CHAPTER 52: TEASING BOUNDARIES

"You are losing it." Dominic, considering her as his mate, was simply asking the sun to shower snow. She shook her head and stated, "I am his ex-mate; why would he care about me?"

She didn’t believe that Dominic cared for her; if he did, then he wouldn’t have done such a despicable thing to her. Particularly since he had lapped up all the lies that Eve told him. He even refused to let Inez go when her grandmother asked him to transfer Inez to her pack instead. He had done everything in his power to hurt her in ways that Inez couldn’t even speak of.

"If he cared for me, he wouldn’t have hurt me the way he did."

"Trust me, he hadn’t let go of you yet. Do you even know why he called me just now?" Killian said to her.

"Why?"

"He has passed down the order that no pack is allowed to take you in."

Inez sucked in a breath when she heard his response. She knew that Dominic loathed her, but she never thought that he despised her to this degree. He knew that if a wolf went rogue, the chances of their survival became almost negligible. Their only chance at survival was to join another pack.

And what Dominic had done was nothing less than cutting off her only chance at survival! Would he only stop tormenting her when she stopped breathing and her body turned cold, with no breath left in her?

"Do you know why he did that?" Killian’s voice brought her back, and Inez nodded. "I know. He wants to watch me die." Other than that, Inez couldn’t think of anything else.

However, to her surprise, Killian shook his head. He opened his eyes and pointed out, "You are wrong. He doesn’t want you to die; what he wants is your defeated return to his pack. He believes that as long as he stops other packs from letting you join them, he will be able to push you right where he wants."

"That’s stupid." Inez’s brows furrowed as she commented, "He knows me. I would rather die than go back."

Killian smiled at her as if he found her as amusing as a little girl. "That’s where you are wrong. Alpha Cherith only knows what he believes. If he truly knew about you, then would he have treated you in such a way?"

He took a step toward her, compelled by the wicked urge to touch her, but Killian suppressed his beast and resisted. Of course, it was nearly impossible, as her scent was driving him crazy. If he hadn’t lost Lyra, he would have thought that Inez was his destined mate.

But having already lost his mate, Killian knew that it was just the chemicals in his body messing with his head.

"Tell me."

Caught in that powerful gaze of his, Inez had no other choice. She gave him the truth, at least a fraction of it. She told her how Dominic brought Eve to his side and how that woman made things difficult for her. "Believe it or not, those designs that she had presented were mine to begin with. As for how she got her hands on them, you don’t need to know."

"However, she knew my situation in the pack and took advantage of it." She paused before adding, "I think she wanted me to get executed eventually. What she was doing to me was nothing but a cat chasing its prey. She physically tormented me while building the entire aura leading to the main event." She sighed and then got to her feet. "Well, that’s all. It is getting late; you should go and take some rest as well, Alpha Sokolov."

Dismissed again, Killian went to catch her by her wrist. She paused, but a second later, she flinched as if his touch burnt her. Glaring at him for touching her. It shouldn’t have bothered him. Not even a tiny bit. But it did. A growl almost erupted from him as his beast tugged at the reins.

He was both offended and angered by her rejection.

"It seems like you are not good with people touching you," he rumbled.

"I just don’t like when someone gets too close in my personal space."

Every time someone got too close to her, she would be reminded of the time when others attacked her. Killian was fortunate that she controlled her instincts, or else she would have smashed the vase sitting on the cabinet next to the bed right onto her head.

"And why is that?" and why did he care?

"Because the last time someone held my wrist was to drag me into the dungeon and hang me by the chains," Inez snapped. "Happy now?"

Both he and his beast stilled. "They tied you in the dungeons?" This kind of punishment was only given to the most horrible criminal. How could Dominic do such a thing to her? No matter what she did, Killian didn’t believe that her crime was worth the punishment that Dominic gave her.

"That’s right." Inez curled her lips and remarked, "Why are you tempted?"

Startled that she would suspect he would do anything of the sort, he said, "Why would I do such a thing?"

"Because I think that things won’t change here either. You saw how your pack reacted when they saw me, right? Certainly, some of them would definitely target me. I don’t think that you will stand by my side when that happens."

Affronted, he sniped, "I don’t know what you think of me. Understandably, you do not trust me, but I would like to let you know that I am not as blind as Dominic. I trust my instincts rather than hearsay."

"I know."

The faith and affection in her words calmed down his beast. Killian was not an unreasonable person but Inez just knew how to mess with his fucking head just as much as she messed with his senses.

Was this because she was a siren?