Page 45 of The Alpha's Reclaimed Mate

Oswald knew I was telling the truth too, but he’d never admit it. He curled his lip in disgust and looked at Lucas. “Her arrogance knows no bounds! Do you really believe this melodramatic runt and the stories she tells? The longer she stays in your pack, the more she corrupts all your minds with her lies. Let me do you a favor and take her back home.”

“Enough, Oswald!” Lucas interrupted, raising his voice in rare anger. “I believe her more than I believe you. Aria has been nothing but sincere and helpful while in my care, and I have no reason to believe she’d act otherwise anywhere else. The fact that you slander her and paint her in a light that is so clearly wrong convinces me further that she’s the one who has been wronged. I don’t know why you have it out for Aria, but I’m putting an end to it!”

“She’s manipulating you!” Oswald snarled.

He just wouldn’t let it go. I couldn’t understand why Oswald hated me so much—I thought I knew because he wasn’t attracted to me and resented that he was stuck with me for a mate, but being mated to Mara should have solved that problem. Why couldn’t he just let me live in peace? I felt an anger similar to Lucas’ boiling in the pit of my stomach and couldn’t help firing back at Oswald, “You’re the one who’s manipulating people! You turned my entire pack against me!” Oswald had become my worst enemy, but the tears prickling in my eyes were a close second. I didn’t want anyone to see my outburst of emotion, least of all Lucas, but it was impossible to hold it all back with Oswald attacking me so viciously. I had to defend myself, and maybe I only felt strong enough to do so now that I had Lucas by my side. “You made my life a living hell! Why? You act like I’m trying to ruin your life, but all I want is to be useful to my pack. You reject me at every turn. You’ve stolen everything from me! Even my own family wants nothing to do with me, and it’s because of you. But everything you’ve ever said about me is a lie, Oswald!”

Arguing with Lucas might not have been enough to make Oswald lose his cool, but as soon as I raised my voice, I saw the steam spout from his reddened ears. “You little delinquent—!”

“Alpha Moore!” Lucas snapped.

I took the interruption as an opportunity to keep going. “I know why you want me to come back,” I said. “You don’t want me to sustain your numbers or to redeem me of my bad behavior. You don’t want to give me a chance to find my place because you’ve already decided where my place is—in the dirt!”

Another surge of murmurs bolstered me.

“I don’t know why you think that me being around causes so much trouble, but it’s clear now the only value I’d be to you is as a dead wolf. It would be much more convenient, wouldn’t it? No more fated bond tugging at your heart. No more of my hijinks as I try to find my purpose in your pack. No more guilt, as you and my family treat me like shit. Everything would be easier for you if I were dead!”

Oswald’s face contorted into disbelief, then exasperation. “Don’t be so dramatic!”

“She’s right,” said Lucas. “Even I can see how blatantly you despise Aria being around. You’ve done everything you can to alienate her, weaken her, and make her vulnerable to threats. Hoping she would die. Don’t bother denying it any longer, Oswald. At this point, I’d be a moron to hand her back over to you. Doing so would be sending Aria to her death.”

The Grey Creek Alpha faltered. It was one thing for me to defend myself, but it was another beast entirely for Lucas to openly rebuke Oswald, addressing the obvious truth of his crimes. Oswald could always claim I was lying, or delirious, or some other bullshit—but how was he going to contest Alpha Lucas Black? He couldn’t. That was why his mouth hung agape, and he found himself at a sore loss for words.

Seeing this only made me feel more confident. I shifted closer to Lucas, daring to reach out for his arm. “Do you really wish I’d stay here? With your pack?”

Lucas blinked down at me. “Of course, Aria.” He turned his body to face me, clutching my arms with a gentle grip. “I want nothing more than for you to join the Silent Shadows Pack. It’s clear that Oswald and the Grey Creek Pack don’t appreciate you. They don’t deserve you. I’m serious when I say I want you to stay here with me.”

Every word made my chest burn hotter. I could tell it made Oswald burn too, but in the absolute worst way. He simmered with indignant rage while I glowed with the embers of Lucas’ acceptance.

But before I could give my final response and bring the discussion to an end, the silence was broken. Not by Oswald, but Mara.

“This is outrageous!” she cried, drawing all eyes onto her. “You trust the word of an Omega over your own fellow Alpha? The Council of Seven cannot abide this!”

“What do you know of the Council’s opinion on the matter?” challenged Lucas.

Mara’s eyes widened and glistened. She stood straighter, as though empowered by all the attention, her façade honed and ready. We all waited, but none of us could have expected what she would say next.

“I’ve spoken with the Council,” she said, her voice trembling, like she was fighting for the strength to challenge me. “They have reason to believe that Aria Gunn… is an imposter!”

Chapter 20: Aria

Mara’s accusation took my breath away.

Not only were the Council of Seven aware of me, but they had also discussed me, and somehow, they came to the conclusion that I was an imposter. And clearly, I wasn’t the only one taken aback by this claim. The gasps and undercurrent of conversation between the two packs suggested this was news to everyone. Even Oswald looked shocked to hear it.

But Mara held strong, determined to back up her words. “You don’t think it’s mere coincidence that a low-ranked miscreant like her turned out to be Alpha Moore’s fated mate, do you?” She looked around at the crowd. “Even her family, before their fated bond was discovered, was barely ranked higher than the Omegas. How could it be possible that somebody so ill-suited for the role of Alpha would be chosen for it? And so late, when most wolf shifters feel their fated bond when they are but children and closer in age, too!”

My mother stepped forward, confused. “Are you suggesting we somehow forged this false fated bond for our daughter?”

Mara shook her head. “No, I don’t believe you had anything to do with it. I think it was Aria’s own selfishness that drove her to find a way to forge the bond. She saw that Oswald didn’t have a mate and found a way, most likely through magic, to force the bond to form!”

“When I was twelve?” I scoffed in disbelief.

“You’ve always been a clever girl, Aria,” Mara said sweetly, but her voice darkened immediately after. “With your nose always in books. I don’t doubt you found some way to do it.”

“It makes sense,” said Oswald. “I always felt like I had some kind of fated bond in me, but it was never for Aria.”

Disgust and anger welled up within me as Oswald supported Mara’s claims. “It doesn’t make any sense! For nearly five years, you’ve never implied that there could be someone else! It’s always only ever been me!”

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