Alec’s

She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Knox pops in my head, annoying me the f**k o

“Will you just shut the f**k up?” 1 growl, but it does nothing to avert his attention from Sadie.

I’ve been here for the last forty or so minutes. My eyes barely moved from her face. It’s like, no matter what I do, I just can’t pull my focus from her.

The need to smooth down her hair and touch her is so strong that I have to clench my fist just so I don’t give in to the strong need. One that goes beyond my understanding.

Sure, we were taught about mate bonds, but no one ever mentioned just how strong it would be. Just how powerful it would be.

“Mate bonds between alphas and their Lunas are usually stronger than those of average wolves,” Knox informs me.

“And you didn’t think to tell me this before?”

“It never came up,” he answers lazily. “Though I should have figured it out with Lola when the bond didn’t feel that strong. I was so smitten by her wolf that I failed to notice that major detail.”

I breathe out, trying to hide my frustration and bitterness. Had I known this before, maybe I would have questioned things with Løla. Had he been keener, maybe we would have avoided the mess we are in right now.

can’t really blame him, though. Just like him, I was so smitten with Lola that I could barely see straight. I barely thought straight.

“Has her wolf reached out to you?” I ask, needing something to do other than stare at Sadie like a d*n creep.

“No, I did try to, but she told me to f**k off,” he murmurs, clearly not happy with the fact that his mate told him off.

“It’s not anything the human counterpart hasn’t told us thousands of times.”

“True, but I thought her wolf would be more agreeable, since they usually are.”

Female wolves are built to submit to the mate bond and their mates. They rarely go against what the mate bond or their mates desire. The fact that Sadie’s wolf was able to deny Knox shows just how strong she is.

“At least tell me you got her name?”

“Nope,” he says, popping the P. “She told me to pi** off when I asked.”

Why am I not surprised? I should have guessed it; given how strong of a personality Sadie has, I shouldn’t have expected anything less from her wolf.

“I like that she’s feisty,” Knox says after a while. “It will make it more enjoyable to tame her and make her submit.”

I don’t say anything because, from what I’ve seen so far, I doubt anyone can ever tame Sadie. No one can make her submit. If she does ever submit, it will be because she wants to, not because she has to.

I don’t say anything because I know Knox. He’s a stubborn fucker. He won’t easily accept that Sadie’s wolf won’t submit to

him.

The door opens and Jason pops his head in.

“I was told I could find you here,” he says, entering the room. His eye moves from me to Sadie and back again. “What happened?”

11:55 Tue, Aug 20

“I don’t know,” I answer: “I just bumped into her after my morning run, and she fainted.”

The nurse had washed and changed Sadie long ago. She is now clean and in a hospital gown.

“What did the doctors say?”

I explained everything the doctor said. W

I am done, we sit in silence for a little bit.

My eyes are drawn to her cheek. A place I’ve been trying to avoid looking at since the day the truth came out.

+5

The scar is still there. Still visible. I did a wonderful job making sure that it’ll never disappear. I cut it deep enough to know that it would leave a scar. When I did that, I wanted to mark her as a traitor to her alpha. I wanted her to be reminded of what I did to her. To be reminded of my hatred for her.

It worked. The scar is there, and it’s glaring accusingly at me. Unlike what other females would do, Sadie doesn’t try to hide it underneath heaps of makeup. She wears it like a brand.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

My heart constricts. I clench my hands against the wave of emotions. I did this to her. I did this to my mate. I may not have known the truth when I scarred her face, but now I do, and it guts me.

It shakes my soul that I hurt my mate in the cruelest way possible. The torture, the beating, the insults. Everything crashes onto me like a big boulder. I feel crushed as the weight of what I did to m

my own mate shatters me.

F**k, I am not an emotional person, but right now I feel like curling up in a f**g ball and crying like a baby.

I continue staring at her. Knox is right; she’s d**n beautiful. How the hell did I not notice it before? Why did I look down on her? Why did I always treat her like she was insignificant? Was it because she was an omega and I thought there was nothing she could offer? After all, alphas are usually mated to higher-up females.

So many regrets. I was drowning in them. Drowning in the fact that if I had just questioned things, right now we would have been happy. We would have been a family. My mate wouldn’t hate me and my daughter would know who I am.

“Alec?”

I turn when Jason’s voice penetrates my fog. I sag against the chair, feeling the weight of my failures and regrets on my shoulder.

“I’d come to let you know that Piper has arrived,” he says,

Everything is a mess and I don’t have anyone to blame.

I stand up. “Let’s go.”

but his words take a while to sink in.

Jason follows suite, and we cross the room. I give Sadie one last look. This is the most peaceful I have seen her since I found her. I know that I am partly responsible for her troubles. For her unrest. I know she hates being here and being around me. It bothers me more than I care to admit.

色