Page 23 of Betrayed Bullied Mate

When I can finally see, Aris is standing a foot away, breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling quickly. Now he’s wearing a soft gray hoodie, and I’m jealous that he and his team brought extra clothes with them. I wish I had something to change into.

“I told you not to leave the cabin,” Aris says through his teeth, his eyes trained on me like I might disappear if he looks away for even a moment.

I cross my arms, which immediately draws his eyes down to my chest. If it’s possible, his eyes darken even further.

“Do you understand that this is torture for me?” he asks, his voice lower than I’ve ever heard it. He closes his eyes, bringing his hands to his temples.

“Don’t be dramatic—” I start to say, but he takes a sudden step forward, his eyes flying open and his hands twitching like he wants to reach out and touch me. My body reacts to him immediately, warmth pooling at my center, urging me to step into him.

“Who were you thinking about?” he asks, his voice still barely above a gruff whisper.

“What?”

“Who—” Aris pauses, swallowing hard, then he glances deliberately down at my hand. “Who were you thinking about?”

I feel the flush cover my cheeks, all the way down to my toes. My entire body is hot with embarrassment. There’s no way I can admit to him that I was thinking about him, but if what he’s feeling is even a fraction of what I am, he probably already knows the answer. He knows that I’ve been thinking about him nonstop since I first saw him in that bar. Since prom night. Since before that, if I’m being honest about it.

Aris’s face darkens, and I realize there’s a tinge of jealousy and rage in his expression that increases with every second I stay quiet. Does he really think it would even be possible for me to think about anyone but him right now?

Is he thinking about someone else?

A sudden, unexpected burst of intense jealousy and possessiveness courses through my body. Aris can’t be thinking about another woman because he belongs to me. He’s mine. If he’s thinking about anyone else, I’ll find them and ensure they’re no longer an option.

The violence and intensity of the feelings shock me. It’s so unlike me, driven by something deep I’ve never felt before, but that also feels like it’s always been an integral part of me.

“Who do you think?” I ask, my voice so quiet for a moment I’m not sure he can hear me.

“God, Linnea,” he rasps, moving toward me again but still not touching me. “I want you so badly to say it’s me. It’s been—I can’t think straight. I don’t trust myself around you.”

My eyes widen. High school Linnea would have melted to the floor hearing this, but adult Linnea knows better. I take the tiniest step back from him, though my body screams in protest.

“Linnea,” he says, his voice pained. “I would never hurt you. I won’t touch you unless—unless you want me to.”

We stand like that, breathing heavily, staring at each other, the cabin filled with the sound of our gasps and the heavy sexual tension. When enough time passes and I don’t answer him, he nods once, turning, though it looks like the most painful thing he’s ever done.

“Okay,” he says, choked. “I have to get out of here. Stay—just please stay in the cabin, Linnea. I’m so serious. We should be safe from the rogues up here, but if they do somehow find us through the scent masking, you won’t be able to protect yourself if you can’t shift.”

The desire stays, constant, under everything, but rage rises to the surface.

“Are you ever going to let that go?” I snap, and Aris turns back to me, pulling his hand off the doorknob, surprise written over his face.

“What?”

I think about high school, all the jabs and jokes about how I couldn’t shift. About my parents being disappointed. That I was probably adopted.

“That I can’t shift. Just because I can’t doesn’t mean I’m not just as much a part of this community as you.”

“I never—”

“You may come from the alpha family and have this huge mansion and be the leader of a special ops team, but you’re not better than me, Aris.”

“I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did! That’s why you rejected me in high school. That’s why you claimed we weren’t mates, even though you could feel it, too! You left me here. You don’t think I’m as good as you. That’s why you constantly put me down in high school.”

Suddenly, Aris is in front of me, crowding me into the wall, and despite myself, I lean into him. He hisses at the feeling of my chest against his, and I have to work not to draw my hands up his back.

“Listen,” he says, closing his eyes and dropping his head to the crook of my neck. “It’s not an excuse. I know that. And I wish I could go back and change the way I was. But the truth is that—the truth is that I wanted you, Linnea, before prom night. Before we kissed. I thought about you every single fucking day. And I hated it because I knew my dad would want me with some other girl, someone who could shift, someone from a higher family in the pack.”

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