Page 2 of The Alpha's Bullied Pregnant Mate

The pair broke eye contact first, one opting to look out the window, while the second searched for something on the floor. There would be no laughter coming from the back of the cable car again, she was certain. Satisfied, she turned back to the book in her lap and flipped it open.

Most of the things in the town were an icy white, crystallic blue, and occasionally, black. The absence of color made sense, of course, seeing how the pack enjoyed its isolation and remoteness, and didn’t have the slightest interest in drawing any needless attention to itself.

The lack of color infuriated Isla. She showed it in her preference for warmer colors, as if her actions alone were enough to make much of a difference. Instead, it isolated her even further. She stood out, and not in a good way.

It took an effort for her to act like she didn’t mind, but she did. She hated the side comments, the snickering, the looks she got. She hated all of it, and persisted in revolt.

It didn’t used to be so bad. As a kid, she dressed exactly how she wanted and the world was sane and safe. All that ended, though, when she got to high school, and met the boy who would grow up to become the alpha of the pack, Fannar Agdluak.

She remembered seeing him for the first time in the eight grade. He was handsome and perfect, and everything she could have wanted in a mate. And he was also just as mean and brutal.

When she looked back on how and when exactly she had become an outcast in the pack, she always went back to her first meeting with Fannar. What was supposed to be the perfect day for her, had turned into her worst nightmare…

She was sitting alone in the cafeteria, eating her lunch. Just another normal day in junior high, or so she thought, when the most unexpected thing happened.

Her crush, Fannar walked up to her table, with a smile on his face. “Can I join you? Isla, right? That’s your name, right?”

Her heart almost stopped beating in excitement and embarrassment. It took her a dozen heartbeats before she managed to nod. Yes, Fannar. You can sit anywhere you like.

He sat across from her, smiling. He seemed so nice. So kind. She should have known better. Something danced behind his eyes as he smiled at her. How did she not see the cruelty? The coldness in his metallic eyes.

“They told me how weird you are,” he said with a snicker. “I just wanted to confirm it myself.”

The change in his demeanor was so sudden and unexpected, it took Isla a few seconds to register his words. The change from nice to mean hit her square between her eyes, smashing her.

She could do nothing but listen in silence as he ripped cruelly into her, his voice quiet, but somehow loud enough to carry through the room. “You’re a creep, you know? You don’t belong here. Look at you. You don’t have what it takes to be a member of the Frost Peak pack.

“You can’t survive here. You’re not one of us. You’re the runt of the litter. While we sit by the hearth fire, your place is out on the porch, in the cold. It’s a surprise you’ve lived this long, and I’m willing to bet that’s going to change soon.”

Isla couldn’t believe the hatred and meanness in his words. She could hear kids laughing and snorting around her, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Fannar, away from his cold, angry eyes.

She felt like she was in a dream and she couldn’t wake up, no matter what she did. She wanted to run away, to disappear, to hide. Anything, but listen to him. She sat glued to her seat, taking everything he threw at her, even as it broke her into little pieces.

“You’re an eyesore,” he said, leaning forward. “You like colors, don’t you? I can tell. How about I make you more colorful?” He took the juice box on his tray and emptied the contents of the grape juice into a cup.

Isla watched him with disbelief as he swirled the juice in the cup, smiling at her. She knew what he was going to do, but she sat still, watching him, her eyes glued to his.

And then he tossed the purple liquid on her favorite orange sweater. It splashed on her face, her hair. She sat still in shock as the liquid dripped from her.

Fannar pushed his seat backwards and stood up. “Stay away from me creep. If I catch you even looking in my direction, it’s going to be worse.”

The laughter in the hall was riotous. Even after the bell sounded and the kids filed into their classrooms, she sat still, and could still hear the laughter ringing in her ears… Ever ringing…

Isla shook her head and closed her eyes. She hated how vividly she remembered the memory. It was the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to her, and the images from that day were forever etched into her mind. Word for word.

She would never forgive him. She took his advise and stayed the hell away from him, avoiding him like a terrible plague. Over a decade later and the sight of him still filled her with dread. She hated him almost as much as she feared him, and the two emotions balanced out each other perfectly inside her.

The incidents of that day had shaped her life.She became a recluse in school, hiding in the library every chance she got, and eating lunch in secluded places. If she thought about it hard enough, she thought she could still hear the laughter ringing in her mind.

She threw herself into her books now, and her books welcomed her with open arms. She found countless worlds hidden in those pages, and she constantly dreamed of the day when she would explore the world itself.

She couldn’t wait to leave Frost Peak.

Beyond these treacherous mountains and cold wolves, existed an entire planet, filled with people just like her. People who would love and appreciate her simply for her existence. A life where she didn’t feel like the bane of an entire city.

She was on the precipice now. All that remained was for her to take a short step forward, and make a leap. And yet, she hesitated. Why? Why remain here with these people who despise me simply for being alive? What do I hope to get from them? Their love? Their acknowledgment?

That boat had sailed. There was nothing here for her. But this was her pack. She was a part of the whole, and the whole flowed through her veins, she felt it in her wolf. It didn’t matter how much they disregarded her, she was a part of them. A wolf was only as important as the pack.

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