Alpha's reclaimed mate

Chapter 8

Monica was calm and collected. Things had escalated quickly that noon she'd almost rejected her second chance mate.

Blamed it on her temper.

They had talked like civilized werewolves until things escalated.

He'd insisted she stayed in the room he'd provided but thinking about it now, she was better off here.

She was stuck, between being an Omega and the Alpha's yet-to-be-recognized mate.

Until he recognized and utterly accepted her as his mate she was better this way.

What exactly did he want from her? She was a pathetic Omega, one everyone knew of. Why didn't he reject her just yet? Why didn't he humiliate her in front of everyone like Seth had done without a blink?

What was the energy she felt whenever they were together? Did he feel it too?

Other than what she learned about him from other pack members, she knew nothing about him. She never asked. He never welcomed the chance for her to ask those private questions.

He flamed, almost the same way she did a few days ago. What would've happened if she did not control herself? Why did Ray duplicate this ability?

She needed answers to these churning questions.

She was a step closer to finding those answers if only he did not order Jen to return the books. She needed help and no one was willing to help. No one seemed to know how to help her. Those books were the help she needed.

Ray was quiet the whole time, maybe she was beginning to be older and much wiser. Was she content with her second chance mate? She knew Ray adored Bruno. Was Bruno's wolf sucking the energy from her? She doubted the latter was the case.

She plucked the feathers of the turkey, prepping the bird for Maggie to cook. Fighting to keep her mind off of things she knew was never going to serve her.

"You look drained. I'm worried about you." Maggie drew closer to her. Putting down on the counter the vegetables she brought in.

Maggie was never the type who wore her heart on the sleeves, especially to her. To voice her concerns toward her meant she was ready to close the gap.

"Because I am drained, mentally and physically." Monica huffed, hanging her shoulders.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me!"

Even if she wanted to, she was lost for words. What was she to say?

Instead, she nodded with the faintest smile, going back to plucking the bird.

Kendall sauntered into the kitchen in a mid-thigh bodysuit. Their stares left their chores to her, unsure why she was there.

They half expected Ophelia and Alara to come in next, and when they didn't Monica regarded her quizzically.

"Monica, I dunno, do you have a moment?" She drawled, her confidence stripped off of her.

"What's up?" Monica replied.

"I'll bring out some Mayonnaise and syrup from the pantry." Maggie excused herself from the kitchen.

"What a big bird. I've never seen how the feathers are being worked on." Kendall stopped by the counter Monica was working on.

"That's a struggle you'd never understand!" She grinned at her.

"There's something I feel you know." Kendall's voice was breathy.

"What's this about?" She asked, taking her hands off the turkey.

"I wasn't thinking, I feel stupid and..." She took a long breath, releasing it slowly, she confessed quietly. "I took that video that night. I happened to be out that night. I'm sorry, I was only trying to get back at Ophelia. It was dumb. I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter." Monica went back to the turkey.

"It does matter. Alpha Bruno might ostracize me for invading his privacy that way. And you must be mad and disgusted. I'm sorry Monica." Kendall's eyes gleamed with sincerity.

"If you're truly sorry, you know how to right things." That was all Monica told her.

As Kendall left the kitchen, Maggie returned with a basket filled with the items.

"Leave it, I can take it from here, Susan would assist," Maggie said, putting aside the mayonnaise and other items.

Monica nodded. Rinsing her hands in the faucet, she left the kitchen.

She took a warm bath, soaking in the hot tub, she released and retracted her claws happily staring at them.

How long would it take to fully shift? Her smiles broadened.

As soon as she stood from the tub, her stomach churned uncomfortably. Grabbing a towel from the grille, she wrapped it around herself. Slamming open the toilet seat she threw up in the toilet, holding her hair away from her face.

After her bowels felt empty, she flushed the toilet and brushed her teeth leaving the bathroom.

Finding a pair of comfortable and loose loungewear, she threw them on. Feeling the headache intensified. Now she knew she was going to be sick.

She dropped onto the bed, ducking under the plush covers, sighing.

'Same apple, same tree all cursed!' Alexander's cold voice resonated in her head. Flashes of his snarls invade her mind.

She lost everything, her parents, her happiness, her home.

She was happy, they were happy as a family. Lucretia, Luna of Syzygy Pack married her father, Ian Hamilton, then Alpha of Syzygy Pack. Raise like a future leader, in love, acceptance, and strength, until her eighth birthday when rogues attacked their territory.

She remembered the fear that cloaked her heart seeing her father bedridden, unable to defend their territory. In a span of one night, she'd lost everything.

Alexander, her father's brother, was crowned the new Alpha of the Syzygy Pack. Left in his care, things changed.

Taking out from her drawers the amulet handed down to her by her mother. She'd been too frightened to put it on all those years. Feeling braver than ever, she put the necklace around her neck. Returning to her bed.

It was an amulet, according to her mother, handed down to every generation in their lineage. Her great-grandmother Elizabeth wore it. Handed it to her grandmother Victoria, then her grandmother handed it to her mother, Lucretia. Then her mother handed it to her of which she would hand it over to her daughter whenever the time came. Whenever she had a family of her own.

With Bruno.

As impossible as that sounded. She was asking for too much. She was setting herself up for disappointment.

She had cut ties with Syzygy Pack but never her bloodline. Although forbidden and rumored to be cursed, she still had the Gaia blood running in her veins.

She sighed. Drifting her mind to a brighter thought.

The Revival celebrations were over, work began the week ahead. Things would return to the way it was, Bruno would probably be too busy, wrapped up in work to want to pay attention to things that didn't affect his earnings. Things like her.

She too probably would be too busy at the food shop with Maggie to want to nurse the fear of Alpha Bruno rejecting her. Or to care about those disappointing glints in his friends'—the second and third commanders'— eyes whenever they looked at her. Their silent disapproval was always loud enough for her to detect.

She was resuming her off with Maggie on Monday at the food shop. They had taken the Revival week off since they were selected alongside Susan to help make meals for the pack throughout the Revival break.

When people were less busy, they paid attention to things that didn't seem to matter like running into Bruno that night at the training ground. If she was running her night shifts at the food shop, then Ray wouldn't have had the chance to lead her astray into the fix she was in right now.

Somewhere in her heart, she knew she was curious that night. She had sensed him, Ray had impatiently trailed her second chance mate and looked where it had gotten them.

Puffy eyes, headache, uncertainties, and the building lumps in her throat and not to mention the nerves she'd wrecked the few days they'd met.

Things had better return to normal. The off looks she received from other pack members over the footage Kendall confessed earlier to have taken of her and Alpha Bruno making out in the parking lot was another header for a ravaged week ahead at work.

'Things had better returned to normal!' Ray sighed.

She loved Ray, no matter how much pain she'd caused her by not shifting, she understood. She knew once the time was right she would shift and if she never shifted, just like her grandmother Victoria, she was willing to live her entire life without shifting. Somewhere in her, she believed Ray was going to come out one day. And it was starting to feel that day was going to be sooner for the signs were there, she was already on the first stage of shift. Thanks to Bruno he'd unleashed her claws.

He'd given Ray an energy she'd never experienced. And yes he gave her feelings she'd never felt, not with Seth. She was infatuated with Bruno and there was no denying it.

After tossing and turning under the plush covers, sleep finally invaded her senses.