Mated To The Alpha Bully

12

At least there was a shower kit in the attached bathroom. I quickly stripped my days’ old clothes off and hopped into the shower. It was amazing to wash the dirt, grime, and sweat off my body, and I lingered in the shower past the point of necessity, grateful to have the hot water pounding down on my skin.

A knock sounded on the door, and I instantly went on high alert.

“I just realized you probably don’t have any clothes,” Mira said, voice muffled by the door.

I relaxed. "No, I don't."

The door creaked open. “I’ll leave them on the counter."

“Thank you so much,” I responded, eternally grateful for Mira and her consideration. She was always thinking of others, and I was so glad to have her with me here when everyone else around me was an enemy. I just wished it didn't put her in danger too.

I finished my shower, my mood dampened somewhat by the remembrance of where I was. For a while, under the hot water, I'd been able to let my mind go blank, but now it was back to reality.

I dried off with one of the provided towels and dressed in Mira’s clothes. Mira and I were roughly the same size, and we’d shared clothes before many times. When Dad couldn't be bothered to get me new clothes for school, Mira had always given me some of her own. Today she'd left me a gray t-shirt and jeans that weren’t the most comfortable, but I would make do until I could figure out where to get my own clothes. Still, they fit a bit differently than I remembered, and I realized that I’d changed since the last time I’d seen her. I’d put on muscle, shed the last bit of baby fat clinging to my body. I glanced at myself in the mirror, and the female that looked back had a stubborn set to her jaw and a hardness in her eyes that I couldn’t remember associating with myself before.

Feeling much better, I went back out. I followed the sound of Mira, finding her in a bedroom down the hall, surrounded by many pieces of opened luggage. It looked like she'd packed as if she expected to be here for a long time.

"You look like you're moving in," I said. "What about your mate? Is he here too?"

“Aiden is back with the rest of the Pisces pack." There was a thread of tension in her voice, and she glanced around like she worried someone might be listening. When she spoke again, it was almost a whisper. "They’re holding him hostage to make sure I don’t do anything, like convince you to run away with me.”

My heart sank, though I shouldn't have been surprised. I'd known Jordan's gift was too good to be true, and this seemed more on par with the Leo pack I remembered. "I'm sorry. It's my fault you're in this mess."

Mira shook her head. “No, it's not. The Pisces pack has totally caved to the Leos' demands. Our alpha is terrified to go against Jordan in case we end up like the Cancer pack.”

It was exactly as I'd feared. The Pisces pack had once been Cancer's greatest allies, and they’d turned, just like that. Not that I expected anything better after their alpha had been too scared to help us at the Convergence, and they'd abandoned me when I'd needed them the most. "What about the other packs?"

She pulled some shirts out of her luggage and put them in a drawer. “The other packs are just as scared. They’re either straight-up allying with the Leos or trying to stay out of the way. Some are waiting to see where the chips fall, especially with the old Leo alpha dead."

I shook my head. Cowards. “There’s no staying out of it. Jordan plans to take over all of them with the help of the Sun Witches, and though he pretends he's better than his dad, I have a feeling it won't look much different in the end when every pack is under the Leos' rule. Will any of the packs stand up to them, from what you know?”

Mira picked up some light, breezy dresses next. "I don’t know. When I was back with the Pisces, we had a couple of packs reach out to see what we were doing, but once they figured out that we weren’t actively opposing the Leos, they withdrew. I don’t know which ones they were, everyone kept it pretty hush-hush. Especially with me.”

“Have you heard anything about the remaining Cancers?” I asked. Not all of them had gone to the Convergence, but what happened to those who stayed behind? Had Dixon sent some of his Leos to wipe them out too?

"I heard they went into hiding, but no one knows where. Or if they did, they didn't tell me." She stared down at the dress in her hand, her fingers idly rubbing the sheer fabric. "As the lone Cancer survivor, everyone was on eggshells around me at all times. They were all polite, of course, and very sympathetic about the death of my parents and the loss of my pack, but they tended to avoid me too."

"That sounds very lonely." I could empathize—I knew what it was like to be tossed into the middle of an unfamiliar pack without warning.

"It was, but at least I had my mate." Her voice grew wistful. "Aiden was the only thing that made it tolerable."

"What is he like?"

Mira’s eyes got a far-away look, and a dreamy smile crossed her face. “Aiden? He’s…great. Funny, smart, kind, and he loves the water as much as I do. I couldn't ask for anything more."

At least one of us can be with who we want, I thought, and tried not to let the bitterness extend to Mira herself. It wasn’t her fault that her mate had come easily to her and that they were a perfect pair—that was how it should be, after all. I was truly happy for her, even if that happiness was tinged with sadness for myself. I was stuck with a mate I didn’t want, and I wanted a man who didn’t want me. I would have laughed if it didn’t hurt quite so much.