Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

ELEANOR

I t felt like my entire world was spinning out of control.

I looked between Dylan and Alexander, my heart pounding rapidly.

Alexander’s gaze lingered on the dagger embedded in the pillar before meeting Dylan’s gaze.

“I’m not interested.” Alexander’s voice was easy and calm… too calm.

Dylan bared his canines at him.

“I wasn’t asking, brother.”

The tension in the hall was so thick that a knife could’ve sliced through it.

I glanced at Alpha Maximus, expecting him to intervene, but he simply watched with a curious look on his face.

What the hell was wrong with this family?

Alexander’s expression didn’t change at Dylan’s blatant disrespect. Instead, he turned his back on him and began to walk away.

Dylan’s expression twisted with rage. Faster than I could blink, his claws tore into Alexander’s back, drawing blood.

Alexander didn’t even flinch at the injury. He just turned to face his brother, his expression deadly calm.

“I accept your challenge.”

In seconds, I was swept up in the crowd of wolves hurrying to reach the dueling grounds a short distance from the Nightshade pack house.

By the time I reached the dueling grounds, the duel had already started.

The day I met Alexander, I was trying to escape meeting his brother, Dylan.

I was supposed to meet with Dylan, and if he found me appealing enough, our engagement would be finalized. Naturally, I’d fought against that, so Father sent me with an armed escort to the Nightshade Pack to “guard” me on my journey, but we all knew they were there to prevent my escape.

But I’d still tried to run, and that’s when I met Alexander.

Alexander, who claimed he’d thought I was an intruder. He’d held me underwater with just one hand, and no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t escape his strength. In that moment, I was certain I was going to die.

In the years since then, the memory had only grown more surreal in my mind, to the point where I thought my fear had exaggerated his strength. But as I watched him and Dylan fight, I knew I hadn’t exaggerated anything.

Alexander didn’t bother with niceties like posing, circling, or even prowling toward Dylan; he simply moved. His movements were so quick and fluid that my blood ran cold. And every time he moved, regardless of Dylan’s swift counters, he landed a hit.

Dylan growled, moving into a partial shift so fast that his movements were a blur even to my supernatural vision. But Alexander remained one step ahead in his human form, blocking Dylan’s flurry of attacks without even breaking a sweat.

I’d heard stories of Alexander, the dark alpha of the Nightshade Pack, and how he was ruthless and undefeatable in battle, but I’d never taken them seriously.

After all, rumors were often blown out of proportion, and while he’d tried to drown me once, apart from his overpowering alpha aura, I’d never seen that side of him again.

The Alexander I’d known as Dylan’s fiancée was detached and distant in public, and in our few moments alone, sardonic and mocking.

But this strength Alexander possessed…even for a werewolf, it was unnatural.

And it begged one question: if Alexander was this strong, why had Alpha Maximus taken the alpha heir position from him and given it to Dylan?

“Intoxicating, isn’t it?” said a soft, cheery voice behind me. I turned to see Anastasia.

Her metallic gray eyes shifted from me to the ongoing duel.

“Watching two brothers fight, ready to kill each other for you.”

Her tone was as friendly as it had been earlier, but now I could almost taste the undercurrent of bitterness in her words.

I was supposed to find this intoxicating ? What was wrong with the people in this pack?

“What are you saying?” I growled. “I’m not making them do anything.”

Anastasia tilted her head to the side, in a motion distinctively similar to Alexander’s.

“You actually believe that. I’ve known Alexander for all of the twenty-five years I’ve been alive, and I’ve never seen him beat up his brother like this.” Her voice was soft and silky, yet audible through the noise of the crowd. “I’ve never seen him humiliate him like this.”

Before I could fully unpack what she meant, those gray eyes flicked to mine again and this time, there was a small smile playing across her lips.

“Did you know he never sleeps with the same female wolf twice?” she asked conversationally, before adding with a shrug, “Except me, of course.”

I stiffened as Alexander’s words from the night of our bonding ceremony came back to me.

I have no intention of touching you again.

Lara reared inside me, refusing to believe Anastasia’s words—that even though he was mated to me, she was the one he wanted. She thought Anastasia had to be lying.

But unlike Lara, I remembered his genuine smile when he’d seen Anastasia, and the way he’d touched her hair.

Anastasia wasn’t lying. But why was she telling me this?

Anastasia dropped all pretense of watching the duel and turned to face me fully.

“Alexander never wanted a mate. From the moment he shifted for the first time, mating alliance proposals have been coming in from different packs all over the world,” she said, and I almost scoffed.

How ridiculous. No wonder Alexander was so big-headed. He probably thought he was the Goddess’s gift to wolfkind or something.

Anastasia’s voice hardened slightly.

“So why did he choose you ?”

Because Alexander was a sick, crazy alpha who wanted to break me.

But I didn’t tell her that.

Instead, I lifted an eyebrow.

“Since you’re so close to him, Anastasia, why don’t you ask him yourself?”

Anastasia’s eyes widened ever so slightly, her lips tightening into a frown. Then, faster than I could blink, her expression shifted, and she gave me a sweet smile.

“I like you, Eleanor.” She beamed. “Let’s be friends.”

It was official. The Nightshade Pack consisted mainly of mentally unstable wolves.

“I’ll pass,” I said, shifting my attention back to the duel.

Dylan moved with a slight limp, with dried blood and the beginnings of a black eye on his face. It seemed he’d managed to take more hits during my conversation with Anastasia, while Alexander didn’t even look winded.

Alexander moved toward Dylan but this time, Dylan evaded his blow and used Alexander’s weight to toss him across the open field. I blinked, completely surprised at the sudden shift in the duel.

Alexander began to stand, but Dylan was faster. He kicked out his brother’s feet from beneath him, then straddled him and rained down a flurry of blows on him.

I still couldn’t believe what was going on, especially when Alexander grunted out a surrender.

“I concede.”

Dylan’s fist trembled midair, as though he wanted to continue hitting his brother. Dylan lifted his head and his gaze met mine unerringly, as if he’d known I’d been standing there this entire time.

Dylan’s expression tightened and he looked away from me, straightening and accepting Alexander’s surrender.

It took me a moment to notice no one was cheering for Dylan’s win. The entire clearing was silent, and I could guess why.

We all knew Alexander had thrown that duel. That was the only way Dylan could’ve won.

I wondered if Dylan knew that as well.

I turned my back on the two brothers and pushed my way out of the crowd, suddenly feeling suffocated.

Had Anastasia been right? Was this all really my fault?

The route back to Alexander’s residence was mostly deserted, with most of the pack members either at the pack house or the dueling grounds.

That was good. I badly needed a moment to myself to think without any?—

And then a familiar figure stepped out of the infirmary and right into my path.

“Micah,” I breathed.

Clenching her jaw, she ignored me and tried to move around me.

I caught her arm and pulled her to a stop.

“Did you start seeing Dylan before I got engaged to him?” I asked.

“And if I did?” Micah glared at me. Those brown eyes that had once been a source of comfort were now filled with hostility.

My heart ached.

Micah and I had been friends since I was five. On the day our friendship started, I’d been bullied by the children in the Red Moon Pack, and she’d offered me a shy smile and a Band-Aid that refused to stay on no matter what we tried.

The child in me refused to believe her friend had betrayed her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, hearing the desperation in my voice but unable to stop myself.

I wanted her to tell me something, anything at all to make it make sense. I wanted to forgive her.

Micah placed her hand above mine and pushed it off her arm.

Her lips twisted with disdain.

“If you weren’t too caught up in yourself to notice the things around you, you might have noticed, Eleanor.”

I sucked in a sharp breath.

“For the sake of our friendship, I’m trying to understand you, but?—”

Micah didn’t let me finish.

“Our friendship?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Don’t make me laugh, Eleanor. We were many things to each other, but never friends.”

We weren’t friends?

We’d spent the last seventeen years exploring as much of the world as we could together within the constraints of the Red Moon Pack.

We’d shared everything with each other—our joys, our sorrows, our frustrations, our tears.

I knew her as well as I knew myself…or at least, that was what I’d thought.

“I don’t understand.” My voice came out as a whisper.

“Of course you wouldn’t.” Micah laughed, but it was a sharp sound that held no humor. “Poor little Eleanor born into the misfortune of being the daughter of the alpha. Poor Eleanor who suffered under her father’s merciless taunts and beatings. Poor Eleanor who was ostracized from the pack because she couldn’t fit in.”

Her brown eyes were full of so much resentment that I was speechless, but Micah still wasn’t done.

“Poor Eleanor, arranged to get mated to the most eligible wolf on the fucking continent! But no, why couldn’t she have a love match, or even find her true mate?” Her words rang with sarcasm.

“Micah,” I said, reeling in disbelief.

At that moment, I realized she hated me.

Micah shook her head, another unhinged laugh escaping her.

“I guess it never occurred to you that some of us had it much worse than you could ever imagine.” Her voice was barely above a whisper now, but her words hit me just the same.

I knew Micah had a tough upbringing. She’d had to fend for herself after her father’s death. Whenever I tried to get her to talk about it, she always clammed up or changed the topic, so eventually, I’d stopped prying into what I’d assumed was a sensitive subject.

I should’ve tried harder to get her to open up. Maybe then things wouldn’t have come to this.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my eyes burning with unshed tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice.”

Micah paused, but then her face contorted into a mask of bitterness.

“You aren’t sorry yet, but you will be,” she ground out.

She leaned in, making sure I didn’t miss a word.

“I seduced Dylan before you met him because I knew he’d be your mate. Now I’ll have everything that was meant to be yours,” Micah taunted, her words dripping with venom.

“Alexander might’ve taken pity on you and mated with you, but you’ll come to loathe him for that decision. I will become the luna of the Nightshade Pack in your place, and I’ll make your life here a living hell.”

With that, she pulled away from me, but I caught her arm again.

Lifting my gaze to meet hers, I spoke.

“You might not have seen me as a friend, but to me, you were one.”

Regardless of how this turned out, I wanted her to know that.

“You should learn how to treat your betters, Eleanor,” Micah snapped, pulling her arm out of my grasp with a look of disgust on her face. “Touch me again, and you might lose that hand.”

Without a backward glance, she walked away. This time, I didn’t stop her.

I just stood there, barely keeping myself from curling into a ball and sobbing, but some tears still found their way out.

Was there something I could’ve done differently to prevent this, or had our friendship just been a farce from the start?

I scented him before I heard that aggravating voice, now full of dark amusement.

“So you only mouth off to me? Interesting,” Alexander said, stepping out of the shadows behind me.

Hastily wiping at my tears, I began to walk as fast as I could toward Alexander’s residence. But to my annoyance, Alexander kept up with me easily, walking at my side like we were taking a leisurely stroll.

“Has anyone told you eavesdropping isn’t an admirable trait?” I fumed. I refused to look at him, but I could still feel the tingling sensation of Alexander staring at me.

“Why did you let her talk down to you?” he asked conversationally, completely ignoring my question.

So he’d overheard most of our conversation. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Alexander hearing all of that.

I ground to a halt, spinning to face him.

“That’s none of your business,” I bit out.

Alexander was nonplussed.

“You’re my mate. That makes it my business,” he deadpanned.

Listening to his words, an outsider would think he cared about me. But I knew better.

Alexander was only talking about this because he knew how much it bothered me. He’d found a weakness of mine, and he wouldn’t be happy until he’d poked and prodded at it to his heart’s content.

“Your mate?” I growled. “This relationship isn’t real—or have you forgotten your own words?”

Alexander gripped my arm and tugged me closer to him, his voice dipping to a low, deadly cadence, his icy gaze steady on mine as he spoke.

“As my mate, you are an extension of me. When you act weak, you make me look weak, and I will not tolerate that.”

With a smile on my lips and daggers in my gaze, I took a step closer to him, invading his personal space.

“For someone who lost a duel and his position as alpha heir to his younger—and much weaker—brother, you sure have a lot to say.”

Alexander’s face hardened as his grip on my arm tightened slightly.

“Eleanor, don’t push me.” His voice was barely above a growl.

I lost my smile.

“Then don’t fucking push me either,” I snapped, pulling my arm out of his hold and walking away from him as fast as my legs could carry me.

That asshole. Who did he think he was?

At least one good thing came out of his eavesdropping—all the pain I’d felt earlier had been converted into anger toward Alexander.

Returning to our room, I headed straight for the shower in a bid to get ready for bed before Alexander returned.

Showering with him in the room would be…unwise, especially in my current emotional state. Lara would push until my baser instincts took over.

After my shower, I took one step out of the bathroom before freezing.

Alexander was already in the room, seated on the bed and staring at me.His gaze moved down my towel-clad body, and my cheeks flushed.

My entire body shuddered with the sort of desire a mere look shouldn’t have warranted. My nipples pebbled beneath the towel.

I tried to reinforce my mental hold on Lara, but my desire remained. We’d been at each other’s throats mere minutes ago, but now I was fighting the urge to either run back into the bathroom or take another step closer to him. Hell, several steps closer to him.

I’d thought emotions only ran this high with true mates, but I’d been wrong.

Those icy blue eyes burned with an emotion I couldn’t describe as Alexander stared at me.

I couldn’t run back to the bathroom. That would be admitting defeat.

So I took a second step and entered the room, feeling the cool air move across my wet skin, causing me to shiver.

Yes, it was just the air, not Alexander.

Goddess, how was I going to share a room with him without doing something extraordinarily stupid?

I walked toward the closet, but I froze when I heard the creaking of the bed as Alexander stood, followed by the padding of his footsteps behind me.

I didn’t turn to face him. I just stood completely still, my heart racing and my breath coming way too fast.

I felt Alexander’s cool breath on the back of my neck as his chest pressed to my back.

I shivered, I burned, I?—

Alexander reached past me and opened a door I hadn’t noticed before pulling away, leaving me high, dry, and utterly gobsmacked when I noticed the door led to another room.

“That will be your room,” Alexander informed me, and I finally turned to face him.

The earlier fire in his eyes was gone, making me question if it was even there to begin with.

Alexander’s jaw tightened. He couldn’t have looked more repulsed by the idea of sharing a room with me if he tried.

“Your things have been moved there, and it’s complete with an ensuite bathroom, so do both of us a favor and stay out of my room.”

And just like that, my desire for him vanished.

“With pleasure,” I bit out, walking into my room and slamming the door behind me.

I hated Alexander Hawthorne with all of my being.