My Fated Alpha Picked The Wrong Woman

The first thing I felt was the bond.

It hummed under my ribs, warm and low. Before I even opened my eyes, I knew whose hand was wrapped around mine.

"Aria?" Nolan's voice was rough, like he hadn't slept. "Hey. You're awake."

I blinked at the ceiling of the healing den. White beams. The sharp smell of crushed yarrow. My right arm sat heavy on the blanket, bandaged from elbow to wrist.

He leaned closer. Dark circles sat under his gray eyes. His thumb moved back and forth across my knuckles.

*Mate,* Sable murmured. She sounded sleepy. Hopeful.

That old calm spread through my chest, the same calm I'd felt a hundred nights in his truck with my head on his shoulder.

My fingers curled around his. Just for a second.

Then I made them open, one by one.

His hand stayed where it was, empty, resting on the sheet.

"Okay," he said slowly. "You're still mad."

"I'm tired."

"You're mad." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "Look, I knew about the backup line. Every bridge on that course has one. I checked the harnesses myself that morning. I'd never let you actually fall, Aria. You have to know that."

I turned my head on the pillow and studied him.

"Did you hear me?"

"What?"

"On the bridge. When I said my grip was slipping. When I said it wouldn't hold." I kept my voice even. "Did you hear me say that?"

He didn't answer right away. His jaw worked side to side.

The silence stretched long enough for a nurse to pass the doorway and keep walking.

"Yes," he said finally. "I heard you."

"Okay."

"But Vanessa was more scared." He said it like it was obvious. Like he was explaining why the sun came up. "She's never done a gorge run. She froze. You've crossed that bridge a dozen times on patrol. You're tough, Aria. I knew you'd be fine."

I waited for the tears.

They didn't come. My eyes stayed dry and clear, and something in my chest went very quiet and very cold.

He hadn't missed it. He hadn't been confused in the wind.

He knew it would hurt me. He'd just decided I could take it.

"Huh," I said.

Nolan frowned. "Huh?"

"Nothing. I just finally get it."

"Get what?"

"Why I always come second." I pushed myself up against the headboard, wincing when my arm bumped the rail. "It's not that you don't see me bleeding. You see it fine. You just figure I'll keep quiet about it."

"That's not fair."

"It's the most fair thing I've said all year."

He opened his mouth to argue, and my phone buzzed on the side table.

Unknown number. I almost let it ring. Then I saw the area code. Northgate Academy.

I grabbed it with my good hand. "Hello?"

"Aria Kessler? This is Dr. Okonkwo, from the Northgate exchange office." A brisk woman's voice. "I'm calling to confirm your withdrawal before we release your seat."

My whole body went still.

"My what?"

"Your withdrawal. We received notice through your pack Alpha two days ago. You'd like your spot passed to the alternate, a Miss Vanessa Lorne. I just need a verbal confirmation."

I lowered the phone a few inches. I stared at Nolan.

He didn't look surprised. He didn't look guilty either. He just rubbed the back of his neck.

"You did this," I said.

"Aria, listen—"

"You withdrew me. From the program I applied to for two years. Without asking."

"Ma'am?" Dr. Okonkwo's voice crackled. "Are you still there?"

"One second, please." I pressed the phone against the blanket. "Explain. Right now."

Nolan sat back in his chair. His voice turned gentle, almost patient, the way you'd talk to a kid who didn't understand something.

"Northgate is a year away. A whole year, Aria. What's the point? You're going to be my mate. You'll have to stay in the pack anyway. Vanessa's been dying for that spot, and her father would owe me. It works for everybody." He reached for my knee. "I was thinking about us. Our future."

"*Our* future."

"Yes."

"You gave my future to her."

"It's not like that—"

I lifted the phone back to my ear.

"Dr. Okonkwo? Sorry about that. I did not withdraw. I never sent any notice, and I never agreed to give up my seat. I'm still coming."

Nolan shot to his feet. "Aria."

"Yes, I'm sure," I told her. "Please keep my name on the list. If anyone else calls on my behalf, it isn't me. Only take instructions from this number."

"Understood," she said. "I'll note it in your file. We'll send your travel packet next week."

"Thank you. Really."

I hung up.

The room felt smaller. Nolan stood over the bed, his hands balled at his sides, his eyes flickering toward gold.

"You just embarrassed me," he said. "I gave her father my word."

"Then you'll have to take it back. I've had a lot of practice with that."

"Why are you being like this?"

"Because I'm done, Nolan."

He laughed, short and sharp. "Done with what?"

"With us." I set the phone down on my lap. "I'm breaking up with you. And at the next full moon, I'm going to stand in front of the council and reject the bond."

The laugh died on his face.

For a moment he didn't move at all. Then the color drained out of him, fast, like someone had pulled a plug.

"You don't mean that."

"I do."

"Aria, you don't." He dropped onto the edge of the bed, and his hand clamped around mine, hard enough to press my knuckles together. "Stop. Just stop and feel it. Right now. You feel that?"

I did.

The bond surged where our skin met, hot and bright, pouring into my chest like sunlight through a window. Sable whimpered and pressed toward him. My heartbeat slowed to match his. It was the easiest feeling in the world.

"You feel it," he said, his voice cracking. "I know you do. We can't be apart, Aria. We're not built for it. Neither of us."

His fingers trembled. I'd never seen his hands shake before. Not once in a whole year.

My eyes burned. My throat closed up tight.

I looked down at his hand on mine. Big. Warm. The same hand that had pushed my bloody fingers onto a rope and walked away.

I put my palm over his and pried it off.

"I'll miss you," I said. My voice wobbled, and I let it. "It's going to hurt. Every single day, it's going to hurt, and I'm going to want to come back."

"Then don't—"

"But I'm still leaving."