Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond novel Chapter 548

~ Cleo ~

“Freya?” I bend down, trying to gain her eye contact but she was in so much pain…her eyes were hardly focusing.

To my astonishment Zane fetches another rope soaked in wolfsbane, preparing to put it on her. He had thick leather gloves on, it might not be causing him harm but she was in excruciating pain.

Why was he behaving like nothing was wrong.

“Stop…stop it.” I aggressively push Zane’s hand away from her, blocking her body from him with mine.

“What are you doing?” I growl out, my voice demanding.

“She wants it, she needs it.”

“Needs it?”

His eyes dart between me and Freya, before moving to the ropes in his hands.

“I’m not…do you think I am doing this to her?”

Am I the only one that is truly seeing the depravity before me. Did I accidently take a sip on the hip flask without remembering. Why was everyone acting like this wasn’t severely wrong.

“You were putting the ropes on her.”

“Yes, but without me…”

“Without you what?” I seethe out, my jaw tense as it takes a lot of my strength to not act out and throttle him with the ropes in his hands. Give him a taste of his own medicine.

“It’s her punishment, for helping the lunas.”

“Lunas?”

“She helped Luna Alora escape, then sided with Kaia.”

“But that was twenty years ago? Have you been doing this to her for twenty years?” Now the red scars upon her arm finally make sense.

Scars that had been painfully reopened. Scars that were struggling to heal under the impact of the poison, blood continuing to drip down the chair’s arms creating a small puddle on the basement floor.

“Without me helping her she would be dead. It was her punishment set by the alpha. Without me, she would have taken it too far.” He looks at me as if I was the delusional one, as if I’m the one that has gone insane.

“Twenty years ago?” He could be speaking a different language for what good it was doing me to understand what was happening right now.

“I want you to remove the ropes from her, take her upstairs and let her rest.” I powerfully command out.