Page 5 of Bullied By the Alpha Wolf

“Alpha.”

“Lupe, I was getting a bit nervous there. Did everything go all right?”

He lowered his head again. “Yes, Kaiden. I’m fine. There’s just been…well, there’s been a bit of a development. I think you may want to assess the situation in private, Alpha?”

“A development?” I cocked a brow at him, running over the wolves.

I could sense their nervousness, and I tried to send out a wave of calming energy toward them. I was still mastering the ability, but they appeared to settle some.

“All right. Let’s finish the check-in and then make sure they have food for the evening—”

“Alpha, apologies, but I think this is something you’re going to want to deal with now.”

The calm left my system as my stomach clenched. The wind blew in from the cracked window to my right, and as it ruffled Lupe’s dark hair, a familiar scent wafted toward me.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Chapter 2 - Kit

The Williams pack was resting after their day of hunting—except for me. Because I never truly became one of them, and my back aches from the hours spent on my hands and knees scrubbing the damn bathroom floor.

Twelve fucking years of this, and I’m still here. Letting them all boss me around because I know it won’t be better anywhere else.

I stood up, dropping the sponge into the bucket of now-dirty soapy water. Stretching, I listened to the dead quiet that filled the house and looked to the window to my right. It was night, well into it, and I was the only one awake. It was like that a lot.

Memories of years and years of servitude crowded up in my head as I shut my eyes, rubbing them with my pruney fingers. Not sure which was worse, too much attention from constant bullying or zero attention and being forced to clean up after a bunch of mutts.

I sighed. Both options were shit, but I didn’t have much of a choice, now did I?

Leaving the bucket upside down in the tub, I padded out to the front hall in my socks. I smelled like bleach and glass cleaner, and my hair wafted into my face where it fell out of the clip I’d put it in.

Tick, tick, tick.

The clock on the wall up ahead chimed low right as I passed it, and I looked at the time. Past midnight. With a sarcastic grin, my heart full of vinegar and exhaustion, I mimed holding up a glass.

“Happy birthday, Kit.”

I was officially thirty, and this birthday wasn’t any better than the twelve before it. Fate, it appeared, seemed to have it in for me when it came to birthdays, starting with the last one I celebrated outside the Williams pack.

A familiar ache clawed behind my ribs as I thought of Sandy and Jade. I hoped they were doing okay—not for the first time, either. Similarly, their names weren’t the only ones that haunted me as I fought daily to survive in a pack that hated humans so much more than the Edwards ever did.

Kaiden.

My eyes prickled as I remembered how he’d set me up for the fall. Pretending to like me, pretending to go in for a kiss, only to ridicule me yet again.

Why did this shit still bug me? It’d been years. Ugh. I was so pathetic.

Pressing on, I was even more desperate for a dose of fresh air, and I hurried down the stairs before someone noticed me.

The compound here had always been so much bigger than I was used to, and even after all this time, there were still sections that I’d never visited, so as I slipped by the east wing, I just shrugged like I always did.

A patrol wolf walked past in the vestibule ahead of me, and I quickly ducked to the left to go toward the side door. He was muttering something, and his words filtered down the hall until I was too far away to hear him.

“Fucking assholes. I’ve had guard duty for like three nights straight. Fucking tired. If Eli doesn’t switch me out, I’m going to need some of that shit to get by.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I didn’t really care, either. I was so sick of living here, and I was more than overdue on my nightly walk around the compound—my rule-breaking, probably dangerous nightly walk.

My steps were soft as I approached the side door, but I was forced to stop when I heard more voices coming from the corner up ahead.

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