Page 29 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
When everyone started to break away and open more beers, collapsing on the sofa with groans of being too full, or went out to the garden and beyond to shift in order to stretch out, I stayed at Aidan’s side, unsure of where I was allowed to go or what to do.
“Was everything okay today while I was gone at work?” he asked quietly. Quickly, Ryan began to busy himself gathering dishes. Aidan put a hand on his elbow to stop him.
“We’ll grab those,” Aidan told him. “Thanks for dinner, man.”
“Any time, boss,” Ryan chirped happily. “Thanks for offering to clean up.”
“Sheis.”
He nodded at me, and I laughed incredulously. “Oh, so I’m the servant now? A captiveanda maid? Incredible!”
“No, we’re doing it together. And while we do, you’re going to talk to me.”
“I thought you only had one question,” I teased. “Oneveryburning question about why I kissed you—”
He hissed at me to shut up before anyone overheard us. I thought that Ryan did as he hurried away. I stood up and started gathering plates while Aidan grabbed cutlery and glasses. I stacked the plates and carried them over to the sink, runningthe water to rinse them off after Aidan scraped them. At first, we worked in relative silence, listening to footsteps around the house. I knew that, stubbornly he was waiting for me to offer up the information.
I thought I would hold my own until he reached for a plate for it was properly ready to be dried. He held on, making me look at him. His brown eyes bore into mine, and I swallowed, forcing myself to meet his gaze head-on.
“Dakota,” he said, his voice low. “Talk to me.”
“Why did you tell the pack not to hurt me?” I asked. “You don’t care if I starve, if I’m dehydrated, or if I can’t get enough sleep. You’ve fought me, bound me, literallytaken me hostage. What causes you to draw the line there?”
My question made him pause as he genuinely thought about it. “Have any of them touched you?”
I shook my head. “Honestly, I don’t know if I trust you enough to confide in you even if they had.”
“Dakota—”
“I trust you a little more because you’re an alpha, and this is your rule for them, and you’d keep them in line but why draw that line?”
“Because, yes, I’ve done all that, but they have no right to you just because you’re here and because you’re female. I would never want them to think I’ve bought a pack plaything home.”
“Andwouldthey?”
“No,” he answered. “It was cautionary. But some packs did it in the past.”
“Fenrys’s?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Was this it? The reason for his anger?
“Not that I know of,” he answered. So there went that theory. “You just hear horror stories of how other packs behave and it’s not what I want my pack to be like. I’ve taught them to be whatever they want but tormenting people for the sake of it isn’t okay.”
I snorted. “Right. Because you’ve lived by that logic your whole life. You were my tormentor in high school. Youdoget that, right?”
“Yes,” he answered in a tight voice. “And now I’ve learned.”
“You torment me here.”
“Because you give back to me as good as I give you. But would you hit Jason if he accidentally knocked into you? Would you yell at him? It’s about power balance here, Dakota. You can fight me, yell at me, curse me out, whatever, but I’d never have them go near you with that sort of intent.”
I shifted, not knowing if what he said was honorable or not. We carried on washing up in silence.
“Ask me something,” I offered quietly. “You’ve answered a question of mine, so you can ask me.”
“You never answered properly about how you met Thalia. Or Fenrys, for that matter. You just said the mutual acquaintance, which I assumedwasFenrys. But he met her during the…” Something clicked as he realized. “Shit. You were in the Mating Games.”
I hated that the way he said it made me feel like I ought to be ashamed. But I wasn’t. Being in the Games was one of the biggest things my parents had been proud of me for. I lifted my chin proudly.
“Yes,” I said. “I finished second to Thalia. Because of that, both she and Fenrys saw worth in me.”
