Page 35 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
Was it Aidan keeping me there, or the reluctant sense of belonging I was starting to feel?
When I returned, I stepped over sitting pack members and dropped the pizza boxes on the table. At once, they all paused. Declan landed a punch on Jason’s face with the distraction as they all looked at me, realizing what could have happened.
What they’dlethappen. Knowing that I could have ran.
“You’re still here,” Jason said.
I gave him a tight smile. “Still here.” An uncomfortable silence rippled across the room. “I mean, grab it while it’s hot, right?” I asked, picking up a slice of pizza. Instead of joining in on the floor again, I took up my usual spot on the couch and tucked into the corner. I was in the house of my captor and his pack, had a free line of escape, and hadn’t taken it.
Too many doubts and questions flooded my head. The change between me and Aidan and how charged it all felt now, the belonging that was burrowing into my heart that said this pack felt more comfortable than any group of people I’d known, and the fact that I had started to not hate Aidan either.
I tucked my knees to my chest, nibbled on my pizza slice, and tried to drown out the doubts.
***
When Aidan returned home that evening, nobody mentioned a word to how they’d let me answer the door, or that they would have given me a chance to escape. But he stormed in and came to stand over me.
“What did you do?” he snarled.
He turned to his pack, who were either fixing dinner, setting the table, or already sitting down. “And what did you all let happen?”
“Nothing,” I mumbled.
“Then why has the goddamn mayor of Oak Hill come into my workplace asking if I’ve met my mate?”
“What?” I shrieked. “Why the…Oh.”
The pizza delivery guy. He must have gone and talked about seeing a female in the house of Aidan’s pack. He must havetold it to someone, and, well, Oak Hill was known for it’s gossip mill, just like Silverlake Valley.
“Why the mayor?”
“Because when the alpha in town has supposedly met his mate, the mayor wishes to greet her. You don’t get that in Silverlake Valley because the damn mayor ispartof the pack, but here, shifters are less common. We get along with the mayor and every official in town but that doesn’t mean they understand it. They try to make it a big thing for us. Especially alphas.”
“But at the end of the day isn’t it just a partner?” I muttered.
“Yes, but I’m the damn alpha and you were wearing my clothes.”
I peered down at the jumper I was wearing and cringed. Since having no clothes of my own, I had been borrowing Aidan’s. That included the sweater he had for the place he worked at when he wasn’t wearing his overalls.
I could see how it looked.
“Anyway,” Aidan snarled. “There’s a gala being held to celebrate the town being established for one hundred years—”
“Damn, that’s old,” Declan whispered.
“Yeah, it’s a pretty big deal for the mayor,” Aidan snapped. “Which is why he wants the alpha, his pack, and hisnew mateto attend.” He spat the words, and I flinched at them. Not out of fear but anger. That anger I hadn’t felt in a short while reared its head as I glared up at him.
“I’m not going,” I said.
“Like hell, you’re not. We’reallgoing.”
It hit me slowly. “You don’t trust me to be here alone.”
“Of course I don’t,” he snapped. “Can you blame me, Dakota? You’ve tried to run twice already.”
“You don’t trust me? I had a free shot at escape today when I opened the door for the food delivery. Inever took it. I stayed. I closed that damn door and came back in here to watch your pack fight each other because it feelscomfortable being here. And I don’t goddamn understand it, Aidan, I don’t. But I’mhereand I’m not escaping but I’m not sorry for the times I did. I cannot understand why I want to stay, why I didn’t run. Maybe I’m tired of fighting you. Maybe I’m justtired. Or maybe there is something worth staying here for, but I haven’t figured it out yet. I don’t need you breathing down my neck about trust and betrayal. Just because one fucking alpha years ago did something that you won’t even talk about doesn’t mean you have to hate everyone forever.” I stood up and shoved past him. “Grow the fuck up, Aidan.”
With that, I pushed my way to the bathroom, ran the shower, got in with his stupid jumper on, and just sat under the spray to hide the fact that I was crying.
