Chapter 97

Shackled (The Lord Series)

97. Stefan Angel’s screams still che in my head, her yelling for me to save her.

Why the f uck did I wait until now to tell the truth? Because I was scared of what Alekos and Reyes would do and because I didn’t want to ruin the friendship we had. Angel was tortured because I didn’t open my mouth when I was supposed to. If I weren’t such a piece of sh it, we would have gotten her out before anything happened to her.

Angel being beaten with a l a leather paddle until she is covered in blood.

at Carlos had killed ber?

What if Carlos My demon growls so loud I have the impression he will consume me.

The hunting vest I wear over my t-shirt is undone, Reyes slashes my chest, and the acid from the knife’s handle spreads across my body, unbearable pain bringing me to my knees. It won’t kill me, but I will experience extreme pain in the days that follow Reyes is about to plunge the knife into my heart, but Alekos stops him. “Do you really y want to kill him so fast?”

“You are right. He deserves to suffer,” Reyes s says and spits on my face.

Alekos grabs the collar of my vest and yanks me up. “I trusted you, and what did you do?” he snarls.

“I’m sorry.” I mumble.

Alekos takes the knife from Reyes. “You better be because I will kill you slowly and painfully.”

He cuts me across my stomach, more acid entering my body, the pain knocking the breath out of me. Alekos puts the tip of the knife to the base of my neck, and I don’t move, knowing that I deserve to be killed by my blood-brothers.

“You knew how I felt about her, what Reyes and I feel for her, and you still kicked her out, lying to her and us! It was not your decision but her if she wanted to leave! Not that I would have really let her leave.”

Reyes trembles with rage, his eyes turning entirely red. “You were like a brother to me. And you took my mate away from me,” he growls every word, making me believe it is his demon who is speaking I knew Reyes was on the verge of madness, but since meeting Angel, his mind was clearer than ever. I let everyone down because I wasn’t willing to give up on Emily, and she ended up being a treacherous snake.

Fryes’s nails and canines start to elongate. Is he going to shift? G oddam Alekos grabs his shoulder. “Keep it together. We will find her.”

Reyes moves away y from me and starts hitting his head against the wall. He does this when the dark whisper is too loud. Angel kept his darkness at bay, and now he is self-harming again.

Blood gas hes out from the cuts made by Reyes, the acid running through my veins, making every part of my body scream in pain.

“I will bring her back,” I promise.

“Bring her back?” Alekos asks sarcastically. “While you were here hunting rats like you, she was saved.”

1 let out a breath of relief. Angel is alive and safe. “Where is she? I need to apologize to her.”

“If we knew where she was, do you think we would be here?” Reyes My paze goes to Reyes, who is still banging his head against the wall. Alekos and I would always stop him, not wanting anything to happen to him, but Alekos is holding my vest tight, almost like he is afraid that I will run away the moment he lets go. I wouldn’t. I might be many things, but I am not a coward.

“What do you mean you don’t know where she is? You saved her.” Neither Alekos not Reyes say anything. I am starting to panic.

While in the forest, I’ve had time to 1/2 think about Angel and how I’ve treated her since she threw away Emily’s engagement ring. Now that the rose-tinted glasses perding Emily are gone. Angel is the one for me. When I took her shopping, I kwed every second I spent with her. And each time I see her with Bee and Alkes, I imagnet inside her.

“Right?” I as “Aleksas. “The but also the “You lost your right to know sh it about Angel the moment you went behind our backs and made a decision without talking to important rule of being a blood brother is never betray the others and never make decisions on your own. You not only broke that. demands us to take care of our bonded when you threw her on the stert.”

“But the is not our bonded anymore.” What a st upid thing to say because I want her to be my bonded. And the is more than that. She is belt. I want to let that sink in, but the pain from the acid makes it hard to think rationally.

Reyes finally stops slamming his head into the wall and looks at me. Blood covers his forehead from the force in which he has inflicted the damage “Because you refused to do your part despite knowing she is our hellstar. You kept pushing her awory, never f ucking her or taking care of her emotional nesh. You failed her and us mer and over again.”

I failed Angel and my blood-brothers. I don’t deserve any of them, but if it takes me a lifetime, I will work hard sow them I am worthy of foreness.

“If there were a way to sever the bond that binds us as blood-brother without risking Reyes’s sanity. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it,”

koste Alekos doesn’t want me as his blood-brother anymore...

1 f ucked up everything because I wasn’t willing to let go of Emily because of what she represented-my first love. It took me seeing the videos of her and wake up to reality and the videos of Angel’s torture to know what I lost.

“Give me a chance to prove how sorry I am for everything,” I beg Alekos sports. “Excuse me?

You want to prove you are sorry? His sarcastic tone lets know he does not believe me. “How can I trust you are sorry when you were up here for four days while our bonded, our hellstar, was tortured because you were a f ucking coward who wouldn’t take responsibility for what you didi” be roans.

I needed to clear my head, but I didn’t really think through what would happen to Angel.

“If not for you, none of this would have b have happened,” Reyes growls.

“I know,” I whisper. “But I am truly sorry. How can I prove that I am not lying?”

Alekos’s jaw is set hard. “Tell me the truth about the woman in the hospital.

I don’t want to tell them about Emily, but if I keep quiet, I will lose my only chance to set things right. Will Alekos accuse me of knowing of Emily’s planat Surch he knows Nikolas was like a father to me. But he will question why I let Emily get away with everything she did, and I don’t have a clear anneer myself.

Not wanting to make my blood-brothers wait, I take my phone out of my pocket. “The battery is dead, but allow me to charge in, and then I will show y important.”

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