“How dare you, bastard!” Dean growls, sending a hard punch across alpha Damien’s face. His heart tightens in pain. How could Damien have betrayed him knowing that Cassie was his mate? How could he have done this to him?
“Stop it, Dean!” He snaps at him, trying so hard not to let his anger take a hold of him. He wouldn’t want to fight his brother for any reason, not even because of a woman.
“And what if I don’t? You’re going to kill me? Why don’t you go ahead and do it, huh? You’re nothing but a traitor!” Sneering at him again, Dean sends another punch to his face, hoping to send him rolling on the floor, but it doesn’t feel like the punch did him anything.
“Go ahead and beat me all you can if that’s what you want. Go ahead and stab me to death if that’s what’ll make you happy!” He yells at Dean with pain in his voice. He doesn’t know how to feel, he feels like everything is his fault. This woman is his brother’s fated mate for crying out loud, how could he have betrayed him this much? Yes, he loves Cassie so much, but he should’ve let her go when she found out that she truly belongs to his brother, right? It’s difficult to do, but he should’ve tried to stay true to his brother, right?
“I would kill you if I can. We have been together all our lives, we promised to always stay by each other’s side, but how could you have gone behind my back to have anything with my mate, huh? What kind of a brother are you? Is this the man that mother and father brought you up to be?” Dean yells again, as he grabs Damien’s shirt and slams his back against the wall, sending another punch to his face.
“You even went as far as lying to me… You went as far as convincing me to stay away from her when your true intention was to take her away from me…”
“I never planned to take her away from you. Yes, I was wrong for not telling you the truth all along. Cassie… I’m in love with her… She loves me, we have been together…”
“Liar!” Dean cuts him off.
“You want me to believe your lies now, don’t you? If you truly loved her, would you have watched her get hurt? What am I even saying? Would you have ordered her to be hurt if truly you loved her? You were trying to manipulate her to get back at her father, isn’t that right?” Dean snaps at him again, and he sighs, turning his face away.
“I genuinely love her, Dean. You can say that I betrayed you… I…”
“Keep them to yourself, Damien. You’ll regret this, I promise,” And with that, Dean pulls the door open and storm out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Letting out a brief sigh, Damien slowly crashes to the floor, resting his head on the wall. He has never seen his brother so mad at him, he has never fought with him, and this hits differently…
Inside the garden…
‘She’s my mate, and you knew it’ Dean’s words echo in Cassie’s head as she stands frozen in the garden with her mouth open in shock. She was eavesdropping on their conversation, and now she has learned the biggest secret of alpha Damien. He never loved her but tried to use her to get her father.
Taking a deep breath, she wipes the tears that slid down her cheeks. She can’t bring herself to believe that she’s stuck in between twin werewolf brothers, one, whom she’s deeply in love with, and the second one who’s supposed to be her fated mate. This is crazy and unimaginable. It feels as though she dug her early grave with her own hands.
‘Liar! You’re using her to get her father, isn’t it?’ More tears stream down her cheeks as his words echo in her head. She had run away from there immediately after she heard this. She didn’t want to listen to the rest to avoid her heart getting shattered the more. To think that she has been going crazy over someone that only saw her as a revenge tool all this while hurts her deeply. Should she hate him for this now? Should she run away from here? Causing fights between two loving brothers that was said to have loved each other so much from birth, that’s the last thing she would want to happen. But, where will she run to? She doesn’t even know if her so-called father is still there, and even if he is, it’s difficult to find her way out of this place.
“You don’t look happy. Is everything OK?” Hearing the familiar voice behind her, she bites her bottom lip and quickly wipes off her tears, turning around to face her afterward. It’s Astrid.
“Yes, I’m fine,” She forces a smile at her, and Astrid rolls her eyes. She couldn’t have thought of lying to her when she already knows everything, right?
“Oh, please! This is what I have been warning you about. I told you that you were going to get your heart broken in the end but you thought that I was lying to you. Alpha Damien… He has been using you, he wanted to make you fall so deeply in love with him, to make you vulnerable after he found out that your father concealed your power. You’re the only one that can bring him down,” Astrid explains to her before she finally gets the true picture of it. More tears stream down her cheeks as she slowly clenches her fists beside her. Her heart wrenches in pain, and she bites her bottom lip. What has she done to deserve all this treatment?
“I know how it feels like, but don’t think too much about it. He is going to kill you sooner or later, and I heard rumors that your father has been located. He’s going to take you to attack the pack… That’s his plan. That was why he has been teaching you all kinds of martial arts,” Astrid further says, breaking her heart.
“It’s not too late, Cassie. I can help you escape death. I can take you to a place you’ll forever be happy. A place where nobody will ever bother you again. I’m sure you wouldn’t want the alpha and his brother to end up killing themselves because of you, right?” Astrid asks, and she shakes her head in denial.
“Good! Then this is the time to act fast about this. They’ll stop fighting when you’re gone from here, and even you will be fine,” Astrid further says. She stares at her, thinking if she should trust her or not. As much as she feels like there’s more to know about this woman, she feels like she’s right about what she said. She really needs to leave the castle.
“It’s not too late to make this decision, Cassie,” Astrid urges her, and she takes a deep breath.
“Alright. Thank you,” Finally convincing herself to trust this woman, even if she’s still skeptical about it, she replies to her.
“Great. I’ll wait for you here by midnight. Make sure to find your way here,” Astrid says to her before she finally strides out of the garden…