Rebirth of the Alpha's Slave Mate (Samantha and Kade) novel Chapter 117

Chapter 117

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Elena’s POV

I woke to the sensation of a fist cracking across my jaw. The force of it sent bright lights flashing through my vision, turning the darkness of sleep into a blinding array of whites and reds.

I didn’t even have a chance to open my eyes fully before the second punch came. This one was aimed at my temple. I could feel my eyelid immediately begin to swell shut.

The hits came one after the other after that, a constant barrage of fists and boots and elbows raining down on me. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t fight back. Couldn’t even draw in the breath I needed to be able to scream for help.

It was too much. Too fast. Too many.

A final blow struck my skull, and the next thing I knew, I was unconscious again.

When I woke once more, this time, I was no longer curled up in my bed. The cold air bit at my skin through the thin fabric of my nightgown, fat snowflakes soaking straight through to my naked, raw flesh.

I was being dragged across the ground. Mud. Snow. Damp. Something hot and smelling of copper sticking to my face, my arms, my legs. I could feel a loose tooth in the back, and my nose was definitely broken, my nostrils clogged with blood and snot. My tongue was thick and completely useless.

I knew this feeling all too well; I had lived through it too many times to count. The beatings had become a ritual in my old life, and now they were happening again.

But when I cracked my one good eye open, I realized that I was no longer within the pack-I was being dragged through the forest, jagged pine trees overhead reaching into the night sky like dark, spiky fingers.

They were taking me away. Away from Crescent Hollow. Away from Ivy.

Into the wilds.

I couldn’t make out the faces of those who were taking me away, but it didn’t matter. They deposited my broken, battered body onto the ground by someone’s feet. I looked up to see Serena standing over me, her face illuminated by the pale glow of the nearly-full moon. Behind her, I could just barely make out Nellie’s form standing there.

“Hello, sister.”

Sister.

So she knew.

Serena dropped to a crouch in front of me. I heard the metallic twang of a knife being slipped out of a sheath, and a moment later, the glint of a blade flashed in front of my eyes. Something green and foul-smelling dripped from the tip: poison. One that was definitely more potent and dangerous than the one she’d been feeding my daughter.

“I should have known it was you,” Serena whispered, brandishing the knife in my face. “I thought it might be you when I saw your smug fucking face, but I thought for sure that you were dead-that it was impossible for you to be here because I had watched your casket being lowered into the ground myself. How did you do it,

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Chapter 117

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Samantha?”

I didn’t answer that. “How did you find out?” I choked out instead. My voice was raw and thick with blood and bruises.

Serena’s lips curved. “Whatever you did with Ivy-it made your real scent come out. I don’t know if your wolf has been hiding it or what, but it doesn’t matter now, does it? I knew it was you then and there.”

The mother-daughter bond. It must have brought back my old scent when I was healing Ivy. Samantha’s scent. I should have known, but I was so concerned with making sure Ivy survived that I didn’t think about anything

else.

“Anyway,” Serena went on, “while it was nice to see you one last time, I can’t let you live. You only stand in the way of my future with Kade—and I can’t have you squealing to him about our past, now, can I? Especially not when I’m finally so close to making him mine.”

I clenched my jaw so hard I felt my loose tooth crunch. “So you’ll kill your own sister, just to keep your secret?”

“Of course I will. I knew you might die when I let you take the fall for me all those years ago; I loved Kade and would have given anything to avoid my reputation being ruined. Even if I had to give you up.”

“Your own twin sister,” I croaked. “For a man.”

“Yep!” Serena’s grin turned impish, and she dragged the knife across my cheek. It didn’t cut the skin. Yet. Bu the poison was hot and acrid against my cheek. “And now, my secret will die with you, just as it should have the first time.”

“What about Debbie?” I blurted out as Serena began to lift the knife. “She knows the truth about what happened.”

“Debbie?” Serena snorted. “Debbie is fucking crazy.” She twirled the knife next to her head. “And she’ll never get better, either.”

“But if she did-”

“If she did, then I’d kill her, too. Besides, it would be a mercy after what happened to her. Poor, innocent little Debbie, getting raped by all those rogues…” She clicked her tongue. “How can anyone go on living like that? She’d probably kill herself anyway.”

“You’re a monster,” I scoffed. “A fucking monster, Serena. You’re no sister of mine.” And I meant it. I had known for years that Serena was selfish, but to be this cruel, not even showing a hint of remorse for what happened to Debbie-it was sickening. “I hate you,” I whispered.

Serena seemed unfazed. She simply raised the knife and plunged it into my chest without batting an eye.

The pain was immediate and agonizing, but it was the poison that truly gripped me. It began working immediately, burning through my veins like acid. I could feel it curling around my organs, my bones, every fiber of my being. Hot, green fingers gripping my heart.

I was going to die.

Serena stood, leaving the knife in my chest. She turned to Nellie, who was pale as death, and gestured to me as if I were no more than a bag of trash laying on the ground.

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“Dispose of her,” she said curtly. Calmly, “Take her far enough away that the rogues will eat her.”

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