Mated to the Alpha Who Ruined Me Chapter 10

Mated to the Alpha Who Ruined Me Chapter 10

I arrived at the safe house Liam had mentioned half an hour early the next afternoon.

It was a standalone cabin at the foot of the mountain, surrounded entirely by pine trees. It was perfectly hidden, impossible for anyone to find.

When I walked in, a masked Beta guard checked me over, then opened a hidden passage in the wall.

After walking through the passage, I stepped into a spacious underground hall.

Someone walked over immediately, leading me politely into a private meeting room.

“Mrs. Walker, please wait here. The Alpha is in a meeting, he’ll be finished shortly.”

“Thank you.

I nodded, sitting down on the couch.

It wasn’t long before the meeting room door opened.

Liam walked in.

He was less sharp-edged than he’d been at the gala the night before, more calm and refined.

“Mrs. Walker. Thank you for waiting.”

He sat down on the couch across from me.

He looked at me, his gaze calm.

Calm, like he was looking at a complete stranger, meeting for the first time.

I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Liam.”

I got straight to the point.

“Do you remember me? The Black Pine Forest, when we were fifteen. I gave you bandages and food.”

At that, he smiled.

It was a smile filled with bitter regret.

“Ella.”

He said my name.

Not “Mrs. Walker”. Not “Ella Walker”.

Just “Ella”.

“How could I ever forget you?”

His voice was soft.

But it hit me like a boulder dropped into a lake, sending waves crashing through me.

“I thought…”

“You thought I’d pretend not to know you, just like Kane did?”

He finished my sentence for me.

There was a complicated emotion in his eyes, one I couldn’t place.

“I couldn’t do that. Especially not when I saw you standing there, at his side.”

His words made my chest ache.

“You… you know everything?”

“Know what?”

He asked the question back.

“Know that he never married you because he loved you? Know that him driving you out of the academy all those years ago was a set up, from start to finish?”

Every word was a sledgehammer to my nerves.

I froze, completely stunned.

“What set up?”

My voice was shaking.

He looked at me, a flicker of pity and sympathy in his eyes.

“Kane and I are blood enemies. When I was fifteen, my father was killed. I had to hide in the academy, just trying to survive.”

“He targeted me every chance he got, but he couldn’t find a way to get to me. So he set his sights on you.”

“He knew you’d helped me. He knew I owed you. He humiliated you in public, drove you out of the academy, to send me a message. That anyone who so much as breathed near him, anyone who helped me, he’d destroy. Every last one.”

“And he never married you because you were his fated mate. He married you to tie the person I cared about to his side, to rub it in my face every single day, to remind me he’d always win.”

“And there’s something else you definitely don’t know. You have a rare Moon Goddess bloodline. It’s the only thing that can break the Alpha bloodline curse on him. He married you to use you as a cure. Once the curse is broken, you’ll be useless to him.”

Liam’s voice was calm.

Calm, like he was telling a story that had nothing to do with him.

But as I listened, I felt like I’d fallen into a pit of ice.

Every drop of blood in my body went cold.

So that’s what it was.

That’s why.

The kind thing I’d thought I’d done.

It had dragged me into this blood feud from the very beginning.

And I was the stupidest, most ridiculous pawn of all.

I could barely breathe.

I bit down hard on my lip, holding back sobs.

Liam didn’t try to comfort me.

He just sat there, watching me quietly.

Waiting for me to calm down.

When my breathing evened out a little, he pulled a tissue from the box on the table, and handed it to me.

“Here.”

I took it, wiping my face roughly.

“You came here today.”

He spoke again.

“What is it you want?”

I lifted my head, meeting his gaze.

There was no pity, no sympathy in his eyes.

“I want to work with you.”

I said it.

“I want to make him feel what it’s like to fall from the top of the world.”

Liam looked at me, his gaze sharp.

Like he was trying to see through me.

After a long moment, he spoke slowly.

“Hate alone won’t take him down.”

Liam didn’t mince words.

“Kane is meticulous. He leaves no loose ends.But the family behind him has done countless unforgivable things, things that would ruin them if they got out. We need that evidence. We need to rally the other packs he’s crushed. That’s the only way to take this beast down.”

I knew what he meant.

“So you need someone on the inside, someone close to him, to get that evidence.

And I’m the perfect person.”

“That’s right.”

A flicker of approval crossed Liam’s face.

“But this is incredibly dangerous.

If Kane finds out, I don’t know what he’ll do.

Are you sure about this?”

I let out a bitter laugh.

“I have nothing left to lose.

When this is over, I’ll finally be able to give the girl who was cornered and broken all those years ago some closure.”

Liam looked at me, his gaze complicated.

I kept going.

“What do I need to do?”

He pulled a small vial of clear liquid from the drawer and handed it to me.

“What is this?”

“Moonwort potion. Tasteless, odorless. Mixed into a drink, it will put an Alpha into a deep, 6-hour sleep. Nothing will wake them during that time.”

Liam’s voice was calm.

“Find a way to get Kane to drink it. Then open the encrypted safe in his study. It has every record of his illegal deals, every bit of evidence we need.”

I took the vial. The cold glass seeped into my fingertips, all the way down to my heart.

I closed my hand around it, like it was the only hope I had of getting justice for myself.

“Okay.”

When I left the safe house, it was four in the afternoon.

Light snow was falling over the Rockies, the flakes landing on my shoulders, cold and sharp.

I looked back at the cabin hidden in the pine trees, my chest tight with a hundred different emotions.

I didn’t know if the end of this road was light, or something even darker.

All I knew was that I had to walk it.

Even if it meant burning with him.