The Big Bad Wolf

16

"Your mother may strike me down for this. However, Astrid, I beg of you to reject him." Liam finally spoke. They had walked to the waterfall near the castle. "Rejection won't work. Only death." She spoke calmly. "Because of being Queen I cannot reject nor accept rejection. I will be bonded to him, as long as we are alive." She bowed her head. Liam noticed how she wore her skinny leg dark Jean's, combat heels, her fitted biker tank, with leather jacket. "You are wearing your badass outfit. Trying to make yourself feel badass, aren't you?" He spoke softly. She nodded. He walked around to face her, and saw the tears streaming down her face. She didn't appear to be crying, just the tears were falling. Her face impassive, the years giving away everything.

"He read the file, he questions her, you see how your daughter is hurting. Even after your warning to him! He doesn't deserve her!" Liam roared into the sky, making Astrid flinch internally. A Queen never flinches externally. "I'm your protector, yet I can do nothing to keep your from getting your heart broken." Her wrapped her up in his arms. "Its okay to cry, Sweetheart. Let it out. I've got you. Promise." She immediately began to sob. She let down all her guards and sobbed into Liam's arms. She allowed herself to be the broken little girl, the fragile, delicate, shattered China doll that she was inside, but just for a short time.

"Awe looky here. The great Queen, isn't so great. Trouble in paradise? Is that why you are crying into another man's arms? Should have accepted my offer. I could have made you satisfied." Alpha Blackwood sneered. Liam growled. Astrid rose to her full, short height letting her power drop from her aura. "Its none of your business Blackwood." She growled. "See, you took everything from me. My pack, my children, your mother took my mate. Now, you want rogues and turned to live along side borns. Rogues took my mate, I'll never let that happen." He pulled a gun from his pocket, and pulled the trigger faster than anyone could process. Astrid felt the white hot pain tear through her lower abdomen. "Wolfsbane bullet. Can't let you reproduce." Liam snarled and was stuck between wanting to kill Blackwood, and wanting to get Astrid to safety. "Kill him." She hissed. It was Lucy, and Astrid. She was still standing, clutching her abdomen, with blood oozing out of her fingers. Liam swiftly killed Blackwood, in one strike. He turned to see Astrid calmly walking back to the castle. He knew she should be screaming out in pain. This was all wrong. She had been through so much, now this. He should have made Blackwood suffer.

Sampson was being glared at all through breakfast. His father had told him to leave her be. He went to leave the table, when white hot searing pain shot through his lower abdomen. He fell to the floor. He removed his hand to see no injury, or blood. "Mate"  Andrew whimpered. "The Queen is injured." He hissed out. The pain doubled in intensity, and screamed out. The pain just stopped. No hint that it was even there. He saw only his mother left standing there. "You aren't in pain anymore are you?" He shook his head. "She isn't allowing it over the bond. Mates share pain so no one of them has too much. She is taking it all right now." His mother's voice cracked. If he felt part of her pain, the how much pain is she really in. He raced out of the dining hall, and stopped dead in his tracks. His mate was walking, walking through the front doors of the castle. No one helping her. He went to approach her, but a feral growl stopped him. It was his mates growl. "You did this to us. Because of you, and your selfishness, we are bleeding out. You do not deserve to touch us. Tell him what he did, anyone may. He is to never touch us, nor be alone with us." Her voice was two voices. It was hers and her wolfs. She continued walking, leaving Sampson utterly confused. He tried to follow but was cut off by guards. He growled and tried to fight them off, but more pinned him down. The Beta walked in.

"She lifted the command. You stupid stupid Alpha. How could you have desired to know your dead mate, that you never met more than getting to know your living one!?" Liam pinned Sampson by his neck. "What are you talking about?!" Sampson growled. "You just had to look in that stupid file. It was a test tou idiot! You failed. You failed again when you cried for someone you never met, in front of your future everything! You failed again when you didn't return to her. You failed again when you questioned her integrity! In return she walked to the waterfall with me, she cried in my arms over you breaking her heart. Caring more for a dead person, you never met, than the living one in front of you! She was shot with a wolfsbane bullet through her uterus!" Liam roared, and slammed Sampson against the wall and dropped him. "I wasn't fast enough, I tried to get in the way. I wasn't fast enough." Liam fell to the floor, bleeding where the bullet hit him also. He had moved to protect her, but wasn't fast enough. The bullet pierced his hip, but still settled in Astrid. The guards carried their Beta off, to the hospital, and everyone left Sampson alone.

"I told you she would guard her heart. My daughter is kind, and loyal. Yet, she doesn't trust easily. In the first few hours, you broke her trust. I warned you she wouldn't be simple. I never wanted this path for either of you, now you have both taken it. I never showed her this far because of this. Blackwood would have shot her anyway. Only you would have been in Liam's place instead of him. Don't blame yourself for her being shot. Blackwood is dead, Liam made sure of it. You hurt my daughter after I warned you. I hoped you would have headed my warning. Stupid wolf. Now, you have to work harder." Celine spoke venomsly to Sampson. Tears were streaming down his face. He lost his mates trust. Andrew was whimpering in sadness. Suddenly the pain was back. "Her revenge on you. She is giving you all her pain, not just physical, but emotional too. I can't stop her. I hope you survive it." Celine disappeared leaving Sampson alone. His heart was shattering, he felt dirty, disgusting, he had self loathing, he felt used, he felt broken. The physical pain was bearable. He was reliving all her pain throughout her life, he started seeing it from her point of view. All her struggles, the torture, the abuse, the rapes. He felt it all, he felt her emotions with them. He laid on the cold marble floor a sobbing mess when it was finished. He felt the loss of being unable to conceive the hardest. The hollow, empty, vast nothingness that was now inside his mate. He felt how she had nothing left to live for. He had cared so much about his dead first mate, to not think about how his second chance mate might be feeling. She didn't have him, she had no one. Her only hope was to one day have children, and now that too was gone.