Page 36 of The Alpha Wolf's Bullied Bride

Lila is without a wolf, and I’m not sure if I can protect her.

I can’t even tell her about this. She probably hates me more now for walking out on her in her most vulnerable moment. She made it clear that she couldn’t forgive me for the past, and she won't hear a thing I have to say now.

In truth, I’m afraid of getting close to her, letting her into my heart, in fear of being unable to protect her. Now more than ever, I can’t let harm come to her. If I am the cause of her troubles, I should stay away. It’s better if she doesn’t know about our fate. It’s the only way that I can protect her.

It’s the only way I can protect myself from the heartbreak of losing someone so important to me if something were to happen to her.

I couldn’t protect Finch. I wasn’t even there. I didn’t have my wolf yet, and I was too reckless. Losing him was the toughest blow, and I refuse to lose my fated mate.

Getting to my feet, I take a deep breath full of conviction as I decide that I will take this secret with me to the grave. It’s the only way I can protect the pack’s Luna, my fated mate—theonly way I can protect myself from the pain of ever losing her. Perhaps it’s better that I haven’t marked her. I can stay without the fated mate powers if it means not opening myself up to a world of pain.

***

Two days later

“Psst…”

Miles nudges me in the ribs, pulling me from deep within my thoughts and back to the present.

“You haven’t said a word, Flynn,” he whispers, to which I frown.

“Why didn’t you ask me in private?” I murmur through gritted teeth as I take a look around the boardroom.

“I tried,”he replies through the mind link. “I couldn’t get through to you just now.”

“Hm. Did I miss anything?”

The Blood Moon Beta stares at me warily while he brings me up to speed with what’s been going on in the meeting. I already signed my part of the treaty and had somehow spaced out when I felt too uncomfortable in the room. The tension in the air is ripe with the members of the alliance gathered in the boardroom of the Moon Shine Pack in Mysthaven—the pack led by Alpha Cyrus.

A shiver passes through me as Miles explains that the brothers, Damian and Dorian, no longer see eye to eye since becoming Alphas of two different packs—the Valley Walker and Nightclaw packs, respectively. After the accident with mybrother, Dorian joined his uncle’s pack, and has since become the Alpha.

I scan the room, inspecting the faces of the Alphas and their Betas, along with a Luna who joins Alpha Simon, the representatives of the Misty Creek Pack, and wonder if I should have brought Lila along with me.

I’ve barely seen her these past two days, steering clear of her only because I don’t have an excuse for what I did. Not the truth, anyway. I can’t tell her that we’re fated mates, lest danger follows her and I’m not there to protect her.

It doesn’t matter, I shrug inwardly, seeing that the others are still without mates. No one has questioned me yet, and I’d rather keep it that way.

“What do you think, Flynn?” Alpha Theodore, the leader of Blackmaw, leans forward. “Do you think there’s another pack in the area, trying to steal our territories?”

I take a deep breath and lean in, too, squaring my shoulders as a sign of confidence. “It’s not another pack, that’s for sure. Oklahoma is too crowded for another pack to settle anywhere near us. And territorial wars were never as severe as this.”

“It wouldn’t make sense for the kidnappings, either,” Dorian adds. “Nightclaw has lost four members already since we’re on the outskirts of the region.”

“Outsiders…” Cyrus muses. “And the scent was wolfy?”

Dorian nods, flicking a glance at me with a suspicious glint in his eyes.

I huff under my breath when a thought pops up in my mind. “Wait,” I interject with a frown. “You said the scent was wolfy?”

“Yeah…why?” Dorian asks, eyes narrowed at me.

“Were you able to track the scent?”

Dorian shakes his head, and I lean back in my chair while they throw around ideas and suspicions about the nature of the threat that has been abducting fellow werewolves in the area.

I purse my lips and remain quiet for the rest of the meeting, staving off the urge to take the leap of faith and explore my wolf’s abilities. With Lila as my fated mate, I would receive an ability like stronger telepathy that could connect me with other packs, or the gift of having visions.

Visions that might allow me to track the scent left behind in Dorian’s territory.

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