Page 12 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

Removing my hand, I make my way to where Sophia is standing by the soldiers.

“You should’ve told me.”

“I saw no need to tell you anything.” Her voice is frigid. The only time she behaves like this is if I do something really hurtful. I want to talk to her, to sort things out between us. But I know Sophia well enough to tell when she’s ready for a conversation and when she just wants to marinate in her anger. Right now, it’s the latter.

I'll approach her when she’s ready to talk. When we talk, I will probably also find out the extent of the damage I caused to our relationship. That's not a conversation I'm looking forward to.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with getting protective over my mate. But Sophia is not just my mate now. She’s had a huge responsibility thrust upon her shoulders. She’s frantic over her mother, who's dying. She was betrayed by someone she had begun to consider a close friend. She lost somebody dear to her.

Maybe it was my behavior that was the tipping point for her.

I need to give her some space.

I make my way over to where Elsa is waiting with two of my soldiers. One of them is carrying my mother-in-law in his arms. Shifting into my wolf form, I bend down, and the soldier hesitates.

I understand his hesitation. After all, an Alpha carrying anyone is considered an act of submission. But the situation is different. I refuse to trust Sophia’s mother to anybody else.

Reluctantly, he puts on the harness, and once he does, he adjusts Grace on my back in a way that won’t hurt her when I run.

We leave quietly, Sophia in her human form, sitting on the back of one of my soldiers, who is running alongside me. As much as I don’t like the idea of her touching another male, I don’t have a choice right now.

Once we reach the edge of Dorian's territory, we see the group of Alphas of the South Alliance waiting for us. They look at me in surprise, staring at the woman on my back. I'm taken aback when Sophia comes to stand beside me, her eyes tense. They immediately look away.

“I’m still pissed at you,” she mutters.

I lick her cheek.

The journey back to the border of the South Alliance is a long one. We are far away from the border and it will take us at least two weeks to get there. Sophia shifts into her wolf form once we cross Dorian's border and the Alphas with us admire her form openly. I snarl at them in response.

However, they don’t seem to feel very threatened by my anger. In retaliation, I step in front of Sophia, daring them to take me on. That has them backing off.

It’s not surprising that the other Alphas are showing some interest in Sophia. Wolf shifters, especially Alphas, are hardwired to seek out strong mates. Sophia, even though she hasa mate, is an incredibly powerful shifter. But I’m not going to tolerate just anybody looking at her with even the slightest hint of curiosity.

She's mine.

Brian WolfFang is treating her with respect, and when he talks to her, it seems to be more with the intent of guiding her than anything. But the other Alphas aren't worried about me. Most likely because I'm wearing Sophia's mating mark, and she's not wearing mine. I still haven't had the time to figure out what that means for us. But clearly, in the eyes of the other Southern Alphas, she's fair game.

Fortunately, Sophia doesn’t seem very interested in anybody else. Although she’s angry with me, all her attention is on me. It’s amusing. Almost. Even when she wants to punch me, she never seems to remove her attention from me entirely.

We travel in silence for a full day, running without a break. By the end of the night, we all have to come to a stop. My soldiers instantly surround our campsite, covering all our vulnerable spots. Two of the Alphas head out to hunt down some meat. I send five of my soldiers with them. Despite the disrespect toward me personally, the Alphas can't seem to help but admire my soldiers.

I'm settling Sophia’s mother onto comfortable bedding, Elsa fussing over her, when Brian approaches me.

“How did you train your soldiers?”

He seems genuinely curious.

“What do you mean?” I let Sophia and Elsa take over, straightening up to face the former King of the South.

He glances toward the tight formation of thirty of my men standing at attention around the campsite, creating a wall around us. The rest of them are resting, ready to take over in the next four hours. “That discipline. I mean we have our own squadrons, but nothing like this.”

I give him a grim smile. "I watched the humans. I learned from them. The human military is one of the most disciplined forces in the world. I sent my men there when they were young. They attended military schools, they were part of the military, and after they were fully seasoned, they got honorable discharges and returned to the pack, where they continued to train others. Every single member of my squadrons is extremely disciplined. Just because we’re shifters doesn’t mean we always have to bend to our nature to subdue the enemy. There’s far more we can do.”

Brian looks hesitant. “So, you’re training them like humans?”

I bare my teeth at him. “Humans are far more violent than we imagine. They don’t need much of an excuse to hurt each other and they’re quite creative. I sent in my men to learn all their techniques. In my army,” I use the word deliberately, “even the most physically challenged soldier is still capable of creating unimaginable havoc. So you can imagine how easy it would be for me to annihilate a couple of shifter packs. My people don’t have to use their claws to shed blood.”

Brian shudders visibly before glancing toward my mate, who is sitting by her mother. "Does Sophia know all this?”

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