bath with me. The water turned red as I cleaned her. I could hear my phone going off, and no doubt Jonah would be on the way home.
He would be worried about us both. I block him out, not wanting to feel his worry when I had mine and hers to deal with.
“It doesn’t look that bad,” Marabella says, glancing down at her neck and shoulder. Though healed, we had permanently mutilated her. I look over her shoulder and nod, not saying anything. I would never forgive myself and neither would Kaif. This should not have happened.
Marabella seemed unfazed by his savagery branding her skin and turned her face to look up at me over her shoulder. She leaned up, nibbling on my lips, and I turned my face away from her.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, her brows furrowing. She watched me warily. But I felt her worry of me actually being Kaif, felt the tug in the bond of her fear she was trying to mask.
“Nothing,” I tell her leaning my face to hers and kissing her softly. All too soon, I pulled away, and I could feel her confusion at my distance. She seemed to believe everything could go back to normal but I knew the fate that would come for her.
One I wasn’t willing to let her pay for. Grabbing the loofah, I continued to wash her, she squirms on my lap, trying to touch me, but I was quick to maneuver her and stop her wandering hands. Once finished, I helped her out of the bath and wrapped her in a towel.
“Have you heard from Jonah today?” Marabella asked me.
“He is fine. I think he found Rose. He should be back tomorrow or maybe tonight,” I answer. I felt like I was on autopilot, and I knew she could sense my strange mood, her eyes watching me as I stepped into the room.
I retrieved some clothes wanting to go to work. I needed a distraction and work seemed like a good one. Her arms wrap around my waist as she hugs my back, her fingers trying to undo the b*ttons I was painstakingly trying to do up with my shaking hands.
“Marabella, stop,’ I tell her pulling away from her. I watched as she retrieved pajamas, but I felt her hurt at my rejection, and it sickened me that I would feel it worse in a minute.
Kaif remained quiet, yet hated what I was going to do, hated me for it, but he felt the guilt of hurting her and,
doing that opened his eyes to the future that awaited her. He knew there was no escaping it, and I refused for her to become the next Octavian woman to pay the price for a feud they weren’t part of.
“Tomorrow, I will take you back home. It is too late now, and I need to get to work,” I tell her.
“What?” she asked, shaking her head as she pulled her nightie on.
“What for?” she asked, and I turned to face her. She seemed confused as she climbed into my bed. She pats the spot beside her, but I shake my head.
“Did I do something wrong? I will learn to control shadows, Kyan, I am fine,” she says, looking up at me as I move closer to her.
“It’s safer this way, Marabella, it is the only way,”
“Why do you keep saying my name like that, so formal?” She pulls a face. My heart twinged at the horrid sinking feeling I was getting from her.
“I’m fine, see it’s just a scratch. You don’t have to send me home, and Jonah will be back tomorrow,” She says, tugging at her nightie. I look away from the scars that mark her.
“I won’t let you be the next life claimed,” I tell her before pecking her lips, she tries to deepen the kiss and tugs me closer, but I unwrap her arms from around my neck.
“I love you, don’t doubt that,”
“I know you do; I love you too,” she says, reaching for me, but I stand up and step away from her.
“Kyan?” Marabella asks as fear trickled through the bond from her and she tries to climb out of bed.
“I Kyan Dominic Octavian,”
“Kyan, no, just wait, we,” she says, but I keep going because I know if I stop, I won’t be able to go through with it.
Marabella tries to jump to reach me.
“Reject you, Marabella Pierce, as my mate and Luna,” I finish, and she staggers back at the same time I do, feeling like my soul was just shredded apart.
Tears trekked down her face as she ch*oked on her sobs and clawed at her chest. Kaif wailed in my head screamed the anguish I felt at what I had just done.
“You can take it back,” Marabella begged, her heartbreak near destroying me, and I sniffled, looking away from her. It was for her own good.
“But I won’t,” I ch*oked out. “I can’t. I won’t be the reason you d*ie,” I tell her before escaping the room.
“Kyan, please,” I heard her running after me, but she stopped at the top of the stairs and I knew the weight of the bond severing was tearing her apart.
I could barely keep going myself, wanting nothing but to rip my own chest open and yank out my heart, so I don’t have to feel this pain. Lucas comes out of the kitchen and looks at Marabella’s fallen to her knees.
“What have you done?” Lucas murmurs, his shock evident as I look at him.
“What I had to,” I tell him before leaving him to look after her. I needed to get out of here, away from her. I couldn’t bear to watch her like that. So like a coward, I ran.