Page 40 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
Aidan Tyrone.
They knew Aidan, and what he’d put me through in high school. If they found out what I’d done yesterday… What I’d nearly asked Aidan to do in the height of climaxing, when his face had wandered near where my mating mark would be…
I swallowed, curling up on myself as if that would help.
I couldn’t even turn to Aidan for comfort or an argument. No, he’d gone, probably already regretting what we’d done. His scent was fading on the sheets, and I guessed he’d left hours ago. That thought only niggled deeper into me, festering, until anger and humiliation burned through me.
I tried to fall back asleep but struggled. When I couldn’t, I wrapped the blanket around myself, not wanting to put on the fresh shorts while I wasn’t yet clean. I needed to wash the evidence off of what we’d done last night. In the shower, I let the water run to a comforting heat and moaned in relief when it eased my tense, aching muscles. I massaged my thighs, tracing over the bruises and bites he’d left, humming fondly until I remembered all over again that I’d return to an empty room.
Somehow, it hadn’t felt like a hookup. There had been something charged about our night together. Something fierce and burning, like magnets finally succumbing to the pull of each other. So why would he just leave? Was it only me who felt that way?
Aidan had told me he’d had a crush on me years ago. Was he simply getting that out of his system? Gettingmeout of his system?
A new thought gripped me: would he finally let me go now? Had this been his plan all along? Use me and then dump me back at Fenrys’s feet, smelling like him, knowing exactly what I’d done? Would Fenrys see it as a betrayal?
Panic gripped me until I pushed my way out of the shower, wrapping myself in a towel, and racing back to Aidan’s bedroom. I tore all the sheets off the bed in an angry spiral, tornadoing around his room to clear any evidence of what we’d done.
When I was done, I found a pullover of his, pulled on the shorts he’d left for me, and let my tears wet the pillow as I waited for him to come back.
***
Aidan wasn’t back by early evening. Ryan knocked on the door, inviting me to watch a baseball game with him on TV. If he smelt anything from the night before, he didn’t show it. I nodded, letting him lead me to the living room where he offered me a can of beer and chips.
“It’s not much but you missed dinner,” Ryan said, shrugging, as he turned up the volume on the game. Soon, the rest of the pack started to filter in, but Aidan still didn’t come back. Had he left me with them for good? Usually, he told me when he was going to work, leaving threats in his wake for his pack to keep me safe and within the house. But this time he’d just disappeared.
Everyone spread across the sofas and armchairs, sprawling legs kicked out to get comfortable, but I stayed tucked up into myself, in the corner of one couch, almost on the armrest. While growing more comfortable around the pack like this, I didn’t like to admit it. Even still, comfort or not, I was uneasy at Aidan just up and leaving.
“Have you heard from him?” Declan asked Jason quietly. I forced myself to focus on the screen, to not look at them.
“No,” Jason answered. “But there’s a scent trail leading into the woods. He’ll be fine.”
“Maybe we should check,” Declan whispered.
“He’ll be back when he’s ready.”
That line shocked something through my system, triggering me.He’ll be back when he’s ready. There had been a reason I’d become a good liar throughout college. I’d let my parents push me towards Silverlake Valley and the Mating Games. A week after I’d graduated high school, my brother, Callum, had gone missing. He’d left no note, no indication of where he was going or why. My grades in college had fallen, I’d shed the ‘good girl’ persona everyone expected, and when my parents had given into their grief more than their hope for my future, I had done whatever I wanted. I partied in college, took road trips to Atlanta during the night, convinced myself I’d find my brother if I just went to one more house party, and hooked up with one more guy for information. Callum had only been two years older than me, a prodigy in his own right. My father had wanted him to become the alpha of a pack strong enough to match Silverlake Valley, to have the towns equal rather than Oak Hill being in the shadow of the richly historic town.
But I’d failed. Callum had never come home. I’d waited at my bedroom window, watching the driveway, for months, never losing hope. Even when I couldn’t see straight, I looked for him. The worry had nearly eaten me alive. I’d imagined him dead, abducted, or just downright abandoning us.
My parents’ grieving never stopped, even though we never received word he’d died. But a year after his disappearance, we got a letter in the mail from Callum.
He’d told us that he wanted a new life away from the pack in Oak Hill. He didn’t want to be an alpha, everything was too much, and he needed to find his own rules for living.
Then, my parents focused on making me their new prodigy. Their new hope in a dark world. I became the one burdened with the expectations again. No more parties, no more slacking grades or cheating. I was to be the one making them proud in Callum’s absence. In their eyes, I’d needed to become the winning Luna in the Mating Games, mated with Fenrys. For weeks before coming to Silverlake Valley, I’d researched the town, learned everything I could to be impressive to Fenrys when I displayed my knowledge, had trained enough to be strong but keep a pretty, lithe feminine figure, and it still hadn’t been enough because of our species’ natural mating bond with a person we didn’t choose. My parents had been kind enough in person to accept the loss gracefully, but I’d felt the shame, keeping me in Silverlake Valley, unable to let me feel comfortable enough to go home to face them in person after the ceremony.
Aside from the letter, I hadn’t seen, talked to, or heard from my brother since the day he left.
But now, years later, that worry was like an old coat forced on my shoulders. My mom’s words, the same sentiment, said in Jason’s voice.He’ll come back when he’s ready. That’s what she’d believed and hoped for all those years. He never came back.
And now I couldn’t ignore the worry about Aidan that nestled uncomfortably in my stomach. Had I done something wrong? Every doubt that made me question if Callum had left because of me, or if I wasn’t enough to keep him in our home or to come back for, arose in my mind until the sounds of thebaseball game faded. I crumpled the beer can, not noticing when it splashed over my hand.
“Hey—hey, Dakota. You okay?” Ryan’s voice sounded far away as I zoned out.
“Guess Aidan really did a number on her, huh?” Sam laughed.
That had me slamming back into focus. I whipped my head around to look at him. “Say that again, and I’ll make you eat grass out there.” I nodded to where they sparred outside.
“Yeah? Is that a threat? You’re nothing but our alpha’s little pet,” Sam taunted me. I saw red and stood up, walking up to him. I may have been smaller and shorter than him but I’d been taught how to fight. I’d had Aidan on his ass several times.
