Chapter Three

Laina

I couldn't stop staring at Trey, he stood several feet away from me, dressed in black, his body broader than I remembered, his face harder. 

There was a scar cutting faintly across his jaw that I had never seen before and another disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt, he had changed into someone I didn't recognize anymore, yet my wolf recognized him.

She was trembling inside me, desperate to run to him, desperate to touch him, desperate to make sure this wasn't some cruel dream, the word mate echoing through my mind.

But he looked at me as though I were his enemy, I followed his gaze as his eyes dropped to my wedding dress again and the corner of his mouth lifted but it wasn't a smile, It was something colder.

"So," he murmured. "I am so sorry for ruining your wedding day"

My throat tightened, "I wasn't"

He gave a low laugh before I could even finish saying anything 

"Don't."

I swallowed "Trey, please."

"Please?"

He took another step toward me and I instinctively stepped back and I hated myself for it because his eyes noticed and for a brief second, something flickered across his face, pain maybe but it disappeared beneath the anger.

"I thought I was the only man you wanted to marry Laina."

"I thought you were dead Trey, it had been four years."

"And whose fault is that really?"

His gaze traveled slowly over the white silk covering my body.

"You look beautiful." he said, his eyes still sizing me up, there was nothing tender in the compliment, it didn't even feel like a compliment especially coming from him. 

"I didn't choose this Trey, I did not want to marry him." I said looking at alpha Oliver, Trey laughed again more sarcastic this time.

"Of course you didn't Laina."

"I didn't, I was begging my father not to marry me off to him"

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes because I am telling you the truth, I have never lied to you and you know it."

"The truth?" His voice rose and he snapped again, "You want to talk to me about the truth?"

Trey's jaw tightened he was angry, two veins popped in his forehead as his piercing yellow eyes stared at me

"I waited for you everyday, I kept hoping that one day you would just come back for me, I never believed when my father said you were dead," I whispered.

His expression hardened, he looked directly into my eyes and shook his head as he stepped closer.

"You don't know what happened to me Laina."

My eyes moved instinctively toward my father who was unusually quiet, he hadn't said a word since Trey entered the room which was unlike him, 

"Father?" He looked away "Father, tell him what you told me."

But my father did not say a word so I turned back to Trey

"He is the one who told me you were dead, that you were killed because you had been a traitor"

Trey's eyes narrowed "And you believed him."

"I had no reason not to, he is my dad and he knew how I felt about you, he had no reason to lie to me"

"Let me get this straight the same man who did not deem me good enough to be his daughters mate because I am an omega told you I had betrayed the pack and never questioned it?"

"I did!" My voice broke "I questioned it every day, I told him there must have been a mistake there was no way you could betray the pack after everything we had done for you."

"Then why did you stop looking for me?"

I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

Because what could I say?

I had been sixteen when he disappeared. I had spent months waiting for him, sneaking away to the forest because some foolish part of me believed he might come walking through the trees but then the months became years and I had to let him go and focus on helping my father run the pack, there was not much I could do back then. 

Oliver had been silent until then, watching the exchange with an increasingly irritated expression. He shifted against the ropes binding his wrists.

"I think you have made your point omega," he said still his ego and pride intact, Trey looked at him.

"Whatever happened between you and Laina happened years ago, she is my soon to be Luna now." Trey's face went completely still, "You should learn to respect that, it's not her fault that you are nothing, she is the daughter of an alpha and she was always destined to marry Ana alpha like her not a nobody like you."

Trey's gaze hardened and the room seemed to stop breathing.

My wolf went silent, Trey's head tilted slightly.

"What did you say?"

Oliver's confidence didn't falter "I said you're an omega."

"Trey," I whispered but he didn't look at me.

Oliver continued "You should remember your place."

I watched Trey's hands slowly curl into fists and his breathing changed.

"Trey." This time my voice was louder and he turned to look at me.

His eyes were no longer the eyes I remembered, they were dark.

"Don't let him intimidate you, Laina. He may have returned from the dead, but that doesn't change what he is." Trey's head turned toward him again.

"What I am?"

Oliver nodded "An omega."

Something inside Trey snapped, he moved so quickly that I barely saw him, one second he was standing several feet away from me and the next, he was in front of Oliver.

The chair crashed backward, Oliver barely had time to gasp before Trey seized him by the throat and slammed him against the stone wall.

"Trey!" I screamed and my father surged forward.

"Leave him!"

Trey didn't even look at him.

Oliver struggled against Trey's grip, he might have been an alpha but he was old and weak and trey was young and strong. 

"You" Trey tightened his hand and Oliver's face reddened "You should have kept your mouth shut."

Oliver clawed at his wrist and Trey leaned closer.

"You had one chance." His voice was terrifyingly calm "You wasted it."

"Trey, stop!"

I ran toward them, but my father caught my arm holding me back

"No!"

"Let me go!"

"Stay back."

"But he will kill him!"

My father's face was pale, for the first time in my life, I saw fear in my father's eyes.

"Trey!" I cried.

He looked at me and our eyes met and for one tiny second, I saw the man I used to know. The boy who used to smile when I stole food from his plate. The boy who used to hold me beneath the stars. The boy who had promised me forever.

Then Oliver spat something at him, I didn't hear the words but I could tell it was not good by Trey’s expression, he turned back to face Oliver and there was a sickening crack and Oliver's body went completely still.

I froze, the world seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

Trey released him, Oliver's body slid down the wall and collapsed onto the floor, I stared at him, I couldn't move, I couldn't even breathe.

That man had been preparing to marry me less than an hour ago.

I hadn't loved him, I hadn't wanted him.

But watching someone die in front of me was different from imagining it.

Trey had snapped his neck like it was nothing. 

My stomach twisted violently and I covered my mouth.

"No"

Trey stood over Oliver's body, there wasn't even a flicker of regret on his face. He looked at the dead man as though he were nothing then he turned toward me and I took a step backward.

"You are afraid of me."

It wasn't a question really and fear was all over my face, I had watched him kill a man in cold blood. 

"I don't know you anymore."

His jaw tightened "You never knew me anyway so it does not really matter."

"That's not true."

"It is."

He walked toward me and the more he got closet I backed away until my shoulders hit the wall.

"Trey"

He stopped inches away, I could smell him, that familiar scent, my body betrayed me immediately as my wolf reached for him, my heart did too but my mind remembered the man lying dead on the floor.

"You want to know what happened to me Laina?"

I nodded slowly 

"Then ask him." he said as he turned and I followed his gaze to my father 

"Trey," my father said quietly.

It was the first time he had spoken since Trey appeared and there was something in his voice, a tremor, like he was scared.

"Father, what is he talking about?"

He looked at me, I had never seen him look so tired, so afraid.

"Leave my daughter out of this, she had nothing to do with any of it."

"You remember what she was to me." My father said nothing.

"She was my mate, I loved her, I would have done anything for her and you tool everything from me, you took her from me."

"Father, what is he talking about?"

He did not say anything he just sat there in silence, I looked at Trey there was no warmth in his face.

"Don't worry, Laina." His voice was calm "You will know everything soon."

He stepped closer to my father.

"I'm going to give your father exactly what he gave me."

"What does that mean?"