Chapter 3 The Price of Disobedience

FINLEY'S POV

The smell of antiseptic hit my nose. It was so strong that it made my stomach churn.

I tried to open my eyes. Only one opened. My left eye was swollen shut.

I was in the medical house. I tried to sit up, but a sharp, blinding pain tore through my ribs. I choked back a scream. It felt as though broken glass was shifting inside my chest.

I fell back against the pillows, gasping. My hands trembled. I looked down and saw blood beneath my fingernails.

My blood.

The memory hit me all at once. Asher's fist. The dirt in my mouth. The sound of the crowd laughing as he ground my face into the ground.

He hadn't just wanted to hurt me. He wanted to break me.

"Don't move, idiot," a voice said.

Dr. Carter stood beside a metal tray. He was wiping the blood from his hands.

"How bad is it?" I asked. My voice sounded hoarse.

"Three cracked ribs. Plenty of bruises. A split lip." Carter tossed the bloodied cloth into the bin. "And a deep cut beneath your left eye. I stitched it up. It'll leave a scar."

A scar.

I shakily raised a hand to my face. My fingers brushed against the thick, rough stitches.

I remembered his voice.

Not the eye. Please.

Asher hadn't cared. He had wanted to mark me.

Tears burned in my good eye. But I refused to let them fall. I wasn't going to cry over him. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction.

"Where is he?" I whispered.

"Gage brought you here and left," Carter said. He didn't even look at me. He simply continued cleaning his instruments as though I were another broken piece of furniture he had to fix. "The Alpha is busy. A human girl interrupted his training and insulted him. He's dealing with her."

I froze.

A human girl.

The memory struck me. Through the haze of blood, I remembered a voice. A girl stepping out from between the trees. She called him a coward. Told him his mother should have drowned him at birth.

I thought I'd imagined her. Nobody spoke to Asher Wolfe like that and lived.

But she was real.

"Is she dead?" I asked.

"No," Carter replied, sounding slightly amused. "Though I'm surprised he didn't tear her apart. He looked ready to. But he stopped." He handed me a small bottle of clear liquid. "Rumour has it... she's his mate. He took her to his house."

The world stopped.

His mate.

The Moon Goddess had given a mate to the monster. A pure and innocent bond handed to a tyrant. It was a cruel joke.

But when the shock passed, a dark, twisted thought began to take shape in my mind.

His mate.

Asher Wolfe had a weakness.

"Is she his fated mate?" I asked. The gears in my mind were already turning.

"That's what the bond says," Carter replied. He forced me to swallow the bitter liquid. "Drink this. It'll help with the pain. Then sleep."

My eyelids grew heavy. The medicine pulled me under. But my mind was wide awake.

I'd spent years searching for a way to hurt Asher. I couldn't defeat him in a fight. I couldn't kill him in his sleep. His warriors guarded him like dogs.

But her.

His mate.

She was human. She was unprotected. She was the one thing Asher would never see coming.

If I could get close to her... if I could turn her against him... I wouldn't just hurt him.

I'd break him.

I'd destroy the great Alpha's heart, just as he had destroyed my face.

I closed my eyes.

Sleep, Finley, I told myself as darkness consumed me.

Heal.

And when you wake up, you'll become a monster worse than he could ever imagine.