I can absolutely see that being his motive, but I’m still pissed off about it. I would have been happy if Mandy died and I never found out about it, the woman erased from my life once and for all.
“Let’s go.”
I do a double take as Bentley holds out his arm for my mother to take, then starts leading her back to our truck.
Is it possible to divorce your scent match? One you haven’t married, but did bond with? If not, I’m going to come up with the equivalent because this is the last thing I thought was going to happen tonight, and I’m not fucking thrilled about it.
Crossing my arms against my chest, I stare out the window, watching the scenery go by from the back fucking seat as Bentley drives us toward what I’m pretty sure is the ranch he bought.
I haven’t been out here as many times as he has, probably only a handful, and I’m shit with directions so I’m not positive.
Not until we turn onto the long ass driveway and my alpha proceeds to hit every bump and hole until we stop down by the barns.
“I was thinking the cows could go over there,” Bentley says with a smile as he ushers Mandy down the hill toward the pasture. “Maybe some goats and sheep over that way.”
I roll my eyes, pouting my ass off as I trail behind them.
This is going to go down as one of, if nottheworst birthday I’ve ever had, and that includes the year my bitch mother rented me out to a fucking bachelor party.
“This is it.”
We stop next to one of the fences and at first I refuse to look at what Bentley is talking about but as soon as I hear the unmistakable sound of pigs squealing, I get right up against the wood, leaning over it with a smile.
“I know we have some time before we can move in, but I thought we could get a bit of a headstart on things anyway.” Bentley rubs the back of his neck nervously, his eyes trained on the side of my face.
I can’t help but grin wider at the way my alpha blushes when I glance at him, sending my love through our bond. Right along with someyou’re not out of the woods yetbecause he sure as hell isn’t with my mother hanging out with us.
“I never thought I’d see the day Octy was living with a bunch of smelly animals.”
My head snaps in her direction and I glare at Mandy. “I lived with you for years, that’s all you ever brought home.”
She waves me off as she lifts her foot and plants it on the lowest slat in the fence. “At least you had a male influence. Not that it seems to have done you any good.”
“Male influence?Male influence?You seriously want to call those bastards role models?”
“I tried, Octavian,” Mandy slurs as she pulls herself up onto the fence, peering down into the pig pen like she’s never seen goddamn mud before. “I tried very, very?—”
I jump as a loud bang goes off, my eyes pinching shut, slamming my hands over my ears as they start to ring. My shoulders bunch up to my chin and I suck in a sharp breath.
What the fuck was that?
It sounded like a goddamn bomb went off.
I force my eyes open, blinking several times as I start working my jaw open and closed, trying to get the ringing to stop, but it goes totally slack at what I see.
My alpha, tucking a fucking gun into a holster under his jacket before he walks up to my mother, who is half-hanging into the pig pen, completely limp and unmoving as smoke floats up from a huge hole in the back of her head, grabs her by the ankles then tosses her over the fence like a goddamn rag doll.
“Happy Birthday, baby,” Bentley says as he wipes his hands on his jeans, smiling wide as he comes to stand next to me. He wraps an arm around my shoulders while I gape at the pigs that are now treating my mother like that fancy dinner I thought we were going to, and I feel my alpha smile when he presses his lips to my temple. “I hope you liked your present.”
Jesus.
I take back everything I’ve been thinking about my alpha since we missed our reservation. Everything. Not only will I never, ever come up with a way to divorce him, Bentley Walker is never going to be able to get rid of me either, in this life or the next one, murder be damned. He gets sick of my shit and decidesto off me, too? He’s still shit out of luck because I will haunt his ass every day for the rest of his life.
He killed Mandy.
My alpha killed Mandy Jones and fed her to the pigs he bought especially for that reason.
I don’t think I could be any more in love with him if I tried.
