Page 33 of The Alpha's Reclaimed Mate

Stepping away from me, Lucas paused to gaze in my direction as I headed back to the villa alone. I glanced over my shoulder and caught him watching me.

“I’ll check in on you soon,” he promised.

“Okay. Bye, Alpha Lucas.”

Lucas chuckled behind his lips. “Goodbye, darling Aria. Until next time.”

Darling…

My cheeks turned hot, ushering me shyly away so that Lucas wouldn’t see how deeply his kindness affected me. That’s all it was, right? Kindness.

The feeling stayed with me as I walked back into the claustrophobic walls of the villa. I clung to the warmth stirring inside me every time I thought of Lucas, comforting me while reality left me alienated once again. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now that I was back home. I had no job to return to, no responsibilities to fulfill, just the isolation of hunting outside the villa. I stood there in the courtyard, feeling displaced and awkward as I tried to figure out what my next move would be. What would Lucas encourage me to do?

A couple of familiar faces caught my attention, cleaving my thoughts of Lucas in half. My mother and father were walking alongside Emma on their way from the fitness center. Emma was still wearing her soccer uniform, and all three of them were oblivious to me standing nearby. As I drifted closer, their conversation achieved clarity out of the murmurs of the evening.

“Thanks for coming to watch me practice,” said Emma, sounding not at all gracious. "It definitely made the other girls nervous with some higher-ranked wolf shifters watching.”

“Anything to give our baby girl the edge,” my father said warmly, clapping his hand over her shoulder.

All the warmth I felt from Lucas evaporated. I used to be my parents’ baby girl. Now they acted like I didn’t even exist.

“I wonder if it’ll have the same effect on your upcoming game tomorrow,” said my mother.

“Do you think you could get Oswald and Mara to show up? Then it’ll definitely make the competition sweat,” said Emma.

“I’m sure he’d be delighted to watch,” said my father.

“I want to win a goal for Mara,” said Emma, brimming with pride. “That would get me in her good books for sure.”

The thought of my family bending over backwards to appease Mara was too much. I stopped behind them, and my fists clenched, unable to keep the anger from spitting past my lips. “Shouldn’t you win the game on your own merits? I’d say intimidating the other girls into playing poorly is cheating, wouldn’t you?”

My family stopped walking, slowly looking over their shoulder at me.

Emma’s eyebrows rose in amusement while my parents only looked agitated. “You’d know a thing or two about cheating, huh?” she accused.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I countered.

“Haven’t you heard the latest gossip?” Emma turned around fully, taking a couple of daunting steps toward me. “Everyone knows you brainwashed Mrs. Foster into passing your Alpha training assignments. You did the same thing last week, giving her some sob story so that she would get you that job in the archives.”

Shock slammed my heart inside my chest. “You think I brainwashed her?”

“You’re obviously too stupid and inept to actually handle Alpha responsibilities. Look at you. You can’t even hunt by yourself without getting beat to shit. What, did a deer kick you in the head?” mocked Emma, gesturing at the assortment of bandages across my body.

How could they twist up my story so badly to make everyone believe I’d lied to Mrs. Foster and manipulated her into helping me? How could they think so lowly of me? What had I ever done to suggest I’d do such a thing? “This wasn’t from a deer,” I began.

But before I could finish, my mother stepped up beside Emma. “Whose clothes are those? You better not have stolen them from your sisters.”

“That blouse looks a lot like one that Lacey owns,” suggested Emma.

“They’re my clothes!” I argued. “Alpha Lucas got them for me from a shop in the Silent Shadows’ village.”

As soon as I said it, I wished I hadn’t. My lips were sealed as my parents, and Emma exchanged a glance. Mention of the Silent Shadows’ Alpha had attracted the attention of other passersby: girls from Emma’s soccer practice, packmates on their way back to their living quarters, even some of the soldiers making their way home from a day of training. All eyes were once more on me.

“How dare you slander the good name of Alpha Black,” hissed my mother.

“Don’t speak such nonsense, Aria,” commanded my father. “You’ve already wounded the Grey Creek Pack’s image by dragging Alpha Black into your hostility against Mara. Now you expect us to believe he took pity on you, enough to buy you those new clothes? How could you insult him like that?”

“You probably think I brainwashed him, too, right?”

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