Page 5 of Arranged Bullied Mate
It’s Jacob, hovering with a look that says he’d rather be anywhere but here. He’s deliberately not meeting my eye, staring at my shoulder instead of my face, which means it’s something I’ll despise.
“Ronan.” He flicks a glance at Ava, then back to me. “The pack’s waiting. They, uh, want to see you both. Before the real…festivities start.” He gestures vaguely behind him, or maybe just at the collective idiocy of our traditions.
I drag in a breath. My pulse is still hammering, but the spell is broken; Ava trembles with presumably silent relief.
“Tell them we’re coming,” I snap, and Jacob actually sprints off, so eager to escape that he almost trips over the tent ropes.
Ava remains pressed against the table, arms crossed tight over her stomach, eyes glassy with something unspoken.
“Let’s get this over with,” I say, not looking at her, and stalk out into the cool air.
We haven’t made it ten feet before my sister descends on us with her usual arsenal-grade enthusiasm.
“Hi!” Emily says, and it’s physically impossible to ignore her. “I’m so glad you’re here—Ronan, you made it sound like you didn’t know who you’d pick, and then it took you all of two seconds.” She wraps Ava in a hug before I can warn her off, and Ava freezes, her arms at her sides like she’s forgotten how to use them. Emily doesn’t notice, or pretends not to. “You look amazing. I love your dress. Where did you get it?”
Ava blinks, as if confused by the question or trying to work out if Emily is being sincere. She glances at me nervously before smiling, “It’s old, I really don’t remember.”
“Well, it’s gorgeous. And so are you. What a day,” she gushes before being interrupted by Maddox as he claps me on the back.
Maddox’s palm feels like a firm slab between my shoulder blades, and the friendly gesture feels too over the top to be genuine. “Alpha,” he says, with a theatrical dip of his head. “Quite a statement, bringing an outcast girl back into the fold.”
Emily rolls her eyes. “Ronan knows what he’s doing.”
“Of course he does,” Maddox says, and his gaze sweeps from Emily to Ava with a wolfish, practiced charm. “The pack needs new blood. Old blood, in this case. But we all know how much Ronan loves a project.” His eyes flick to me, the challenge undisguised.
I meet his gaze, jaw clenched. “Thanks for your support, Maddox. I’m sure it means a lot to Ava to have a beta’s approval.”
Maddox’s lips curve. “Anything for the pack.” It’s so obviously a lie. Maddox turns his attention to Emily, as if chatting with old friends rather than stirring trouble. “You look incredible, Emily. Are you going to the bonfire later?”
She beams at him, and I hate it. She’s clearly not immune to his charm. Maddox smiles knowingly before drifting away, and I accept a beer gratefully from Jacob as he rejoins our group, listening to Emily chatting away at record speed to a confused Ava. I don’t miss the way her eyes scan the tree line as if looking for an exit.
Not going to happen.
Chapter 4 - Ava
In all my years growing up in Starcreek, I never went into the alpha house. I never even approached the gate. Even when I had Ronan’s brief attention, he would never have brought me here. My family simply wasn’t respectable enough.
So, to be standing here now, surrounded by the clawing alpha scents of so many generations of leaders, feels overwhelming. No more so than Ronan’s scent, which feels both familiar and somehow freshly intimidating. He was born to be alpha, and his wolf was always dominant, but he’s older now, and his wolf is on a whole different level.
And despite my desperation to get away, my stupid wolf is helpless in her response. I already feel the subtle clawing of my omega nature, and I’ve been in this house less than forty-eight hours.
I need to get out of here if I’m going to rescue Sophie from my parents. I have never been more certain that I need to get her far away from them, this pack, and anyone who could harm her, including Ronan. Alphas take their lineage very seriously, and I won’t let him find out about her now. He will be furious and could take her and banish me again. They already banished me once—I won’t risk anyone keeping me from Sophie again.
No, I need to get her away from them all.
But first, I need to find a way out of the house. After the ceremony, Ronan brought me here, showed me to this room, saying he has no intention of sharing more of his space with me than necessary for breeding. Then he went out to organize the evening patrols. The kitchen has plenty of food, but other than that, the house has been silent.
Ronan’s home could not be further from my own experience. The main floor is an open plan with exposed beams and wide-planked floors, the wood glossed to a warm, honeyed shine. You can tell the bones of the house are old, hand-built, and stubbornly solid, the kind of house designed to outlast its builder. However, every detail has been updated, likely since Ronan’s father passed away.
There’s a chef’s kitchen on one side with gleaming subway tile and a mammoth stove with six burners, the fridge oversized, but he’s somehow managed to fill it, or someone has. Each shelf is laden with pre-prepared meals, snacks, beers, and single-serve smoothies. I can’t picture Ronan at the stove, or anywhere near it, really. He doesn’t seem the type to prepare home-cooked meals, or anything, really. But at least I won’t go hungry while he leaves me locked in here.
The rest of the house appears to be a monument to masculinity—steel, leather, and slate, every chair and couch oversized and dark. The hearth is enormous, stacked with logs split by hand, and the mantel above it is the only place in the entire house that betrays any softness. Dozens of family photos, arranged in a grid so precisely they must have been measured out, show the lineage of Ronan’s family, spanning generations of powerful alphas and beautiful women.
My eyes linger on a picture of Ronan’s mother, which was obviously taken years earlier, because she looks even younger than I remember her from my childhood. She was stunning, with long auburn hair and sun-kissed skin. In the picture, she’s looking up at Ronan’s father, the alpha my parents betrayed. I always remember him as cruel and angry, because that’s how he seemed whenever my parents crossed paths with him. Older now, I can understand why. Looking at this picture, all Isee is happiness as they stare into each other’s eyes—a gentle happiness.
I look away, not wanting even to see it when I’m missing Sophie so much. I know that technically, it’s possible for alphas and omegas to have happy unions, but I’ve never seen it in real life, and I don’t expect to find it here. I glance back at the picture.She’s probably just smiling because she has to,I decide.
I’m still standing by the pictures when I hear the front door click, and my body lurches toward the sound, only to freeze as the handle turns. I brace myself to face Ronan, but it’s not his looming figure that fills the foyer. It’s his sister, Emily, wearing a T-shirt dress and battered sneakers, her arms filled with tote bags and a cardboard box threatening structural collapse.