Page 53 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
This time when I bit down, I dug my claws in and pinned him properly, leaving a warning bite to his flank. But before I could threaten him further, I felt the air shift behind me and the scent ofwolfbecame stronger. I froze, backing off Conall. I would have had him. I would have goddamn had him.
Slowly, I turned around to find Fenrys and his pack, some in wolf form, others in human
form, watching me. I moved away from Conall, snarling a warning at any of the pack who got close. When Fenrys walked up to me, still in human form, without shifting, I knew I was in deep shit.
“Shift,” he ordered.
But I wasn’t about to leave myself defenseless in my human form against four present wolves without my own pack as backup.
I growled at him. He didnotget to tell me what to do. It had been years since I’d seen Fenrys up close. Fatigue lingered in his eyes. His face, smooth and handsome, was tight with anger and protection. He glanced at Conall, who shifted. Someone threw him a pair of shorts, and he yanked them on, coming to stand just behind Fenrys.
“Shift, Aidan,” Fenrys ordered me again. But I took another step back. From the ranks of Fenrys’s wolf pack, someone growled at low warning but I returned it. They couldn’t intimidate me. I could run five minutes away and be off their territory and then they’d have to walk away. But my pride kept me there, unable to back down from the fight.
“We’re here about Dakota,” Fenrys said. “I’d like to talk to you properly.”
I wasn’t a talker; I was a fighter. I’d learned the hard way that men like Fenrys and his father didn’t talk or listen to reason. In that moment, all I could picture was the day we’d arrived at Oak Hill, shunned and banished from our home in Silverlake Valley, with the entire town watching us leave, shaking their heads, branding us traitors.
Fenrys hadn’t wanted to talk then.
Fenrys had not wanted to talk in all the years since.
Anger barreled through me when I looked at him, the man who could have saved my family, fought to reason with his father, could have beenoneimportant voice to speak up for us, but he hadn’t. He’d done nothing but watch.
So had Conall.
So had Lyna.
Now they were all here, like my revenge plan wanted, served on a silver platter.
I bared my teeth at him. In a split-second decision, I went for Fenrys’s neck.
Chapter 28 - Dakota
I swore that eyes followed me throughout my walk back to the pack’s house. Something feltwrongabout it, like I was intruding. The place I’d been taken from against my will—myhome—suddenly felt foreboding. Nerves fluttered in my stomach, thinking of every lie Aidan likely told them about me.
And what about Sasha? What had she reported from the function? That I’d been giggling with Aidan, all over him? He’d told me about Fenrys’s father branding his own father a traitor, so what would that make me? I’d slept with the enemy alpha.
I inhaled deeply as the house came into view, set into the treeline, the natural pools outside empty. I waited for that longing to rise in me, the comfort. The very thing that told me I was home and that I still belonged. That I had pride for fighting my way back here.
So why did I look at my home and wonder why I couldn’t hear Aidan’s pack? Why did I first see a woman walking up to me and wonder why a female was in the pack, because I’d been the only one in Aidan’s house. It wasn’t until I blinked myself into focus that I realized Thalia walked towards me, her long white-blonde hair flowing around her, her face pulled into shock.
“Dakota?” she asked. “Dakota!”
She ran for me, her arms outstretched. And despite the rising nerves, I let her gather me up into her arms. Thalia had become my best friend, a protective mother hen at times, looking out for me when I couldn’t go to my own parents. I’d confessed my whole story to her one night last summer when her cub hadn’t been able to sleep, and had kept Thalia up while Fenrys slept. They often took shifts to make sure the other got enough sleep at least every other day.
Thalia held me close, and I couldn’t help it. I broke down, sobbing into her shoulder. She let me fall apart right there in the woods, only several paces from the house.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, stroking the back of my head like a cooing parent. “I’m so sorry
they got you, but you’re home now. You’re safe.”
ButwasI home?
Home had started to feel like a full house of men, the specific laundry detergent of
Aidan’s clothes that I’d repeatedly borrowed, the smell of Ryan’s lasagna, and chip crumbs on the sofa, and a baseball game playing in the background. It hadn’t felt or sounded orlookedlike this and I hated that.
But, still, I let Thalia pull me into the house at her side.
