The Possessive Alpha
Chapter 118

DAMON POV

The morning after finding my mate should be filled with nothing but mindblowing s*x, energy bars, and water; nothing else, and certainly not this f*****g bullshit. Not a b***d-curdling anger that consumes every inch of my soul, one that seems to last forever now that I am marked to Elle.

When Andrew and Matt interrupted my wonderful morning to tell me what had happened, I almost didn’t believe them. There was no way my father would reject my mother. No, she was his entire world, and I believe in the bond because of them. Walking into the cell to see both my parents sobbing and somehow on the verge of unconsciousness.

After getting the abbreviated version from my father while my mother remains silent, the rest of the world blows away as I fall into the black pit of wrath. I barely understand what I am saying, words of unintelligible hatred being spewed at my mother. I barely sense her fear, so lost in my anger, my father whimpers as he tries to manage the pain fueling me further into oblivion.

Only one voice can break through the fog, bringing me back to reality as the pain of my mother’s betrayal settles into my bones only one voice bringing me back to reality. My grasp is tenuous as I explain the situation to Elle, scarcely hearing her questions as images from her past scurry through my mind. The pictures move so fast that I can’t hold onto one long enough to make sense of it, but whatever it is, a shiver of terror runs through me.

“You knew everything?” Elle asks, her voice sounding more broken than I had ever heard before; for the first time in my life, I had heard her be weak. “You knew about the shed?” As the question leaves her mouth, things I never wanted to witness slam into me, our untamed emotions making it hard to control. Images of a young Elle standing in front of a hanging man with his eyes gouged out while a scolding voice corrects her on the proper way to remove a man’s eyes.

I almost crumble under the weight of the memories pouring in, swimming into the frame of Elle, shivering in an icebox while disarming a bomb without protective gear. The sound of bombs and guns played in the background while her mother screamed orders through an intercom. Another memory of Cyntihia gripping Elle’s face between her fingers, a sneer on her face, “the Goddess should have never rewarded such a weak child with the responsibility of being a Luna Born, now fight!” She shoves her away, and Elle stumbles away, clearly exhausted and starving, as she returns to the fighting position.

“I was the daughter of a Gamma,” my mother replies, her eyes meeting Elle’s, no remorse hidden in her eyes as she takes in my mate, her breathing shallow. My father’s sobs quiet as he listens to my mother, energy rolling from him I had never felt before. “I designed it and helped her track the rogues. Your mother did everything to keep you safe, making you a woman to fear. Untouchable.”

If I thought the hatred coming from my father was something to fear, I choke on the fury emanating from her, adding to mine as we listen to my mother’s little speech. It’s enough to break all my restraints as I stalk toward her like she is a piece of prey. I am nearly on her when Elle’s cynical laughter peels through the small space.

“You’re f*****g naive, Olivia,” she replies, her laugh suddenly stopping, her entire demeanor changing, her voice rough like stone. “Or your obsession with her has made you stupid. My mother did none of that for me but herself. She only cared about power. She didn’t care whose life she had to ruin to get it, yours, mine, my father’s, Simon, Theo, Charles, and countless others included. She has been the puppeteer behind your entire life, and she would have never risked the same for you. Knowing the difference between loyalty and manipulation could have saved your life.”

Without wasting another breath, Elle did the last thing I would ever expect; she walks to my father, an air of pity still hanging around her words. Helping him stand, I am shocked to see him slowly recovering as my mother continues deteriorating. Her coughing shakes her frame like she is fighting to take simple breaths.

Circling at the door, Elle’s voice more assertive than I had ever heard it in the past, “I was chosen to be a Luna Born for a reason, a fact that my mother could never come to terms with. I am great because of who Scarlett and I are. Good luck in hell, Olivia. You’ll need it there.” Without another word, she helps my father climb the stairs, her heartache leaking into me like a tsunami. Elle loved my mother like she was her own.

I don’t know if she realizes it, but her walls still show me an entire movie of Elle’s dark home life, the one she kept locked away. The longer the images flash, the hotter I become, my whole body coloring red as raw anger courses through my body. Faces of rogues tickled at my memories until it finally clicks.

Spinning towards my mother, I no longer see the woman who took me on fun outings in the human towns to see a movie or play mini golf. No, now they are tainted by the knowledge my mom used them to find rogues for my future mate. “Did you know we were mates?” I demand, my voice eerily calm as I kneel to look into her eyes.

“Since you were young,” She wheezes, trying to sit up, her arms so weak she falls again, and I make no moves to help her. “But I was bound to honor the b***d pact I had made, so I played the part to perfection. It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.” She cries out as another wave of pain squeezes her chest.

“You thought you could f**k with my mate,” I growl, my voice becoming gruff with Slade’s mingling with mine, “and live to tell the f*****g tale? NO ONE touches what is MINE!” My claws elongate as I slowly push my hand into her chest, her warm b***d coating my hand as the metallic smell clogs my nostrils.

Grabbing her heart in my hand, I give it a squeeze watching the pain flickering in her eyes as a tear of death trickles down her cheek. “You were never fit to be a Luna. Let me relieve you of that.” With a harsh tug, I rip her heart out, feeling it beat in my hands until it suddenly stops. The light leaves her eyes as they glaze over with death.

Dropping it to the ground, I crumble into a sobbing mess next to her lifeless form. The woman I called mother turned out to be the biggest snake in the grass, slithering around, trying to go unnoticed. Leaning against the cell wall, I grieve for the woman I knew and not the one she turned out to be.

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I don’t know how long I sat there, letting the tears fall without shame in the dark cell, letting the night turn the sky dark until warmth and tingles spread over my skin. Elle rests her head against my shoulder as she sniffles through tears.

“I am sorry, Damon,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into her chest as her fingers run through my hair. Her scent wrapped around me like a weighted blanket, calming me instantly. “Are you okay to move? You need to eat and maybe a bath,” she murmurs gently as she k****s the top of my head. I know from our connection that she is holding strong, but I sense the subtle cracks in her armor.

Instead of pointing them out, I know what she needs most right now is to take care of me, so she doesn’t have to feel the pain. Her needs perfectly complement mine, two halves truly of the same soul. I need this extra care to mourn and move on to be the Alpha New Moon and Silver Run deserves. Nodding my head, I reach out my bloodstained hands, lifting her next to me.

With one last look at my mother, thoughts start barging in about what to do with her body, getting my father into a doctor, do we even plan a funeral. Observing my sudden anxiety with the list of never-ending tasks, Elle’s warm palm caresses my cheek, pulling my face toward hers so I can look her in the eyes.

“Don’t worry about any of that, my Alpha,” she says, her mismatched eyes meeting mine, “your father is at the clinic- Jake and Toby took him. Andrew and Matt are waiting to take Olivia to the morgue for cremation. Sam and Ashley have buckets and mops ready to scrub this cell clean. Charity is running around to all your favorite restaurants to get your favorite foods. Now, let’s get you upstairs and wash this day off of us, yeah?”

I stare at her, amazed by her ability to handle any situation thrown her way, even when every cell in her body wants to combust with angst, anger, hurt, and betrayal by not only one mother figure but two. Nodding in agreement, I wrap my arm around her shoulder, leading her away from the cell to our room upstairs.

The higher we climb, the more a nagging thought sprinkles its way into my mind; instead of turning down my hallway, I climb higher to my parent’s level. Punching the code outside the bedroom door, I hear the click as the door unlocks, my parent’s scent permeating the room. Walking to the window, I open it, letting the fresh breeze remove any trace of her. Elle’s eyes watch me like a hawk as I walk into the closet, as I flick on the light seeing the rows of expensive items my mother has lining her walls.

Goddess, my father filled her closet with whatever she wanted, never caring about the cost. He would have given her the universe if it was within his power to do so. How f*****g selfish, as more unveiled rage leaves me unhinged. I start ripping her pristine closet into a ghost of its former self, just like it’s the owner. Breaking the glass holding her designer shoes and handbags, my claws tearing the expensive fabrics enjoying the sound of them being ripped to shreds. Ripping the dresser drawers from their home, throwing them across the room, not caring that they’re falling apart from the force.

I don’t stop, going from one drawer to the next, until Elle’s voice rings through the trance, asking me to stop, and with a growl, I refrain from continuing my reign of terror. She points to the destruction but doesn’t move forward because of all the broken glass. Doing it instead, I tug on the drawer seeing what she does; the force knocked the false bottom loose, revealing letters, notes, and a burner cell that is off or dead.

For the next hour, we tear down the entire closet; we even had Andrew bring a sledge hammer finding years of evidence confirming my mother’s deception. Smart enough to hide it in the one place my father would never touch, knowing how anal and obsessive she was about it. Now I know why she hated anyone in here. It was where she hid her second life. Her clothes gave her the perfect hiding space for her skeletons and her little shopping trips the perfect excuse to leave the territory.

Charity brought us the food that remains untouched as Elle, and I sort through what we find in silence, neither of us saying a word as we put everything into a giant pile. My mother kept every scrap of evidence somewhere it could have been easily found, and she was so arrogant and selfish that she knew my father was too trusting to break that level of trust.

“I wish we could burn this and her ashes in a giant fire,” I sigh, scrubbing my b***d-stained hands over my face as a yawn escapes my soul, weary and broken from the events of the day. Meeting my eyes, the twirl of thought that is not mine wanders at the edges of my mind as Elle gives me a sad smile, “I think I have the perfect idea that kills two birds with one stone. Do you trust me to make the arrangements so you can mourn?”

“Yes,” I nod, stepping over the piles, not wanting to think about this for another second. The exhaustion is starting to win as my body begs to slip into the peaceful oblivion of sleep. Leaving the room in a mess, without a care, we walk to our room where a warm bath and sleep await us both.