Chapter 3: Fractured bonds

KNOX

The last few days have gone by fast, but not fast enough because I couldn't bring my daughter back home. My heart bleeds for her, I failed her as a parent by choosing Thalia as my life partner. I've always hated Thalia, long before I knew she was mate but ever since I fell prey to the mate bond and my wolf's need for her I've never seen anything she does as wrong. I was thinking with my dick and now she not only hurt me and my wolf but our daughter too.

The cold eyes that stared at me telling me to bury or just cremate my daughter are far from what I fell for. My whole world started and ended with her, everyone knew it and she exploited that. I made one mistake, months ago and her thirst for vengeance has me drowning in a pit of anguish. Thalia did warn me she would get back at me, make sure to hit me where it hurts the most and she did exactly just that when she refused to see our daughter, refused to hold her like a mother should.

“You're out of control, Knox. He didn't do anything worth you splitting him in half!” Ryan, my pack beta snaps at me while following not far behind me. “Knox!”

“I'm tired Ryan.” I rub my temples, the stench of blooding coating the shirt in my hand reminding me Ryan is indeed right. I just killed a man for much less than Thalia did to me, an unfair punishment on my part.

“Asshole, if you're tired you rest not go about sending mindless men to the ICU.”

I ignore him, frowning at the sight of my slightly open bedroom door. Ryan is back at the top of the list of who can get away with snapping at me, the spot previously held by Thalia Rose Laurel, the woman I now loathe with every part of my being. “Drop it, I'm already running late I can't keep the Princess waiting.”

Ryan grins, “Hurry on then but I have to tell you this doesn't look good on your part.” He shoves me inside when I hesitate to enter the room attached to the numerous memories of Thalia I would like to forget. “Merely a few days of meeting each other and she's starting to wrap you around her fingers.”

“Well, it's because —” my words fall short, startled when I turn around to meet the woman in my room. For a moment, I think it's Thalia but the moment she looks at me I know it's not her.

“Mariella, what are you doing here?”

Mariella shudders, her head bowing towards Ryan and I. “Alpha Knox, I -you I mean you're back early.”

Ryan nods to the papers in her hand, the reason she's in my bedroom that I shared with Thalia eludes me and I'm not drunk enough to analyze the limited possibilities. “What's that?” he asks her, watching her intently. Ryan doesn't like Mariella, something about a gut feeling and the history she has with his mate.

“Thalia's passport and —”

“Why do you have it?” my arms fold over my chest and she ponders over her next words, or possible fib she might conjure but Mariella doesn't know how to lie.

“Thalia needs them, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come in here without your permission but there was no other way to get them.”

Ryan frowns, his gaze shifting between Mariella and I. “And why exactly do you have Thalia's passport?”

“Umm.” Mariella tugs at the hem of her short skirt. “She's going to see her mother and hopefully get her mind right.”

My reaction is instant, a snicker at the temerity of Thalia. “She's leaving?”

Mariella nods. “Yes, she's currently at the airport. We already went shopping for her clothes this afternoon and now we just need the passport.”

I nod, shocked by her revelation. Thalia wants to leave Flame Valley like nothing happened, she was released from the hospital yesterday and she's already moving on. Doesn't she hold some guilt for what she did to my daughter? Or at the very least for the things she said about her. “So that's where you were?” is all I can ask Mariella, because I had work for her this afternoon and she claimed to be helping her brother's wife.

“I'm sorry Alpha Knox but she's my best friend, I understand if you want to punish me for basically going behind your back and fratenising with the enemy but please remember she was your everything once.”

I've warned Mariella to be wary of her best friend because if she had no problem with using and hurting her own child, I doubt Mariella can be exempt from her bitterness. “I won't hurt you Mariella. You're a good woman, hopefullyyour friend could learn a thing or two from you one day.”

“Thalia is a good person.” she instantly defends. She is just struggling with the situation but it doesn't excuse anything. I'm sorry.”

I hold my hand out, “Give them to me, I will take them to her, if she really wants to leave I'll make sure she does I'm not keen on having her on the same soil as my daughter dead or alive, I don't want to see her.”

Ryan hisses, ruffling his hair. “Knox.”

“No. Please let me take this to her so I can say goodbye to her.” Mariella begs, both hands placed together as if to offer prayers for the little devil she calls friend. “I'll never speak to her if you order it but I need to say goodbye to her.”

“If you wanted to, you could have snuck out long ago but look at you, landing Thalia right in the devil's pit.” Ryan clicks his tongue, somehow excellently shifting the blame towards Mariella.

“Mariella, I'm not stopping you from saying goodbye but I will tag along to make sure she leaves. There's a few things I need to get off my chest.”

“Alpha Knox, please don't yell at her about the baby. She's... I don't know how to justify her to you but you know my Thalia is a good person.”

Good person? No, she's worse than a viper, that too calculating so you never see the venom coming. “I don't want her to ever step foot in this pack once she leaves and I'm afraid you can't convey that message as clear as I would like.”

“I'll do it.” Ryan offers, but no. It's something I need to do for myself, you offer myself some closure.

“No.” I tell him, my feet striding to my wardrobe. “You're not coming, but Mariella may."

“As you wish, Alpha.” she nods, “I'll get a head start, I need to pick her up some food. She hasn't been eating anything and she's already wasting away.”

My head peeks out of the closet door. “I could care less what she does, Mariella. I don't want to hear about her and as of tomorrow, I will punish anyone who so much as mentions her name or dreams it.”

“Knox that's not-”

Ryan tries to protest but I silence him. “I don't know what made you think that rule is up for contesting but it's not. Make the rule known to all or every death of the rule breakers will be on your half conscious.”

Ryan tries to protest but I silence him. “I don't know what made you think that rule is up for contesting but it's not. Make the rule known to all or every death of the rule breakers will be on your half conscious.”

KNOX

True to Mariella's words, Thalia is at airport. Part of me had hoped that she would change her mind and come back to seek my forgiveness but that was far reaching. Thalia has no regrets, and it angers me to see her standing there with two suitcases in hand, all dolled up like she didn't ruin our life together.

A man walks up to Thalia and shows her something on his phone, her lips curve into a grin and she extends her arm to hug him. Our mate bond was long strained so I don't get to hear what she's saying but the man hugs her, giving her a kiss on the cheek, right on the corner of her lip. “That bastard.” Mariella gasps, watching the two laugh at something.

“Who is he?”