Page 14 of Arranged Bullied Mate

I hear the words, but they don’t register at first. Wilder watches the flicker of emotion across my face and drums his fingers on the battered wood. “I’m not saying it’s definite. But someone’s been sniffing around the traditions. Asking about the old ways. You know how it goes right before any new alpha’s ceremony.”

Jacob shifts his weight, a coiled tension in the line of his shoulders. “Who?” he asks.

Wilder’s gaze flicks away, just for a second, and that’s all the answer I need. “There are rumors,” he says finally. “But nothing I can prove. I wouldn’t have brought it up if I hadn’t heard it from three different sources, all within the same day.”

I nod, my jaw set. Jacob and I both know that rumors don’t start themselves. “Maddox,” I say, and Wilder’s lips twitch upward, the faintest ghost of a smile.

“I’m not saying he’s not connected to the rumors, but that doesn’t mean he’s the challenger,” the elder says carefully. “I won’t stand for pointing fingers without proof; it will only make you look weak and paranoid.”

I nod, jaw working. “Of course,” I say, “I won’t make a move unless I have evidence.” I let the word hang there, just long enough for Wilder to understand I mean what I say.

Wilder relaxes back in his creaking chair, hands folded. “This is the part nobody tells you about, Ronan—the politics and the rot that creeps in when there’s a change at the top. Your father saw it. I saw it before him.” His gaze sharpens, boring into me. “If you want to keep this pack, you’ll squash any challenge before the ceremony. After, it’s blood in the water. Understood?”

I nod again, a cold resolve settling in my bones. Jacob glances at me, reading my mood, then addresses the elder directly. “Do you want us to keep this quiet? Or make a show of it?”

Wilder considers his options before shrugging as though he is unaffected either way, and in a way, I guess he is. “Quiet, but not invisible. Everyone’s looking at you, Ronan. Don’t let them scent fear.”

By the time I leave the hall and begin my walk back to the house, my mind is racing. I thought I understood the role of alpha; I thought I knew what it meant. But with Ava feeling Goddess knows what, and Maddox causing trouble, I feel like the first test of what it really means to lead is coming all too soon.

Chapter 10 - Ava

The thrum of shame follows me wherever I go. I can’t believe how quickly and powerfully the heat overtook me and how I behaved. It’s not as though I don’t physically want Ronan—he was my first, my only lover. I don’t even want anyone else, which is laughable, because he doesn’t feel that way about me. He had already been through half the girls our age before he even bothered with me. I doubt he’s changed in the years I’ve been away.

I’m not even sure why he chose me if he doesn’t want to breed me. He could have knotted me two days ago. It’s not as though I didn’t want it, either. Goddess, I’d never craved anything so much as I did in that moment, the need so strong and wild inside me that if he’d just pushed me down and taken me, I would have thanked him for it. And yet, he left. He left, and I was left with a body that wouldn’t cool off, a hollow ache that had nothing to do with being unbred and everything to do with longing. Not for the knot. Well, not just the knot, but for something heavier, darker, more permanent, too.

I should be grateful. My heat’s not even fully peaking. I tell myself it’s the only reason he didn’t knot me, that he’s waiting for the right moment to maximize his investment, as if I’m a harvest to be timed. But I know my scent has always driven him crazy. He’s not immune to me, not really. The way his hands shook when he pinned me, how his cock twitched and pulsed against my lips, how his breath was shaky right before he came…it wasn’t indifference. It was a restraint. And that makes it worse, somehow, that I wanted it more than he did. That he could walk away, and I was left empty and ashamed.

Ashamed because I should have been able to escape by now. I need to rescue Sophie from my parents, not stay herecraving Ronan’s cock. What kind of mother does that make me?An omega mother.Imagine if he knew he’d already bred me.

I could tell him about Sophie. Surely, he wouldn’t want to leave her with my parents, but how would I explain why I’d come back here and left her behind? To kill him? I’d be instantly labeled a traitor; no alpha would stand for that. What if he banished me and took Sophie anyway? I just need my little girl.

I push open the kitchen doors that lead out onto the deck. It still feels strange, and wonderful, to be able to go outside, but I know it’s a false sense of freedom. Ronan told me the perimeter is magically rigged—for my own protection, apparently. Can’t have an omega in heat wandering the streets…

Even though I know he’s right in a way, looking out at the boundary of the yard only makes me feel more trapped. Being able to walk around outside but not break into a run and head straight for Sophie breaks my heart. I slump down onto one of the seats on the deck and simply stare at the tree line, wondering what the hell I’m going to do. My heat hasn’t even peaked yet. When it does, I’ll be trapped in a breeding haze until it breaks. Can I escape then? What if I’m pregnant? Ronan won’t let me just wander around, will he?

I don’t hear Emily until the deck creaks under her sneakers. I startle, nearly toppling off the chair, and for a moment, my wolf bares her teeth in pure, helpless panic. Emily freezes, hands up, as if I might attack.

“Sorry, sorry,” she says, and smiles. She’s carrying a canvas tote with the logo of the town’s general store, filled to bursting. I want to ask her how she got in here without me noticing, but the answer is obvious. I was too busy wallowing to see straight.

“I brought you more stuff,” she says, dropping the bag on the table and sitting down across from me. “I can’t believe Ronan doesn’t even use proper shampoo. How do men do their hair using shower gel?”

She seems so aghast that it’s hard not to smile. “Thanks, Em, I appreciate it. My hair appreciates it.”

She waves her hand, brushing my thanks aside. “I’m using Ronan’s card,” she laughs. “He hasn’t got a clue what women need.”

I smile again, but I can tell it probably doesn’t quite reach my eyes. The weight of my thoughts is almost overwhelming.

Emily is one of the only people I’ve ever met who can sit in silence and make it feel intentional, a gentle kind of pressure that never feels uncomfortable. She starts unpacking the tote, arranging the bottles on the table in a silly parade, lining them up before digging out a pack of chocolate bars and a magazine. The thoughtfulness of it all makes my throat tighten.

She picks at the corner of the magazine, then glances up at me, her expression suddenly serious. “You look sad,” she says. It’s not an accusation, just a fact. “Is it the heat? I read somewhere that for some people it can make us feel, like, extra emotional.”

I shake my head, unsure how to answer. “Not really. I think I’m just…overwhelmed.”

“Because of being here, or your family?” Emily asks, her voice gentle but not prying. “You must miss them. Even if things were…hard.”

It takes me a second to realize what she’s probably talking about. I’d been hoping she’d forget about the photo, the way I’d snatched it from her hand the day before, the way she’d said,shelooks just like you. I thought I’d done a good job of burying the awkward moment, but perhaps she noticed more than I wanted her to.

I focus on the magazine, flipping through the pages without seeing a single word. “I don’t really miss my parents,” I say, which is true in a way that makes my skin crawl. “But I miss the idea of family. The idea that I could just…belong somewhere.” I manage a weak laugh. “That’s pathetic, isn’t it?”