The Alpha’s Dark Revenge
Chapter 52

Liyah's POV

I was still trying to make sure my seatbelt was secured when he zoomed off. I turned to face him when he continued to increase his speed rather than do the opposite, and I could see the anger in his eyes as he stepped harder on the gas. My stomach churned and I held on for dear life. I was scared to death when he suddenly hit the brakes, bringing the car to a stop with a deafening screeching sound. I turned to him in shock wondering what had come over him, but when I saw him stoic and his face expressionless, I kept my mouth shut. He sat hunched over, and I could see the veins on the back of his hand bulge as he clutched the steering wheel. Minutes passed and not a word was spoken. The silence was almost deafening and all I could hear was the rapid pounding of my heart. "He killed her."

I looked up in surprise, trying to ignore the rush of disgust that filled me when I realized he must be talking about Father. I shut my eyes tightly, unclenching my fingers. I swallowed as I turned back to Nikolai. I don't think I had ever seen so much pain in his eyes. It was... surprising.

"We had just found out she was pregnant, with twins... my twins," He gave a small smile. "We were ambushed on our way back from the hospital. Verbeck had always been so power hungry, I couldn't understand it. I tried... I tried to save her. It wasn't enough. He made me watch as they took turns..."

"No," I gasped as I realized where this was going.

No. No, they didn't. They didn't..

"He made me watch as they defiled my pregnant wife. The only person asides from family that I truly loved. He took my whole world away from me that day, but all he did was stand there and laugh... like he was at a comedy show. He snapped her neck when he was done."

I clapped a hand over my mouth to stop the cry that threatened to escape my lips.

"Nikolai I never knew he="

"He killed them, my Elle. We were supposed to start a family, I was going to be a father. And he snatched her away... like she was nothing. Just so he could take over as the most powerful Alpha?"

The confusion in his voice was so heartbreaking I could feel myself falling apart. "Elle never hurt anyone. S-she never hurt anyone." His hands were trembling now.

"How could I go back to being normal after that? How could I walk around smiling and laughing after that? How could I dare be happy? Without her... without my pups. She was... everything. The thought of normalcy without her felt like sin. What right did I have to feel happiness?"

I remembered all the times I had seen him pause and revert in the middle of a smile. All the times he had snarled and raised hell when his pack members were being too jolly for his liking. The pure hatred in his eyes everytime he visited my dungeon. "Then I thought; if I kidnapped the daughter he loved so dearly, maybe he would feel my pain. Maybe he would understand what it feels like to feel so much until you feel nothing at all." He scoffed. "And then it turns out that this whole time I've been kidding myself..."

I watched him pause painfully, his hands trembling so violently. And for some reason-maybe pity, maybe because he was in so much agony or maybe because I actually cared for some twisted reason; I carefully reached out and intertwined my fingers in his, giving him a gentle squeeze, and using my free hand to swipe off the tears that had streamed down my face.

"I never told anyone the full story of what really happened that night. We wanted the pregnancy to be a surprise. Drew always wanted to be an uncle you know, it would kill him..."

All of a sudden, he tore his hands away from mine and started the ignition. I knew it wasn't the best time to say anything, and I had no idea what to say, so I settled with sneaking glances at him at intervals. After what seemed like decades,we finally reached the mansion. He turned of the ignition and without a single glance at me, stormed off.

When he had walked a good distance away from the car, I saw him pause by the bushes and raise his hands to his face, so quickly that if I hadn't been watching I wouldn't have noticed. What made it so much worse was the fact that he had wiped his eyes. And that could only mean one thing.

I sighed as I leaned deeper into my seat. I felt... guilty. Guilty for judging him without knowing the full story, guilty for pronouncing him a selfish monster, guilty for assuming he did all of those things for fun and to soothe his guilty heart.

Tonight I had seen him for what he truly was; a broken man with a sad part. I envisioned everything he had gone through, and I realized that all the good in me would probably be lost too if I watched my loved one get murdered. No wonder he was so cold, so hard on everyone. And hardest on himself.

And all of this was Father's fault. My jaw clenched as I ran it through my head over and over again. How could he sleep at night knowing he had taken an innocent woman's life. And that too right in front of her mate? How could he be so calm, so happy, knowing how much pain he was inflicting on so many people each passing day?

Why did he do this? The fact that I was related to someone like that by blood irritated me to the core. Muffling the sudden sob that escaped me, I let myself cry. For reasons I wasn't quite sure of.