Page 17 of A Chance at Redemption for the Alpha
Mom and Dad come to visit me daily, while my body is slowly healing. Amos is still exhausted, but he woke up a while ago, much to my relief.
You know what we need to do, don’t you?I ask him.
Yes,he says.
Are you strong enough for it?
I am,he insists.
My parents have, for once, respected my boundaries. Eugene visited me once, but I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t talk to him, and asked Mom to stop him from visiting until I’m ready. I don’t want to hurt him any further, but I don’t want to hurt myself either. And the things I have planned will work better if I makea clean cut. It’s the reason I ask Dad to send Olive to me. I know she wasn’t allowed to visit - strict doctor’s orders not to stress me out. But now that I have asked for her, I hope she won’t make me wait for too long.
To my surprise, she comes on the same day. Like everyone else, she looks tired and worried. “Marc,” she says. “I’m so glad you are better. I wanted to visit you so badly to apologize. I should have been much clearer with my intentions, but I wasn’t... And fuck! I was just so shitty. I am so sorry… This is all my fault.”
I am not sure what to answer her, so I decide to settle for the truth. “I liked you,” I tell her simply.
She raises her eyes to look at me. She has beautiful, brown eyes, but I realize they don’t have the same effect on me now. It’s like the last couple of weeks made me fall out of love. It still hurts, though, especially since there is still a bond between us.
“I didn’t know,” she whispers.
“Well, I never said anything,” I say before I look at her. “Do it,” I tell her.
She looks confused first before realization settles in. “What… No… I can’t! You have just started to feel better. You are in hospital. I can’t, it’s impossible.”
Something about her words tick me off. Now everyone is suddenly worried about how the mate bond is affecting me, while they should have been thinking about it much earlier. “Yes, you can,” I huff. “And it’s the least you can do for me. All of you are so used to me being the bad boy that you all want to put it on me.It’s your decision, Marcellus. No, it’s not. It’s yours, and Eugene’s. You two made a decision. Now fucking act on it and reject me. That’s the least you can do. You are going to be luna of this pack, show some backbone.”
She has tears in her eyes. “I am weak, aren’t I?”
“For a luna, you need to be stronger,” I tell her bluntly. “I expect you to live up to this task. Eugene will be the sole alpha, and it will be fucking difficult for him. He was groomed to become an alpha pair, not a lone one. It’s going to be a shit ton of work. The pack is going to be confused, and not everyone is going to be happy. He will need to put all his strength into this to bring them stability.”
“This wasn’t planned,” she blurts out. “He never wanted to do this alone. He-“
“It doesn’t matter what he wanted. It’s happening. Whether we like it or not,” I say. I am over hearing their excuses, all of them. They should have thought about this sooner. Now it comes a little too late. “He chose you over me. I am not sure if I will ever forgive him for that, but he made a choice, and you were an active part in it. It wasn’t just his choice. You knew this outcome was a possibility. I know you well enough to know that you are not naïve or stupid enough to think it wasn’t.”
She stares at me wordlessly for a while. “I didn’t want to play anyone,” she says. “I know it sounds like a weak excuse now, but I truly didn’t want to hurt any of you.”
“I believe you when you say you didn’t want to play us,” I state. “But you made a decision and didn’t have the backbone to tell me and resolve all of it. You played a role in this. And Olive, you need to consider what’s going to happen if Eugene finds his mate, or what you will do if you find your second chance mate. The mate bond is strong.“
“I know,” Olive answers sadly. “It’s Eugene’s and my price to pay. I know he didn’t think it through before the battle, and I didn’t either. I... but now it’s done. Eugene will need to make me his chosen mate, and I will need to accept it, no matter what happens, or the pack is going to be in complete chaos.”
So, she gets it. They really have no choice anymore.
I wonder if it was worth it.
“I know my indecisiveness and my fear of conflict caused a lot of damage. I wish I could undo it all,” she says.
“But we can’t. Things still happened, and it’s not all Eugene’s fault. You can’t just rely on him to make things right; you need to participate, too. You owe that to me, and to him.
She looks down at her fingers. “When I felt the mate bond to you, it was an amazing feeling. When you hugged me, it was mutual. But I have always loved Eugene, and that feeling was stronger than my wolf’s push for the mate bond.” She pauses. “I just wanted you to know that I didn’t feel nothing.”
I swallow thickly. “Thanks for telling me.”
“Do you think you will be able to forgive us? Not now but in the future?” she asks quietly. “One day, can you forgive Eugene?”
She is still thinking about him. I am her mate and almost died, yet her thoughts are with him. In a weird, twisted way, it makes me feel relieved, because it means her feelings are genuine and she is truly in love with him. At least this whole shitshow wasn’t for nothing.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. “Listen, I’m tired, and this talk has lasted longer than I wanted it to. I asked you to come here to do what you should have done two weeks ago. It hurts seeing your face, and it hurts knowing my mate chose my brother. Cut us free or leave me alone.”
She looks at me with tears in her eyes. “I am sorry,” she whispers, my heart sinking when I think she is chickening out again. Then, however, she takes a deep breath. “I, Olive Thompson, reject you, Marcellus Wagner, as my mate.”
