Page 310 of Alpha Mates

Alex curses Katerina to hell and back, but I soon lose track as I stare at him.

It’s been almost a month since we last spoke, longer since I held him like this. I don’t dare breathe, too afraid of ruining this when I’ve just barely gotten it back. He feels like home, like love and—

Alex draws back suddenly, almost falling on his back as his wide eyes find mine. He looks away as he pushes to his feet and my heart twists as I watch him go.

“Let’s just find a way out of here before nightfall,” he mumbles, being sure to keep his gaze away from me as he dusts the dirt from his clothes. “There’s no way Julian would risk a week away from the pack after everything that’s happened.”

“I agree,” I mutter as I stand. “But I also do not think the witch made this all up for fun.”

He scoffs. “I do. She’s a fucking nutcase.”

“Yes, but she seems to like Aiden, especially after—” I pause, not sure how to word the way Aiden comforted her after what she’d done to her coven. Aiden had told Julian about it all, but it’s still hard to put into words a relationship between a witch and a werewolf.

“After?” he prompts with a scowl.

“A friendship is building there. So perhaps he really did ask for this.”

“For a crazy witch to lock us outside of our pack?” he exclaims, alarmed enough by the proposition to finally look at me. His gaze feels like a breath of fresh air. “Why the hell would he do that?”

I do not speak right away, and that beat of silence is all he needs to recall the rest of what she’d said. For us.

“Alex,” I whisper, taking a step forward, but he’s just as quick to take two back.

“No,” he dismisses, turning away from me and walking straight towards the treeline. “Not this.”

I race after him, catching him by his arm. He twists with a snarl, trying to escape, but I don’t let him. I fight him, struggling until I force him to face me, to look at me. But he doesn’t. He keeps his gaze on my chest while he strains against me.

“Alex, please.”

“No,” he snaps, voice breaking slightly as the fight in him tapers. “Not … not now, Maximus.”

“Then when?” I beg as I try to catch his gaze.

“I don’t know,” he retorts, trying again to pull away, but I’ve waited too long to have him again to let this pass. I tuck my knuckles under his chin and force his gaze up. Blue eyes meet mine, but they aren’t the light treasures Iknow them to be. They’re deeper, tinted a darker shade, with the pain that ripples through them.

My heart buckles at the sight, nearly tearing a pained whine from my lips. Alex pulls away, and I let him, not even fighting as he steps back. He draws a line between us, a clear one that rips me apart from where our souls meet.

“I don’t know, Max,” he repeats as he backs away. His lip trembles as he shakes his head. “I… I don’t know.”

Alex walks away, searching for a way out, so that he can get away from me.

“I can’t believe he did this,” Alex growls as he paces in front of the fire. “I can’t believe he’d trust a fucking witch.”

I keep my mouth shut as I prod the pile with my stick, shifting a few more twigs in place to burn.

It was only after we’d circled the edges of our “arena” three times that Alex finally gave up on finding a way out. Begrudgingly, he followed me back to where we first started. We hadn’t noticed it at first, but there were three packed sleeping bags and some supplies, including clothes, soap, toothpaste, and a note.

It was from Aiden and Julian. Despite what we wished to believe, this very muchwastheir doing, and while neither had been eager to ask Katerina for more help, they “didn’t know what else to do.”

Talk to us, I wanted to say, but they had tried—or at least Aiden had. Several times now, but I always shut him down, and I was sure Alex had done the same. So, they’d taken matters into their own hands, and now here we were, roughing it out in the woods until we mended ourselves.

“I’m looking again first thing in the morning,” Alex declares as he comes to a sudden halt. “It’s too dark now to see anything, but every spell has a loophole.”

I nod, not bothering to refute his plan with the reminder that night is supposed to be where our senses excel, and that Katerina seems far stronger than even the most legendary witches.

“We should wash up before we sleep then,” I say as I rise from the fire and grab the bag of supplies designated as mine.

In trying to make his escape, Alex had found the water source, which was a large stream with a wide and deep enough centre to dip within.