Page 46 of Fated to the Alpha

Declan gave her a conciliatory smile, one tinged with the kind of pain of knowing how much it’d hurt for Kimberly to leave. “But he’s held your heart for a lot longer. I know what he meant to you. Promise me if you do love him, don’t worry about us? We’ll miss you like hell, but love matters more.”

Such words weren’t enough to make her cry, but they sure as hell made her emotional, especially coming from Declan. Heedless of the blood on his arms and shirt, Kimberly wrapped Declan in a tight hug and appreciated the hug in return. Leaving the guys would definitely tear at her soul, but Declan was right. And ironically, he had answered the very thing she wondered about less than an hour ago. Sure enough, Shane had her heart every day since before she had to leave their old pack. How could she possibly survive losing him again?

Chapter Ten

Shane’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he intuitively knew who it was. He didn’t touch it, didn’t even reach for it as he continued to push the half-frozen, ready-made stir fry meal in the hot skillet. The hissing sound of cooking chicken and veggies filled his apartment, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the noise in his head.

It had been a few days since he turned his back on Kimberly and walked out of the gym. Angry didn’t begin to describe what he felt when it finally dawned on him what happened to her.

Someone had hurt Kimberly. That was what she had been hiding since the moment they ran into one another at Larson Caves Park. That someone hurt her bad enough to mark her, to ruin her. Shane rubbed salt in those unhealed wounds the night he kissed her, and he didn’t even know it. He scared her because she refused to be honest and tell him what happened. She let Shane hurt her. She let him do things that he shouldn’t have. By withholding the truth, he inadvertently damaged what they had. She cut off all her hair rather than just ask him not to grab her that way again. She was willing to sacrifice something so precious because she was too proud to have a tough conversation. She would rather have made some lifestyle change than trust him.

That, perhaps, was what hurt the most. Kimberly didn’t trust Shane with her trauma. She kept a secret from him. He had to piece together the truth with the little hints she dropped, leaving him in the dark the whole time.

But now, she wanted to talk, just not about what happened. All the texts and choked-up voicemails that blew up his phone over the last few days said nothing about telling him the truth.

He sent the obligatory text to assure her that he wasn’t mad, that he didn’t hate her, that he wouldn’t seek retribution from her packmate for the fight at the gym, and that he just needed time to process. At least part of that was true. Another part had to battle his father’s voice ringing like a gong in his head.

She doesn’t deserve your protection. You are alpha. Your credibility is unquestionable. If she can’t accept it, if she can’t trust you, let her go. Let her go, just like your mother left.

He checked the clock on the wall. Gage was half an hour late for their meeting. Maybe his lateness was a sign of disrespect or an assertion of some control over the situation. Either way, it was inexcusable behavior in an alpha, especially over a sensitive matter like this.

It was more of a formality, but the alphas needed to come to some agreement on what to do about the shifter’s actions against Shane. He couldn’t blame the guy for what happened. He knew how it looked, and it didn’t matter if it was Shane or some other shifter straddling Kimberly. If someone were in the act of assaulting Kimberly, her attacker would find himself on the business end of sharp teeth and claws, and likely not walk away. If Shane were in a better mood that evening, he wouldn’t have tried to choke out the shifter to get him to submit. If Kimberly hadn’t been there to de-escalate the situation, Shane might have done more harm.

As he spooned his portion of the stir-fry into a bowl, he heard the creak of heavy footsteps coming down the hall outside his apartment. The old floorboards had been covered by green carpet decades ago, but that didn’t fix the way they popped and squealed whenever anyone passed down the hall. His neighbors’ comings and goings were broadcast loud and clear all day and night.

The hard rap on his door preceded the scent of Gage, a mix of car oil and body spray. Shane answered, his dinner waiting on the pop-up card table. His apartment was still pretty barren, since he gave his furniture to Trent so the kid would have something with which to start his new life. All Shane had to his name now was the card table, a couple of chairs, a beanbag chair in front of a flat screen in the living room, and a mattress sitting on the floor in his bedroom. All of his clothes were hung in the closet, and he charged his phone on the floor next to the mattress every night. It wasn’t much, but it was all he needed.

The alpha-in-training on his doorstep never looked so serious, as if he had been dreading this meeting all day since Shane first messaged him about it. He might have scheduled this talk sooner, but he wanted to give himself and everyone else a chance to decompress after the fight. Confronting the offense too soon would only make all parties involved even more agitated.

Without a word, Shane moved aside to let Gage enter his territory. Gage was the emissary for the transgressor in the incident and was compelled to petition for leniency, even if Shane didn’t think it was necessary.

Gage looked around the practically empty apartment. “The iconic bachelor pad,” he said wryly. “Card table and folding chairs. I bet your mattress is sitting on the floor.”

“I’m not in the mood for small talk,” Shane grumbled as he folded his arms.

Gage lowered his head half an inch. “I won’t take up much of your time. Declan and Kimberly explained what happened. From what they told me, it’s a huge misunderstanding. Declan didn’t know what you two were doing, and he should have stopped to think before reacting. Kimberly is special to us. If anything happened to her—”

“Like what actually did happen to her?”

Gage went rigid. “That’s been dealt with.”

“Is the guy dead?”

“Worm food.”

“Good.” Shane took a slow step closer to the lesser alpha. “I’ll make this easy on you. Tell me what happened to Kimberly, and I’ll forget about what Declan did. No repercussions. No punishment.”

Gage took a long breath and seemed to consider it. He didn’t know Shane was ready to forgive Declan days ago, but he wasn’t about to throw away this perfect opportunity to exploit the situation to its fullest potential. If Kimberly wouldn’t talk to him, then Gage would.

The alpha finally nodded in agreement to the terms and met Shane’s stare straight on.

“A big pack came to town late last year. The alpha, Wyatt, had some scheme to take over Tolstone and overthrow Dominic.”

Shane huffed a laugh. “That was stupid.”

“Definitely. Wyatt had a shifter in his pack that we should have watched out for too. His name was Nathan.” The disdain in the way Gage all but spit that name was infectious, and Shane stifled a reflexive growl.

Gage went on to tell about Wyatt, his plan to take over Tolstone, and how they used this attack on Kimberly to throw Dominic off his game. Shane gritted his teeth so hard, he thought they’d crack. Knowing that someone, that shifter, tried to hurt her and use her pain to their advantage filled him with a hot, blinding rage like nothing he had ever felt before. And he knew exactly why Kimberly was targeted, even if Gage never said it outright.