Page 53 of Knocked Up By My Fated Alpha
I took in a breath and let it out. And as I let out that breath, the hurt and pain that had threatened to bury me earlier finally left me. I heard myself speak as though I existed outside my body.
“I think I really loved you,” in the only way I’d ever thought was possible. “That’s why I can never forgive your betrayal. But I do hope you learn to forgive yourself, Elias.”
Then without another look at him, I stood from the ground and walked away. It wasn’t until I was in the privacy of my room that I realized my cheeks were slick with tears I couldn’t recall shedding.
My tears weren’t for Elias, who was filled with self-loathing for not being enough to save his mother, despite the fact that he’d been a child. So he fixated on blaming Damien in an attempt to overcompensate and disguise his contempt for himself.
My tears were for Damien and the pain he must have felt when the one person he’d loved and trusted more than anyone had broken him so much that he could never open his heart to anyone again.
My tears were for myself, too, and for the hurt that had nestleddeep within me as I accepted the fact that, even now, he was still attached to her.
You’ll never be my Luna.
When we’d made our arrangement, he’d emphasized that statement—because she was his only Luna. And even now, I couldn’t help but wonder if that night we’d spent together, when he’d held on to me, his voice shaky with emotion, if in his drugged haze he’d seen me as her.
…don’t leave me. Please.
The thought that even that impassioned plea might have been for her hurt. It hurt so much it morphed into an all-consuming anger born from an insidious bone-rooted jealousy. An animalistic growl escaped me, and filled with that anger that had absolutely nowhere to go, I punched the wall.
I was so submerged in my anger that it took me a moment to realize the ground was really trembling beneath me, and it wasn’t just me shaking. A rough gasp of disbelief left me as I came face to face with an impossibility. The wall I’d just punched had a dent, a crater, the size of my fist.
But it was impossible. I was wolfless. I was. I knew it. I remembered the confusion in Alpha Damien’s voice from our very first training lesson.
Your wolf’s dominance is on par with mine.
I was…
What the hell was this?
Chapter Seventeen
Damien
I noticed the bandage as soon as she stepped into the training room.
“What happened to your hand?”
“There was a minor incident.” Raven didn’t even look at me, her tone cold and distant.
Full of worry, I let out a curse, reaching for her.
“Let me see—”
Raven took a step back.
“Don’t touch me.” Her emerald eyes held mine emotionlessly. “Let us continue to stay with the limits of our arrangement, Mr. Blackwell.”
Raven was still mad at me for that night. Of course, she was. Even I was still mad at myself. I hated that I was back to being Mr. Blackwell, no longer Damien. All because I’d let my temper get the better of me.
Raven had tried to comfort me, and what had I done? I’d lashed out at her.
Discussions about Rielle always rubbed me the wrong way. They reminded me of what my blind faith in the wrong person had cost my pack and family. So instead of taking the support Raven offered, I’dbarricaded myself in my pain and pushed her so far away that now she couldn’t stand me.
“Raven—” I started to apologize, but she was already sliding on those blasted earphones again and jogging away from me.
Against my wishes, I watched her run, and it wasn’t because her posture had improved or because I found her tenacity impressive. It had, and I did, but it wasn’t why I stared.
I stared because I couldn’t help but stare at Raven, and I couldn’t even blame this on my wolf. It was on me. All me. I, who resented the awkward tension between us at work, Raven’s one-word responses, and the fact that she acted like I didn’t exist. I felt rattled.
