ELLIE

I don't know how long I had been here for now. Time seemed infinite when there were no windows to know whether it was day or night and there was no clock for you to be able to tell what the time was.

All I could do was embrace the silence and allow my thoughts to consume me. I wondered what Blake what be doing now. I wondered whether he would be looking after the twins or whether he would be pulling his hair out frantically trying to work out where Bradley had taken me or whether he had turned into a recluse who didn't wish to speak to or see anyone.

I had heard stories of what happens when you lose your mate. You lose your other half and it feels like your heart has been torn out of your chest. You don't see the point in living because there is nothing for you to live for. To put it simply, when you lose your mate, you want to die and you will do anything to get that wish.

I even wondered how the pack were doing. I had hoped that Blake would take control since Jackson was still in the hospital.

I felt the tears in my eyes as I thought of Jackson. I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to him. Someone else was going to tell him that I was gone and then he would probably do something stupid which would only serve to make his injuries worse - enough people had died because of me so I didn't want there to be any more deaths.

I just wanted the pain and the suffering I had caused to end. I didn't even hate Charlotte. The women who had planned my death and was willingly to do anything to make sure I died. I couldn't hate her because I finally realised how she must have been feeling.

She was ignored and neglected while my parents poured all their love into me. She was left to die while I was saved and given the chance at a proper life. She was trained to be a heartless killer while I got the loving family who gave the most normal life they possibly could. She was jealous of me, I knew that now, but I had everything she wanted and everything she never got.

She wasn't right to kill me nor was she right to take my family from me. But I wouldn't be any better than she was if I made her suffer and took away her chance at a proper life, took away her chance to start again away from here. Away from all the reminders of the heartbreak she had been forced to endure at the hands of others.

I turned my head to where the door had opened and Bradley walked in with my dinner for that night. I wasn't treated like a prisoner, even though that's what I was, I was treated like a person and it was almost like they cared about me.

They fed me twice a day. They had never chained me up and neither had they beaten me. They had never done anything to provoke a reaction. With the exception that I was locked in some cellar with nothing other than a mattress and a chair, it was almost like I lived in this place which worried me somewhat.

"Why are you doing this?" I whispered as I took the plate from Bradley's hand and picked at the salad they had given me.

"I don't have a choice Ellie," he replied sadly. It was the same answer I had been given every single time I asked him that question. That he didn't have a choice and I would always hear the slightest hint of sadness in his tone.

"Everyone has a choice Bradley. You just need to make the right one," I sighed quietly. I couldn't bring my eyes to look at him because I didn't want to see the look in his eyes. I was almost terrified of what I would see had I been brave enough to look up.

"How can you talk to me like we're friends? I kidnapped your children, drugged your daughter and then brought you here without any real explanation as to why," Bradley replied and there was something desperate about his question.

I didn't know why I was acting like friends. I should hate him and want to rip him to shreds and, part of me wants to do that every single time I see him, but then I always stop myself as I remember I am the reason that he's the way that he is. I killed his father and his sister. I took his family from him and he didn't even find out until Charlotte found him to tell him it had happened.

I know what it's like to lose your family. I know what it's like to be alone. I have suffered it twice now and, being totally honest, I still feel the pain of David and Jayne's deaths like it was yesterday and I was there to witness both their deaths. I knew they were dead and that they weren't coming back but Bradley didn't get that privilege.

He had to find out from another person that I had murdered his only family. And he was so blinded my hate and rage that he didn't give himself the time he needed to probably mourn their deaths.

"Take a seat. Let's talk," I told him with a faint smile as I put my plate of food onto the floor and crossed my legs in front of me as Bradley took a seat on the edge of the mattress. For the first time since he walked into the room I actually looked at him and I could see the dark circles around his eyes from the lack of sleep. I was sure he looked older than the last time I had bothered to look at him properly.

"Would you believe me if I told you I was sorry for everything I had done to you? I hate you, god do I hate you and I did want to kill you. But then I saw Blake, I saw how happy you were and how carefree you were, especially when you found out you were pregnant with the twins. I knew I couldn't take that away from you. Away from your family," Bradley replied. His gaze averted my own as he looked down at the floor and I could see the tears which betrayed him and fell down his cheeks.

I don't know what I was really thinking but I moved my thumbs beneath his eyes and wiped the tears away. I had never seen someone who played the villain for so long look so broken.

I knew that I shouldn't have done and this was probably some sick trap before he murdered me but I found myself believing his words. I found myself wanting to forgive him for everything he had done to me and tell him that I understood why he did it to me. Even my wolf was whining at how sad Bradley was and she was practically begging me to tell him that I forgave him.

"I never wanted to kill your sister or your father. Believe me when I say that. But they were too stubborn for their own good and they didn't listen to me," I told him.

"Is that supposed to make me feel any better? If anything it makes me hate you all the more than I already do," he muttered coldly and I knew I deserved that one so I didn't say anything.

"Do you have a mate Bradley?" I asked. I knew that, if there was any hope of him understanding why I had to kill his sister and his father, I was going to have to tell him my story and hope that it was enough. I never expected to get out of this alive but I was willing to give it everything I have to get back home to my family.

"Her name is, was, Charlene. She killed herself after her seventh miscarriage and left me to pick up the pieces of everything she had left behind me. I wished that she would have come to me and told me that she was struggling to cope but she didn't, she killed herself because she couldn't handle the pain of continuous loss of our pups," Bradley's voice came out in a hoarse whisper and there it was. The reason he was so cold and so pent on revenge until he sees people who have a family - he can't bring himself to take what he always seemed to lose.

He was an ass, a cold-hearted one at that, but there was a part of him in there which cared about people. He just didn't like to let it show and hid it beneath his cold exterior instead.

"When I met Blake I didn't even want to accept him but I couldn't bring myself to reject him either. I fought against everything, only having three or four conversations with him during the two weeks I was held in the pack prison, because I didn't want to be mated to the son of the man who had taken everything I knew away from me. I blamed Blake for the things his father had done and I hated him. I hated him and I resented that he was my mate," I started speaking and Bradley looked at me with shock. Just like everyone else saw, he only saw the side of me which was madly in love with me mate and couldn't bear to be without Blake for too long, but he didn't see the side which existed before all the love and the care.

"Why did you accept him?" Bradley asked curiously.

"He saved my life. I didn't know who I really was until Blake's brother, Lex, opened his mouth and told everything," I replied honestly.

"Lex? That's the guy that my fa-father killed. Ri-Right?" Bradley faltered over his words as though it was finally hitting him why I needed to do what I did. I never did it to deliberately hurt Bradley. I didn't know he existed so there was no way I did it on purpose.

"Your father tried to attack me when I wasn't looking. I had allowed him to live and he took the coward's action of attacking while my back was turned. Lex sacrificed himself to keep me alive and I just lost control which is when I killed your father. All he had to do was walk away and he would still be alive," I almost choked on the last words I spoke. I don't want to imagine what my life would be like now had James still been alive today because the thought sent chills down my spine.

"When I was a kid, my father was always more interested in Angelica because she was to be the future Alpha of Darkness. He was so interested in her that he seemed to forget that he had a son who also needed his father. And now, look at me, I'm no better than the monster my father was," Bradley spoke harshly as he began to punch the mattress and I did what any normal person would do in the situation. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and hugged him.

I didn't feel afraid and neither did I think he was simply using this as the chance he was looking for to kill me. He was falling apart and he didn't have anyone there to piece him back together like I did when I found Blake. He was alone and he had bottled all his feelings up somewhere in the back of his mind and he had turned into his father so that he didn't have to deal with anything.

I suddenly found myself caring for Bradley and wanting to be there for him. I wanted to help him put himself back together and I wanted him to have some form of life which didn't revolve around pointless revenge and pain. I was sure the pack would think me mad for forgiving him and for being there for him but they needed to understand that I was part of the reason he was the way that he is.

"You are better than he is. You could have killed me a long time ago but you didn't. In fact, I have given you plenty of chances to kill me while I've been here, and you haven't done that either. You are nothing like your father but I need you to take me back to my pack. I need you to take me back to my family," I said softly.

"I c-can't Ellie. I-I'm sor-ry," he sobbed into my shoulder.

"Who is making you do this Bradley? Tell me and I can help you," I replied. And it's times like this where I think I would have made a better Luna then an Alpha.

An Alpha is strong and protects everyone above themselves. An Alpha is a leader and knows all the right things to do to keep their people safe. An Alpha knows how to discipline those who need to be disciplined and how to show mercy to those who have done nothing wrong. An Alpha is someone the people admire, someone the people turn to at a period of crisis in the belief that their Alpha will get them out of that situation.

I wasn't any of those things. I was too compassionate to be an Alpha. I wanted to save everyone and I couldn't stand the idea of hurting people - though my wolf had other ideas when she was either disrespected or pissed off. I wasn't someone the people admired and neither was I someone that the people respected. I loved people too much to be the Alpha deserved.

The amount of people who were willing to work with Bradley against me proved just how little support I have from the people in the pack.

"She will ki-ill me if I t-tell yo-ou," I could hear the panic in his tone and his breathing quickly increased as I sensed the fear which was radiating from his body.

"I won't let anything happen to you. I want to help you, don't ask me why because I don't even know myself, but to help you I need you to tell me who is controlling everything," I said in a shaky breath as Bradley held on to me tighter. I was going to have to have a damn good wash when I got out of this place because I was going to stink of Bradley which wasn't going to impress Blake's wolf at all.

I wasn't planning on saving Bradley was imminent death just to have my mate kill him because I stank of his scent. I would even allow Blake to mark me again so it totally removed any trace of Bradley from my body. Hell I would even mate with him again if it would keep his wolf happy and it would keep Bradley alive.

"Y-You prom-mise?" Bradley's voice was so broken that I could feel it tugging at my heart strings while my wolf was howling in delight at the prospect of mating with Blake when we got the hell out of here so she was as good as useless right now.

"I promise. Now tell me. What's their name?" I asked quickly.

"Ni-Nicole Sto-tone."

- And, with that twist, this book is probably two or three chapters from the end now. So I would like to think you have enjoyed the rollercoaster journey of Blake and Ellie throughout this book and that the story has lived up to your expectations.

- I would also like to inform you that there will be a third book at some point AND throughout the Summer there is also going to be a spin off which shall either be about Link and Jamie OR about Elliot and Jackson. I am still undecided which way I am going to go.