My Alpha's Mark

32 Us

Kacie

I stared into his eyes, hoping he could see how much I hated him for what I’d seen, how much it hurt to know he respected me so little. “You have no right to be angry with me, Viktor. Not after what I saw today. You cheated on me.”

Viktor snarled. “How can I be cheating when you’ve forced me into this whole arrangement??”

“Forced? Forced?! Who brought her home?!” I bellowed. I’ve never been so angry as I am right now.

“And you just accused me of fucking another woman!” He growled. “I can understand being frustrated with this situation but I’ve done no such thing!”

I huffed.

“I’m no saint baby girl but I thought you of all people who know how much I care for you,” he said. The lies dripped from his tongue like honey.

He’d made me feel safe and cherished. I know she’s his mate too but the sting of betrayal I feel from what I saw can’t be undone. This tightness in my chest is a new kind of pain.

“Goddess forbid. How dare I expect my mate and future father of my pups to be faithful to me. How dare I hope for this small shred of decency between us?”

We’re sitting up facing each other now. Viktor lifts my chin with the fingers that gripped her. He stares into my eyes, “I don’t know where this is coming from Kacie.”

Pulling away from his touch I stand up and grab a bag from the closet. I walk over to the closet and start stuffing my bag with clothes.

The bag is snatched from my hand and flung across the room. I set my gaze on him, lifting my chin to stare him in the eyes. Viktor’s towering form glares down at me.

His eyes glowed with an anger that I found terrifying. “You’re not leaving,” he growled angrily.

“What’s left here for me Viktor?” I yelled in his face.

“Us. We’re going to talk this through. We’re going to figure this out.” He took a step back and stared at me. “I need to cool down. I’m a little wound up and I need to take a quick shower.”

I stared at him.

“I want us to figure this out.” He sighed and began to walk towards the bathroom. “Let me take a shower. You’re right to be upset but please just wait for me.”

I made no promises but I knew I wouldn’t leave while he was in the shower. He was in the bathroom for a long time. I sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped my arms around myself.

I averted my eyes when he dropped his towel and let him get dressed. I didn’t hear him as he pulled up next to the bed. He didn’t try to touch me. He stood directly in front of me.

“You fucked her,” I said.

“I didn’t,” he said.

“You’re going to sit here and lie to my face when you’re the one who said you wanted to talk?” Do I even know him?

“I love you. You know I love you.”

“You made me think that I could trust you and that you wouldn’t hurt me. We didn’t choose who we had this bond with and Clara didn’t choose to be your mate.”

“I never hurt you.”

“But you did,” I say as tears start to well in my eyes, “You did hurt me. It hurt me today when I went to her room. I don’t know why I went to her room but I found myself there and…” I swipe angrily at my tears as they pour down my cheeks.

“It hurt seeing you with her. It hurt me walking in on you two,” I bite my lip to stifle the sob that threatens to escape.

Viktor falls to his knees in front of me. His hands cup my cheeks and he stares into my eyes. “Kacie,” he says firmly.

“After lunch, I dropped Clara off at her place but I didn’t go in. I watched her go in and then I left. I had to meet up with Jake and go over some details for tomorrow.”

“But-but I saw you two together,” I tell him. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“You saw wrong Kacie, you saw wrong. We can call Jake and he can confirm what I’ve said. I wasn’t with Clara last night. I was with Jake until I came home to you.”

“I don’t know what you think you saw but it must have been someone else or…” he trails off.

“Or what?” I ask.

“What you saw could have been a mirage. Someone could have cast a spell to make you see something that never happened but you believed it because you saw this. And there’s only one person on our territory that could do this,” he said.

“Clara,” Athena and I growled.

“Look, I’m sorry for what you saw today but it didn’t happen.”

He took a deep breath. “There’s no one else for me but you. I don’t care what the Goddess says or what this destined bull shit means. I don’t want to keep doing these dates with her. I don’t want to waste my time on getting to know her, it won’t do anything. It sure as hell won’t change how I feel about you. I want you. I choose you.”

I wished I could hate him with all of my heart. If he really hadn’t been with Clara then we had a witch to deal with.

“What we should be figuring out is how to break this bond between me and Clara.”

“I can’t pretend I never saw the mirage even if it was just a spell, Viktor. I-I was really hurt and it’s still buried deep in my heart.”

Viktor reached out and traced a finger from my cheek to my neck. I stare at my mate and try to calm my heart beating out of my chest.

“Let me make it better.”