**Rosalie’s POV
The way that Ethan was growling at us, I had assud he was still in his wolf form, but when I turned to look at him, it was the human Ethan’s eyes I was looking into.
Shirtless with only a small pair of tattered shorts covering him, he glared at , his hands in fists.
At the mont, it was difficult to tell the difference between the man and his beast.
“What the f*ck are you doing, Rosalie?” he shouted at , coming at slowly, which was surprising. I didn’t know why he didn’t shoot right past and go after Rowan. Wouldn’t it be the baby he was really after?
“I’m doing whatever the h*ll I want to,” I shot back imdiately and tried my best to keep his attention on . “Who do you think you are to tell what I can and cannot do, Ethan?”
He had narrowed the distance between us so that he was only a few feet away.
I needed to make sure Seraphine and Soren had ti to get out of here so that Ethan couldn’t get my baby.
I listened to the sound of them running through the woods behind , the thunk of their wolf paws getting quieter and quieter as they got further away.
Even though I realized I was sacrificing my freedom, I needed Rowan to be safe, and that ant he needed to be in the north, with our pack, not here, locked in a heavily guarded tent in the middle of a battlefield.
“You promised !” Ethan growled, his teeth locked together in a grimace. “I trusted you, Rosalie! You said you wouldn’t leave without telling goodbye!”
“And I haven’t!” I argued, even though the only reason I was still there was because he had caught . “Goodbye, Ethan!” I said and turned to go, as if that ws the only reason I hadn’t left with the others.
I wasn’t surprised at all when his fingers wrapped around my arm and tugged back. It didn’t hurt, but it was forceful.
“You’re not f*cking going anywhere, Rosalie!” he said. “You f*cking lied to ! You were planning to sneak out from again, and you know it!”
I wrenched my arm out of his grip. “You have the audacity to stand there and yell at for lying to you, Ethan? Seriously? After all of the lies you’ve said to ? You don’t get to talk to about breaking promises! I would’ve said whatever was necessary to get you to leave the hell alone!”
His crimson eyes were so red that it almost seed like they would start to drip blood. He further narrowed them until they were only slits. He was seething, his nostrils flaring as he drew in deep breaths. “Just wake the f*ck up, Rosalie!” he said. “You think that you’re the queen now so you can do what you want, but you will always belong to , do you understand?!”
“I don’t belong to you, Ethan! I don’t belong to anyone!” I yelled at him. Anger was beginning to boil up in , too, now. Who the heck did he think he was? What did I have to do to prove to him that I was an individual, a person, who wasn’t owned or controlled or the property of anyone?
“You will always belong to !” he said again. “And now, you’ve let my f*cking a*shole half-brother take our baby? Are you insane? Have you f*cking lost your mind?!”
“Your brother will take care of my son!” I emphasized the word “my” as I yelled back. “Unlike you, he actually cares about people! All you ever do for Rowan is co in and stare at him for a few minutes a day. He doesn’t even know who you are! You only wanted him as an heir, but have you ever thought of what he wants?”
I could tell his fists were clenched tightly, I could hear the cracking of his knuckles. Would he hit ? However, I didn’t care at that mont so I continued, “You care as little about his life as you do mine, and he will know that, Ethan. He will grow up knowing that his absent father was just a tyrant who only cares about himself!”
“Shut up, Rosalie!” Ethan scowled at . “You don’t know what the f*ck you’re talking about! I love my son!”
“Love?” I sneered, “He was simply a product of you following King Jas’s orders, and nothing more. No one who actually loves their child would ever hurt their other parent, and you were going to curse him to a life with no mother because I wasn’t convenient to you! You were going to let my son be raised by Madalynn! Who the hell would ever do that to their child?!”
All of the mistreatnt I’d suffered at Ethan’s hands ca back to , flashing before my eyes, and more than anything, I just wanted to hit him.
But he was so much bigger than , so much stronger, raising a hand to hit him would be suicidal. One blow from his fist could end . Yet, I continued to dance the fine line between baiting him with my words and sending him spiraling into a rage where he couldn’t control his own emotions or actions.
His scarlet eyes were glowing now, as he continued to asure up as his fists clenched and unclenched. “You’re going to pay for this, Rosalie,” he said. “If you think the conditions before were unfair, you just f*cking wait. You’ve betrayed the wrong Alpha.”
“You’re no Alpha!” I shouted. “You’re just a rogue! And not even a good one at that. You tried to kill your own followers! You have even killed your own soldiers in battle because you care so little about others. These people have given up everything for you, Ethan! Vicky, Talon, Paul... Georgia, so many others! You aren’t worth it, and yet here you are bossing everyone around like you’re so sort of a freaking god when you’re really not even a man!”
I knew what I said wasn’t totally true. I heard from Vicky that Ethan mistakenly hurt so of his guys, but none of them were originally from Drogomor. Maybe deep down, his pack bond prevented him from hurting his own pack.
However, I didn’t care to clarify it with him. I saw him hesitate for a mont, seemingly shocked by what I’d said.
“Watch your mouth, Rosalie!” he shouted, and I could see him getting even closer to that breaking point.
But I was there, too. Anger shot through my veins as I thought about my friends and everything they had left behind so that Ethan would live. And how did he repay them? By becoming so sort of a monster. He didn’t care about any of them anymore, not even Talon who had stood by his side for so long.
“What’s the matter, Ethan?” I taunted. “Are you afraid that what I’m saying is true? Are you afraid that you’ve actually lost all of your morals? That your scruples have gone out the window because of this soulless creature you’ve beco? Are you afraid that Jas has taken more than just your citizenship away but that he’s actually stolen your essence? Do you even have a human side anymore?”
He was breathing so hard now, I could almost see the steam coming out of his ears with every exhale. His mouth was open, his teeth elongated as if he was about to shift, and with every breath he took, his chest heaved. He couldn’t even formulate a response to now, he was so enraged.
Behind , I no longer heard the sound of Seraphine and Soren as their wolves took my baby to safety. The further away from Rowan got, the more I felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest.
It was Ethan who had made give my baby away—it was Ethan who had caused this chasm between my son and —one I had no idea when I’d be able to cross. When would I see his sweet little face again? When would I hold him in my arms?
My own anger flared again at the thought of my child out there in the world without , crying, missing . All because his father had lost all sense when he’d given his soul away.
“All you want is power. All you want is to control and everyone else, Ethan. Well, you may take my body back to your freaking camp and lock up again, but I will tell you right now, you will never have ! If I live a thousand years, I will never, ever forgive you for making my baby leave!”
“Shut up, Rosalie!” he said, but it seed more like a plea this ti than an order, like he knew that if I didn’t stop taunting him with my angry words, he was going to lose all self-control, and he simply wouldn’t be able to keep from doing sothing drastic, sothing he couldn’t take back.
“I don’t have to shut up!” I told him. “My son is gone, thanks to you! He’s out there in the woods, crying, missing his mother, because of you! If you’re going to be so selfish as to make stay here, in your camp away from my baby, then I want you to know that you can consider him no longer your son!”
I could see his veins raised on his forehead, I could hear his teeth chattering due to anger, and I was ready to bear his rage, because I was desperate.
I was angry, at him, at myself, at the situation. I didn’t care what I said any more. If he was going to punish , then so be it! How much worse would it get?
All of the negative emotions that I had tried to press down erupted like a volcano, and I did not care whether I said what I ant any more. I just needed to get it out.
“From this day forward, when I write his na, I will spell it with an E—R-O-W-E-N because even if he is your own flesh and blood, Ethan Gray, it’s clear to that you don’t love him. But Soren does! And he will take care of him! He can call Soren his father from now on while I spend the rest of my days rotting with you!”
A horrific growl emitted from the depths of Ethan’s soul. The rest happened in slow motion as I saw his right fist co around, his fingers wrapped so tightly into a ball, his knuckles were white. Sweat dripped off of his bicep as his muscular limb ca flying directly at my face.
Rather than dodging out of the way or trying to avoid the punch, I stood there firmly, with my feet planted, ready to receive the devastating blow.
Whatever would happen no longer concerned . I was used to being beaten, so how much worse could it really get?
If it made him hate enough to kill , then that would be on his head.
Without my baby, I didn’t care to live anymore anyway.
Ethan’s fist ca around, and my eyes closed of their own accord, preparing for the world to go black.
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