The Alpha Prince And His Bride
Book 3 The Alpha’s Substitute Bride – Episode 52

~ISABELLA~

I didn’t want Hunter to live with the fact that he’d killed a woman that was once his mate. He shouldn’t have to live with that for the rest of his life. I watched as he continued to strangle her and I knew I had to cut in.

I grabbed Maggie by her hair and pulled her away from Hunter. This was my fight. I wanted her gone and I was going to do it myself.

“Let go of me!” Maggie screamed as I continued to pull her. I wanted to rip the hair out of her head in the most painful way possible. In fact, I think I’d already done so to some of it. I could see a few strands falling to the ground and this was only just the beginning.

Now I understood why Hunter had killed her brother. He’d tried to rape his sister . . . He was a monster just like Maggie was. I knew that Hunter would have never done something like that without a good reason and this was a damn good one. Even I would have killed someone that had tried anything that sick with any of my sisters.

Hunter had done what any good brother would have done. I was proud of him. He was everything an Alpha male needed to be like.

“You’re truly a sickening being.” I spat at Maggie. “All of these years you’ve hated Hunter for something that you should have thanked him for. Your brother was a sick bastard and Hunter did the right thing by getting him out of this world. You had no reason to hate him when he’d loved you so much. You have no idea what you’ve lost and maybe you never will know. But know this, I’ll love him so much that he’ll forget everything you’ve ever done to him. I’ll love him so much that you’ll just be a distant memory to him. I’ll love him so much that he will forget about you and your brother and your sick ways.” I shouted, my words shaking the entire forest with my promises. “I’ll show him what a true mate is and I’ll give him everything he ever wanted while you rot in hell.”

Maggie hissed at my words and she tried to reach for me again but I pulled away just in time.

I pulled harder on her hair this time right before I slammed her face against the ground.

I turned to Esma. “Do you want to join in?”

Esma smiled. “Gladly.”

Esma grabbed onto half of her hair while I held onto the other half. We both picked her off the ground and slammed her against a tree. Maggie cried out and Esma rolled her eyes.

“Is this painful for you Maggie?” She asked. “Because this is nothing compared to what you’ve put my brother through. Now you’re going to die while he gets to start a family with Isabella.”

“NEVER!” Maggie screamed. “He will never be happy. Never!”

“Would someone like to tell her already?” Esma asked. “Because clearly she doesn’t realize that Hunter is already happy now that he has Isabella in his life.”

“I hate you!” Maggie hissed. “I hate all of you!”

Esma and I gave each other knowing looks as she let go of her. “I think you should finish her off Isabella. Show her the power of a true mate.”

I smiled and dragged Maggie all over the hard ground. “Gladly.”

“You will never get away with this!” Maggie screamed. “I have people that are coming and they will kill all of you.”

“I don’t think so Maggie.” I said. “Can you not see how many powerful people I have on my side? The only reason you got this far is because you were in hiding. Now that you’re out in the open, it’s over.”

“You may have been his mate once but he never marked you and he never wanted to do it as much as he had wanted to mark me. You may think that you were winning all along when the truth was you were only playing yourself. When you rejected Hunter you gave us a chance to be together and that’s the best thing you could have ever done for him. All of these years you’ve just been preparing him for a better life without even knowing it. Congratulations Maggie, you’re the reason why Hunter and I love each other today. You’re the reason why we have someone that we don’t ever want to live without. It’s all thanks to you.”

Maggie screamed and kicked in frustration below me and I kept on talking. My words were doing exactly what I wanted it to do. I needed her to see that she’d actually lost this fight. If she saw it my way, if she saw what she’d done, it would kill her inside. She would realize that she was actually losing all along and that’s exactly what I wanted her to see. I knew this would bother her more than anything else, knowing that she was the reason why Hunter and I could finally be happy together. It was the last thing she wanted and I would be the one to happily tell it to her over and over again.

“I don’t know everything in this life but I do know one thing. I’ll be a better mate to him than you ever were.” I shouted as I picked her up from the ground and slammed her straight back down.

Maggie let out a scream and shifted into a reddish wolf right in front of me.

I didn’t waste any time. My wolf was ready to slaughter her. She’d been waiting for this day and it was finally here.

I narrowed my eyes and shifted just as fast as she had done. Our wolves circled each other as both of us waited for the right time to attack.

Maggie lunged for me first and I dodged her attack. I’d had a lot of training from my brothers and even though I wasn’t out on the battlefield as much as they’d been, I could still defend myself in a battle. Especially in a battle against a woman I hated.

I was playing with her. I wanted her to see that I could win her any day in a fight. She was no match for me. I would always be better than her in everything.

Hunter had gotten an upgrade . . . I would always strive to be a better mate than she’d ever been. He deserved that, he deserved to be loved the proper way.

I kept dodging her attacks until I’d gotten bored of it.

I stayed still and waited for her to attack me again. Her wolf was getting frustrated; I could sense it, that’s what I wanted to happen.

And then something strange happened, something that had my wolf staggering back.

I let out a howl of pain as I felt a pain pierce through me. What was this splitting pain in my head? Then I recognized it immediately.

It was that witch again! I tried to ignore it but it was hard to do and Maggie had the advantage now as she made a grab for me. My wolf staggered back once more from the force of her attack.

“GET THE WITCH!” I heard Hunter roar.

I tried to concentrate despite the pain but it was hard and Maggie had an advantage over me now.

I felt relief flow through my body as the pain eventually stopped and I knew why. Hunter as well as my brothers was taking care of her. I could hear her screams behind of me and it was like music to my ear. That witch deserved to die just as much as Maggie deserved to die.

I looked up just in time to see Maggie’s wolf come down on me. She bit down on my back and I let out a cry at the sudden pain and b***d that flowed out of me.

I shoved her away from me and she crashed straight into a tree and cracked the thing in half with the force of my throw.

I didn’t wait for her to recover as I jumped into the air and landed straight on top of her. And then I did what I’d wanted to do for so long. I started to rip apart her body like a beast hungry for revenge.

Maggie’s screams and cries did not stop me; it only fueled my need to get rid of her. Finally . . . Finally it was over. She was unconscious and there wasn’t any crying anymore.

But I needed to make her death official. I needed to make sure that she never returned to cause trouble in our lives again.

My wolf lifted her head to the sky and let out a mighty roar of victory right before she reached down and ripped the wolf’s head from her body in one beautiful go.

After everything she’d done to us, her death was too easy. I wanted to make her suffer like Hunter had suffered. But she did suffer. She was so lost in revenge that she’d lost her life along the way. Shed wasted her life holding onto old resentments and now it was all over.

Death had touched her and she didn’t get the revenge she had so desperately wanted. Since she didn’t get the one thing she wanted more than anything it was like her life was useless. I’d seen the look on her wolf’s face as she breathed her last breath. She couldn’t believe that I was actually going to her. She couldn’t believe that she was about to die by Hunter’s mate.

What a way to die.

She’d breathed her last breath knowing that Hunter was alive and would be happy. It was the one thing that she never wanted him to be and now that he had me and she wasn’t here to stir up any more trouble we were both bound to live a good life.

“Have fun with your brother in hell!” I heard Esma shout behind of me.

I was contented with her death and so was my wolf. I slowly shifted back into my human form and Hunter picked me up into his arms and crushed me against him. I happily wrapped my arms around his neck and held onto him closely.

“I love you,” he whispered as he kissed my cheeks and forehead. I happily accepted his k****s and leaned into him. Just a few hours ago I’d hurt him badly. He’d thought that I had turned against him for some reason. We could have both lost each other. My brother could have killed him and he would have let him thinking that I was dead and that he was the one responsible for it. There were so many directions that things could have taken but thankfully this was the way it had turned out for us.

If I’d awakened to find Hunter murdered by my own brother I would have never been able to live with myself. My brother wouldn’t have been able to look me in my face either knowing that he’d killed my mate.

“I love you too Hunter.” I cried. “I’m so sorry for what I’ve done to you. I’m so sorry.” I apologized.

I didn’t get a chance to tell him how sorry I was for everything I’d done. He didn’t deserve anything that had happened.

“Hey,” he shushed me. “Do not apologize.”

“I must.” I insisted. “I should have been stronger. Instead I stabbed you multiple times and I’ll always see myself doing that to you.”

I knew that from today onwards I would continuously have nightmares about today.

Hunter pulled my hair back so that I was forced to stare at him straight in the eye. “This was all Maggie’s doing. Everything that happened was her fault. Not yours.” He insisted. “Promise me that you will forget about it. Promise me.”

“I can’t.”

He leaned his forehead against mine. “Do you love me?”

I nodded.

“Then promise me.”

I didn’t know how to make a promise that I wasn’t sure that I would be able to keep but I was willing to do anything for him.

“I promise.”

I looked behind of us to see that everyone had left Hunter and me alone to give us some privacy and I was grateful for that.

Hunter crushed me to him and held me close. “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you Isabella; you and our beautiful baby.”

I stiffened and pulled away from Hunter in shock.

Did he just say ‘our baby’?