HE MEANT TO KILL HER, NOT FALL FOR HER

ISOLDE

I slide my bare feet into the pool, and the cool water instantly calms my nerves. Swinging my legs back and forth, I clear my throat, then stretch my arm to reach for a single glass resting on the ground.

“Luna Isolde,” before I can even take a sip of my wine, someone starts to approach me with a white towel in her hands.

“It’s time,” she whispers, her voice carrying through the night. “The Alpha calls for your presence.”

A sharp pain claws at my throat.

Can’t I just skip today?

I don’t want to be pressed to that cold mattress with a large weight above me. I don’t want to be fucked mercilessly, like I’m nothing more than a slut. I don’t want to fulfill any of my husband’s weird desires.

So I hold the glass to my mouth. “No,” I say with finality in my voice. “Tell him I won’t be coming tonight.”

The maid’s hands tremble, “but…Luna Isolde.”

“Can’t I refuse to be fucked today?” I bark, “tell that damn man to go fuck himself.” I hiss, pulling myself out of the pool. Due to my bikini, cold prickles my skin, and I yank the towel from her grasp to cover up myself.

I stalk into the mansion, and she runs after me. “Luna Isolde….he insists on having you tonight. He says he’s been away for a long time, and he needs you to finally feel at home.”

“Then what about the whores he’d been screwing?” I snap without turning back, clutching the towel tightly as anger flares. “He should go back to them, and honestly, I would like to have my bed to myself tonight. One more word from you and I’ll make you regret it.”

Her footsteps stop echoing, and I release a sigh of relief, glad she’s finally going to stop tailing me.

I hurry to my room, eager to lock up my door and kiss my bed before Bernard finds me. The moment my fingers grasp the doorknob, a low growl rumbles behind me, and I freeze.

“Bernard, no.” I warn, pushing myself into the room as an impending sense of doom overwhelms me, but a sharp cry rips out of my throat as Bernard grabs my hair.

“Not tonight?” He barks, his nails sinking into my flesh, making me cry out. “Since when did you start to have a choice? I’m your damn husband, your body belongs to me!”

“Bernard, I’m tired,” I cry out as he drags me down the hallway, not stopping for a moment even when my legs scratch something sharp. “I just want tonight. I’ll do whatever you want tomorrow, please, just let me sleep tonight.”

“And what do I do about my throbbing cock?!” He continues dragging me, and when I realize he’s approaching a flight of stairs, I panic.

“Bernard, fine. Let’s go to my room, I’ll give you whatever you want.”

“You lost your fucking chance!”

“Bernard, no!” I shriek when he drags me down the flight of stairs, and pain shoots through my system, the burning sensation nearly driving me insane.

“We don’t have to do this every time, you don’t have to do this to me every time! I’m your wife! I’m your Luna!”

Finally at the foot of the stairs, he releases me. He towers over me effortlessly, a sly grin on his lips. “You lost the right to say that when your father sold you to me,” he laughs, “you belong to me now. He literally told me I can do whatever I want with you.”

Hot tears glide down my cheeks. I’ve had enough! This has been going on and on for three agonizing years. I can’t take it anymore.

Bernard walks toward the wine cellar, grabs a bottle of whiskey, and uncaps it. He slowly pours it into a glass, his eyes never leaving mine, lust so deep in his grey eyes, dread crawls up my spine.

He takes a small sip. “Before I think about a way to punish you, how about you entertain me?”

My whole body aches.

It feels like I’ve been run down by a truck. Crushed even. And Bernard still wants me to entertain him?

“Don’t make me force you,” he warns and sits on a tall stool. “If you can make me hard in five minutes, I’ll be gentle.”

Liar.

He’s never gentle.

That fucking word doesn’t even exist in his dictionary.

“I’m waiting,” Bernard starts to peel off his shirt, picking one button after the other. “And if you don’t want to do that, I’ll fuck you here, in the living room. Since you want all the maids to hear your moans, I don’t mind.”

I’m literally naked.

The towel fell off my body long ago.

All I’m clothed in is nothing but a tiny bikini.

Bernard is going to fuck me, alright. Hell, I’m going to give him my body—like he’s always wanted, but it’ll be the last. Using all the strength in my body, I drag myself up, then rip the bikini apart.

Bernard’s eyes fly open.

I take a step backward, lifting my leg over a stair. “Follow me,” I run my fingers over my left nipple. “You want a show, Bernard? Your wife will give you one.”

He tears his shirt off instantly, yanking off his pants in one brutal act.

“Catch me,” I laugh, running up the stairs, and footsteps pound, pressing against the stairs as I hurry to my room.

Kicking the door open with a single foot, I spread myself on the bed, keeping my legs wide enough to entice him.

Bernard strokes his beard the moment he steps in, “heavens, this is such a beautiful sight.”

He approaches me, his large belly bouncing with each step he takes. He wraps his arm around my waist and slams his lips against mine. Not in the slightest moment is he gentle, he’s rough, spots of red flashing in my vision as he chews on my lips.

I wince in pain, stretching my fingers to reach for a dagger inside my drawer.

Bernard is always distracted when he’s on my lips. He’s in full mode concentration, hungrily claiming each of my lips like he’s never had them before.

If I let today pass, I don’t think I’ll get this bold ever again. So I close my fingers around the silver dagger, the only thing that’s ever made Bernard flinch, then drive it under his ribs, where his heart beats loudest.

He gargles, the sound of tearing flesh filling the space as blood soaks me, but I don’t stop there.

Bernard is an Alpha.

A stab isn’t going to kill him.

I pull out the dagger and stab him again.

He falls forward as the silver burns him from the inside, hitting his head against my shoulder, and I keep going in and out as he writhes in pain, struggling to get off me.

“How dare you?!” He coughs out blood on my face, and my stomach twists with disgust. “If I die, the entire pack of Ashlore will haunt you down! You won’t be able to fucking get out of here alive.”

Soaked in red from head to toe, I kick Bernard off me, and he falls with a loud thud. I scramble off the bed, and his fingers curl around my feet.

“My men are already on their way,” he shows me his bloody teeth. “You seem to have forgotten the Alpha link.”

I step on his fingers until the sound of bones cracking fills the air. “Rot in hell.”