Page 10 of The Alpha Wolf's Bullied Bride

I stare at the wolf in front of me, a pang of sadness gripping my heart as it’s folded in the warmth of my fuzzy chest.Miles’s friendship is something I cherish more than anything in the world, since it’s the one thing that filled the hole of losing my real brother.

Finch’s sudden death was something I could hardly make peace with at the young age of fifteen, long before I received my wolf. When my wolf came, it only amplified the deep grief I’d been trying to keep a lid on for three years. It was in that time of sorrow that Miles approached me in the woods, his wolf speaking to me without the use of words or a mind link.

We’d formed a bond as strong as the one I shared with my older brother. Not a blood relation, but one forged by the fresh catch we shared in the woods in Zafra. Miles understood my pain, having lost both his parents within the same year, and followed me into the woods for my first hunt as a fully formed wolf.

Having received his wolf a few months before I received mine, he showed me the ropes and helped me catch my first deer.

Right now, I feel obligated to let him catch our meal, nudging him in the neck with the tip of my muzzle.

“Go ahead, buddy,”I urge him as I glance at the deer.“It’s your catch.”

Miles turns to me, the skin between his eyes folded as if he’s frowning. Since I’d been tasked with leading the special forces operatives in training two years ago, it became a customary thing for me to lead every hunt. I always made the first pounce, so it came as a surprise to my best friend.

“You sure? This might be our last hunt out here.”

I nod as I reply telepathically, “Then make it count.”

Miles bares his teeth as his wolf smiles before turning to narrow his focus on the deer. When he lunges across the bush, the only sound is the whisper of the tips of the thickets as they sway with the wind.

My wolf lips curl into a smirk as I watch Miles tear the deer down. Within seconds, he has its lifeless body pinned on the ground, howling toward the sky victoriously. I prance forward coolly, joining him to latch onto large chunks of meat on the deer’s ribs.

We feast on the catch, filling our bellies with dripping red meat to curb our bestial appetite. When we’re done, we dig out a hole big enough to bury the carcass before shifting back into our human forms.

“That felt good,” Miles hoots with a lighthearted chuckle as he pats his tummy. “But I’ve gotta say…I’m looking forward to returning home.”

“Yeah…the deer on our side of the land is much sweeter,” I quip, a burp tumbling out from the depths of my chest.

“Nah,” Miles disagrees as we begin making our way back to the campsite. “I’ve missed my sister’s hearty meals.”

“Lila….” His sister’s name rolls off my tongue instinctively, pulled out from the deepest recesses of agonies I’ve kept buried in my mind. Saying the name out loud has me stopping in my tracks, to which Miles turns and throws me a frown.

“Yeah, Lila. Who else?” he chuckles. “It’s not like I have another sister.”

“Of course,” I say, quickly moving along so that he doesn’t notice the torment furrowing my brows. It’s not like he hasn’t mentioned her almost every day.

It’s just that before, I haven't been on the brink of returning to Zafra, where I’ll have to see her again. Now that going home is a reality, facing the guilt of what I did two years ago is on the horizon.

The guilt I’ve buried as far away as the incessant pull I felt toward her.

I chastise myself mentally when the thoughts resurface of when I rejected Lila in front of a group of Blood Moon she-wolves. Gulping when I glance at Miles, the guilt and remorse of that moment rise like bile in my throat.

He doesn’t know what happened that day. His sister didn’t tell him, and neither did I. How can I tell my best friend that his sister stared deeply into my eyes and spoke the single word “mate” to enchant me? How do I tell him that I could feel myself being reeled into the clutches of her magnetization? Or that I had to stop myself and face reality?

After all, Lila Hargis is just an Omega werewolf who doesn’t possess a wolf. I shouldn’t have been enchanted by her presence, since her presence is of no real value to the pack. I am the future Alpha of Blood Moon, and I couldn’t possibly be drawn to an Omega.

That’s the only reason I rejected her in front of the others. I couldn’t risk my future if the tug at my heartstrings meant something more. It's always been there, a residual pull toward Lila, the sense of being drawn to her against my better judgment. I know how important it is to my father that I lead the pack in his footsteps. I have to fulfill the duty that my older brother left behind when he died, and I’ve always had to deflect any feelings I might have had for Lila.

Being mated to an Omega isn’t a good look for a Lycoan. Not when I wasn’t the firstborn son to the Alpha-blood family ofBlood Moon. Every foul word I ever uttered to Lila was only an attempt to ensure that I didn’t make any mistakes. What I hadn't expected was how I felt after rejecting her. The memory of that day has festered into the deepest regret of my life.

A regret I can’t even speak about to my best friend.

“H-how is she doing?” The question slips out as we near the campfire where the Blood Moon special ops soldiers are having their dinner. It’s a question I haven’t asked before, determined to forget all about her by burying even the thought of her.

“She’s fine,” Miles reveals with a wince. “She doesn’t talk much about it, but things were never easy for her, what with her condition.”

“Hm,” I hum in contemplation.

I can’t imagine how much worse things got for her ever since I publicly rejected her. I remember watching her rush off in a fit of tears, leaving me to wallow in the torment of being incapable of running after her when I realized the extent of what I’d done.

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