Page 27 of Cruel Alpha

“My apologies, Alpha,” Leonard said, bending his neck with clear reluctance.

“It’s not me you should be apologizing to.” I jerked my head at Alyssa, and Leonard’s eye twitched. It was a long few seconds before he said, through gritted teeth,

“My apologies, Miss Graves.”

Alyssa said nothing, standing behind Julia with a sniffling Jack pressed against her chest. When she raised her gaze to mine, her need to leave was palpable.

“Okay, the show’s over everyone!” I yelled, and the surrounding crowd dispersed. Crossing to where Alyssa and Julia were still rooted to the spot, I scooped Emmy up off the ground, leaning in to ask Alyssa,

“You okay?”

She shook her head.

“I want to go home,” she said, her lip trembling. Her hazel eyes were large with unshed tears, and if she started crying, I had no idea what I would do. Crying women were not my specialty. I took her arm as gently as I could and led us through the remaining crowds, Julia following at my heels.

No one spoke as we made our way back to the cottage, Alyssa only intermittently shushing Jack’s whimpers. I’d hoped she might be a little softer with me now that we were training together, but the opposite was true. She’d barely made eye contact with me for the last five days, and it felt like forever since I’d touched her smooth skin as we sat on the floor of the hall. I wanted to touch her again so badly it hurt, but for now, I’d settle for taking her arm and leading her safely home.

When we reached the cottage, Julia unlocked the door and held her arms out for Emmy.

“Why don’t we make some hot chocolate?” she said, and Emmy beamed, slipping out of my arms without so much as a wave goodbye. I didn’t blame her; Julia’s hot chocolate was awesome. I tightened my grip on Alyssa’s arm as she made to follow, and she turned to me reluctantly. Shit. Now I needed something to say. My mind was blank. I wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to promise that nothing like this would ever happen again.

“Don’t listen to assholes like Leonard,” was what I said. “And if anyone else says anything like that to you, you come straight to me. Got it?”

I didn’t expect her to swoon or anything. I didn’t think she’d fall gratefully into my arms for doing the bare minimum of defending her from an asshole. I don’t know what I expected, really, but it wasn’t for her to stare up at me, her brow furrowed and her pretty lips pursed in frustration.

“You are so confusing,” she said. “Do you know that?”

She didn’t wait for me to reply before she stormed into the house, closing the door behind her with a little slam.

Standing on the step, I blinked.

“No. I didn’t know that,” I said to the closed door.

Chapter 13 - Alyssa

One step forward, two steps back. Every time Caleb and I had a conversation, that was how it felt: one step forward, two steps back. He acts like my mate, check. He wants to protect me, check. He’s attracted to me… check? He defends me from the rest of the Pack, check. He acknowledges publicly that I’m his mate and that my children are his? Absolutely not.

Was there something deeper going on, like Julia said? Was he planning something that meant hecouldn’tclaim us, and he’d simply neglected to tell me, or was this just how my life was going to be from now on? I’d read novels when I was younger about Alphas who kept their low-status mates as dirty secrets, sneaking away from arranged matings to promise eternal love and devotion, but only where no one could see. My self-esteem had been low enough back then that I’d dreamed of such an arrangement; all I’d wanted was a few kind words and a gentle touch.

As a grown woman, I was going to need a hell of a lot more. If Caleb wanted me, he’d have to claim meandmy children. Our children.

The three days following the Market Incident were a hell of my own making. I turned every interaction with Caleb over in my mind incessantly, trying to get to the bottom of his behavior as if I were a detective in an old movie. He wasn’t the same Caleb I remembered, that was for sure; the brash, arrogant, callous boy had turned into a serious and disciplined man—and that was just the thing. I knew why the Caleb of three years ago had rejected me: his ego wouldn’t allow him to accept a low-status, half-breed mate, let alone the children she was already carrying. The Caleb I’d known over the past few weeks didn’tseemlike that kind of guy, but he still wouldn’t claim me publicly.

I could just come out and ask him. Ishouldjust ask him rather than subject myself to his lukewarm affections and torture myself with trying to figure out why. But one insurmountable fact remained: for all the help he’d given us, for all the moments of tenderness between us since I’d returned to Arbor, I still didn’t quite trust him. As much as I wanted to march right up and ask what the hell was going on inside that head of his, part of me feared the answer I would receive. In my mind’s eye, I saw his beautiful mouth twitch up into the smirk that had haunted me throughout my teen years, heard that low, rich voice say,you didn’t really think I’d claim you?

The image would not leave my mind as I hurried the short distance from Julia’s cottage to the hall, ready for another mortifying day of training my wolf. Despite being exhausted after a rough night of sleep—all three of us still had nightmares of crashing cars and howling beasts—the twins hadn’t wanted to go down for their naps. By the time Emmy finally quieted down, I was already late.

When I entered the hall, I was surprised that our usual obstacle course was not present. Instead, a smallish space had been cleared in the center of the room, where Caleb waited for me.

“Sorry,” I panted as the door swung shut behind me, “the twins didn’t want to take their nap today.”

To my surprise, Caleb smiled.

“Well, then they’re delaying their own fun,” he said. “Or—future fun, I suppose.”

“What?”

Caleb held up a measuring tape as if this explained everything.

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