Filed to story: Sorry Alpha... I'm a Lycan Princess Now (Amber & Julian) Book PDF Free
Julian’s face stays hard even as a flash of hurt crossed his eyes. I blinked and it was gone, like it had never been there at all. Maybe I imagined it. I must have. I couldn’t imagine Julian being too torn up about my decision.
He had Olivia now, and once I finished her treatments, she could give him children.
He had no need for Alice or me.
I hated how much that thought still hurt me. After all this time, all these years, I had thought I was reserved to my life without
Julian. Yet, having him beside me, having to tell him I had no intention of staying, it felt like fresh hurt all over again.
“Why?” he asked me, his voice soft.
“I’m just passing through,” I explained. “This isn’t my home anymore.”
Once I had that necklace for Alice, or found a cure gods-willing, I would be gone from this place. I’d be happy to leave and never have to deal with Julian, Olivia, or the drama they brought to my life ever again.
Julian’s face was hard. I thought for a moment he might reject my rejection and demand that I stay.
Instead, he said, “I understand. I’ll find someone else.” Then he turned back to the crowd to try to answer more questions.
I tried to look at the crowd too, but my eyes continued to draw back to Julian. It seemed as if the harder I tried to not look at him, the more I wanted to.
I couldn’t help myself, just like all those years ago.
I shake my head lightly, trying to clear my thoughts. The sooner I could leave the pack again, the better it would be for my heart.
A few days later, after the tests had been run and the potion successfully developed and distributed for free, my office had become something akin to a zoo.
There were just so many people. Not just patients or potential patients hoping to be added to my calendar, but also simply well- wishers or those who were grateful and wanted to thank me personally.
The numbers for the terrible illness plunged down to nearly non-existent, and the whole of the pack took notice. No, not just the pack but other packs too. I was receiving packages and notecards from all over the world, including from pack leaders who were hoping I would choose their pack next to visit.
There were some very tempting offers, but I’d made commitments here. I would stay until those commitments were done.
“If you weren’t a celebrity before…” Noah teased between phone calls. As soon as he put the phone down, ending one call, it immediately began ringing again.
As it was, he could only turn down any of those looking to make new appointments. Since the release of the cure, my calendar was booked for six months out, excluding a few spots I was leaving open for my regular patients.
Including Olivia
As terrible as I believed her to be, she was still one of my patients and I still had agreed to treat her. Thinking of her bearing
Julian’s children sent a pang of regret through me, but that was their choice. I had nothing to do with Julian’s life anymore, nor did I want to.
No matter what my foolish, lonely heart whispered to me in the dark.
That lonely whisper was easier to squash now that in the light of day, especially with the office so busy. I was being pulled in a thousand directions, but as an experienced Healer, I was used to that now. I almost preferred when things were somewhat chaotic as it gave me less time for doubts.
I had a plotted course for my future, and I would stay on it.
Julian and Olivia were just curves in the road. Soon, I would be past them and could focus on myself and continuing to provide
Alice with the best, most hopeful future.
As Noah and I worked through the line of people gathered at my doorstep, I was surprised to find Julian’s Beta among the crowd.
As Beta, he was privilege to special treatment, so I was able to sate my curiosity by approaching him.
“Do you need aid?” I asked him.
“No, Healer,” he said. “I simply have been tasked with delivering this to you.” He held out a crisp white envelope. On the front, around my name was a swirling silver pattern. “I am to make certain that I see it enter your hands.”
Curious, I took the envelope and opened it. Inside was a smaller rectangle of cardstock with silver edges and calligraphy writing.
“This is an invitation,” I said, somewhat confused.
“Alpha is holding a banquet to celebrate the success of the cure,” he said. “You are a special guest, as Alpha wishes to thank you personally for all the good you’ve done.”
“He could have just sent a thank you note,” I said. “I don’t need a party.”
“He felt you deserved something more,” Beta said.
While we had been married, he had kept me in the shadows. It felt strange now, to be called by him into the light.
But this wasn’t a celebration of our relationship, or an acknowledgement of what we were to each other.
This was a thank you because I was a good doctor.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “This is kind, but I am not interested. I don’t like these kinds of things.”
I didn’t know if that was true or not. I never really attended something this seemingly glamourous before. But it seemed unnecessary. As a Healer, I should be focusing on helping people, not attending parties to pat myself on the back.
Beta nodded. “It’s in a few days’ time. Please think about it.”
“I said… no…” I said, though my voice dropped as I realized Beta had started to walk away. I found it terribly rude and annoying, but I couldn’t be mad at him. I was sure he was just trying to protect himself and his Alpha.
Maybe Julian told him I might say no, but to give me time to think about it.
Sighing, I carried the envelope back into the office.
Blissfully, just after lunchtime, there was a break in the crowd, which gave Noah and me a few minutes to catch our breath and quickly eat our own lunches. We didn’t think we’d have enough time to go to the breakroom though, so he pulled a chair over to my desk and we both used the desk as a table.
As he was making room for himself, he noticed the invitation. Reading it, his eyes went wide.
“Are we going?” he asked.
“I don’t do any of this for the glory,” I told him.