Page 55 of The Alpha's Reclaimed Mate

I hadn’t even considered that. Was he so desperate to get me back that he would neglect his duties just to stalk me?“He was never like this before.”

“I know. It’s strange; I can’t figure out what’s come over him. Losing one’s mate can cause madness sometimes, but he lost you by his own choice,”said Lucas.

That was right. Oswald disdained me the entire time I was his fated mate, and then he rejected me. Whatever compelled him to want me back now wasn’t natural.

“You shouldn’t have gone out alone,”he added.

There it was. I’d been waiting for him to admonish me for my foolish mistake. The shame was eating me alive, so I dropped my head, unable to look him in the eye.“I have to speak with the Council, Lucas. I’m sorry.”

“No, this is my fault too. I should have expected you’d do this.”

The words stung, and they hurt worse coming from Lucas. It was enough to make my throat swell and my eyes gloss over.

“I always knew you were headstrong. I should have prepared to send someone with you to keep you safe. Hell, I should have just sucked it up and gone with you from the start.”

I blinked in surprise.“Aren’t you angry?”

“At myself, sure.”

“But at me, too, right?”

Lucas inadvertently chuckled.“I can’t be mad at you for being who you are.”

Words escaped me. I wasn’t sure I ever recalled a moment when somebody appreciated me for who I was instead of jabbing at me or criticizing me for what I couldn’t be. My mouth hung open as I marveled at Lucas, seeing only sincerity on his face.

Catching my eye, he tilted his head.“What?”

“Nothing,”I said quickly, pushing forward to keep walking.

Lucas slowed his pace so that he could walk alongside me.“Can I tell you something, Aria?”

Curiosity had my heart doubling over. It was a struggle just to keep my cool, but I slowly nodded and stole a look at him, showing him that I was offering my full attention.

He stared on ahead.“You may not believe it, but I know you better than you think.”

“That is pretty hard to believe.”

“You’d be inclined to think that because we’ve only just started spending time together. But I’ve had my eye on you for a long time.”He smiled in a flutter of embarrassment but just as quickly sobered.“I know you’ve felt alone for most of your life. You envy your sisters for the connections they’ve made. You buried yourself in your work, hoping it would pay off, but instead, people just pushed you away because of their own preconceived ideas about you. Now, you find it hard to think anyone would genuinely like you, even me. Especially me.”

My stunned silence expressed exactly how accurate he was. Hearing Lucas peel me open and identify all the traits that defined these last few years of my life made me feel so vulnerable I wanted to curl up and hide. If it were anyone but Lucas, it would have felt invasive, but somehow when he told me these things he knew about me, I just felt like I was finally understood. Like somebody really, truly saw me for the first time in my life, and all the terrible experiences and loneliness could be justified.“How do you know all this...?”

“You didn't think you could spend four years training to become the Alpha Female of the Grey Creek Pack without your superior Alpha keeping tabs on you, did you?”He laughed.

“But I just met you a couple of months ago!”

“Well, that was part of training, too. It wasn’t just Oswald testing you. So was I. I needed to see how you’d behave, meeting another political figure for the first time.”

My eyes widened. I was glad for the fur of my wolf form. Otherwise, Lucas would have caught me blushing.“I didn’t even recognize you were the Silent Shadows’ Alpha.”

Lucas laughed again, leaning closer to me.“You thought I was a low-ranked IT tech. But you still treated me with respect and decorum, which says a lot about you.”

“Yeah...”And now that he’d brought it up, I couldn’t help the million questions buzzing around my head.“So, when did you decide you wanted me to be your Alpha Female?”

“Oh.”Lucas broke eye contact with me, retreating into his thoughts. The strange well of emotions that connected us blossomed with embarrassment again.“Not long after I started monitoring you.”

“Really? That long?”Then it must have been years he’d had these feelings about me.

“I know, it’s weird. I wish I could have known that Oswald planned to reject you. All along, I wished you could have been mine. I could have saved you all the heartache. I could have helped build you up. I kick myself for it, but...”

---