The Alpha’s Other Woman

Carrie

After my unnamed mate left, with nothing much to do, I had wallowed in memories of how my awful choices had led me to being trapped in his trailer.

Finally, I snapped myself out of it and spent the remainder of my morning further messing up his home as much as I could. Honestly, the mess was starting to get to me too, but I wasn’t about to just give in and accept the unacceptable.

I made sure I was sprawled out in his easy chair by the time he returned. He had not been able to sit in it even once since I had been trapped here. I put on the most annoying cartoon I could find and cranked up the volume in an effort to annoy him more. The high pitched voices bothered my ears and annoyed my wolf, but it was worth the pain to reach my goal.

My reward was swift when he came in the door and flinched at either the excited chirping on the television or the mess all over his counters.

As always, I had been limited by his sparse possessions, but I had made do as creatively as possible.

“Carrie.”

I fluttered my eyes at him innocently. “Yes, Stranger?”

His jaw visibly clenched. I smiled sweetly.

“This isn’t working,” he told me.

My stomach sunk at his words, even though they meant my plan was working. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, unless you mean this whole forcible confinement thing you’ve got going on. I’m not sure what you think this is going to do, but I can tell you that I am less than impressed. I’d be better off out in the forest somewhere, where I could—”

“Enough. I’ve had enough of your tantrum.”

"My tantrum? My apologies if I’m not cooperating with being kept against my will. Frankly, I’ve had enough of this miserable place,” I said, waving my hand around his home.

He was the picture of frustration, but that made him no less attractive, with his clenched jaw and tight muscles. My wolf was the opposite of helpful. The mate bond was making her loopy, because how else could I find even his critical scowl attractive?

My sense of self-preservation chose that particular moment to chime in that constantly aggravating the ridiculous wall of obstinate muscle might not be the safest plan. I brushed away the concern. Whatever. I was getting out of here one way or another.

He strode across the living room towards me, full of tension, and I was suddenly aware that I did not want to get out of his territory in a body bag. Maybe I did want to live my crappy rogue life, just a little bit.

But he did not do anything to me, instead just sat across from me on the couch.

He looked tired. Maybe he hadn’t been sleeping well, either. I felt suddenly bad, which was completely ridiculous.

“Why do you want to leave so badly?” he asked, those nearly black eyes boring into me.

I pushed aside the wisp of guilt. He had done nothing to deserve such emotion. It wasn’t my fault we were in this situation. I wasn’t the one confining the mate that I didn’t want. “Why? Let’s see. You’re holding me against my will, you don’t want me here anyway. And I don’t want to be here, since I have a life out there I want to get back to. That enough reason for you, or do I need to beg?”

He did not answer for a long moment. Then he said, “You can leave.”

“Oh.”

I had not expected it to be that easy, even though it was going according to my plan. I blinked a couple of times while I looked at him in shock. My wolf was not pleased with his words, but I pushed back that feeling, too. All my feelings had ever led me to was trouble.

“Why don’t you eat something first?” he offered. He was holding out a takeout container, but I had been so fixated on him I hadn’t even noticed he had it in his hand. It had always been his pack members bringing me food before this.

I took it and sniffed it.

“I didn’t drug it,” he grumbled.

He looked so genuinely annoyed by my suspicion that I decided to trust him. Using the plastic fork, I ate the entire stir fry in short order. Then I glanced at him. He looked resigned, maybe disappointed.

Which was crazy, because he didn’t want me there. It was probably just his wolf nagging at him.

Mine was certainly upset about this turn of events. I ignored her as I made my way to the door, and he just let me.

I crossed the kitchen and put my hand on the door. Shoving it open, I walked out into the bright day. There was still a guard standing there, but he did not try to stop me.

No one did.

It was uncanny. I had truly believed that when I left I would be running out in the dead of night with guards on my heels, not walking out brazenly in the light of day.

He was giving me exactly what I wanted.

But now that I had gotten my way, I was a bit disappointed that he had not tried harder to stop me. I knew I had mounted a brilliant campaign of annoyance, but the mate bond was supposed to be stronger than that, was it not?

I guessed not.

Well, at least I had saved myself from more severe pain of getting attached.

I had to believe that the future was full of possibilities. I exhaled heavily and pushed on.