The Alpha Who Never Marked Me Begged Me Back

Chapter 2

Lila's POV:

When Poppy Bellamy came in, I was sliding a dagger into my boot.

"Miss, Ian went to beg Alpha again. Your sister cried beside him all afternoon."

I murmured an acknowledgment and spread a map of the Northlands flat on the table.

In my last life, Daphne died in Greystone Gorge. When word came back, Miranda accused Mother's former guards of switching the escorts. To quiet the uproar, Father dismissed the border commander.

Later, the Northlands cut ties with Silverpine, and bandits took over the trade route. Conflict flared in the third year. In the eighth, the Blackstone pack crossed the pass and burned Silverpine to the ground.

This time, I circled the gorge on the map. I wrote to ask the northern escort party to inspect it in advance, and I asked Father's guards to prepare a route around the mountains.

Poppy looked at my open trunks. "Are you really not coming back?"

"I'll come back to see Father." I paused. "I just won't marry Ian."

That night, someone pounded on my door.

Ian stood outside, his hair soaked by rain. He asked at once, "Did you say something to Alpha? He won't even see me now."

"Daphne has been crying so hard she can barely breathe. You know she's afraid. Why won't you help her?"

I pulled my shawl tight. "She's afraid, so stay with her."

He caught my wrist. "Lila! Do you really think if you force her away, I'll mark you?"

The pull of the mate bond warmed faintly as he drew closer. My wolf wanted to lean into him out of habit.

I fought down the ache and pried his hand away. "No. You told me as much before. I remember."

I shut the door and asked Poppy for a cold compress.

The next day, the steward returned several of Mother's boxes, but the wooden sword was missing.

"Luna Miranda says she hasn't seen it. Alpha still has people looking for it."

I took out Mother's notebooks and read until afternoon. Then Daphne's voice drifted in from outside the greenhouse.

"Ian, look. Mom found this for me."

I looked up.

The yew practice sword lay across her knees. One of the little wolf's ears at the end of the hilt was missing. I had chipped the ear off as a child when I fell on the stone steps while practicing.

"I heard northerners only respect women who know how to fight. Will you teach me to use it?"

She held the sword out to Ian. I walked over and pressed a hand over the hilt.

"That was my mother's."

Daphne blinked. "Mom took it from storage. I didn't know it was yours, Lila."

"You know now. Give it back."

She didn't let go. Tears had already started to fall. "I only wanted to learn how to protect myself. In the Northlands, I won't know anyone..."

Ian frowned. "Let her practice with it for two days. She'll return it before she leaves."

"I've been looking for it for a year."

"Lila." His voice softened, as if he were soothing a child. "It's only a wooden sword. I'll carve you another one."

Mother had taken him in when he lost his father as a boy. She taught him to read, use a blade, and carve wood.

"You know she made it."

Ian looked away.

When Daphne saw that he wouldn't make her give it up, she backed away with the sword. "Then I don't want it. Don't be mad at me, Lila—"

Her heel caught on a flowerpot. Ian reached for her, and his elbow slammed into my shoulder. I staggered back and hit the rose trellis with my lower back.

Thorns tore through my sleeve. Blood ran down my arm.

Ian saw it and reached toward me, but Daphne cried out in pain. He turned and gathered her into his arms.

I didn't wait for him. I bent down and picked up the fallen sword.

The little wolf's other ear had broken off too.

"Lila, let a maid treat that first." Ian carried Daphne to the door, then looked back at me. "You got it back. Stop fighting with her."

I wiped the mud off the sword with my sleeve and gathered the broken ear in my palm. "I wasn't fighting with her."

That night, Ian sent over a jar of ointment. I had Poppy return it and used the salve Father had the healer send.

Not long after, Ian came himself with the jar in hand.

"Daphne twisted her ankle, so I took her back to her room. How is your injury?"

I sat under the lamplight, binding the damaged section of the sword with a strip of soft cloth. "I've treated it."

"Let me see."

"I'd rather not."

He stood by the table for a long time before setting the jar down.

"This ointment is better. You always used this one before."

I looked up. "Take it back. Don't send it again."

He frowned but didn't pick it up. "You're still angry? She couldn't stand. I couldn't just ignore her."

I lowered my head and kept winding the cloth around the hilt. After a while, he reached out and pressed his hand over it.

"Lila, look at me."

I stopped.

His tone gentled. "You're my fated mate. I promised to marry you, and I won't go back on that."

That was what I had wanted to hear most in the past.

But then he added, "I just don't want Daphne to suffer. She's never left Silverpine. If she's mistreated in the Northlands, who can she turn to?"

"Then marry her."

His hand froze over the cloth, and his brows pulled together. "Lila, I just said I'll marry you."

"If you marry her, she won't have to go."

"Are you really saying that just to spite me?"

"I'm not saying it to spite you."

I pulled the cloth back, put the sword in its box, and closed the lid. He watched in silence.

When I reached for the ointment, he picked it up first.

"You're my fated mate. I'll follow the Moon Goddess's guidance and marry you. You don't need to throw a tantrum over this now."

Then he left.

He was certain I was only angry. This time, I really didn't want to marry him.