Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
He paced back and forth, clenching his jaw as he tried to keep his breathing even. As the moments between them flooded his mind.
‘I love you.’
The moment under the full moon when she had belonged to him. It tore his heart in half.
“AAHH!” he roared out, reaching his hands to the small end table holding several pictures. He picked it up and flung it against the opposite wall. Sending a spray of splinters flying around the room.
He huffed angrily, then closed his eyes and fell to his knees.
“Alexander!” Galen shouted as he burst through the door.
He had been on his way to talk when he heard the roar and then the crash. Now he looked around the room at all the scattered debris of the end table.
Galen looked down at Alexander in the middle of the floor, down on his knees, huffing and holding back tears.
He took a deep breath and then moved to sit on the floor near his friend.
“Please, go,” Alexander said quietly.
“I can’t,” replied Galen.
“Please. Go.”
This time Alexander put a growl at the end of his words.
“My place is by your side, especially now.”
Alexander let out a low growl.
“You’re not mad, Alexander.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
“You’re sad,” Galen said, leaning his head back.
“Can’t I be both?” Alexander whispered. Sitting down on the floor, leaning back against his bed.
They sat quietly for a long time.
“Alexander?” Galen asked.
“Yea,”
“Why did you greet Fiona as though Selene was dead?” Galen asked.
Alexander sighed.
“Because, my mate, my Luna, she died a long time ago,” Alexander replied softly.
Galen looked at him confusedly, and Alexander gave him a haunted smile.
“Selene was never mine, to begin with.”
“I don’t understand.”
Alexander took a deep breath.
“You’ve heard of Vanishing Twin Syndrome?”
Galen nodded, and then a look of understanding crossed over his face. Alexander nodded.
“Selene is the surviving twin; Jackson and I were the bond mates. But my bond is not with Selene but with the lost twin.”
“That is… confusing.”
Alexander couldn’t help the chuckle. “Yea.”
Galen and Alexander sat quietly until Galen felt the need to ask another question.
“Does it feel different?” he asked.
“What?” Alexander asked.
“The way you feel about Selene. Has it changed now, knowing she isn’t your mate?”
Alexander looked down; he clenched his jaw as tears filled his eyes.
“Nothing has changed,” he said. His words were shaky.
“Because you loved Selene, not the twin,” Galen said.
“Yea,” Alexander replied with a sob.
“Then why did we leave?” Galen asked.
Alexander didn’t answer. Unsure what to say.
“Is the bond that important?” Galen sighed.
Alexander furrowed his brow.
“What?” Alexander asked.
Galen took a deep breath and leaned his head back against the wall.
“Does it matter that much if we spend our lives with the person we share the bond with or the person that we love?”
Alexander didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to react. He loved Selene; of that, he had no doubt.
But now, knowing that his mate wasn’t actually her… he couldn’t help but wonder if he had been wrong this entire time. That she didn’t love him. This twisted bond had forced her to feel things for him, that she truly didn’t.
It made sense, she was so insistent that Jackson was her mate, even after the things he did.
So even though Alexander still loved her, it felt wrong.
And what about his mate? How could he face her in the next life, if he chased after Selene when she belonged with someone else?
“Do you owe her your life?” Galen asked.
“What?”
“The mate, the one that never lived,” Galen said. “Do you owe her your life just because she lost hers?”
Alexander was stunned by Galen’s question. Unsure how to answer.
Galen stared up at the ceiling.
“Do I owe her mine?” Galen asked quietly.
“What?” Alexander asked, “Who?”
“My mate.”
Alexander sat up and looked at Galen. The seriousness in his expression was strange.
“Is this about Bell?” Alexander asked. “About what you’ll do if you find your mate?”
“In a way,” Galen said, turning to meet Alexander’s eyes.
Alexander didn’t know what Galen was getting at, and he was feeling tired. Finally, he sighed and looked away, “I’m not sure you can understand how I feel without knowing the bond yourself.”
“I have.”
Alexander’s eyes widened, he turned back to face Galen.
“What?”
“I met my mate,” Galen replied calmly. “A long time ago.”
“When? Who is she? How do I not know this already?” Alexander questioned.
“I first shifted when I was eleven years old,” Galen began. “A year later, I met Hannah. She was ten.”
Galen looked back up at the ceiling as bits of memory slid into his mind. Her tiny laugh, the curls in her hair. She had brown eyes like the autumn leaves that fell.
“Not long after we met, she shifted. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and climbing out my window. I heard a howling at the moon, and I knew it was her,” Galen smiled.
Hannah was a bright girl, always with a smile on her face, a laugh in the air. She was adventurous and playful but always kind.
“We became best friends,” Galen continued, “spent all our time together. I didn’t know why I liked her so much, but I did. She was perfect.”
Galen remembered watching her build a nest for a group of chicks that had fallen from their own. Their mother wouldn’t take them anymore, so she did.
“We were too young to understand or feel the romantic pull of the bond. It was innocent. Pure trust and understanding.”
She had taught him how to feed the baby birds and keep them warm.
“About a month after her first shift, something changed at the next full moon.”
Galen remembered struggling to fill the eyedropper with food. He got frustrated and almost gave up. But imagining her bright smile made him try harder.
“She kept getting weaker and weaker. Then, sometimes, I would get sick suddenly. That was when my dad knew what we were to each other.”
Hannah was so proud of Galen when he told her how he had taken care of the chicks while she was sick. She smiled and told him he had done a good job.
“By the third full moon, we found out that her heart couldn’t handle the shift. Her body was too weak to be a werewolf.”
Galen had been sick for a week. Hannah’s parents had waited to hold the pyre until he could attend. Galen felt his father’s hand on his shoulder, squeezing it softly. The soft sobs of the people around them, the whispered condolences.
“Outside of our families, no one knew that we were mates. Although it was already strange that we had found each other, our parents believed that sharing my tragedy with the pack would have been cruel.”
He had left the pyre, run from it. Raced to the nest, to the last bit of Hannah that he had to hold onto. But it was too late. A fox had found it first.
“Galen…” Alexander whispered.
Galen lowered his eyes. His tears for Hannah had dried out years ago.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?