Three Alpha's, One selection (Ending reimagined)

Chapter 41

Today was all about the packs getting to know each other in a casual setting. As casual as you can get with a bunch of Alphas and Lunas trying to outstage one another. The point of it is to allow mates to meet and bonds to be formed before the ball that will be taking place tonight. I had decided on an outdoor event knowing that everyone's egos would need a lot of space.

I settled for a picnic day. There are blankets all over with pre-made picnic baskets. Anyone can claim a space and enjoy good food, fresh air and hopefully good company. Small tables are standing around for people to stand and talk around with their drinks. Servers will be walking around all day with a wide variety of drinks. It takes a lot for werewolves to get drunk, but if I could get them at least a little bit tipsy before tonight it would be great. Then they all might just relax enough to actually get to know one another.

Other than that, there is soft music playing everywhere to establish the calm atmosphere I am working towards and a few garden games. Which might end up being too competitive, but hey what can you do? I hardly had time to enjoy all my hard work. I've been running around trying to make sure everything is perfect. I have also been trying to avoid the three people whose eyes seem to constantly find me.

Sander hadn't tried to approach me, at least, whereas Aedion had moved in my direction a couple of times before I scurried away. Rowan has been stalking me all day. If his eyes aren't on me, it is his voice in my head. It is enough to drive any sane person crazy. It is like a switch went off in him. Since last night it has gotten ten times worse.

I'm wearing a side split thigh, cami cream satin dress with a flower print over it and a drawstring on one side. Rowan gave the dress to me to wear. After seeing me in it, he regretted it. It is tight, showing off all my curves. He stopped in his tracks this morning after seeing me in it. I was sure he was going to rip the dress off me, but instead, he loosened the drawstring to make the dress a bit longer. He even had to control that aspect of my life. The dress only has spaghetti straps. He wanted everyone to see my newly opened mark. Even my scars from the b*****e were on display and a few handprint bruises from the rough s*x. He wouldn't let me cover any of them.

My hair was clipped to the back in a low ponytail. I wanted my hair out of the way since I knew I would be up and down today. Whenever I do stop for a second I throw my ponytail over my scarred neck. As for my wrists, I opted for a bunch of bangles to cover most of the damage. I finally got a moment of rest. I stood at one of the empty tables sipping at orange juice in a champagne class. Letting people think it was a mimosa and I was enjoying myself as well.

"You are a difficult person to pin down, My Angel." I should have known a moment of peace was too good to be true. I looked up at Aedoin standing in front of me. He was wearing a pair of khaki slacks that he rolled up, he was barefoot as well. His white button-up shirt had a few buttons undone and his sleeves were rolled up. It was a nice change of pace. All the other Alpha's looked hot and uncomfortable trying to remain proper.

"Have you considered that it is because I was trying to avoid you? You are trouble! Riling Rowan up like that...what were you thinking! Yes, you might be a strong Alpha, but at the moment you are greatly outnumbered. Not to mention that you are making my life difficult. Trust me I don't need help in that department. So please just leave me alone." I said what I needed to. I intended to walk away, but he grabbed my arm stopping me. I panicked since I could feel Rowan's eyes on me. I quickly pulled my arm out of his hold. I saw Aedoins eyes going to one of my bruises.

'It's fine, I want to see where he goes with this.' I heard Rowan's voice in my head. It is always a game with him and I am always the one to pay for it.

"Please don't touch me." He held his hand up grinning like a complete goofball. He made me want to bring down my defences, but I knew I couldn't. I knew Rowan was watching. More than that I felt another pair of eyes on me. After all, Aedoin did say that he never went anywhere without Sander.

"I wasn't trying to cause you more pain last night. I just wanted to see how serious Rowan is about you. I thought since he treats you so badly, he wouldn't even put up a fight. I was hoping he was only using you for your Luna training. If that was the case. I would have offered to take you off his hands, but the poor fool is besotted with you. I don't even think he knows how badly he has fallen for you." It was a laughable notion.

"He hasn't fallen for me. He is just territorial, I'm their toy to use. They don't share. Trust me love has nothing to do with it." I ensured him. Whatever he observed he was wrong.

"My family is very observant. I guess it is like our superpower. We made a career out of it. We wouldn't be nearly as successful if we couldn't size up a situation pretty quickly." I wasn't going to argue with him. It will only cause a back-and-forth argument.

"What do you want, Aedoin?" I just wanted to get down to the point already. At least before the next crisis pops up Leaving me dashing off without any answers.

"I just want you. you are the only reason I came here. I might have conquered Greenlands, but the pack is still there and they still need a Luna. I still need a Luna. I want you to be mine. I want you to be my mate." He said he wanted to save me, but I never thought he intended for me to be his mate.

'Throw your hair back.' It was a command. I instantly did it. Aedoin's intake of breath means he immediately noticed it.

"As you can clearly see, I am not available. I will never be." The idea of him, of anyone saving me, is too good to be. I am at a point where I don't even care if someone dies trying as long as it isn't Sander. Which is too dark a thought.

"A mark on your neck doesn't mean anything to me. The only thing that matters to me is you. If you want to be with Rowan I will turn around and walk away. I am not one to get in between mates. You can't lie to me I know that you don't want him or this pack. I can offer you everything you want if you just agree to be mine." My heart was beating so fast, his offer was so tempting. I could just agree to be his and let him save me, no matter the cost. If I become his, Sander would move on. He won't do anything stupid. I could immediately mate with Aedoin and pretend like the triplets are his.

"What about your mate? What if you meet her at some point? Would you make her your mistress-mate or would you discard me?" Before making a decision like this I need to know that I am not stepping on anyone's toes.

"My mate died. We were lucky enough to find each other when we were very young. We were both sixteen which was young, some would say unheard of. We had clicked long before that. I guess we gravitated towards each other. Much like you and Sander did. As my sources told me when we were looking into your pack. A lot of people assumed you would be mates." Yes, even Luna Emilia had thought so.

"Rouges attacked one night. It doesn't matter how strong you are and how many allies you have when you are caught off guard. You can't pick up a phone to call for help in the middle of an ambush. I guess losing her is why I am so feral at times. I could have stopped my sanity from disintegrating at any time if I took another for a mate. I've never cared too though. My irrationality has been working in my favour. I fight like I have nothing to lose and win like I have nothing to gain. I give away all my winnings because they mean nothing if you don't have anyone to share them with." My heart aches for him. How lonely he must be? How empty? I know how it feels to be empty. Without my wolf, I feel like half a person.

"I didn't care about any of it until I heard about you. I think I fell for you before even meeting you. It's like my wolf yearns to know you. He has been mourning, but somehow I know that you can nurture him. He has been a lot better, less feral ever since we met you. " He has to be making some of this up just to charm me.

"It's why we can't understand it. We don't know how someone could treat their mate so badly when we would have given anything to have just one more minute with ours." I felt a pang of jealousy in the pit of my stomach. He clearly loved her so much. The way I have yearned to be loved by Sander.

"You are the only girl I've wanted since her. You have sparked something in me. Greenlands might be a small pack, but they fought for you. It was one of my hardest battles which shocked me." Never count out the small and weak they usually have more to fight for.

"It was your Alpha that stood up after defeat. I expected him to plead. Most do, they offer up their pack members for their own survival, but he asked what would happen to you. I told him I would bring you home. The relief from my words was felt by the whole pack. You mean a great deal to them." I felt the guilt and self-pity I had been struggling with from the moment I came here.

"I wish I could say the same. I was selfish. I wanted to leave the pack. I wanted my own life, one I created. The last thing I wanted was for my life to be planned out for me. The compromise of me getting my freedom and getting a life with Sander seemed great. Look what that got me. I should have appreciated what I had." I've blamed myself over and over again. I was greedy wanting it all.

"Don't blame yourself. You were just a kid. You had no idea what you were walking into or how your life would turn out."

"No one knows how their life will turn out. We all make our own path and we are the only ones to blame when the path we chose didn't work out."

"Do you love him? You were willing to give up your freedom to be with him." It was very out of the blue. I guess that is what I did. At the option to be with him, I gave up on the idea of my own adventure.

"It was more than that. There were a lot of people counting on me to go back. We didn't even have a relationship. I had a crush on him for the longest time. I thought he was a playboy, meanwhile he was trying to get my attention. We wasted a lot of time playing games. I guess I built him up in my head over the years. I don't know if I love him. Both of us are different, but I made my peace with that part of my life. I know that I can't ask him to sacrifice everything for me." It was easy to talk to Aedoin. Rowan didn't let me ever talk about my old life- it meant I was thinking about a life without him.

"I must say that without him, things would have been a lot worse. Having something to hold onto is what got me through it all. He got me through it all. If I came here with no plan and met Rowan. I would have been trapped. I would have had no options other than this." It is scary to think about. I would have been a broken doll by now.

"We could heal each other's broken hearts." Those words caught me because I realised that I wasn't the only broken person standing here.

"Brother." I heard the greeting from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Melissa standing behind me. She looked different. Gone was the struggling student I shared a room with.

"Dilara!" She almost squealed in delight. She smiled at me as she came to stand between us.

"I see you have met my brother! I told him all about you." I recall her telling me that she had a big family and how her older brother was always on her case. Aedoin mentioned that their pack was run by a Luna. He was probably pressuring her to be Luna.

"My brother can help you get out from under Rowan... literally." She mentioned. I blushed because she was talking about my s*x life in front of Aedoin.

"I see we have the whole family here at last." Rowan said stepping next to me. I didn't sense him coming I had been too distracted. My body tensed. I was afraid about how much he heard.

"I had some of my people look into Aedoin after he talked such a big game last night. Can you imagine how shocked I had been to see that the Luna running his pack was none other than Melissa? When she attended the university she was such a slacker. She was here for years without even finishing a degree. She would have stayed for years to come if I hadn't set the time frame rule to get rid of the uninspired scholarship runts." I was confused. Rowan was smiling like he had the upper hand which was never a good thing.

"This was her hunting ground. Their pack would use women or innocent girls to infiltrate packs and find their weaknesses. The university was the perfect place for her to listen and be on the lookout for easy targets." This sounds like a story he spun out of thin air. Melissa is too nice. She wouldn't do such an underhanded thing.

"Packs like Greenlands." Suddenly it all made sense. I looked at Melissa. She looked guilty standing next to him.

“You helped him to conquer Greenlands. Every time I walked into the room you ended your phone calls. You were using me for information. You were fishing for the pack's weaknesses” I had openly given her all the information they needed. I told her how the pack didn’t have an heir and was weak. I told her that we would take over. She knew that they had to strike before I went home.

“I already gave him the information before I got to know you.” That was the excuse she gave at seeing me put everything together. A tear rolled down my cheek, but I was fast to wipe it away. I couldn't let Rowan or Aedoin see me cry.

“My sister has never gotten close to a target. You are the only person that got her to break the rules. She really saw you as a friend. She really cared for you. Which is why we came here. Greenlands is still your home.” Her brother jumped in. Rowan was standing there enjoying my pain and their betrayal.

"Excuse me. I need to go see to some arrangements for the ball tonight." I was so close to giving in to Aedoin. Now I just feel used. How could Sander look at me knowing that I was the downfall of our pack? How could Alpha Silvano stand up for me? I cost him his pack, his heritage and his son's birthright. I knew the information I had was sensitive and that we were weak, but she had been so nice and helpful. I believed her, I believed that she was my friend. No wonder she stood up against Rowan. She had nothing to lose. That is why she was the only one to stick up for me.

"Lara wait up!" I heard Melissa running after me. I just kept on walking.

"Come on, please can we just talk about this!" She wants us to talk about the fact that she betrayed me. I wasn't in the mood.

"My brother is a good guy. His intention is pure. He really likes you and he only came to this pretentious event to help you. You can be angry with me but don't take it out on him. Greenlands take over was all me. I am the one who decides...my brothers are only the tools I use to exact my will." Which made it worse because she was my friend and she could have chosen not to attack Greenlands.

"Why?" It was all I had to say as I turned around and faced her.

"I did it to save the pack. When I first met you, you just seemed like a silly innocent girl not aware of the world around you. Although I couldn't help to take a liking to you and then things escalated out of control. The way you talked about your pack was amazing. I must admit that I was a bit envious. I long for a pack like that. Ours is a bit military. Which is why I didn't mind staying at the university. Anyway, I had my brothers look into Greenlands. It turned out there were other parties interested in the pack. Your alpha's daughters weren't as careful as you were. They were spoiled and complained to everyone and anyone who would listen. Especially to the men they were sleeping with. It is no secret that they prefer men from outside your pack. These men fell over their feet to be with them because they were Alpha daughters, which means a chance to become Alpha." Those girls never had any sense about them but apparently, I didn't either.

The thing with conquering a pack is that they take everything it's not like they come in and buy a house they forcefully take your house and all your belongings and you are pushed out without anything it's a very cruel practice. This is what my supposed friend did to my pack. She's claiming that there were other parties interested so what they just wanted to beat them to it.

"When we conquer we do not harm the people. We use as little force as possible. We also give them an option to stay or to leave. If they choose to leave they can take all their things it's not like we are stealing. We only conquer to improve packs, to make them stronger and then use them. Your Alpha chose to leave. He was afraid of what would happen in the future when his son a true-born Alpha comes into age. Especially if my brother has kids he didn't want his kid to be challenged just because of what he was born as. There's always a power struggle when it comes to the heirs of an Alpha." Okay so they might not have harmed any of the pack members and have given them a choice but they still took away what they've always known and what was home.

"Taking over has helped a lot- it has made the pack more feared and nobody will try and hurt anybody you love ever again. You just need to trust my brother. Think about his offer don't just immediately shut it down." At the moment he might be my only offer. If I stay here then I die at least if I go with him I can have a life even if it isn't with the person I want to be with.

It was a lot to think about. The thought that kept ringing in my head like an annoying alarm that didn't want to stop was: do I love Sander? Why did Aedoin have to ask that? I like Sander, enough to know I can't burden him. Is it possible to fall in love with someone when they aren't around? I know they say distance makes the heart grow fonder, but to what extent?

Melissa POV

"Well, that didn't go as planned." I don't know if I'm happy or sad about it. I don't know what I really want. I want to help her. I just don't know if having her with my brother will be 'helping'.

"I thought having you here would smooth things over. I didn't think Rowan would interfere so much. Things are worse, more than what you even knew. Did you see her neck? It was ripped open recently. There is also so much scaring. He frequently does it to show to everyone that she is his. Which is also why she is covered in bruising handprints. He wanted us to know they slept together last night." I knew Rowan wouldn't just sit back and let Addie take her. She is his mate after all.

"Can you blame him? She is his mate. I mean even you are obsessed with her, you were even before meeting her. I knew it even if you didn't. I bet your world came crashing when you met her." He hasn't acted this irrationally since he met Essie, his mate. He has already become territorial with Dilara.

"Obsessed is a bit harsh." He said jokingly, but I know him and I know when he is masking his feelings. He is a very Linear person who loves rules, but when it comes to love he loses himself completely.

"You made the guy she loves swear allegiance to you because you want to keep an eye on him and stop them from being together. Or rather you are waiting for him to mess up and disobey so that you have a legitimate reason to kill him. You might even be worse than Rowan. Yes he is crazed when it comes to her, but he is her mate and his behaviour is in some ways legitimate. You have no reason to be acting like this." He looked at me his mask finally dropping, gone was the easygoing Alpha he pretends to be.

"I want her. I'll have her. I always get what I want. I don't care what it will take. She will be mine willingly or not, but she will be mine and no one, not even you will stop me."