Page 54 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
“He can’t get you now,” she assured me. “You’re safe, okay? He can’t hurt you anymore.”
And I tried to remind myself that hehadhurt me. He’d tied me up, deprived me of food and water for stretches of time, had me guarded and watched wherever I went. We’d fought in the woods, hurt each other, and yet…
Yet it had been the most alive I’d ever felt.
Being there, with him.
I swallowed down those confessions. Thalia took me inside the pack’s house I’d spent the last year in and we went upstairs. It smelt like baby powder and laundry in her bedroom that she shared with Fenrys. It smelt like a family room. The bed was unmade, and Thalia smiled sheepishly.
“I haven’t been keeping on top with keeping the bed tidy. I’m always last to wake up between Fenrys and I.”
I shrugged. “I don’t mind.” Even to my own ears, my voice was hollow.
She sat on the edge of the bed and I sat with her. She coaxed my head into her lap, stroking my hair back. I wanted to tell her to stop, that I didn’t deserve the softness. That she was comforting me for all the wrong reasons. Thalia wanted me to feel safe from being separated from Aidan but the only place I wanted to be was in his arms.
“Sasha told me about seeing you at the function in your old town,” Thalia said. “We’ve all been heartbroken. Conall reported that Aidan said you’d left of your own free will. But Sasha confirmed our worries: that perhaps you hadn’t. But he’d taken you back to Oak Hill, and Fenrys couldn’t risk going on the offensive and causing any territory wars. We kept hoping Aidan would reach out to make a negotiation so we could have you back.
“Then Sasha saw you, and she said he kept pulling you to him, he kept a hold of you all night, and got you out of the town hall when people noticed that you were there under suspicious circumstances.”
The awful thing was that Thalia was right, but it was all done so differently from the malicious intent she had thought.
“I missed you, Kota,” Thalia said softly. “If anything, it’s made us realize that we can’t keep hiding away. We don’t want this happening to anyone else in the pack.”
A year ago, Thalia and I had been in the Mating Games, and she’d not even been slightly interested in Fenrys. Of course, I now knew most of the truth. They were mates, her having been rejected years before by him. But now she was a mother, a Luna, and she talked about the pack like it was her own, and I loved hearing the authority in her voice. But it grated on me.
She was wrong and I struggled to tell her.
Instead, I tucked my nose into my jumper’s collar—Aidan’s—and thought of last night. Of the sex, of his belt holding my wrists, of the screams.Mate. Mate. Mate.
“Fenrys knows you’re back. Conall picked up on your scent and watched you get back safely,” Thalia said. “But apparently, Aidan was also there, watching you.”
I froze. Aidan had been watching me? He’d been there?
“They’ve gone after him,” Thalia said, thinking she was assuring me, but ice slowly flooded my veins. “He won’t be able to hurt you anymore.”
And then my confession came out, the very thing I’d not wanted to admit out loud, even to myself. “Thalia, Aidan is my mate.”
In her lap, I broke down. I could hear Thalia typing, and it felt strange to think of her texting Fenrys about what I’d told her. But he’d gone after Aidan for revenge then he needed to know not to hurt Aidan. I couldn’t stand that thought.
My heart thudded sickly as I recounted everything, not leaving a single detail out, even though my face burned through some of it.
When I finished, I heaved for breath, hiccuping through my tears. “I didn’t want to leave him,” I whispered. “I wasn’tleavingyour pack. I didn’t want that, either, but when he ordered me to go, when he had me dropped off like I was nothing… God, Thalia, it’s a mess.” I tucked my knees into my chest. “I just want him back.”
“Dakota,” she hummed, her voice heavy with sympathy. “Honey…”
“Please don’t let them hurt him,” I whispered. “I don’t think the rest of his pack will be there with him.”
Aidan was stupid enough to watch me alone, to think he wouldn’t be in danger. But he was reckless enough that he'd likely attack the minute he saw Fenrys, even if it was foolish without his pack for back up.
“They’ll sort it,” Thalia assured me. “We need to get you cleaned up and changed. Sound good?”
I nodded, but it didn’t. Aidan’s smell lingered on the jumper he’d given me and I didn’t want to take it off. If he was ordered away, if he was hurt—or worse—then I’d have nothing left of… Of my mate.
The thought pierced me deeply, and I couldn’t bear it. I shuddered, inhaling shakily, even as I let Thalia walk me to the bathroom.
Chapter 29 - Aidan
As if on cue, Fenrys ducked down, and one of the wolves in his pack launched over his body, slamming into me. I yelped, sent sideways, knocked to the ground in a heap. Two more wolves crowded over me, snarling. The alpha instincts in me told me to get up and fight, but, on the floor, Fenrys was taller than me, and as he approached, my body roared to meet his challenge but his stare kept me pinned.
