Unmarked Alpha

Chapter One

Charlie's POV

I couldn't help but feel slightly bad about marking Damien, despite how wonderful it felt. As we walked down the stairs, hand in hand, I could feel the eyes of the entire party on us. My stomach was beginning to tie itself in knots. I should have waited. This wasn't fair to Blake. It must be so embarrassing for him.

‘He didn't care about how embarrassing it would be for us to be force marked’ my wolf chimed in, though her tone was laced with annoyance and slight anger. I couldn't blame her, because as much as I was working through it, part of me was still angry about the way that Blake and Damien had marked me.

‘I can't hold that against Blake but not Damien. That's not fair’ I told her as I slipped my hand out of Damien's to make my way over to Blake and Savannah, who were chatting as they lounged on one of the couches.

"Hey!" Savannah grinned as she looked up at me, pure, genuine joy radiating from her. "How was it?"

Damien showed off his neck proudly, showing the lack of scarring, and the clean mark. "It went good."

"That's better than good, you goof," she said excitedly as she stood up, handing her plate to Blake. "It's wonderful. You two have so much trust and faith in each other. I'm so excited for both of you." She kissed Damien on the cheek, before leaning over and pulling me into a brief kiss. "I'm so happy for both of you."

"Thank you," I blushed slightly, not used to her being so affectionate with me in front of so many people, though I couldn't say that I didn't like it.

Blake stood up finally, putting their snack plates down on the couch beside him. "I'm glad that you feel safe enough to mark someone," he said in a gruff voice. I felt a pang in my chest due to the mate bond. He was in agnony. How selfish could I be to do this to him?

Damien squeezed my hand, giving me a sympathetic look. He knew how I was feeling about this, and the guilt that was eating me up. No matter how I would try to explain to Blake that my relationship with him is different than my relationship with Damien, it wouldn't ease the pain. He would think that I prefer Damien to him unless I marked him today, but if I did, I knew that I would be hesitant, having second thoughts, and I didn't want to hurt him worse in my attempt to soothe his ego.

"I do love you," I finally said to Blake, trying my hardest to sound sincere.

He looked at me for a long moment before nodding, "I know," he said quietly before turning to address the room, restarting the party.

***

"Good night," I told Quinn as I tucked them into their bed, their eyes already heavy with sleep.

"Good night," Quinn muttered, trying, but failing, to stifle a yawn. "I'm not really sleepy yet though."

"I'm sure you could stay awake for hours more," I teased as I brushed their hair flat against their head. "But it is your bedtime, so even if you're not tired, you should try to go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay," the young child finally relented as they turned to Blake, blinking slowly at him as their eyes barely opened again. "Good night, Uncle Blake."

" 'Night kiddo. We'll see you in the morning," he said as he smiled down at them. "Get some rest."

Blake and I quietly exited the room, Quinn asleep before we even made our way out of it. I yawned myself, stretching and popping my back. "I think that I'm going to head to bed too, but before I do, is there anything I need to take care of?"

For a moment so quick that I almost missed it, Blake's face contorts with rage, but it was gone just as fast as it was there. "No, I don't think so."

"Good," I said slowly, linking my hands behind my back. "Um, well, I'm going to head to bed, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Good night," he said, the bitterness leaking into his voice.

‘Just go to bed. We can deal with it in the morning’ my wolf begged in a tired, whiny voice, but she and I both knew that that wasn't going to happen.

"Do we need to talk about it?" I asked, taking a step towards him, though I kept my hands clasped behind my back.

"Talk about what?" he asked, giving an overanimated shrug. "There's nothing to talk about. Everything is fine."

"Blake, the couple's counselor says-," I began, but he cut me off with a laugh.

"I just, I can't do this right now, okay?" he laughed, tears brimming in his eyes. "I need to go to bed."

"We shouldn't go to bed angry," I said softly, though I didn't want to push it too much, and ruin all the progress that we had made. We were finally getting to a place where we could be okay again. I didn't want to go back.

"I can't do this right now," he repeated, his voice cracking as he took a step away from me. "I'm going to go for a run. I'll be back to wake Quinn up for school in the morning."

Without another word, he ran off down the hall. I stood there for a few more moments, fighting back tears of my own. Was it so bad that I marked Damien? Blake had marked Savannah, so why was it unfair that I had marked my other mate too? I just wanted to be happy. Didn't I deserve to be happy too?

‘You aren't responsible for the feelings of everyone you love’ my wolf told me, but I didn't respond to her. Instead, I put up the wall, not wanting to listen to her, nor even feel her presence, because that made the mate bond stronger.