The Mark of Betrayal (by Cooper) novel Chapter 28

Roman

I let her go, watching her walk to the kitchen to get food before returning to my office. There’s another plate of food waiting for me in my office, the breakfast plate having been removed while I was talking to Samantha. I need to remember to thank my pack for looking after me on these days. I know it’s hard for them, feeling my grief. I try to shield it from them as much as possible, but as their Alpha, there’s no way to shield it from them completely.

I ignore the food and pour another glass of whiskey, pushing the information on Theo aside and pulling up the information on Samara.

I go through everything, frustrated when I can’t find anything new, any new leads that could help me to find her. When I finally stand, frustrated and angry, I realize it’s dark outside. I go pour another glass of whiskey and walk to the windows, staring outside.

“You must be so disappointed in me, my friend. I know I am,” I say to the empty room.

I don’t know how long I’ve been standing there when I hear the knob on my office door turning. I look over, wondering who is entering my office. Everyone knows to leave me alone today.

Samantha steps in, looking around. I’m hidden in the shadows by the window and she obviously doesn’t see me. I watch her walk over to my desk, seeing the papers strewn across it.

As I watch, she begins looking at them, moving more quickly through each of the papers. I hear her gasp and her hand goes to her mouth.

“What are you doing, Samantha?” I ask.

She spins around, obviously startled that I’m in here.

“What is this?” she whispers.

I laugh, a very dry, humorless laugh.

“That is the sum of my failures,” I say, gesturing to the desk with my glass.

“Are you drunk?” she asks.

“I tried my damnedest but being a strong Alpha with a strong Alpha wolf, it’s fucking difficult to get drunk,” I growl, downing the rest of the drink.

I’m tipsy enough, raw enough, that I begin stalking over to her. She watches me, not with fear thankfully, but almost like she’s never seen me before.

“This,” I say, pointing to the right side of my desk, “is my failed attempt to try and find the people responsible for my best friend’s death and that of his family.”

I set my empty glass down. “And this,” I say, gesturing to the left side of the desk, “is me trying to find his youngest sister who disappeared without a trace and once again failing her and him.”

I lean forward, putting my hands on the desk on either side of her, forcing her to lean against my desk as I get in her face.

“I failed them, Samantha, which is why it is so important to me that I get revenge for whoever hurt you. I will never, ever, fail someone like that again,” I growl, my voice raw with the emotions that are so close to the surface that I feel like I might break.

I see tears well in her eyes. “You really never betrayed us, did you?” she whispers.

I jerk as if I’ve been punched. I stand up, staring at the woman in front of me. It can’t be. It can’t be ... can it?

“Samara?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper.

Her lips begin to tremble, and she nods.

“Yes, he did, Roman. I saw him. I was there!”

“Samara, you thought I betrayed you and I didn’t. Sawyer didn’t ...”

“I’m sorry, Roman,” she says, and she looks like she really is sorry a moment before she opens the door to her memories. There’s a flood of them all at once and I’m nearly brought to my knees by the images of Theo and Samara’s family that are so clear in her mind. Then, she pushes the memory she wants me to see to the forefront.

It starts with her mother waking her, telling her they’re under attack. She gets her to their secret passageway before her mother is attacked and I feel the full wave of fear from the nine-year-old Samara as she hears her mother die on the other side of the door, hears her father’s howl of pain before it cuts off, his own life being snuffed out. I feel her terror as she races down the stairs, hiding behind the door, not knowing what to do.

Then Theo rips the door open and her instant relief if palpable. I watch as he tells her he thinks it’s a pack in the north that is attacking them, watch as he expertly kills a wolf that leaps to attack him, I watch him tell her to go south, to hide her identity until he comes for her. I watch as he tells her to trust no one, and then watch as he hears something, something she can’t hear without her wolf and tells her to hide.

Through her eyes, I see through the slit in the door where she’s hiding. I watch Sawyer walk up to Theo ... and stab him over and over again.

I feel like my heart is being torn from my chest. I step away from Samara, but she continues to push the memory into my head. Me, coming in right behind Sawyer. It looked like I was working with him, the way Sawyer told me Theo was dead. Then I watch as my best friend struggles to hold on, so that he can save his sister. I know my friend well. I know that he would have fought death to try and keep Samara safe and he did.

He told her to run. He told her to trust no one. And that’s exactly what she did.

I feel the pain in my knees shoot up through body as I collapse to the floor.

Sawyer. All this time, it was Sawyer who betrayed Theo and his family. It’s like I’m losing Theo all over again.

I lift my head and scream at the pain clawing at my chest. My scream turns to a howl of pain as Pierce joins in and the pack, as one, howls back, letting me know that they are here surrounding me while I suffer with unimaginable grief.