GIFTED RILEY by Lacy Mierr

Chapter 65: Atoning For Your Sins

*Nicolas*

I immediately snap forward with a snarl. My hand clasped around Mya’ s throat, eyes narrowed as she gasped at the aggression.

She scrambled trying to pull my hand away from where it was tightening around her throat. Her eyes were wide and there was a deep terror as she stared up at me.

Good. She should be very afraid.

“Please, please, I didn’t want to go against you,” she cried her pleas to me. I didn’t care to hear any of it. She dug her grave from the betrayal the moment she agreed to take my mate away from me.

My eyes glanced over at the man down in the bed beside us. He looked very weak from what I could tell. Pale skin and a sheen of sweat on his forehead from a fever no doubt.

It was a man that didn’t share any features with her from what I could. tell. But when my attention turned to him, she squirmed harder in my grip to try getting away.

“Don’t hurt my stepfather! Please!” She cried even harder. She was choking over her words since I still had a tight grip, but I didn’t care to

release the traitor. “I did all of this for him!”

“Explain.” I growled down at the she-wolf. I was losing my mind with Riley by my side and this was finally my chance to find her. And I would find her.

To be fair. I didn’t care if Mya had any reason to betray me and my mate, but it would be easier to know the full story before I decided to kill her for it. It didn’t seem like she was going to hesitate, but I still squeezed her throat in warning if she was going to try lying her way

out of this.

“Malik, the man that took your mate, he threatened my stepdad. If I didn’t do what he said, then he would kill him…” She was sobbing now. Her tears, which were racing down her cheeks in waterfalls, dripped down onto my hand. “If I helped them, though… He would send a doctor to heal him.”

I scoffed in disgust, tossing her down to the floor in front of me. “You didn’t think to report something like this?” I snarled to the s t u p i d she- wolf in front of me.

Her explanation only made me angrier, since I now knew that this could have been avoided if she had just reached out to some of my men. I paced angrily in front of where she was cowering on the floor in front of me.

“They were watching me! I wasn’t going to leave my stepdad alone to report people threatening his life! He can’t protect himself!” She

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Chapter 65 Atening For Your Sing

seemed angry at the suggestion, but her voice was more fearful than angry. She sniffled, “He’s all I have, Nicolas…”

I slowly crouched down to the woman in front of me, eyes still blazing in anger. She flinched back to try and keep some distance between us. That only made her slam her head back into the bedpost behind her. I would have grinned if the situation were any different.

“I need to know everything you know about Malik while I’m still choosing to be merciful,” I grumbled in a warning.

She hunched away while curled on the floor. Her head bobbed as she tried not to meet my eyes to keep from challenging me. I stayed. crouched in front of her, not letting up any pressure. I was going to get every little drop of information from her.

She wiped at the tears on her face, trying to save some of her reputation. “From what I hear, you did something to his family. He’s looking for revenge and when he heard you found your mate… That was the perfect opportunity for him.”

My lips tilted down as I tried to think of anything I had specifically done to the Hunter’s King. I didn’t even know that I had met the man

personally.

“That was when he sought me out,” she continued, not realizing I was confused. “He promised a doctor for him” – she gestures to the man on the bed – “that he would heal him. Or that he would kill him when I

looked hesitant.”

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“What was your mission, specifically?” I asked, not caring to hide that I was only getting angrier.

“I was supposed to get close to Riley. To figure out if she was your actual mate or not and then report back with whatever I found out,” she said without any hesitation. “Nothing was said about kidnapping her, but I was in too deep when he told me to.”

I cursed, turning away from her and standing straight. I couldn’t look back without wanting to punish the woman for her s u p i d t y. I wanted to break something. I wanted to hurt something… I wanted my mate back.

She scrambled to her feet while I was looking away, “But I made sure he promised me that he wouldn’t hurt her when I brought her to him! She was just meant to be bait!”

I rolled my eyes, a deep growl rumbling through my chest. “You can’t be serious? You think he d by a s t p i d pinky promise?!” She recoiled at my outburst, “This is war, Mya! No one is spared in war! You signed my mate’s life away without another thought in that thick. head of yours!”

She started crying harder as she realized that she was most likely lied. to. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, “I should have warned you. I should have

warned her.”

I gritted my teeth. Her guilt, while it would feel good when Riley was back in my arms, meant nothing to me right now. “What did you say

about me and his family?” I asked to try to get back onto the topic at hand.

“I’m. I’m not sure,” she stuttered through her cries. “Just that you did something to them and that they were either dying or dead. I wasn’t in his circle, so I didn’t know anything except what he used to guilt trip me.”

I didn’t remember killing anyone’s family in particular. Especially not a human family. I would have remembered if I was able to get a one-up on the Hunters’ king. I probably wouldn’t have killed them either and used them like Malik was using Riley. As bait to find some sort of understanding.

He didn’t want an understanding, though. He wanted me dead. And he didn’t care what was sitting in his way to get what he wanted.

“It’s been so long, I’m not sure what he’s trying to do now…” Mya whispered into the silence. I realized I was staring at the wall trying to remember what she was telling me.

My gaze snapped to hers again immediately. “Now you have two choices. You can either face your punishment now or you have a chance to atone for your sins.”