He Wants to Buy My Heart—But It’s Not for Sale Chapter 01

He Wants to Buy My Heart—But It’s Not for Sale Chapter 01

On the night of our mate-bonding ceremony, my Alpha mate, Thayer Blackthorn, suddenly confessed that he had cheated.

Then he gave me two choices.

Look the other way from now on, and he would compensate me.

Or sever the mate bond immediately.

After seven years of loving him, I thought he was joking.

Until he turned our bond into a transaction.

Every betrayal came with a check.

Every breakdown. Every scream.

Even the child I lost from grief and rage had a price in his eyes.

Even when my mother was critically ill in the hospital and that woman sent me photos of herself in his bed, upsetting my mother so badly she was rushed into surgery, he still sounded bored.

“Ten million dollars,” he said. “That should cover your mother’s broken heart.”

“If it’s not enough, I’ll add more.”

I waited outside the operating room for a day and a night.

The moment my mother was pronounced dead, I mind-linked Thayer.

“I want a hundred million.”

This time, he was not buying my pain.

He was buying the last bit of love I had left for him.

The link went silent for a few seconds.

Then a faint breath brushed through it.

After that came Thayer’s voice, low and mocking, as if he had stepped somewhere private and no longer cared who heard him.

“A hundred million?”

“Selah, have I been too generous these past few years? Is that why you think you can ask for anything you want now?”

“Your mother was only upset. Even if she really died, she still wouldn’t be worth a hundred million. Understand?”

Not worth it?

But even another hundred million could never buy back my mother’s life.

And now, my mother really was dead.

Thayer did not give me a chance to speak. He cut off the mind-link.

I turned around and walked into the morgue.

Under the white sheet, my mother lay perfectly still.

I bent down and wrapped my arms around her cold body. The chill cut into me like knives.

Behind me, the pack healer sighed with regret.

“If she hadn’t suffered such a sudden shock, she would have made it into surgery in time. She had a real chance of recovering.”

“What a shame. It was too sudden.”

Yes.

Too sudden.

Three days ago, I had still been curled in my mother’s arms like a child.

I had promised her that once she was discharged, I would sever my bond with Thayer and take her traveling anywhere she wanted.

After all, Thayer had given me so much money over the years.

Money to buy off his betrayals.

Money to buy off every wound he left in me.

I never thought my mother’s death would arrive before her recovery.

The day she was rushed into surgery, Thayer had stood in front of Delphine Calder and shielded her behind him. His Alpha command pressed down on my wolf, crushing the rage tearing through me.

“Delphine didn’t mean it. Your mother was weak. She couldn’t handle a little shock.”

“Selah, after all this drama, isn’t it money you want?”

“Ten million. Is that enough?”

His voice had been so ruthless it froze the wolf inside me and split my heart clean in half.

Now I held my mother’s cold body, and the tears I had held back for too long finally collapsed.

One after another, they fell onto her closed eyes.

“Mom… I know I was wrong. Please wake up.”

“I don’t love Thayer anymore. I’ll sever the bond. We’ll go home. Please, Mom. Let’s go home.”

By the time I cried myself empty, I was kneeling on the floor, my eyes feral, my claws growing without my permission.

I wanted to kill everyone.

The healer feared I would lose control and gave me a sedative.

When I woke again, my heart was already dead.

I mind-linked Thayer one more time.

His voice came through, smug and certain.

“Decided on a price?”

“Yes,” I said. “What you offered. Ten million.”

Ten million.

I did not want to argue anymore.

That was enough to buy the heart that had beat for Thayer Blackthorn for ten years.