This need had never been so … difficult to control.
Pressing his face against her neck, he breathed in her scent, trying to stop his need from overflowing, but it was impossible to do so.
All the people within this pack needed to be punished.
“I had to watch them all hurt you,” he said. “You never fought back, and I thought you were a coward. Then I realized why you never stopped them. You were not allowed, were you? The alpha stopped you. He told you to never stop anyone from hitting you. To keep your hands by your sides like a good little bitch, and to take the beating.”
He saw the tears fill her eyes, and he wanted to hurt this man again. “He will not live for what he did to you.”
“I don’t want his death on my conscience.”
Caspian looked at her, a little … taken aback.
He expected more thirst for blood. The men in his world all wanted the same thing, revenge and the desire to hurt. All that had happened to them was banishment and branding.
Sofia stood before him, branded and still with mottled bruises from another beating she had sustained.
Her body already healing, even before his gaze. It was miraculous.
“Please, I … I don’t want anything to happen to the pack, I just want to leave,” Sofia said.
“Leave?”
“Yes, I have begged and pleaded with him to let me leave, but I fear if I kill him, I will be forced to remain here forever.”
Caspian watched her, seeing the desperation. He didn’t know how long she’d gone through this kind of treatment, but her needs were clear. She was more interested in getting away.
Caspian grabbed the alpha and lifted him up. He’d already broken both of the bastard’s legs, so keeping him still wasn’t a challenge.
“Tell the nice lady what she wants to hear,” Caspian said.
When the alpha made no sound, he grabbed the guy’s dick, knowing he’d be able to tear it right off him with a good firm tug.
The screams coming from him filled the air, and Sofia flinched, but he heard it.
“You can leave, Sofia Foster, and never come back.”
Caspian dropped the alpha to the floor and saw the first smile on the woman’s face. She looked … mesmerizing. “I can leave,” she said, covering her mouth and smiling.
“Yes,” he said. “Go.”
“You’re going to let me leave?”
He smiled. “Consider me your guardian angel in this situation. Go and don’t come back. Run.”
She spun on her heel, and he nodded to his two men at the back of the pack, who immediately started to follow her.
Sofia would be able to leave the pack, but she wouldn’t go too far. She was his mate, and he was going to make sure she never wanted for anything.
Staring at the pack, he smiled.
Sofia got to leave, she got her wish, and now, it was up to him to deal with the pack for harming his woman.
“Where’s your branding iron?” Caspian asked.
The crowd gasped.
It was a great insult, just as he knew it was, but he didn’t give a shit.
A few men tried to escape, but none of them succeeded. It took less than ten minutes to find the branding tools at the alpha’s residence. The large iron lay in the fire, and Caspian used the glove, extracting it and pressing the flames into the bastard’s cheek.
The sounds of screams and the horrible stench of burning flesh filled the air, but he needed to make sure the son of a bitch didn’t lose this branding.
One by one, he took those he’d seen harming Sofia, and he branded all of them, holding the burning rod against their cheek, not caring if they were man or woman. The only people he saw be kind to Sofia were children, and so they remained unharmed.
This pack would have to live with their shame, with their brand of being unwanted. If Sofia had asked for it, he’d have killed every single one of them.
His woman had compassions.
Soon, she would belong to him completely.
Chapter Two
One month later
Sofia let herself into her apartment, humming to herself as she closed and locked the door.
After removing the scarf from around her neck, she hung it up on the coat stand she’d acquired when she first moved into her apartment.
The money she had hidden over the years in the one part of the forest had helped her to set up. For many years of being in the pack, she had learned to hide her money in a secret stash until the time came that she’d finally get her wish and be able to leave.
Never had freedom been so good.
The money wasn’t much, but it had been enough to get her by. The apartment she rented was a small place. One bedroom and bathroom. A tiny kitchen. A small sitting room, but it was all hers.