Page 42 of Alpha's Bullied Mate
I didn’t bother answering him verbally. I only threw my arms around his shoulders and
kissed him, hard. For a split second, his body relaxed, and he kissed me back, his lips moving against my own, and he shivered beneath my hands, pressing into his back.
But then he was gone, pulling away. “Like I said, it was just fucking.”
He went into his bedroom and shut the door.
Chapter 21 - Aidan
I shut the door in Dakota’s face with the taste of her still on my tongue.
As soon as I went in, her scent hit me. The smell of citrus fruits, freshly peeled, cut, and prepared for a hot day. Delicious, ripe, plush to bite teeth into. I groaned and saw that she’d stripped the bedsheets but hadn’t managed to get rid of the smell of what we’d done last night.
I hadn’t meant to sound the way I did. It wasn’tjust fucking. As soon as I’d said it the first time, I’d turned around before I could see how she reacted. But the second time… I knew that’d be ingrained on my memory.
I’m sorry, I wanted to say.
I take it back. I’m scared. I’m fucking terrified of you, Dakota, and what you do to me. What I think you mean to me. What we might be.
All I wanted to do, even now, was go out there, take her hand, and spread her out on the bed again, and feast on her for hours. But I couldn’t. I’d just spent the last fifteen hours as a wolf, trying to outrun my feelings. I’d ran across town borders, come back on myself, paced the woods, stayed out there, contemplatedlivingout there, just to get her out of my mind.
As a wolf, I’d been okay. I’d been aching for her, my blood pounding to be back with her, to have her wolf form beneath mine. But as a human, seeing her in the backyard, punching one of my pack like she belonged, like it wasokayand she’d be forgiven, it had undone the emotional distance I’d worked for all day.
“What the hell are you doing to me?” I whispered, thumping my head back against the door. I couldn’t think straight. Every inch of me craved to be with her. Toholdher. To hold her down and against me. To have her over and over until we were exhausted. I wanted her viscerally and couldn’t shake it off.
Even stood in my shorts and jumper, soaked in my scent once again, I’d needed to claim her.
But she’d guided me to her mating mark last night, and I’d almost let her—only to pull back once again at the last moment. But instead of pulling away completely, it only urged me to fuck her harder, faster, needing her to climax because if I couldn’t mate her, then I’d have her arousal. I’d havesomethingof her to keep.
The thought shocked me. Iwantedto mate with her. I wanted to give into the tug pulling us closer together and not be such a coward.
But if I accepted it, and so did Dakota, I invited an enemy war into my hands with Fenrys by having Dakota as officially part of my pack, asmyLuna. And if I gave in, she was only one more person who could hurt me or be taken from me. I didn’t think I could go through that. She couldn’t just be a temporary thing in my life if I let myself give into this.
So, I needed to distance myself.
And I opened the door to say as much, but she was gone. I panicked for a second before hearing her soft and happy voice in the living room. At least I hadn’t done enough damage to make her care for too long.
***
Half thinking about Dakota attempting to bolt after how I’d treated her, I arranged for her dress to be delivered to my house. Before we’d slept together, I had planned to take her out shopping so she’d written down her measurements. I’d wanted to give her a slice of dumb happiness before I had to parade her for the town’s sake.
While the town was celebrating Oak Hill’s one-hundredth birthday, people would approach us. The thought of pretending to be mates staked me through the chest, especially when I was worried that was what we actually might be. I’d tossed my phone at her last night, after she’d kissed me, and told her to pick a dress. She’d thrown my phone right back at me, refusing for a while, telling me she wouldn’t go.
I didn’t know what had changed her mind, but she’d eventually picked a dress, and when a knock sounded on the door the morning of the gala, I answered it, grabbed the box, and brought it to Dakota in the living room. Despite sleeping in my bed for one night, she’d returned to the sofa. Dark circles spread beneath her eyes, evidence of being awake through the night.
“Have you slept at all?” I asked.
“No.”
“You should sleep before we head out.”
“No.”
“Dakota—”
“Leave me alone, Aidan.”
I hesitated for a minute before nodding. “Your dress.” I nodded at the box. “And shoes.”
