Page 37 of Her Bully Alpha

"Sam?"

I jumped and looked up from the book, finding Nessa standing a few feet away from me. She gave me a soft smile and walked over towards me. "What are you doing out here?"

"I just needed a quiet space to do some reading and thinking," I said, glancing down at her stomach. I couldn't help but wonder if she was pregnant yet after wishing she could have twins.

"I'm not pregnant yet," she said softly, and I frowned.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to stare. It was rude of me."

She waved a hand. "No, it's only natural, given you saw the room. We've been trying, but still no luck. But I'm hopeful. I know that it will happen for us. We just have to be patient."

I couldn't help but hope she got what she wanted.

"Do you want to join me?" I asked, waving at the blanket. I had more than enough space for her. I just needed to move the books.

She shook her head. "No, I'm actually just on lunch break right now, and I just wanted to get out and have a little fresh air before I go back. I normally walk this path. It's peaceful, so you picked a good location. Not everyone knows about it."

I gave her a soft smile in return. "It is peaceful out here. And it's quiet."

Nessa knitted her fingers together. "I'm actually glad I ran into you. I wanted to apologize."

I knitted my eyebrows together, unsure why she would be. I wondered if I had done anything to her at her party, but nothing came to mind. Both her and Kirk had been nothing but nice to me during the entire day.

"What for?" I asked. "Nothing comes to mind."

Nessa gave me a weak smile in response. "For being a terrible person to you growing up. I saw the way you looked when Jay brought you to the party, and it's been bothering me."

I was a little shocked. Had I looked uncomfortable? I thought I hid it better than that.

I quickly shook my head. "Nessa, you really don't need to apologize for that. It's in the past."

She nodded her head slowly. "I know it's in the past, but it's also in front of me, and I don't want you to feel uncomfortable in front of my brother and me. We both know we weren't great people growing up. We treated you and other humans terribly, not caring how it would make you guys feel."

I swallowed, not sure what to say to her. There were so many things that they had done.

I could remember the side glances and the way Nessa rolled her eyes when I walked by. They always commented, “Oh, look, the human is here.”

I remembered the tripping and the ways they would turn people away from me. It was hard, and I cried so many times when I got home, wishing I could change everything. I never told my brother or my folks just how bad it was. I never told anyone.

But that was the past, and I had moved past it all. Jay had changed, so why wouldn't Nessa and Kirk? As I looked at Nessa, I could see she wasn't the same person she was before. She held a kindness in her eyes and when she smiled, it looked soft and caring. It was different from the looks I used to get.

"Well, thank you," I said, twirling my fingers together. "It means a lot to hear that."

"I do hope that we can be friends. I imagine Kirk would like that as well. Considering you're married to Jay. We will be seeing you around a lot."

I knew that would happen. Jay had always been close with the twins. I should have known that they would still be friends even years later.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you come to change your view about humans? You seemed to have pretty strong emotions about humans."

Nessa knitted her fingers together, looking uncomfortable. "We have a cousin who's a few years younger than us and who moved into town when we were in tenth grade. We never realized how hard a life she had until she moved here, and we noticed other people picking on her for being a human."

I chewed on my lower lip, and Nessa frowned. "We had a very screwed up view on life…and we all had to outgrow it, which I'm sure you've noticed even Jay had to. Our parents looked down on humans, so we did as well."

"You're forgiven," I said, knowing she meant what she said. I could see it in her eyes that she was being honest about feeling bad.

"Besides," I add. "You guys were nothing nearly as bad as Jay was. You just added onto him."

Nessa chuckled and softly smiled. "Yeah, well… he's changed as well. He probably had a lot more growing up to do, and it doesn't help that his father still views humans as lesser. But Jay has grown from that."

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