Hated by her Alpha mate

An apology

Rachel was back to work after a week of absence. She was immediately immersed in the neck-deep of work.

"Welcome back. The bugs missed you", said Davis. He sat in the cubicle adjacent to hers.

"Unbelievable! How did the backlog triple just in a week?!" asked Rachel, frustrated.

"Our team didn't have its prime motivator.", smirked Davis. Rachel gave him an unamused look.

"One thing, can you remind me the name of the password cracking software that we discussed last time?"

"We discussed many options. I can send you the list. What for?"

"Attending a webinar for ethical hacking", shrugged Rachel, trying to conceal her nervousness.

"Cool."

"Aren't you sweeties late for lunch?" came Jenny's voice. She was leaning over Rachel's cubicle.

"Five minutes Jen." Rachel was focused on her laptop typing crazily.

"By the way, is Marcus coming to the party?" asked Davis.

"What party?" asked Rachel, her eyes still glued to her laptop.

"Oh yeah. You were absent. CEO Alfred is engaged!". The laptop suddenly blurred in front of her eyes. She looked at Jenny bewildered.

"I know right! I heard that they tied the knot at a private event at his mansion. They are hosting a party for all the employees to celebrate. I wonder who his fiancée is?" asked Jenny. She was clueless and honestly felt unhappy about not knowing the details. She hates it when she is the last one to hear about any gossip.

Rachel took a gulp. Only Nancy was a wolf among her friends at work, the rest were humans. So it's obvious that they didn't know about the whole mate thing. Nancy came to know about Alfred and Rachel, which she made obvious when they ran into each other in the morning. She couldn't stop smirking at Rachel and taunting her for hiding it from her.

"Stacy Adams I think", said Davis quickly. Rachel didn't feel like correcting him. She didn't want to talk about the topic nor answer their follow-up questions. She wasn't prepared for any lies, let alone talking about Alfred.

"Wtf! Lucky b***h", said Jen with envy.

A week had passed, but Rachel's attempt to get into the archive hadn't succeeded. She tried many things, including a brute force attack. But every time she did that, her IPs got blocked, and she had to keep resetting her VPN. She tried all possible details she found about Albus; his birthday, birthplace, his parents, wife, children, even pets.

Damn it!

It was Friday evening, but she was frustrated and her head was hurting. She came back from the office early for a change. She wanted to spend more time brainstorming on how to c***k the archive. She went directly to the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee. Alfred was seated in the living room. She took a sudden halt and almost spilled her coffee. Rachel had tried her best to occupy her mind with anything but Alfred. Seeing him suddenly after so many days had uncovered the emotions that she had buried in. She successfully tiptoed towards the stairs without him noticing, but Avery appeared out of nowhere.

"Rachel!" Damn Avery.

"Avery". Hearing Rachel's voice, Alfred turned around. Even for him, it was painfully awkward and unsettling to look into Rachel's eyes. His wolf, Ray, still blamed him for his misbehavior and impertinence towards their mate. It was getting more and more difficult for him to control his wolf's thirst and longing for its mate. Moreover, it was introducing a breach in the trust between him and Ray.

"I assume you heard about the company-wide party", asked Avery. Rachel simply nodded at her.

"Honestly, it was my uncle's idea, but Alf would like you to join him", said Avery, glancing between Alfred and Rachel.

"Sorry, I am not interested in partying", said Rachel in a polite but unconcerned tone. Avery had herself taken up the task of being the mediator between those two. She didn't want them to patch up their fight.

"Okay... but the party is to celebrate your engagement. And I am pretty sure you don't want to disappoint the Alpha." Rachel felt very annoyed at Avery's comment.

As if I asked the alpha to organize a party! It's his fault for not consenting with me in the first place.

"I'll think about it." Rachel tried to respond as calmly as possible.

(Alfred) Come to my study. Rachel literally jumped at the sudden voice in her head. It was Alfred.

What for?

(Alfred) Just come.

And why would I risk being alone with you again?

(Alfred) I just wish to talk.

She felt too uncomfortable to talk to him, but her curiosity and hope took over. A tiny part of her still wanted to give him another chance. She hoped at the deepest level of her heart that he would apologize to her and amend their relationship. If he apologized enough, she was ready to still forgive him.

Avery was surprised when Alfred suddenly got up and went upstairs, followed by Rachel. She understood that they spoke in their heads. b***h!

Alfred and Rachel entered the study. Alfred walked towards the window, his back faced her.

"I want you to accompany me to the party. Else dad would be disappointed."

He waited a minute but didn't hear a response from Rachel, so he turned. Their eyes met. He could see the rage and disappointment in her eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked, though he knew what exactly she was expecting.

"An apology to start with", she spurted out. His fists clenched. He never had to apologize to anyone before or did anything for which he had to be sorry. But this was different. He knew somewhere he was at fault. He knew his anger was justified because of what she did to Stacy, but physically hurting her in his rage was a mistake on his part too.

He composed himself and decided to act like an alpha and a gentleman. He diverted his eyes from her and said,

"I am sorry that I lost my cool in a rage. I shouldn't have hurt you like that."

Though Rachel wanted to hear this, she was utterly shocked when those words came out of his mouth. She even pinched herself to confirm that she wasn't dreaming. She felt a hurricane of emotions inside her. Relief, sadness, hope, she couldn't figure out what it was.

"Satisfied?"

"Momentarily", she replied in a fake, uninterested tone. He almost chuckled at her reaction.

"The party is on Sunday. It's better for us to reach the venue together. Avery will fill you in with other details."

Both of us going as a couple? Though just for the show, it might be nice for a change.