Madeline’s POV
I let Alpha Dimitri drag me away from the cabin. I couldn’t escape his hold even if I wanted to.
“You can’t put yourself in danger like that ever again, Madeline,” he said sternly. “Do you know what that would do to…”
He stopped talking and took a deep breath. He looked at me and tightened his jaw.
“Do you know what that would do to Mike?” he finished his question, but I had an impression that wasn’t what he really wanted to say.
His jaw twitched.
“It would kill him, Maddie,” he said. “He would be so hurt if something happened to you.”
I looked away and gulped. Mike never cared if I was safe before so why start now? He didn’t even realize that his own mate was abusing me for months now. Every room in the house was soundproof, but that wasn’t an excuse. If he cared, he would have noticed me flinch every time she approached me. He simply didn’t care.
I wondered what Alpha Dimitri would say if he knew that I wasn’t just going on a walk. I was going to leave his pack for good.
“Promise me that you will never leave the house without me, Maddie,” he said, making me look back at him.
I furrowed my eyebrows. How would that even work? Would I have to call him to let him know that I wanted to leave the house? Would I have to wait for him to come and get me? He had work. He couldn’t be my personal bodyguard.
“I can’t promise you that,” I said, making him turn his head toward me abruptly. “You have work to do. You don’t even live there. Are you just going to abandon everything and everyone just because I want to go on a walk?”
His mate wouldn’t like that and it would give her another reason to hurt me.
“Oh, I am moving in until the threat is over,” he said, making me gasp loudly. “I am not letting this happen again. I will be there most of the time, and you won’t be allowed to go anywhere if I’m not there to take you.”
Was he insane? He was, wasn’t he?
“You can’t do that, Alpha!” I exclaimed and stopped walking. “What about your mate? You are about to have a child. You can’t…”
He growled loudly, interrupting what I was going to say next.
“She isn’t my mate and her child isn’t mine,” he said, making me gasp in shock.
What?
Alpha Dimitri sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He tightened his hold on my hand and looked at me with a sad expression on his face.
“She lied and tried to trap me,” he said. “She wanted to become Luna and Queen by trying to convince me that she was pregnant with my child. I knew that she was lying as soon as she came to tell me that she was pregnant.”
My heart clenched painfully. He must have been so hurt.
“How did you know that she was lying?” I asked quietly.
“I am a Lycan and my wolf would have known if she was carrying his pup,” Alpha Dimitri explained. “Also, the time didn’t match. She got pregnant after we had…”
He stopped talking and took a deep breath. I furrowed my eyebrows. He looked like he was a bit embarrassed. Why?
“I slept with her only a few times,” he mumbled, looking down at his feet. “It didn’t mean anything and I regret it now.”
He looked up at me and gulped.
“I regret everything about her,” he said. “She tried to take me from my mate and I…”
He stopped talking and my heart skipped a beat. His mate? So he did find her?
“You found your mate?” I asked quietly and an unknown feeling stirred inside me.
I didn’t recognize it, but it was uncomfortable. I decided to ignore it. It didn’t matter. The fact that he found his mate shouldn’t have made me uncomfortable.
He tightened his jaw and gulped.
“No,” he mumbled. “But I already love her with my entire heart and soul. I fought for her, Maddie. I did everything that I could to prove to everyone that that pup isn’t mine and I did it all for my princess. I can’t lose her before I even got her so I fought as hard as I could.”
My heart skipped a beat. The intensity of his glare sent shivers down my spine.
“I fought and I won,” he continued softly. “I will never let anything or anyone stand between me and her. She is the single most important thing in my universe and I am going to show her that until my last breath.”
His voice was trembling by the time he finished speaking. I was completely frozen. My heart was racing and it was the only thing I could feel. I was glad that we stopped walking a while ago because I couldn’t feel my legs anymore.
The way he talked about her made me want to…
No.
I couldn’t even let myself finish that thought. I wasn’t her. I would never be her. I didn’t want to be her. I wanted to leave this pack and never come back.
I cleared my throat and forced myself to speak because the silence was getting uncomfortable.
“She is a lucky girl,” I mumbled quietly.
Alpha Dimitri smiled, making my knees buckle.
“I am glad you think so,” he said as he lifted his hand and caressed my cheek. “And I hope that she will forgive me for the mistakes I made.”
I smiled back and gave him a small nod.
“I am sure that she will,” I said softly.
His smile grew and I felt something weird in my stomach. It was a ticklish feeling that I had never felt before.
“I am so happy that you came to my pack, Maddie,” Alpha Dimitri said. “I am so happy that I got to know you.”
I didn’t know what to tell him. I was glad that I got to know him too, but I wasn’t happy to be here. I wanted to leave and I would leave the first chance I got.
I forced a small smile on my face and decided to tell him just one small part of the whole truth.
“I am glad that I got to meet you too,” I said, forcing a small smile on my face. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
Alpha Dimitri smiled and pulled me into an unexpected hug.
“Always, Maddie,” he said as he placed a small kiss on the top of my head. “I will always take care of you.”
I shivered and gulped the lump in my throat.
Five more months and that would no longer be possible.
