My Rival Alpha Mates

Chapter Two : A Stranger's Word

Chapter Two

Lyra POV

"What's going on?" Nathan stepped out, feeling the commanding shift in the air. He went still, eyes moving between us. Three pairs of glowing eyes; their wolf is on the surface and is curious to meet me.

No, I denied it, and the mating haze vanished, as if the bond had never existed. The three alphas looked at me, confused.

"What kind of magic did you put on us?" Alpha Dante stepped close, cold-eyed, but Nathan moved first, stepping between us.

"I don't like what you're trying to pull," Alpha Landon said, annoyed.

"Is your sister running some kind of trick on us, Alpha Nathan?" Alpha Caden asked nonchalantly.

"You can't feel the mate bond?" Nathan said. "Strange."

"I'm not buying the innocent act." Alpha Caden's eyes cut to Nathan. "Is this some kind of trick? Get your sister to charm us so the peace treaty goes smoothly?"

"No, Alpha Caden. There's no trick. I'll speak with Pack Elder Beau; he may have answers," Nathan said. "Lyra, go to your room."

I did. My legs carried me fast, the door shutting behind me. Three years of keeping my head down, pouring everything into studying, refusing to let any man close enough to do damage again. It cost me enough the first time.

I didn't hate men. I hated three specific ones. The kind of hate that lives in your chest at three in the morning when sleep won't come and their faces do. The kind that leaves marks you can't show anyone because explaining them means reliving them.

I built my whole life around never seeing them again. And now they're here.

They'll be gone once the treaty's signed. I'm overreacting. Don't let them get to you.

I open the academy forum and pull up a patient case file. It works for a few minutes. Then a calendar notification blinks onto the screen: check the placement portal.

I type in my student code.

Congratulations, Lyra Banks.

I scroll to the assignment.

Human World Medical Center.

I read it twice. I worked twice as hard as everyone else. Extra hours on magic theory, extra sessions on wolf anatomy everything to become the Silver Moon Pack Doctor. And still they're sending me to treat human patients, like everything I trained for means nothing.

Even the academy has decided I don't belong here. I close the laptop.

"Why is everything against me? Mom was a pack doctor. I just wanted to follow in her footsteps." I mumbled to myself. Moon goddess. What exactly is your plan?

The tears come quietly. I don't fight them. My phone buzzes. I jerk awake, squinting, and answer.

"Girl, where are you?"

I check the clock. 7:15.

"I'll be there in a few minutes. "I hang up, grab the first clothes my hands land on, twist my hair into a bun, and run.

I make it halfway down the hall before I collide with something solid and bounce straight back, landing hard on the floor. I bite down on the pain and look up to find Caden standing exactly where he was. He stares at me with a contempt that didn't need words. I already know what he sees. A wolf-less girl on the floor, exactly where he thinks I belong.

"Watch where you're going."

He could have moved. He saw me coming and chose to be a wall instead. I get up and step around him. A calloused hand closes around my wrist before I get two steps.

"You're not going to apologize, wolf-less princess?"

I wasn't in the wrong. I want to say it. I don't. I try to pull free. His grip doesn't give me ‌access ‌to free my hand. My phone keeps buzzing.

"I have to go."

"Not until you apologize." His voice carries that commanding edge. "Wolfless Princess." The nickname sits in my chest like a splinter. I don't want to say sorry. Emma needs me, and I'm already late.

"So you won't apologize." Something shifts in his expression. “You’ve changed.”

I stay silent. I had to change myself rather than throw apologies around, even when I wasn't in the wrong. Emma told me I needed a backbone, and I built one, slowly, over three years. But having a backbone and speaking your mind are two different things when it's him standing in front of you.

"Cat got your tongue?"

You're an alpha's daughter. Act like it. You don't need a wolf to have dignity.

I don't answer. Instead, I hold his gaze. I hold it long enough that silence becomes a challenge.

His amber eyes dilated, holding my gaze a beat too long, something between a threat and amusement, like my defiance entertained him. My back hits the wall. I gasp. His frame presses in close, too close, one hand braced beside my head, his mouth dropping to the curve of my neck. His lips find the sensitive spot there and the sound that leaves me is embarrassing.

"You want me as your mate." His voice is low, rough at the edges. "Ready to make those rumors true?"

His amber eyes hold mine. A challenge. I made a mistake meeting them and he knows it. His lips brush mine. Barely. Just enough to send a shiver through me that has no business being that deep.

Then he pulls back.

"Desperate." The word lands like a verdict.

He walks away like nothing happened.

My lips are still tingling. My whole body is warm in a way I can't shake, a low hum under my skin that has no intention of leaving quietly. I press my fingers to my mouth without thinking, then drop my hand the moment I realize what I'm doing.

I get in the car and drive.

Don't think about it.

Emma is standing outside the boutique when I pull in, baby bump visible under her jacket, arms crossed, expression caught between worried and annoyed.

"You're here." She pulls me into a hug.

Over her shoulder I catch the boutique attendant watching us. "Looks like she couldn't find the dress," she murmurs.

"I'm sorry I'm late." I squeeze Emma's shoulders. "We'll find you something. I promise."

She pulls back. "What took you so long?"

"I ran into someone."

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter. Let's find your dress." She nods, unconvinced. We go inside. She tries on dress after dress, expression falling a little more with each one.

"None of these feel right." Emma drops onto the bench. "I want to look my best. I don't want anyone looking at me like I don't belong. Like I'm just some orphan Luna they're tolerating."

"Hey," I crouch in front of her. "Since when does that matter to you? You don't take that from anyone; you taught me that." She looks up, eyes wet. "Nobody is looking down on you. Don't let the hormones convince you otherwise." I squeeze her hand. "You're a badass, Luna. That doesn't change because you're pregnant. Nathan would say the same thing, and you know it."

She laughs, watery but real. Her eyes drift to the mermaid gown on the rack.

"You don't think it's too much? With the bump?"

"Put it on."

She does. She looks stunning. The gown fits the curve of her belly like it was made for this moment, and the look on her face in the mirror is the only answer either of us needs.

"You're glowing," I tell her. "Genuinely."

"Okay." She exhales, a smile settling in. Her hand moves to her belly, slow and gentle. "You're right." She looks at me. "Thank you for being here, Lyra."

"We made a vow," I remind her. She squeezes my hand before heading back to change.

I stay where I am. Around me, everyone is happy. Brides, bridesmaids, mothers holding up veils. Everyone choosing something white.

I already know that's not for me. A white coat suits me better than a wedding gown ever will. I drive back in silence.

Pulling into the estate, I kill the engine. Alpha Landon is outside, cigarette between his fingers, phone to his ear. His hazel eyes slide to me as I get out.

Nathan appears at the driveway. "Nathan.” I wave him over. "Can you help me get Emma inside?"

He's at the car door before I finish the sentence, lifting Emma with the kind of care that only comes from loving someone completely. He carries her in without a word.

"Why weren't you picking up, Landon?" A woman's voice bleeds through his phone, sharp. "Were you hooking up with girls over there?"

"No," he answers nonchalantly. I walk faster. I don't want to hear the rest. I feel sorry for her, whoever she is, screaming into a phone at a man who's already checked out. I know what it's like to believe the warmth in his eyes means something, makes you feel special, but to be honest, he is just a playboy.

"Icey," his voice, low and practiced. I turn.

He's right behind me, phone lowered, that serene smile already in place. Effortless. Rehearsed.

"Been a while," he says.

I look at him. Those hazel eyes I once thought held something real. They never did. He just knew how to make them look that way long enough. I turn back around. He is in front of me in one swift movement.

"Seriously? Still not talking to me? You haven't changed, Icey."

The annoyance hits fast. They keep saying that like staying the same would have been survivable. My fist tightens.

Mask what you feel. That will protect you. Grandma's voice. I unclench my fist.

His eyes dropped to my neck and stayed there, tracing the bare skin where a mate mark should have been. His hand follows before I register it, calloused fingers sliding slow and uninvited along my skin. Heat spreads through me before I can stop it. It brings back the memory of wanting his touch, all those thoughts I once nearly gave into.

“Not marked." His smile sharpens. "Mateless. So that's why you pulled the mate bond trick. Is that your play?"

I don't answer. This man has a girlfriend waiting on him and here he is with his hands on my neck.

"Desperate enough to pull a spell on all three of us just to find a mate?" He mocked the last word.

Is this the mate bond? The thought surfaces before I can stop it. Is that why his touch still does this?

I stepped back. He frowned, and I could tell by the way it sat on his face that it didn't happen often women rarely stepped away from Landon.

My heart is still hammering by the time I reach the corridor. Caden's amber eyes find mine from the other end. The way he looks at me. The way Landon touched me like it was his right. I don't want to think about either of them.

I can't stop.

Please. I prayed silently. Don't let me run into Dante.

"Are you serious, Elder Beau?"

My father's voice stops me cold. I press against the wall. Light spills into the hallway from the cracked study door.

"Yes." Elder Beau's voice is gruff and certain. "The moon goddess did not bless your daughter. She never received the wolf power."

He pauses.

"Nathan described this morning's incident. A mate bond pulling toward three alphas simultaneously. A wolfless she-wolf cannot form a true mate bond. Which means she used something from the witch market to simulate a mate haze. To lure one alpha into marking her."

I didn't do anything. Why would I want that? Why would I want any of this?

Maybe Elder Beau isn't as skilled as everyone believes. My father exhales slowly. He has trusted this man longer than I've been alive. Whatever Elder Beau says in that room becomes truth before my father ever thinks to question it.

"I can't keep a liability under my roof. Not one who goes to these lengths." His voice drops. "I'll have to speak to the alphas. Apologize on her behalf."

He won't come to me and ask if it's true. He will take a stranger's word over his own daughter's every single time.

"She cost me my mate. Every time I look at her I see that. She brings nothing but bad luck. Is it possible she's cursed?"

"I cannot say for certain. But if you believe she's the reason this pack doesn't thrive, ask her to leave. See what changes. You've blamed her long enough."

I don't wait to hear his response.

I walk. Up the stairs, into my room, door shut behind me.

Should I leave? Go to the human world and never look back?

After the wedding I'll leave this pack for good. And this mate bond, if it's even real, I don’t want to be a part of it.