You May Be the Alpha, but I’m Kicking You Out!

Days went by, and Dawson still hadn't returned. I resisted the urge to ask where he was, who he was with, or how he was doing. Instead, I simply to let him be.

I even had the thought that maybe, he had his own discomfort living with me, with “us”. After all, our marriage wasn’t exactly based on love from his side.

But of course, that wasn’t something I need to burden myself with. I have lost interest in it.

On Friday, however, when I was studying for my upcoming training, my phone rang. It was from Dawson. He sent me a location share link with a message: [I have been on a business trip.]

Oh? Was he now? Something inside of me bubbling up and surfacing into my lips. I called that one ‘sarcasm satisfaction’, and I didn’t know what else to call it.

[Safe trip, then] I typed, sent it, and turned the screen on my phone down before I returned to my study.

30 minutes later, when my set alarm rang just for me to have break, I opened Tattle and immediately saw Ruby’s post. [First holiday after arriving in Silverfang! Oh, how I love the beach in the southern part of the pack. My knight in shining armor insisted on buying me a coconut :)]

The picture just below that post revealed a hand, it was strong looking, its bones were defined as a result of a routine gym workouts. Then, there was the black gold ring adorning his ring finger. On the most bottom part was a location tag [Silverfang Pack Jur.- South]

The reason why I know the material of the ring was due to the fact, I was the one quoting a customized ring for our wedding.

That meant, the person Ruby was with was Dawson.

The location was matching the one Dawson sent me earlier on TalkApp.

I nodded before turning off my phone’s screen. Since I was taking a break I may as well do a little walk!

So I stood up, taking off my wedding ring and tossed it to my desk drawer.

--

Some more days passed. The work at the hospital was normal but it didn’t diminish one bit. With the training days coming soon, I went to the public library either before of after my shift--depending on the time of my scheduled shift.

I was focused. Giving my self the time to rest and heal when I finally got home. In truth, I had somewhat forgotten that I was married to somebody.

Until Dawson’s unexpected visit at the hospital.

“Dawson?” I asked when I stepped out of the lobby. Dawson was there, leaning on the car with his usual nice suit on.

“What are you doing here?” I was surprised with his visit, not going to lie. That day, like any other day before, I was planning to visit the public library.

The man approached me and took the bag of notes I was carrying.

"What do you mean? Today is our wedding anniversary. Did you forget?" he answered before carrying my bag into the backseat of his car.

"Oh," I mumbled, "Sorry. It’s just… I've been really busy preparing… something."

Dawson frowned. After he closed the backseat, he opened the door next to it for me. But when I was about to get into the car, Dawson was blocking the way, resisting my door pull.

I looked up to him.

"So you forget,” Dawson began. “You used to be the one who’d notify me for this kind of occasion several days before. And now you just forget?" Dawson wasn’t pleased one bit.

True to his words.

I would’ve bombarded him with texts, reminders, of our first meeting anniversary, my birthday, his birthday, my in-laws birthdays--I would never missed.

I stood there, simply. I was completely unsure on what to say. Not because of fear, or guilt, or anything. It was because I forgot. And I have admitted that I forgot.

With the silence between us dragging so long, Dawson eventually clicked his tongue in annoyance before moving away towards the driver’s seat.

“Hop in,” he said.

--

He took me to a clothing store and had told me to change into a dress he had bought for me. Next, we went to a fine dining place. It was a private fine dining. The reserved kind of fine dining. The small space was decorated with meticulous design as if he was trying to show his care and celebrate our time together.

When Dawson asked, “What do you think?” his tone latched with excitement and anticipation.

I said simply with a smile, “Thank you.”

With that, I walked towards one of the dining chair, pulled it on my own and sat on it.

Internally, I was chuckling with sadness. This experience might not be equal to this day. But I remembered the way Dawson tried to hide himself on our previous dinner date where I had thrown him a surprise for gaining that important cooperation for his business.

It wasn't in a restaurant as fancy as this one, but I had planned ahead and invited his colleagues. Most of them had confirmed they'd be there.

"Saddie,” He whispered, hiding from the menu. “This is too much! I could feel everyone's looking at us."

I didn’t even have the time to explain myself. Dawson had took my hand and made an apology to everyone else, explaining that he appreciate his colleagues coming over. But he was not ‘the party kind of guy’ and soon cut the celebration short.

"Saddie, are you still mad at me?" he asked, already sitting across me.

I returned from my reminisce and shook my head, and said softly, "No."

"No?" he echoed. His brows arched into a displeased furrow, "Then why are you acting like you’re not even interested? I had to take time off from work just to prepare this, picked a dress for you, and escort you to dinner.” He lifted his hands in a questioning gesture. “Can't you at least pretend to appreciate my efforts?"

"Dawson," I began. “I did appreciate your efforts though. I said ‘thank you’, did you missed it?”

Yet, apparently, I had chosen the wrong words. He threw his hands up in frustration and exclaimed, "If you want to play it this way, fine!"

I blinked at him, play ‘what’ this way?

"I’ll stop contacting Ruby, okay?"

Lies.

I stared at him.

There was no way he would give up seeing Ruby that easy?

"There, I promised. Happy?" he asked again.

I opened my mouth slightly, somewhat appalled by his tone.

I felt like I was the one in the blame. Again! But I stayed silent, and it remained the same even after the dinner almost come to an end where he called one of the waiter to bring in my gift.

The romantic atmosphere went on a blur to me. I knew it was there but I couldn’t even makes sense of it. But I played along, I took the gift with a thank you and began to open it.

Right then, Dawson's phone rang.

"You okay?" he asked, answering the call. He took a glance at me before averting his gesture altogether. "I really can’t leave, I’m in the middle of something important… What? A fever that high? Alright, alright, wait for a bit okay. I’ll be there soon,” he said softly.

Hanging up, Dawson turned to me and began to rubbed his own palm in awkwardness. "Saddie, it's Ruby. Darby has a high fever. I need to...."

I pressed my lips together. “Just go,” I said, softly. “It’s better that Darby received treatment soon.”

Dawson was hesitant. But he stood up and said, “Wait for me here, okay? I’ll be back soon and pick you up.”

With that, he left.

I scanned the reminder of this wedding anniversary celebration. The half eaten desert. The flower decorations. The waiters standing by.

I finished my lemon pie and soon left the place without even waiting for Dawson.

I called a cab and went home.

--

RedMaxine posted: [Get well soon little Darby… :(]

I read the Tattle post after I showered.

“Darby had a high fever all night. It wouldn’t go down,” Dawson explained carefully as soon as he returned home the next morning.

I nodded. Resisting my impulse to sulk. It was a bit disappointing that he cared so much about Ruby and her family, but he neglected me, his own family.

But a child’s fever was indeed something worrisome.

"Is everything okay now? Why didn't you stay longer? It must be hard for Ruby to handle a sick child alone," I asked.

Dawson paused mid-motion when he was taking his shirt off. "Saddie,” he sighed in exasperation, “I didn’t sleep last night. Like, at all. Don’t start this alright? I’m tired." And his tone was telling me that he was indeed, tired.

"Oh, alright then. Have a good rest. My shift is about to start, too. I’m leaving, okay?" I reached for my work bag and walked towards the bedroom door.

But, Dawson blocked my path.

"What is it?"

"I’ll make it up for the anniversary celebration next time, okay?"

A ghost of a smile played on my lips, devoid of any feeling. "Sure! Don’t worry, I’m not mad or anything."

He looked at me with questioning look. The next thing that caught me off guard was him pulling me into his embrace. "There's a company event next Friday and I want you to come along," he mumbled into my hair. "You’ll come, won’t you?"

The first question that came to my mind was, why?

He never invited me before. And sure, Dawson's colleagues are mostly supportive. They were nice to me at the very least when I invited them to that dinner surprise. But, I know enough that they didn’t think much of me in terms of the business side of things.

So, why bother?

“Dawson, Pamella took my shift the last time and I need to be in for her on that day.” I silently thanked the Goddess I decided to have that day off.

Dawson clicked his tongue in displease. “Fine,”’ he growled.

Again, why bother?

He’d usually bring Ruby to his company events, so why the change?

On that day, afternoon, my phone buzzed non-stop in my uniform’s pocket as I filled up the stuff on my report document.

When I did make the time to open it, I saw 100+ notification. Turned out, someone had added me to the group chat for Dawson's company's team building event.

Photos from various activities at the event started to pour in, and many prominently featured Ruby. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself, seamlessly mingling with Dawson's colleagues.

In one particular activity, Dawson gave Ruby a piggyback ride across the lawn. Ruby's arms were wrapped tightly around Dawson's shoulders, her laughter mingling with the sound of the evening breeze. With her head resting against his, their close proximity was unmistakable.

The group chat buzzed with excitement, everyone tagging Ruby and Dawson, proclaiming them to be a picture-perfect pair. Given Dawson's influential role in the company, people were eager to earn his favor, flooding the chat with comments about how well they complemented each other.

I couldn’t comprehend why this particular person added me to that group chat.

But, since I had become a part of the group, ignoring the messages would have been noticeable. So, I joined in and typed a brief message, [Yup! Definitely the perfect pair!] accompanied by a heart emoji.

With a sigh, I exited the app continued working for my shift.

Day soon turned into night, and it was time for me to go home.

When I took out my phone, I still saw the 200+ notification on TalkApp. Thinking that it was probably from Dawson’s company chat group, I didn’t expect that Dawson had sent me multiple missed calls and private messages.

[Saddie, pick up the phone.]

[Saddie, it’s not usually like this. This was a team-building event and we played a game of piggy back ride. I had to do it just because that’s the game, okay?]

[Saddie, why are you not home, yet? I’ll go pick you up at the hospital, okay?]