Free Web NovelChapter 17: Regrets
REBECCA’S POV
The first thing I felt was a terrible, throbbing pain in the back of my head. It felt like someone was smashing my skull with a heavy rock over and over again. I groaned, my eyes squeezed shut as I tried to move. Every inch of my body ached. My shoulder burned from where I had hit the wall, and my lower back throbbed painfully. Then I felt the cold stone floor beneath me.
Memory crashed into me like a bucket of ice water. Kaden. The bedroom. The violent shove.
My eyes flew open. I was still lying on the floor of the Alpha King’s master bedroom. Morning sunlight streamed through the tall windows, flooding the room with a harsh brightness that made my head pound even harder.
"Get up."
The cold voice sent a shiver through my body. Slowly, I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, fighting the dizziness threatening to drag me back down. Through the curtain of my tangled hair, I looked up.
Kaden was already dressed in a dark shirt and black pants. His long black hair was pushed back neatly, and his green eyes were completely clear of whiskey. There was no trace of the broken man from last night. No tenderness. Only disgust and anger.
My stomach twisted painfully. For one terrible moment, I wondered if I had imagined everything—the way he had held me, the way he had touched me, the way he had whispered another woman’s name while lying in my arms.
"Get up on your feet, murderer," he growled. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
My trembling legs barely obeyed. My torn dress hung loosely from one shoulder, exposing bruised skin. I felt filthy. Humiliated. Broken. I grabbed the wall for support before my legs could give out beneath me.
Kaden stepped forward, and his shadow swallowed me whole. Unexpectedly, his hand shot out and clamped around my jaw. Pain exploded across my face. I gasped as his fingers dug into my skin.
"What did you do to me last night?" he hissed.
His face was only inches away now. Close enough for me to see the fury burning behind his eyes—but close enough to see something else beneath it. Fear. The realization startled me. He looked afraid. Not of me, but of what had happened. Of himself.
"I-I didn’t do anything," I whispered.
"Don’t lie to me!" The roar shook the room. His grip tightened until tears sprang into my eyes. "I know exactly what you are. A sneaky, filthy murderer. You used some kind of slave trick to confuse my mind."
My heart clenched. Even after everything... even after he had come to me willingly... this was still what he thought of me.
"I didn’t do anything to you, Alpha," I choked out. "You came to my room. You were drunk. You—"
Before I could finish, he released me with a violent shove. The back of my head slammed into the stone wall, and pain burst behind my eyes.
"Shut your mouth!" Kaden roared.
His chest rose and fell violently. For a second, I thought he might hit me. Instead, he turned away, both hands tangled in his dark hair as he paced several steps across the room.
His shoulders shook. Not with sadness, but with rage. A rage directed entirely at himself.
I suddenly understood. Kaden was angry that he made love to me instead of brutally fucking me. He was angry that he kissed me. That for one terrible night, he had treated me like something more than the murderer he believed I was.
The realization seemed to disgust him. He wanted to erase the memory. To bury it. To pretend it had never happened. But no matter how much he hated it... no matter how much he hated me... he couldn’t change the fact that last night was real.
Kaden stopped pacing and turned around, his angry glare fixed on me. "Get out," he spat. "Get out of my sight before I finish what I should have done to you a week ago."
I didn’t wait for him to say it again.
Ignoring the sharp pain in my head and my trembling legs, I scrambled toward the massive bedroom doors. I pulled them open, threw myself out into the grand hallway, and shut the door behind me.
I didn’t know where I was going. My brain was a foggy, panicked mess, and my only instinct was to run as far away from his fury as possible. With my bare feet hitting the cold floor and my hands holding up my torn dress, I bolted down the corridors, tears finally blurring my sight.
I turned a sharp corner blindly, going too fast to stop, and slammed hard into a solid chest.
"Whoa—" a deep voice gasped as strong hands instantly caught my upper arms to steady me.
My breath completely seized in my throat. I slowly lifted my head, fully expecting to see a guard’s furious face staring down at me.
But my eyes widened in absolute shock.
How was this possible? ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
The man holding me looked exactly like Kaden. The face was the same. The sharp jaw. The broad shoulders. The imposing height. For one dizzy second, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.
"Careful," he said, tightening his grip when my knees nearly buckled.
"Are you hurt?"
The concern in his voice startled me.
Then the man frowned slightly. And I noticed it.
His eyes. They weren’t green. They were brown. A warm, rich brown.
My gaze flickered upward to his hair. Not black. Dark brown. A rich, dark chocolate color—not the midnight black I was used to.
The differences were small, almost impossible to notice at first glance, but now that I saw them, I knew this wasn’t the alpha king. Confusion flooded through me. Who was this?
Before I could even find my voice to speak, a loud roar echoed down the hallway.
"What is happening here?"
I froze, a cold shiver running down my spine. I turned my head around slowly, only to see Alpha King Kaden standing a few feet away, his face twisted in a dark, angry scowl as he glared at us.
Total confusion washed over me. My heart raced as I looked up at the brown-eyed man who was still holding me, and then back at the green-eyed king standing at the end of the hall. Their faces, their builds, their height—they were identical.
They were twins.
