Chapter 3: Aria

Chapter 3: Aria

Dax hit me with question after question on our way back to the villa, which I was sure were meant to distract me. “What were you doing out there? Did you hunt that rabbit yourself? Who is that I smell on you?”

But I could barely focus on anything other than walking through the dark to the illuminated villa across the field. The rabbit in my jaws made it hard for me to answer, anyway, so I was grateful to have an excuse to keep silent. I would have eaten it if I weren’t so anxious about what I’d heard; the thought of Oswald meeting another girl ripped apart my appetite. Eventually, we reached the outer walls of the villa and transformed back into our human forms. I got dressed and tried to rush back inside before Dax put his hand on my shoulder to stop me.

“Aria! I can tell something’s wrong.” His voice strained with concern.

An explosion of unpleasant emotions nearly caused me to lash out. Instead, I sealed my lips into a tense smile and met Dax’s eyes. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just going to deliver this rabbit to the kitchen, okay?”

“Sure, but listen… if you’re worried about that new girl, don’t be. Oswald isn’t reckless—I’m sure he only brought her in to keep her safe because he had no other choice. It can be dangerous for females on their own,” Dax told me, his gaze softening for me.

I knew he was just trying to reassure me, and maybe I was being foolish, fretting so much over a stranger when my fated mate was doing what Alphas do—taking care of people. But I didn’t find any comfort in his words. “I know. Thanks.”

Dax smiled back and squeezed my shoulder. “If you ever need anyone to talk to, you know where I’ll be.”

Since I discovered my fated mate and started Alpha training, friendships have been hard to come by, but Dax… He had always been there for me. Every worry that bogged me down threatened to spill and beckon him back, yearning for comfort of any kind. Instead, I just swallowed it down and watched him walk away.

After a brief visit to the Lodge to deposit my rabbit at our food stores and a conversation with our quartermaster, I figured out where Oswald was. My feet were on autopilot, heading toward the pack’s medical center. The smell of the new girl was already saturating the air, clogging up my throat. I arrived at the receptionist’s desk, staring down the hallway as if expecting to see Oswald there with the stranger.

“What can I help you with, Miss Gunn?” asked the nurse.

“I was told Alpha Moore brought a rogue in tonight,” I replied, resisting the urge to fidget. “Is he here? Can I see them?”

The nurse nodded and stood up. “One moment. Let me check with them.”

I was left suspended in uncertainty while the nurse went down the hall, knocking on and entering the second door to the right. We had three pack healers, but this late at night, only one of them was working at the medical center. The others were our packmates who had gone to nursing school and come back to provide nursing care and perform office duties. The remaining doors were ajar with the lights off, so I could only assume the healer was in that room with Oswald and the new girl.

A few minutes later, the nurse emerged with Oswald in tow. My heart fluttered at the sight of my fated mate, but he looked tired, his suit jacket missing and white dress shirt partially unbuttoned and rumpled. He briskly guided me to the corner of the lobby, away from the prying ears of the nurse. “Why are you here?”

“I was told you brought a rogue home,” I answered, confused. “Why wouldn’t I come to check in on you?”

“That’s not necessary,” grunted Oswald. He was visibly annoyed, whether at me or the situation, I couldn’t tell, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was the former.

“I just want to make sure you and she are okay. Who is she?”

“A wounded wolf shifter.”

“How did she get hurt?”

Oswald wrinkled his lip and looked away. “Some other rogue wolves attacked her.”

“When, where?” I stepped closer and lowered my voice in case somebody overheard us. “Are our packmates in danger?”

“No,” he said sharply, shaking his head as his annoyance intensified. “We’re fine, Aria. I found her outside of Hale Stone. Why don’t you just mind your own fucking business?”

When he swore at me, it was like a knife was plunged into my chest. I couldn’t understand why he was so resistant to me getting involved and knowing more about the wounded stranger. “I’m just trying to help!”

“Mara doesn’t need your help!” he snapped back.

“Her name’s Mara?” I echoed. “How long is she going to be staying here?”

“It’s none of your concern.”

“It is my concern,” I argued. “Next week is our mating ceremony. I’m going to be Grey Creek’s Alpha Female, and I need to know about the stranger staying in our territory!”

The moment I said the words, ‘Alpha Female,’ Oswald paled with disgust and tore away from me, turning his shoulder like he couldn’t even stomach looking at me. “Stop trying so hard and acting like you’re already the Alpha Female. Until our mating ceremony happens, you’re nothing, Aria.”

If swearing at me hadn’t injured me enough, then each subsequent word drove that knife a little deeper. Tears prickled in the corners of my eyes. I inched closer, trying to get Oswald to look at me, but I could sense the disdain oozing off of him by his posture and scent. It pushed me to raise my voice in desperation, “Why won’t you just let me—”

“Because I don’t want you to. Go home and let me deal with Mara,” Oswald said harshly. He didn’t look at me again before marching back down the hall. I could do nothing but watch him turn into the room, slamming the door behind himself, abandoned in the stunned silence between myself and the nurse at the reception desk. Fighting tears, I excused myself but only made it outside before blaring shame left me shaking against the wall. All those years of Alpha training were to prepare me for a situation like this. Yet no matter what I did, it wasn’t enough for him! What was I doing wrong…?

Crying quietly into my palm, I hid myself in the darkness and grappled with doubt about everything I’d believed about myself and Oswald. Over and over again, he shattered my dignity. I convinced myself that he didn’t mean it. He was just too busy to pay attention to me, he was just nervous about sharing his duties with me, and he was just… uncertain about the future, and that made him push me away, right? But how many times could he grind my confidence into the dirt and not realize what he was doing to me? Was he testing me by humiliating me in front of our packmates? To see if I could still hold my head high? An Alpha Female should be able to withstand such trials, and I wanted so badly to prove I was strong enough for him, but, I wasn’t sure I could.

Once I finally gathered my strength, I wandered back to the Lodge, to the suite shared by my parents, sisters, and me, and crawled into bed. But even there, I found no comfort. Tidal waves of grief kept me awake, trapping sobs in my throat and staring miserably into the darkness until I finally exhausted myself into sleep.

Nine hard punches against the punching bag left my knuckles throbbing. I was usually pretty resilient when it came to combat training, but today the pain was harder to bear than usual. I clenched my fists and sighed through my nose, biting back my frustrations.

“Keep going,” urged Mr. Ross, standing behind me with his arms folded across his chest.

“My hands hurt,” I muttered.

“I don’t care. Keep going.”

Aggravated, I threw another punch at the punching bag and then scowled at the pain, pulling my hand away.

The Lieutenant grabbed my wrist. “Your form is off. You’re striking with the knuckles of your pinky and ring finger instead of your index and middle finger,” he pointed out, then tossed my wrist aside. “Why are you so distracted today? Your final test is tomorrow. If you fight Preston like this, you’ll get your ass handed to you.”

“Sorry,” I said immediately. “Just give me a bit. I’ll try again.”

“You won’t get a second chance fighting Preston.”

It took all my strength not to let the growl bubbling up in my throat spill out. “I know.”

They had chosen one of Grey Creek Pack’s strongest soldiers to test me tomorrow. I’d met Preston a few times before—he was Cassie’s boyfriend—and I anticipated he wouldn’t go easy on me. Which meant I could not allow myself to be distracted.

Stepping back, I raised my fists and stared at the punching bag, slowly breathing through my nose until the pain receded in my knuckles. I tried to focus, but all I could think about was Oswald and how casually he spoke the rogue’s name, Mara like they might already be friends. A flare of anger ignited in me. I drove my fist at the punching bag, knocking it back, then punched it again as it came swinging toward me. I didn’t care if my form was correct or if I broke my damn knuckles taking my anger out. My hands were bruised by the time I’d finished training.

“Get your head on straight, or your test won’t be the only thing you fail tomorrow,” warned Mr. Ross as he dismissed me later than usual. The subtle warning was aimed at my Alpha training as a whole, and it only worsened my anger. I couldn’t let four years of training go to waste because I was upset about some girl I hadn’t even met.

In the shower, I closed my eyes and washed my hair, finding relief in the hot water before the girls’ soccer team barged into the changing room. They’d know it was me in the shower, but I kept to myself, hoping they would ignore me.

“Did you guys hear about the rogue Alpha Moore brought in last night?” one of the girls asked.

“Oh yeah,” said another girl. “He seems to like her. He spent all day in her room.”

“My friend is a nurse working in the medical center; she said she saw him holding her hand!”

“I heard he had a fight with Aria about her, and Aria didn’t want her to stay.”

I was sickened listening to the conversation. The nurse last night must have told everyone about our fight.

Then my sister Emma spoke up. “Aria was so upset. She spent all last night crying in her room,” she laughed with malicious delight.

To hear my own sister mock me made my throat swell with rage. I shut the water off and stepped out of the shower stall, wrapping a towel around myself. “I wasn’t crying,” I bit back at the girls, determined to keep my tone hard but steady. “There was just a misunderstanding. I’m happy Oswald brought her in to take care of her. None of you would understand.”

The girls stared back at me in surprise and amusement, feigning ignorance to knowing I had been there the entire time. They all murmured to one another, even Emma, as I dried off, got dressed, and walked out of the room. Only once I was out of sight did I pause to breathe in, gathering my mess of emotions.

It stung thinking about Oswald being close to Mara and taking care of her, holding her hand, doting on her all day while she healed. But envy wasn’t a good look for an Alpha Female.

Clutching my gym bag against my side, I power-walked across the courtyard, staring at my packmates while my mind raged with thoughts unseen. It didn’t even register to me what I was looking at until I stumbled, looked down at the cleft in the sidewalk, then looked back up and realized that there were two people directly ahead of me, and one of them I only recognized by scent. It was the sickly sweet scent of the rogue.

My heart hammered as I paused, watching until the person she was talking to walked away, and she turned her eyes onto me.

I hated to admit it, but she was… beautiful. Her hair hung over her narrow shoulders and held an unnatural sheen to its mystical silver hue. Her thin, attractive body was clad in an oversized t-shirt that obviously belonged to Oswald and blue jeans. And her eyes… There was no way I could compare to the ethereal glimmer of her oceanic gaze like she could heal anyone she set her eyes upon. Except for me, of course. My pain only escalated as I realized how utterly gorgeous she was. No wonder Oswald was so taken with her.

“Hi,” I said awkwardly.

The woman smiled and took a graceful stride toward me. “Hello. It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” This was my home; nowhere else would ever be as beautiful as this place. I felt she didn’t deserve its beauty, but that was just my bitterness showing its ugly face. I tried to swallow it down and smile back. “You’re Mara, right? Are you healing well?”

She lightly touched the bandages wrapped around her forehead. “I’m alright, thank you. If not for the attentive care of your Alpha, I’m not sure I would have made it.”

I simmered quietly, smiling still. “I’m glad to hear that. My name’s Aria Gunn,” I said, offering my hand.

Mara glanced down at my hand, then up at me. “Oh. You must be Oswald’s fated mate, then…?”

“I am.”

Her smile faltered. There was a crack in her façade that, for the briefest moment, shone a sinister light before Mara stuck out her bandaged hand and took mine. I expected a simple handshake. I did not expect her to squeeze my hand, grin, and then crumple over with a cry of pain. “Ah! My hand!”

Wide-eyed, I backed away and dumbly looked around for what I thought could have hurt her until I realized that what had hurt her was me. Or at least, that was how she made it look, clutching her hand as if I’d just broken all the bones in it. Everyone in the courtyard turned to look at us. I could already feel their accusatory heat on me.

“Mara!” shouted the familiar voice of my fated mate.

I jumped, seeing Oswald throw open the doors of the nearby office building and come bursting into the courtyard. His attention was razor-focused on me.

Within half a second, I suddenly felt like everyone’s enemy, and I barely even knew what happened. All I knew was that Mara was collapsed on the ground, and I was to blame for it. Everybody had just witnessed their future Alpha Female attack the wounded rogue.