Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
“It’s not really hacking if I walk through the backdoor,” Alice smiled.
“You make it so hard to forget the whole spy thing, you know.”
“I’m unforgettable,” Alice winked. “Now, put it on. It’s a gift.”
Selene placed the pin against her chest, pressing lightly against it.
Rather than thick chords covering her body, it was the same black material her weapons were made from. It spread out from the pin over her body until she was covered in a thin layer.
She felt lighter as she turned and looked around her. She could feel that her movements were less restricted than before.
“It feels lighter,” she said. “But is it as strong as the previous armor?”
“Stronger,” Alice replied with a smile. “But that’s not the best part.”
Alice reached out and touched Selene’s arm. Selene gasped as a display opened. It showed heat signatures around her. The fire, Alice, and Myka.
There were directional markers, weather readers, and a basic landscaped map. It only went out about a half mile, but it was still quite impressive.
“Wow…” Selene whispered.
“There’s one more thing,” Alice said. “It has its own communications network, different from our normal comms and phones.”
“Oh,” Selene said. “That’s cool.”
It was interesting, but she wasn’t sure it was more impressive than the features she was already looking at.
“The communications network uses several human satellites to boost the signal. So even in places where the connection on the phone is weak, we can still communicate. It’s also a private system. Only the wearer can hear the conversation, and the mic is sensitive even to a whisper,” Alice explained.
She quieted and watched as Selene continued to look at the display in front of her. Then looking down at her watch, she confirmed the time with a smile.
“It’s after midnight now,” Alice commented.
“What?” Selene asked, distracted by some of the details shown on the map.
Selene looked up, surprised by the gentle smile on Alice’s face.
“If you keep your voice quiet, you can speak with someone even while trying to keep cover in hostile territory.”
Selene furrowed her brows.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“You have a call coming in,” Alice smiled.
Just as Selene was about to question what Alice meant, there was a notification of a request to communicate. Her eyes widened at the other party’s name, and she accepted the request without thinking.
“By the way,” Alice whispered, drawing Selene’s attention again. “Happy Birthday, Selene.”
Alice gave her a wink and a parting smile as she turned and headed back to her tent.
Selene was so stunned that she forgot about the call coming through.
“Selene?” Alexander whispered in her ear. “This says the call is connected; I hope it’s true.”
She felt a tight grip in her chest. It wasn’t like before, not a sinking or painful feeling. Just a pleasant shock that made it hard to breathe.
“I’m here,” she whispered.
She could hear a soft sigh through the earpiece, a sound of relief and comfort.
“Thank goodness for that,” he whispered. “Now I can wish you a happy birthday.”
Selene let out a soft laugh.
“Would you believe I actually forgot?” she said.
“Yes,” he replied immediately, “I would believe that. You’ve been focused on this mission for the past few weeks. There has always been something else to focus on this year.”
Selene gasped.
“What’s wrong?” Alexander asked. “Are you all right?”
“I just realized…” she said. “We missed your birthday!”
“Oh,” Alexander sighed. “That’s not a big deal.”
“How is it not a big deal?” Selene asked. “We are both in hostile territories, making our way to dangerous missions. Yet, you went out of your way to make sure that we could talk as soon as it was my birthday, but I didn’t even remember yours.”
“To be fair,” he replied. “I didn’t actually ever tell you when my birthday was. Anytime it came up, I sort of maneuvered the conversation away from it.”
Selene furrowed her brows as she thought about different conversations, suddenly realizing that he was telling the truth. He really had avoided telling her his birthday.
“How… for a whole year, how did you manage to pull that off?” she asked incredulously. “And why didn’t anyone else tell me?”
Alexander sighed.
“Selene, I don’t celebrate my birthday,” he said. “And the whole of Summer is aware of that.”
“Why not?”
He was momentarily quiet.
“When I was at the end of my rotation among the humans, I had a friend,” he began. “He was a good guy. He helped me out a lot. He was smart, strong, and funny, and I knew he struggled with bad memories. But, I never realized just how bad it was for him.”
Selene swallowed as she listened.
“On my birthday, a few friends invited me to a club,” he continued. “I had a great time. I drank, danced, and just generally celebrated. I saw that he called a few times, but I didn’t answer. I was having too much fun.”
He paused.
“The next day, I found out he was gone,” Alexander said quietly. “He had taken his own life.”
Selene closed her eyes.
“He had left me a few voice messages. At first, he said he didn’t want to be alone. In the second, he said he was scared. And in the last one, he wished me a happy birthday and told me not to worry about him.”
“Alexander…” Selene whispered.
“He’s why I started emphasizing studies and training on PTSD and early response to trauma when I got back,” he said. “But, even after all these years… I struggle with the actual day. So I prefer to let it go by without attention being drawn to it.”
Selene took a deep breath.
“Alexander, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I had no idea. I didn’t mean to force you to relive such a terrible memory.”
Alexander chuckled.
“You didn’t. I chose to share it with you,” he said. “Listen, it hurt a lot for a while, and I think of him and miss him all the time. But now I can look back and still find the joy in the good memories I shared with him. And even though I couldn’t help him, he helped me to help a lot of other people.”
Alexander took a breath.
“Me not celebrating my birthday isn’t because I spend the day wallowing in shame or guilt. I know that what happened to him wasn’t my fault. I chose not to celebrate because it just didn’t feel right. At first, it was about honoring him, and then I think it just became part of my routine. And after a while, my mom and Galen just kind of gave up on approaching me about celebrating.”
Selene could understand how he felt.
She was glad to hear from him on her birthday, but she was also pleased that her family hadn’t tried to celebrate while she was in Winter. It would have felt wrong. She wasn’t in the mood to celebrate between the war and losing her father a short time ago.
“But,” Alexander said. “Maybe, next year, we can celebrate together.”
Selene smiled.
“I would love that,” she said.
They chatted for a bit longer, but soon enough, both needed to get sleep.
“Thank you, Alexander,” Selene smiled. “This really was the best birthday present I could have received.”
“To be clear,” he replied. “I absolutely wanted to talk to you today and wish you a happy birthday, but as much as I want to take credit for arranging this… I can’t.”
“What?”
“Yea, I just heard about these upgraded pins about an hour ago. And I really need to have a conversation with Nessa as soon as I get back to Summer about that,” he sighed. “Anyway, yea… this whole thing was set up by Alice. She arranged for the delivery of my pin with our restock today and had Nessa send detailed instructions and a note that you would have yours at midnight.”
Selene furrowed her brows and looked in the direction of Alice’s tent.
“Really?” she asked. “Why would she do that for me?”
“According to the message she sent through Nessa, she said it would ease your mind.”
It was mid-morning.
Selene had already taken her tent down and found that all of Alice’s stuff, including her tent, was already nicely packed away and ready to go. There was a note saying she was scouting ahead and would return by lunchtime.
“I hear it’s a special day today,” Myka chirped as he approached Selene.
Selene looked back over her shoulder at Myka with a smile.
“It’s my birthday if that’s what you mean,” she said.
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?