Chapter 18

Alaric

I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately. I can barely recognize myself anymore.

I knew Cara was a gold digger, and yet I still got involved with her. I know Cara’s body is off limits due to doctor’s orders, and yet I still go to the apartment to find her. It’s like I can’t keep myself away.

But why?

“And you still think this is just about the sex?” Grey asked me with a rueful chuckle the first time I went to the apartment after we got the updated medical certificate.

“Stay out of my head, alright?” I replied testily.

“Where is it you would like me to go then?” My wolf growls back. “Or have you forgotten that my existence is tied to yours? Do you think I enjoy simply watching while you destroy our lives?”

“Just shut the FUCK up!” I yelled at him harshly.

Perhaps too harshly, looking back.

Grey and I haven’t been the same since. He barely talks to me now, and when he does, he’s dripping with disdain.

I try to brush off my emotions and keep a level head as best as I can.

The wedding moves closer each day, and each day I’m more impressed by Cara’s work.

Not only is she doing a fantastic job with all the wedding planning tasks, but she’s also handling her Beta responsibilities, plus some assignments that I would have given to my ex-Gamma George.

I look at my calendar and notice that Cara’s birthday approaches.

She’s done all that I’ve asked of her and more, so it feels only right to reward her. I want to do something special for her to show some appreciation.

In a purely professional sense, of course.

Grey merely huffs loudly, not quite bothering to start yet another argument with me about Cara, but not quite willing to let my warm thoughts of Cara go without some sort of snide gesture.

On Cara’s birthday, I arrange to stop work to go to the apartment to see Cara. My phone rings as I’m finishing up at the office.

“Alaaaaric!!”

Lilia squeals gleefully. “Where ARE you?? I miiiisssss youuuuu….”

She sounds off… She sounds… drunk.

“Where are you?” I ask quickly.

“Oh, there’s a party! There’s a a party and everyone’s heeeeerreee…. But you’re NOT here!”

“Shit,” I whisper to myself under my breath. I look at my calendar again and see one of the nobles had planned an event for tonight. I declined the invitation due to Cara’s birthday, but it looks like I’ll have to make an appearance anyway to collect Lilia.

Hopefully this won’t take too long.

I arrive at the lavish event to see all the pack nobles gathered around Lilia. She’s the center of attention. There’s a big, broad smile on her face and a hazy look in her eye.

Yep, definitely drunk.

She yelps as soon as she sees me. “You came!”

Trying to make this quick, I slip an arm around Lilia’s waist. But Lilia mistakes my gesture for an invitation to dance.

She starts moving her body against mine, gyrating her chest and hips.

I stand still. “We need to be going, Lilia,” I say to her softly.

Lilia looks up at me, and I watch as tears pool in her eyes. She looks like I’ve slapped her. “I don’t care if you have a lover…” she sniffles. “I don’t care…”

The pack nobles dart their eyes at one another in quick succession. I even hear a few gasps and whispers.

Dammit, Lilia, I think to myself. She’s causing a scene.

Except she’s right, though. If Cara wasn’t on doctor’s orders to rest right now… well, I’d probably be seeing very little of Lilia.

Lilia, my fiancée.

“I called my brothers… but all they want to talk about is Cara, Cara, Caaaarrraaa. They don’t care about ME; they just love her!” Lilia wails drunkenly.

The nobles surrounding us aren’t bothering to whisper now. They’re outright gawking at Lilia’s public outburst.

“She’s a schemer, that she-wolf, I can smeelllllllll it on her! A gold digger! Every new man in her life is a new deposit into her accounts!” She snorts at her own cleverness.

One of the nobles chimes in, “It’s unfortunately very common with low-borns, Alpha King, sir. They grew up with nothing, so they just take and take and take until they feel they have something…”

“But it’s never enough!” Another noble finishes the thought.

It’s never enough, I think. While I don’t enjoy listening to a roomful of people bashing my Beta, I can’t deny that I haven’t been harboring these same exact thoughts about Cara.

On any other day, I might have stopped this gossiping. I might have told the nobles to hush and mind their own business. I might have even punished them for their words.

After all, speaking like this was exactly why I exiled George. But this isn’t just one insubordinate Gamma talking. This is the entirety of the pack nobles and elders gathered together in a public setting.

All agreeing that Cara is a low-born gold digger.

A good Alpha King should put an end to this talk.

But I don’t.

My mind is racing between all the turmoil of the last several weeks.

Lilia, and Cara, and George, and Grey, and all the other million problems that I have to deal with in a single day as Alpha King of a large pack.

I breathe deeply, trying to clear my head and focus.

But as my mind stills, all I can hear is Cara’s voice that time in my father’s office, pleading, begging for more money.

...She never loved me.

This affair, it's an incorrect one. It should end.

“They used to be ‘Fate Mates’, did you know that?” Lilia says to the crowd of nobles. She says ‘Fate Mates’ with a babyish, mocking voice.

The group is noticeably shocked.

“He rejected her, OBVIOUSLY,” she says with a laugh, but then turns to eye me closely. “But I think there’s still… something… there. A residougal… a resumable…” She trails off, trying to find the right word, her mind fuzzy with drink.

“Residual?” A noble offers.

“RESIDUAL! That’s what I said!” Lilia yells. “A residual mate bond, is that possible?” She looks to the elders, a new sparkle in her eye.

An elder speaks up, “It is possible for traces of a very strong mate bond to remain intact after rejection… but the mark of a new mate should sever that entirely.”

Lilia cheers with glee. “Oh Alaric, did you hear that?! This is wonderful! You just have to mark me as your new mate, then we can finally be rid of Cara!” Lilia’s eyes are brimming with happiness.

I look around and see the expectant support from the circle of nobles and elders.

My head has been spinning with thoughts of Cara, and I know that’s distracted me from my work, from my pack. From my fiancée.

My fiancée who’s brother is a very strong and influential ally Alpha King. Severing the bond with Cara once and for all would certainly help me.

And it would help the pack.

This is what I have to do. For the good of Pack DarkWood.

Do the right thing—, as I have always done ruling Pack DarkWood.

Finally, after a long silence. I look back at Lilia's drunken face.

“...I’ll do it.” I hear myself say firmly.

Cara

Even though I couldn’t have sex with him, Alaric still stopped by the apartment frequently to see me. To kiss me. To touch me.

I didn’t want to give in. I didn’t want to let him close to me.But when I finally did, my pregnancy symptoms suddenly disappeared.

No more nausea, no more dizziness or headaches. When he was close to me, I felt better. Perhaps because we once had a mate bond.

It almost seemed like the closeness made him feel better too. He looked more relaxed, more comfortable. We were so nice to each other again, one could even call it warm.

“I’ll come see you after work tomorrow,” he said yesterday, planting a soft kiss on my forehead.

“But that’s when the nobles are having that party, remember?” I didn’t want him to shirk his Alpha King responsibilities.

“Lucky for me, as King I can refuse any invitation I want. And it’s my bountiful Beta’s birthday,” He winked at me, playing our little alliteration game. “I’ll be here, I promise.”

So here I am, staring at the door, at the clock, at my phone. I’m alone on my birthday, waiting for a man.

I know our relationship has been rocky at best, but he promised. And Alaric always keeps his promises. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with him…

I turn on the TV, desperate to distract myself.

“Latest news tonight just in: The Alpha King of Pack DarkWood has publicly marked his bride Lilia Auburn…”

The sound of Lucy’s howl ringing in my head blocks out the rest of the report.