Page 36 of The Alpha's Bullied Pregnant Mate

The waitress cleared her throat significantly, showing just how impatient she was. Right on cue, a group of customers walked in as well and took an available table. “Would that be all, Alpha Fannar? I’m sorry, but it’s a busy night and Elaine is out sick so I have my plate full.”

Fannar nodded thoughtfully. “That’s fine. I guess that would be all, thank you.” Isla shot Fannar an angry glance that made him laugh. “I was just joking. Get her a side of ribs with extra barbecue sauce, and some water. Right babe?”

Isla grimaced. “Right.” She was still not used to the idea of Fannar referring to her with endearing terms, and he saw it every time he addressed her as such. Now, Fannar did it just to get a reaction from her. It was his private joke, and Isla was his material.

Three months in, and their ‘relationship’ had settled into a comfortable rhythm. Fannar played the part of the doting boyfriend to perfection, and Isla pulled her own weight and helped in selling their sham, especially to his mother.

That was the biggest and most successful aspect of the entire arrangement. Isla had found a way to make his mother fall in love with her. She beamed every time she set eyes on Isla, and couldn’t stop telling Fannar how lucky he was to have snagged such a gem piece of a woman.

“Honestly, Fannar, I have no idea how you managed to pull it off, but I believe you have found yourself the most remarkable woman in the world,” she said a few nights ago while they lounged in front of the fire. “I don’t think I could have helped you pick any better than you did, and trust me I tried. Now I wonder why I even bothered in the first place.”

Fannar had struggled to give her a suitable reply. He still felt guilt about lying to his mother, but she wasn’t wrong. On some days, it was easy for him to forget that it was all a sham and that none of it was real.

On such days, he fell into a deep melancholy and the mood stuck with him for hours. He was starting to fall for Isla, and the realization troubled him deeply. Partly because he didn’t think she was interested in turning what they had into anything serious.

He wanted the exact opposite. He found himself wishing more and more that their relationship was real every day that went by. He wanted to be with her. There was no point pretending to the contrary.

He had made up his mind to legitimize what they had one night after having sex with her in her home. She’d fallen fast asleep in his arms right after, naked and curled up in a fetal position, their bodies entwined.

Fannar had watched her as she slept, her body rising and falling slowly as she snored softly, the heat radiating from her bathing and enveloping him. As he watched her sleep, something clicked in his mind. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to do everything within his power to make that night something more than a charade.

He’d stayed up for hours that night, afraid to move and breathe. He didn’t want to do anything to wake her up. He’d have given anything for that night to stretch on forever, for them to be locked in an endless time loop where nothing about that perfect moment ever changed. He’d willed it with every thing within him.

Isla’d woken up to find him watching her, and the sight of her looking at him had sent something careening inside him. They made love again that morning, and once more later in the day before he left. That was arguably the happiest he’d ever been.

But the moment had ended, and he’d spent weeks afterwards recreating it in his mind. Now when they made love, there was an urgency he felt. Almost as if she was constantly slipping out of his grasp and there was nothing he could do to slow down the process. So he lived in the moment, enjoying every activity with a hint of sadness.

Fortunately, Isla wanted him physically just as much as he wanted her. They had sex often, whenever they could. She was as insatiable as him, and threw herself entirely into making love to him. On more than one occasion, Fannar had found himself struggling to keep up.

It should have been enough for him, but it wasn’t. He wanted more. He felt an emptiness every time they parted, while a deep sense of ease filled him whenever they were together.

A part of his mind wanted to pretend that it was all real, and that they were building something together. He resisted that thought. To live in that delusion was suicidal, and the thought of her ending their arrangement dominated his mind.

He had no idea when she would decide that their game had gone on long enough. She never brought up the topic, and Fannar had also learned to ignore it as much as he could. It was almost like a physical pain in his body that he had learned to live with.

Despite how much time had passed since they started their fake relationship, he couldn’t brag about knowing Isla or understanding her. It was almost as if she only showed him a part of herself, like a talented actress who completely adopted the role she was playing.

Fannar found himself constantly searching for proof that she felt something for him, anything, beyond the physical hunger that had become a part of their arrangement.

Even worse, she hated collecting money from him now. It was a struggle convincing her to accept money from him, and he often had to leave the money lying around her house whenever he visited. That confused him the most. Why didn’t she want to get paid anymore, when that was seemingly the only motivation for her to be with him?

Once, he toyed with the idea that she had started feeling something for him, but he couldn’t force himself to accept it. The price of being wrong was too high and he had no intention of finding out. There was just too much he didn’t know.

“Fannar?”

He blinked. Isla was watching him with a worried expression. He searched through his mind and tried to pick the fragments of the conversation she and Elsa had been having, but he came up painfully empty. He smiled at her. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay? You seem distracted.”

He widened his smile reassuringly. “A little bit. I had a crazy day, but it’s nothing to be worried about.”

Isla didn’t seem convinced, but she nodded. He noticed Elsa watching him with a curious smile on her lips. He knew precious little about her, only that she was Isla’s only friend, the only one she spoke about, at least. She was one of the witches from Rowan’s pack, but beyond that he was ignorant.

Isla didn’t mind, and treated the woman as if they had been friends for years. From what Isla had said about the woman, they were cut from the same cloth, and that was more than enough for Isla. Fannar maintained his wary curiosity.

The waitress returned with the food, and Fannar dived into it eagerly, grateful for the distraction. He ate quietly, listening to the two women speak about mundane things. They didn’t try to pull him into conversation, thankfully, and he was content to sit and listen.

At the end of the meal, he knew even less about Elsa than he had before he met her. The two women had managed to avoid personal topics, while he had bristled with questions for Elsa. He didn’t trust her, and his distrust for her was worse because it was completely baseless.

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