Page 49 of Her Cruel Alpha

“That’s okay. You guys have a good night.” Nina turned, practically running away. I put a hand over my face and looked at Katie. She crossed her arms. “You’re an asshole.”

I frowned at her. “How am I an ass!?”

“Because you let her off easy! She didn’t even apologize. She was practically screaming at me now. “ You should have sided with me!”

“Stop yelling,” I growled at her. “I am always on your side and I did side with you. But let’s not make a scene.

“Of course, you’re just going to let her get away with it because Nina is a human.”

I sighed, running a hand over my face, pinching at my nose. I didn’t even know what we were yelling for? I didn’t even know what happened. “Katie, please. Let’s just go home. We can talk about it later.”

She shook her head at me. “No, I’m not going home with you. I’m not going home with someone who doesn’t understand the importance of humans and what they are going through.”

She hit a nerve. I inhaled slowly, trying not to snap at her. “Don’t,” I growled low. “I have spent my entire life making sure that humans had a home and a place to live comfortably. You don’t understand the balance that you need to keep something like that going. You have to set aside the simple fights for bigger ones.”

“And what about Nina?” She tilted her head. “Because you just failed her. You let some shifter walk all over here like she didn’t matter. And by that logic, you’ve failed tons of others because their fight isn’t big enough to have your attention.”

“That’s not...” I sighed. This was a lot of thinking for me. “Katie, please. Let’s go home. We can talk about this at home.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m not going home with you. I’m going to Jay’s and Sam's house because they get it. They would never let someone fool them into protecting them when they were in the wrong.”

Katie stormed past me, and I frowned. How had we gotten here? Just a week or so ago, we were so close and together.

I rubbed my eyes and turned to head back to my car. I crossed the street and froze when I looked at the small bar. The open light blinked in the darkness, and I looked inside. It wasn’t busy, but it wasn’t empty either. I suddenly needed a hard drink.

I headed inside, and the music was loud rock and roll music. I headed to the bar and took a seat. I waved at the bartender. “A beer, please. And a burger and fries.”

The man nodded, and I pulled my phone out. I ached to call Katie instantly, but I didn’t. I should give her an hour to calm down, and then I could call her.

I set my phone down instead. A beer was placed down, and I took a long swig of it.

Someone cleared their throat, and I turned to find Ashley standing just behind me. She gave me a half wave. “I was just heading home when I noticed you were in here. I thought I should apologize. I didn’t mean to start anything between you and Katie.”

I sighed. It was one of the reasons I wanted Katie to stop yelling at me. People shouldn’t overhear the Alpha and his wife having an argument. If she wanted to scream at me, I would have no problem with her doing so in the privacy of our house.

“You don’t need to apologize. I should be. We should have been yelling in public,” I said.

She pointed to the stool next to her. “You okay if I join you? I hadn’t eaten anything all day because I was nervous for my interview.”

I waved a hand, not bothered if she sat next to me. She sat down and ordered herself a beer. She then turned to me. “So, how’s married life?”

I snorted. “Well, it’s harder than I expected.” I took another sip of my drink. “How was your interview?”

Ashley shrugged. “It went well. Fingers crossed, I get it. I think I would do really well.”

I glanced at her. “Were you being mean to Nina?” I was trying to piece together what happened. I didn’t know what went down, but something had. Katie wasn’t the type to lose her cool like she did.

Ashley shook her head, taking a sip of her beer. “No. Katie misunderstood what was happening. But it’s fine. I understand it can be stressful being the wife of an Alpha.”

I looked back at my drink. I glanced down at my wedding ring, thinking of Katie. I hated this feeling. I hated that she ran to someone else rather than speaking to me. Just a week ago, we were making love. For days, we had been spending hours together in the lab. How could we do that, but she couldn’t tell me what had happened just a few minutes ago?

I thought of when we ran into Ashley at the restaurant and how quickly Katie wanted to leave. I just thought she was jealous because of how pretty Ashley was. You couldn’t deny that Ashley was stunning, but we hadn’t been together in years.

“I’m sorry about everything. I hate to see you look like this.” Ashley reached out, placing her hand onto mine. I glanced at it for a moment before I pulled my hand free.

“I’ll be fine,” I said with a shrug.

“You shouldn’t just be fine, Henrik. You have a very stressful job, and your wife should understand that.”

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