“He gains my torment for the rest of my life,” I muttered.
“Something tangible.” Lavinia ran a hand through her hair. “If he only wanted your torment, he would have kidnapped you and kept you with him, don’t you think? He had the opportunity to take you, but he didn’t.”
She had a point.
“And while you were missing, Emilia found something else.” She spoke quietly, like she wanted her words to be gentle enough to not hurt. “He was stalking you, Tal. She traced his stepsaround town and there were pieces missing, but he was never far from you for long.”
My bondmark throbbed intensely, my head swimming.
“No, there’s no way. Wouldn’t I have noticed? I waslookingfor him.”
How could he have possibly avoided my attention when I was so focused on finding him? Our fathers had taught us to see signs of things like that, yet I’d missed it entirely?
“He stayed a safe distance away. Since he knew your patterns, he didn’t have to get close enough for you to notice him.”
“What about when I was in Villem?” I demanded. “That wasn’t part of my pattern.”
Had he been watching me while I spent time with the alphas I truly wanted? I wanted those memories to be sacred; not to forever know that I was being watched from afar.
“Hard to tell. He went to a cafe close to their house, but he might have lost track of you and not known exactly where you were.”
Great.
I didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and ignore everything going on around me until my alphas came back and reminded me that they loved me despite my crazy stalker bondmate.
“What’s even the point?” I asked, rubbing my neck. “He’s my forever. There’s no way to break the bond unless I want to risk my life.”
“We want to find him before he can hurt you more—” Lav started.
Mira cut her off. “And who fucking says he’s your forever? There are ways around that when you have alphas as devoted as yours.”
Wishful thinking. “They can be as devoted as they want, and it doesn’t change anything.”
“No, it does. We find Benjamin, they torture him until he accepts them as packmates, they all form complete bonds with you, and then we kill the asshole. You’ll have three alphas to help you through the loss of one.” Barrelling ahead with an explanation despite my skepticism, Mira’s plan was kind of insane.
It also made a lot of sense.
For the first time, I felt a spark of hope sizzling inside me. I might not have to settle for a half life, living with my alphas but never able to bond them. Constantly worried about Benjamin doing something to hurt me through the bond.
I could live the life I’d wanted.
Benjamin would have to die for it, but now I could say he deserved every second of agony we could put him through.
“Is there research about this?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Mira admitted. “Your situation is… unique. But there have been studies done on omegas who lost only one of their alphas. If they had at least two remaining alphas supporting them through the breaking of the bond, the omegas survived in ninety percent of cases.”
In other words, studies showed I had a ten percent chance to die anyway.
But if I lucked out and ended up in the ninety percent who lived, I’d be free of him forever.
I could have my happily ever after that I’d stupidly thrown away without even realizing it. My pack would be my second chance, just like Felicity Jones had gotten—although we’d never know now if I would have scent matched to Mercer, Conrad, and West. We would already be bonded by the time my first scent match died.
I would always believe they should have been my fated mates.
“Our fathers are never going to agree to a ten percent chance of death.” I realized the largest flaw in the plan with a frown. “No matter how much I beg, they’d rather keep him locked away forever than have me risk my life to get free from him.”
