Page 19 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
“What, the big bad wolf can’t handle a bit of honesty?” I taunted.
“Shut up, Dakota.”
“You’re not my alpha here, Aidan.”
That had him pausing. He froze, mid-walk away from me, his back tight with tension. I remembered how toned it had been when he’d come out of the shower earlier, droplets sliding down his shoulder blades, racing towards his defined waist. I shook those thoughts off.
“No, I’m not,” he said softer. He turned, a sardonic look on his face, like something was funny that I was missing. “Becauseyouralpha is within a twenty-minute radius andstillhasn’t come for you. But, sure, he deserves your loyalty. He deserves your hesitation. That piece of shit, Conall, who is so far up Fenrys’s ass it’s disgusting, apparently deserve your protection, but when have they ever protectedyou? When have they ever had your best interests?
“As an alpha, I look after everyone in my pack, even Ryan. I want to nurture him, teach him. I make sure that every single one of them has a chance to rewrite their future so it doesn’t reflect their past. Is Conall giving you that chance? Is Fenrys? I heard he’s been absent from the pack for a while. Why is that, Dakota? There’s having a cub but it’s more than that.
“What happened to make Fenrys domesticate and hide away?”
I thought of Thalia’s wrists from the rope burn last year, and Fenrys’s long recovery time. I thought of Fenrys and Thalia watching every corner, doubling up on patrols, the gruelingself-defense, and realized that Aidan didn’t know about Kato kidnapping Thalia last year. He didn’t know about the Mating Games. He knew so, so little about the reality of Fenrys’s pack and how they worked and protected each other. Dakota’s protection came in the hard trials of climbing the ranks. She was taught how to protect herself, not just rely on others. So, yes, the menial tasks had worn her down, exhausted her, belittled her, and Conallcouldbe a shit, Aidan was right about that, but it was all for her own good.
She’d gone to Silverlake Valley last year with only a sense of a good gym workout and knew how to throw a punch thanks to her brother’s early life teachings. But that was all. She’d been invited to the pack due to Thalia’s friendship and Fenrys likely feeling bad that she’d been a close second to win the Games based on how she survived. And Dakota was a damn good survivor. But she hadn’t known enough to fend off an enemy like the ones the pack faced.
Lyna had taken down one of Kato’s men alone. Dakota could handle a low-rank enemy, maybe like Ryan, or another like her, but not someone like Aidan or Fenrys. But shecould. One day. That was what Fenrys had tried to prepare her for, through Conall.
“His father died,” I answered, hoping it was enough. “I think it scared him. His mother maybe scared him.”
“Yeah, I know about his father,” Aidan said flatly, monotone, no sympathy whatsoever. “But that was four years ago.”
“So? He met his Luna, realized he had more to lose.”
“Butwhatmade him think he would lose?”
Kato, I thought. But that man was now dead, and his pack remained a threat Fenrys kept an eye out for and had let rule himthrough fear. Either fear for his baby girl and Luna and not for himself because he could fight. He’d killed Kato. He could take on any of the remaining pack. But the threat to his child’s life, hismate’s life, had changed him.
Aidan was right. Fenrys had domesticated and hidden away.
Chapter 11 - Aidan
“I don’t know,” Dakota told me, but it was a lie. I knew her tells. She could try to plant seeds of distrust but I had watched her for a long time. I knew the way she wet her lips as if nervous to be caught out. The confident arch of her brow betrayed by the almost undetectable quiver in her voice. The very quick glance to the right. Always the right.
“I think you do.” I cocked my head. “I know how you look when you lie, Dakota. And that pack doesn’t have one ounce of loyalty between them. They’re unjust. They’reshits, all of them. They betray one another like it’s nothing. But you know what? It isn’t nothing. It’severything. Packs bond, they stick together. So how can they be okay with betrayal?”
Her confusion swept over her face. Of course, she didn’t understand. Fenrys would have fed her the whole pack loyalty garbage that my father had been given by Fenrys’s father. Loyalty. What a load of nothing that was to men like the Randons.
“Explain to me what you think you know about Fenrys’s pack,” she offered. “I’ll never understand your anger with them otherwise.”
“You don’t need to understand it,” I seethed. “You just have toseeit. Surely you have? Conall isn’t always nice. Fenrys isn’t always selfless. And the rest of them—they’re blind. They follow each other blindly, drugged on the idea of loyalty. But the truth is that thesecondany single one of them steps a foot out of line, someone else will be there to take the blame, so they get away with it. Nobody has accountability or remorse or even a scrap of respect for anyone else in that pack. Never has and never will.”
“Aidan—”
“And you know the worst thing? They’re not just a pack. Randon leads the whole fucking town. You know what that shithole is based on, Dakota? Lies and betrayals and groups of people stack together to ostracize the weaker ones. Nobody will ever speak up for the ones because they’re not worth the time or effort.” I fixed her with a dead stare. “And you know who falls into that category of not being worth time or effort?”
I let the answer rise in her head, watched her try to deny it to herself, to tamper it down. But the devastation broke over her face.
When she didn’t, or couldn’t, say it aloud, I answered for her. “Yes, you.”
“Stop,” she whispered. “Stop it.”
“You still think they’re owed your loyalty?”
“Yes,” she shouted. “Yes, because what other choice do I have? I like Fenrys’s pack. I like Thalia as my friend. I like Conall, even if he gets rough sometimes. I like the others, even if they can be a little arrogant. They’re friends. They’refamily, which means much more to me than anything else.”
“If they’re family, then why are you here, with me? Why are they content to leave you? Do they even notice you missing, Dakota? Think on that.”
