Page 20 of Bully Alpha's Pregnant Mate

I pick up my fork, take a bite, and wait, letting the silence settle between us, hoping she’ll be the one to break it.

When she finally speaks, her tone is sharp. “And let’s not pretend you suddenly decided I’m interesting. We both know I’m just here to fulfill some requirement, a formality so you can keep your status as alpha. So, yeah, forgive me if I’m not exactly swooning over dinner.”

My jaw tightens. I take a sip of wine, not breaking eye contact. “You think that’s all this is?”

She lets out another short and bitter laugh before taking a long sip of her drink. “Why else would you bother with any of this? It’s not like you actually care, Alec. And, well, people like Molly? They seem all too happy to remind me of that.”

“Molly?” I frown, genuinely thrown off. “What does Molly have to do with anything?”

She sets her glass down, staring at me with a look that’s almost pitying. “Oh, come on. Don’t act like you don’t know she’s in town. She’s your ex, your old friend, whatever. Apparently, she thought it’d be funny to remind me just how lucky I am to have you. How I’m just… in the way.”

I frown. “And you think that’s what I believe? Isadora, whatever Molly told you, that’s not my problem. She doesn’t know anything about us.”

Isadora gives a half-smile and scoffs. “I know that. But you and I both know that people like her are only saying what everyone’s thinking. You don’t have to say it, Alec. It’s obvious.”

I take a steadying breath, watching her with a mixture of frustration and curiosity. “Why are you so sure you know what I’m thinking, Isadora?”

“Because,” she says, her voice a low hiss, “it’s the same thing you and everyone else thought back when we were kids. That I’m nothing. That I’m not worth the time. And now I’m supposed to believe that just because we’re married, you suddenly see me as your equal?”

I clench my jaw, realizing how deep her insecurities run. “And you’re basing this on what, exactly? Because last I checked, you don’t know me any better than I supposedly know you.”

She scoffs, picking at the bread, looking anywhere but at me. “I know enough, Alec. I know you’re just waiting for me to mess up. To give you a reason to remind me that I don’t belong here.”

The frustration in her voice isn’t new, but hearing it laid out like this hits harder than I expected. I never realized just how much pain she carried, how much she expected to fail. And if I’m honest, maybe I didn’t help back then. But now?

I take a breath. “Maybe you should let me decide what I think of you instead of making assumptions about what you think you know.”

She looks up with a bitter smile on her lips. “Oh, please. Don’t act like you’re some saint, Alec. You think I haven’t noticed the way you look at me? Like you’re doing me some huge favor just by being here?”

“Isadora, I didn’t—”

She cuts me off. “But that’s just it, Alec. You don’t have to say it. It’s written all over your face every time you look at me.”

The tension between us is thick enough to cut with a knife, and I can feel every word she’s throwing at me settle in, sticking like barbs. She’s convinced I see her as some kind of charity case, and I realize now that changing her mind isn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

She takes a slow sip of her drink, setting her glass down with a soft thud. “So, tell me, what exactly were you hoping to accomplish with this little dinner, Alec?”

The sarcasm in her voice is infuriating, but I swallow back my own irritation. She needs reassurance. “I was hoping we could try to start over. Thought maybe we could actually talk.”

She lets out a laugh, shaking her head. “Talk? Sure, because that’s what people like you do, right? You’re all charm and smiles when it’s convenient, but when it comes down to it, you don’t actually care.”

“Do you even hear yourself right now?” I ask, struggling to keep my voice steady. “You’re accusing me of things you can’t possibly know.”

“Oh, I know, Alec. Because I’ve seen it before. You’re doing this out of obligation, not because you really want me here.”

“And maybe if you let yourself believe that I’m not the enemy here, we could actually try to make this work.”

“Make it work? Really?” She smirks and swirls her drink some more. “You can’t even stand me, Alec. I’m the last person you’d ever choose to spend time with if you had an actual choice.”

“And maybe if you’d stop assuming you know everything, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

She laughs, a hollow, mocking sound that makes my blood boil. “Right. Because I’m the problem here. Keep telling yourself that, Alec.”

The silence between us stretches on, every word that’s been said still hovering over us, too heavy to ignore. I sit there, trying to wrap my head around what she’s saying. I knew I hurt her in the past, but seeing the way it still affects her? It’s like getting slapped in the face by my own mistakes. She stares down into her empty glass, eyes tired, and for a moment, I wish there was a way to go back and change it all.

I down my glass of wine, preparing myself. I don’t apologize often; it’s one of my many flaws, but she deserves that much.

“Isadora, I know I can’t erase what happened. But I’m sorry, alright? You didn’t deserve any of it.”

---