Page 33 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
“Yeah. And then they moved to Silverlake Valley.”
“Right,” she said. “Where you grew up.”
“Exactly. But their story… It was spontaneous. My dad was never an alpha, either. Fenrys’s father was the alpha of his pack.” That’s all I revealed about that. Dakota didn’t need my full story yet, and I still wasn’t ready to share it. “They drilled it into me when I moved here that I could be the next alpha in town. I fought my way to be it. Cut down some attempted pack leaders before their pack grew. I’m not proud of what I did to be the best, but I did it. But with that came my father telling me that finding a mate would strengthen my pack, but I saw it as a weakness.”
Dakota nodded, understanding.
“You know, look at Fenrys. His mate got kidnapped, and he went into domestic mode. That’s why he had Conall leading it up, didn’t he? Because his mate and cub were threatened and he didn’t want to risk it happening again.”
Knowing I was right, Dakota nodded again.
“To me, that’s weakness. I don’t want to be scared. I don’t want anyone used against me. Even my pack is a risk. If anyone hauled off with Ryan, put a bag over his damn head and a gun to his temple, and threatened his life, I’d go insane. And that’s just a kid who swore his loyalty to me. With the involvement of a mate… After everything I’ve already lost… I just can’t. Ican’t. I’m fuckin’ weak.”
“You’re not weak.”
“I’m a coward,” I admitted. Tomorrow, I would regret this, but for now, the dark air kept our secrets safe and our words softer. “I wanted to ask you to senior prom but the day I came in, I saw you talking to some other guy. I convinced myself you were smiling at him because he’d asked you himself—”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know. Anyway, I backed out, chickened out. We didn’t have the best… Friendship, so I knew you’d reject me anyway.”
“Friendship? Aidan, youharassedme in high school!” she said, but she didn’t sound hurt the way she had at the start. “I didn’t even think you liked me, let alone would have asked me to prom.”
“Yeah, well, there’s some honesty for you. I was a coward. I bullied you because you made me weak.” That’s what she’d asked when we’d played truth or dare, and I had swiftly changed the direction of the questioning.
“Yeah? Why’d I do that? What was it about me that made yousoweak, huh?”
I swallowed and pushed off the grass. It seemed all I was good at doing was avoiding admitting to her face that I’d crushed on her in high school. “I’m getting a drink. Want in?”
Dakota nodded and followed me inside. “I won’t let this go.”
“Oh, I know. I don’t have to answer, though. So ask away, you won’t get what you want.” Then I paused, my hand reaching for the bottle of good whiskey I kept in my cupboard. “Whatisit that you want to hear?”
Dakota laughed, a short, incredulous sound. “I don’t know, Aidan. Mostly, I didn’t deserve how you treated me. That it wasn’t because you hated me.”
I gazed at her across the kitchen as she hopped up on the other counter. She seemed so at home, and I couldn’t find it in myself to deny her it. I wasn’t sure when I’d stopped wanting to tie her to a chair and restrict her, but I didn’t feel the need right now.
“I didn’t hate you, Dakota,” I told her. “Far from it.”
Silence descended on us as I grabbed two tumblers and filled them with ice, then poured two shots of whisky into one. After just putting one shot in for her, I hesitated, and she held out her hand, signifying one was enough.
“Still a good girl, huh? Not wanting enough to get drunk with me?”
“Good girl,” she snorted. “I’ve come a long way from high school.”
“Yeah, you mean like making out with men in the woods?” And as much as she blushed, I couldn’t help but think about how much it had turned us both on, and she couldn’t deny it.
“Give me that.” She snatched the bottle and shot glass from me, and poured another shot into her tumbler as I downed mine in one go, wincing. Fuck, it was strong. “Why are you getting drunk, anyway?”
“Because I’ve revealed way too much about myself tonight, Wolfie.”
For once, she didn’t saydon’t call me that. She only said, “It’s what I’ve waited years to know, actually. So… Thank you, Aidan.”
She clinked her glass against mine and sipped her drink with a cringe.
Chapter 18 - Dakota
After I drank briefly with Aidan in the kitchen, watching him smoothly go through the bottle of whiskey and then head to bed with no more than a mumble, I was left in the living room alone. I didn’t know where to sleep. I had become so used to being tied to the chair in the Silverlake Valley compound that now I didn’t know where to go.
