The Alpha King Is My Second Chance Mate Chapter 126

“I simply cannot love you.”

“Why…?”

“I don’t know.”

“I want to know why, Jake…there must be a reason, there must be something. I love you, so why can’t you love me back?”

“It’s because…” Jake looked off towards the woods instead of staring into those desperate blue eyes of hers. She was standing close to him, her chin digging slightly into his chest, and yet he felt nothing; no spark, no warmth…he just felt…cold. This felt so different from when Delilah touched him, the beat of his heart would’ve fastened by now, and the warmth her body radiated would’ve already flooded through him…that along with the enchanting sparks. “It’s because you don’t love me, Beatrice. The feelings you have for me are nothing but gratefulness. You only stuck by me because you thought you owed me your life…because I saved you. What you feel for me is not love, but loyalty.”

“W-What?” She stumbled back, tears welling up in her eyes again. “I know what I feel, and it’s not just loyalty. My feelings are real, and I will not let you refute them by claiming I only care because I’m grateful. Yes, I am grateful, yes, I do owe you my life…but that has nothing to do with my f*cking heart! How many years has it been since I’ve been waiting for you to heighten the stance of our relationship? How many years has it been?!”

The salty water fell down her cheeks as she yelled, crying out to someone who could see her tears, but couldn’t wipe them. “Beatrice I…”

“I knew it was stupid…I’ve been saving myself for someone who went around f*cking every other woman but me. You tell everyone that I’m your luna and yet, you haven’t even marked me. That’s shameful enough, but I still stayed, I thought I understood you…I thought we understood each other. We survived because we were together, so I thought we’d die together too…but Jake, between us both, I was the only one stupid enough to believe that there was an ‘us’ when to you there has only ever been a ‘me’.”

“Beatrice, don’t say that.” He reached for her, but she retreated, her back pressing against the door behind her. He pulled his hand back, pathetically folding it behind him. “There has always been an ‘us’…just not the ‘us’ you wanted.”

“You don’t care about me…if you did, then you’d hav~”

“Stop…stop it…stop crying, stop doing this. Everything I did was to protect you from…from this! If I’d marked you, then all the pain you’re feeling now would’ve tripled. You’d have felt pain every time I slept with somebody else, because no matter what, I could never touch you…I could never treat you like I treat those whores. To me, you’re different from them…they are standing behind a line that you’ve already crossed, what I would do for you, I probably wouldn’t do for anybody else. But please, stop begging me to love you…because I can’t.”

Beatrice aggressively wiped her cheeks, easing off the door. “If you knew that, why didn’t you just leave me there to die that night? I would’ve been better off dead!”

And then she stomped her way past him before he could utter another word. Her feet led her through the darkness of the woods. She didn’t go to the pack house, no…she went there; right where her uncle’s house used to be.

It was gone now, Jake had burnt it, but she remembered every single detail that house had. The wooden bench that sat on the left side of the front door…the cozy living room that greeted you as soon as you walked in, the little kitchen and the one bedroom her uncle used to sleep in. The house wasn’t big, he’d lived alone before she was sent by the alpha to live with him.

At first, she thought he was nice, he acted like he was…but time revealed the devil he always tried to hide beneath that pleasant smile. He didn’t like himself it seemed, he was a beta like Beatrice’s father, but the alpha didn’t choose him to be the official beta of the pack, he chose his brother instead.

For that, he used to stand in front of the bathroom mirror and punish himself with a small dagger that he always carried around. Every time he cut himself, it would heal, but the pain…something about it drove him to hurt himself more.

Later, she found out just why he looked in that mirror while driving a knife through his own skin. It was because he looked like his brother. He was crazy, so according to him, the reflection that looked back at him wasn’t at all his…in that mirror, he was looking at Beatrice’s father; Eric.

It was sickening; the fact that he hated his own brother even after his death was sickening…but what was more sickening, was the fact that when he realized that she looked like her father too…she became that reflection that looked back at him in the mirror.

He’d beat her to a point where it would take her days to heal, despite being a beta wolf. He’d use that little dagger every time; drag it across her skin, ruthlessly sink it past her flesh, and laughed when she cried.

He reveled in her fear, wallowed in her tears and throughout all the cruel punishments, he’d list out ways in which he was better than her; or rather better than his brother. He had the strength of a beta, trained and stronger than a mere thirteen year old child. She’d always fight back against him, but it was in vain, and every time she got the chance to murder him in his sleep, her hands would start shaking, and she’d hesitate like a fool…

That was why she’d been so desperate to ask a boy who just murdered his family for help…but that night, Jake had…

~FLASHBACK~

“You killed your dad, didn’t you? You even killed your baby brother, can you please kill my uncle too?”

He hadn’t looked back at her immediately, but when he did…the coldness in his eyes made her want to retreat; to run, to hide. “Leave me alone, if you don’t…I’ll kill you too.”

“No, I…my uncle…he…look, these cuts…” She showed him her arms, then lifted her blouse to show him the fresh bruises on her stomach. “He did this to me, he beats me every day for no reason…you killed your father, you’ll be alpha now…help me, please. If you won’t kill him, then tell them to give me a room in the pack house. I don’t want to stay there anymore…please…!”

He heaved out a breath, then bent down to dig the knife he’d stuck in the dirt out. His steps were firm as he walked towards her. “I said to leave me alone…” the knife whipped towards her neck so fast that she didn’t even see it coming, but though it did not penetrate her skin…it stopped dangerously close to it. “Or I might hurt you worse than your uncle did.”

Beatrice stumbled back, falling on her bum with a gasp. Her heart was beating fast, and all her senses were directed towards running…this boy, those dark eyes he possessed withheld even more lethality than her uncle’s did.

She struggled to her feet, running off in the opposite direction. He didn’t follow her…and she never approached him again.

She saw him on the pack lands, but she was hidden beneath her hood, so he couldn’t see her. After killing his father, he was placed in more severe alpha training in order to take his seat…he had no time for a stupid little girl who always hid beneath a blue hoodie.

But that night…she had no idea he’d show up.

As usual, her uncle had been torturing her in the living room…with his dagger…but this time it was different, his slices were deeper, more painful…it was as though he wanted to kill her…for real.

He was silent too, no words of degradation…nothing, just silence. The lack of noise made the sound of the knife ripping through her skin even more audible, and when she cried, when she screamed, when she fought back…he ruthlessly pinned her hands above her head.

His knife ceased and for a moment, and he stared down at her; assessing her closely. “You know…the more I look at you, the more I realize that you resemble your mother too. Your eyes…your lips…”

His knife tore at the collar of her blouse then through all of it, and streams of blood followed it down her chest as the blade tore mercilessly through her skin too. He tore her pants off her, leaving her almost bare in front of him. “Not having a mate for myself, of course I always wanted to f*ck her…I wanted everything he had, and she was a part of it.”

He smiled, a sick smile that had Beatrice trembling beneath his hold. He’d never done this before, he’d never…he…h~ “Since you look like her so much, why not just pretend you’re her for tonight, hmm?”