Defy The Alpha(s) novel Chapter 782

Chapter 782: People In Love

Hannah halted on the spot, the breath whooshing out of her lungs as if she’d been physically struck. For a moment, she genuinely thought she had heard him wrong.

Slowly, she turned to face Taryn, horror bleeding into her expression, her face draining until she looked pale as a sheet.

"What did you just say?"

But Taryn didn’t answer.

He didn’t need to.

Not with the raw, pained look in his eyes that made it hard for her to breathe. The walls he always kept so firmly in place were gone.

Right now, her usually tough as nut bargain-bin Mufasa looked vulnerable as hell.

That realization unsettled her more than the words themselves.

Hannah didn’t speak. She simply crossed the room and sat back down on the edge of the bed, her movements slow, as if any sudden motion might shatter this fragile moment between them. Her hands clasped together in her lap, fingers twisting unconsciously.

The room fell into a silence that was thick, awkward, and suffocating.

Taryn still had his back to her, frozen in the same position he’d been in when he dropped the truth like a bomb.

Hannah shifted on the bed, discomfort crawling under her skin.

"So..." she cleared her throat, the sound too loud in the quiet. "She was your first mate?"

The question lingered between them, and for a moment, Hannah thought he wouldn’t answer at all.

Then he finally spoke, his voice low, grave with emotion.

"No. We were not mated," Taryn said. "But she was my wife. And I loved her. Until—"

"My father took her from you," Hannah finished, the words tasting bitter in her mouth.

Hannah had always known her father was not a good man. She’d grown up with that awareness tucked neatly away in the back of her mind. Angus was simply Angus. Ruthless. Ambitious. Dangerous. But he was her father.

And like any child raised under a man like that, she had learned to justify him.

He was building a new world.

A world where supernaturals ruled.

A world that demanded sacrifices.

At least, that was what they told her each time she had to hurt someone upon his instruction.

But standing here, in front of the Fae who had lost someone important because of her father, it dawned on her then, slowly, and painfully, just how deeply he — they, her family — had hurt people.

For the first time, the destruction was no longer distant or theoretical. It had a face, and it was her mate.

The guilt crawled up her throat, choking her. Hannah had never felt so ashamed and disgusted of the blood running through her veins.

She swallowed hard, her voice barely above a whisper.

"How did it happen?"

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