Chapter 366 – Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)

Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)

“Yes, it would definitely help whoever was in the primary beta role.”

Bell looked carefully at Galen, she said nothing, and he continued to look at the table as he spoke.

“I was thinking I would suggest it to him…. When I give him the recommendations for my replacement.”

The words hung in the air between them. Galen waited for a response, but Bell remained quiet.

He licked his lips and swallowed his nerves. He had already opened the can, might as well spill it all out on the table.

“I am going to speak with Axel,” he said, turning to look at her. “About the possibility of a role for me here in Winter. I know I won’t be a beta anymore, but I’m willing to work my up the ranks wherever there’s a place for me.

“Even if it’s in an entirely different community. I will go, do my work, and come home as often as I can until I can earn a place here in this community. With my experience and my determination, I feel confident it won’t be a long time.”

Bell took another bite of her apple while Galen waited patiently for her to respond. She slowly chewed, and he watched her, waiting. He knew she was thinking, processing, asking and answering her own questions. That was how Bell worked through things.

She had entire conversations in her head, the good, the bad, the ugly. She let it all out inside her mind and then decided if it was worth it to bring it all out in reality.

“You want to do a long-distance relationship with me again? With your son?” she asked, looking at the remaining half of her apple as she spoke.

“I don’t think Axel with assign me somewhere too far off, but even the southern border is only a couple of hours. And only for a little while,” Galen replied.

“From the southern border of Winter to where your wife and child will be living is a much longer commute than that,” Bell said.

Galen furrowed his brows. He didn’t understand what she meant, she didn’t have friends or family in the far northern territories. As far as he knew, this was the only place she wanted to be.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

“It’s simple, my big dumb lovable puppy,” Bell smiled. “Ren and I will be in Summer.”

Galen stared at her in surprise and confusion. Finally, he took a deep breath and sat down on the bed beside her legs.

Bell took another bite of her apple and smiled as she waited for his response.

“Bell,” he began. “I truly appreciate that you are trying to give me what you think I want, I really do. But we can’t move to Summer.”

“Why not?” she asked, setting the apple core in the garbage beside the bed.

“You know why,” Galen sighed. “It is too dangerous. Here you’re safe, and we have family and friends. This is our home, Bell. I promise you, I want to do this.”

Bell took a deep, cleansing breath through her nose. She smiled and reached her hand to his cheek. Galen naturally leaned into her hand and looked back into her warm eyes.

“Oh, puppy,” she whispered. “This isn’t about what you want.”

Galen looked at her with confusion.

“I want to go to Summer,” she said. “I want to go to Broken Crag, Burning Ember, to a human city.”

“Bell…” Galen whispered.

His heart was beating hard. And a heavy weight had settled in his stomach.

“You know, I want to give you everything…” he said. “But it’s just too dangerous.”

“Why?” she asked, pulling her hand away from him.

“You know why,” he replied sadly.

Bell leaned back against the headboard and took another deep breath.

“Because of Roman?” she asked.

Galen swallowed and nodded.

“Yea,” he said. “He’s dangerous, Bell, and I don’t know if I can protect you out there. But here, we know he can’t get to you. Here you are safe.”

Bell closed her eyes and sucked her lips together. She blew out a heavy breath and sniffled before opening her eyes and staring at her husband.

Bell clenched her jaw and then relaxed before she spoke again.

“Fuck Roman.”

“Bell…” Galen sighed.

“Be quiet, Galen,” Bell said softly.

Galen pursed his lips and hung his head.

“I thought he was going to kill me the night he broke my jaw,” Bell began. “I was sure that when my head hit the ground, I was never opening my eyes again.”

Galen clenched his jaw.

“I woke up in that clinic, my jaw wired shut, and I cried,” she said, swallowing down the lump in her throat. “I cried because I had woken up.”

Galen looked up, his eyes fell on hers. He saw the pain, the fear. Angry tears in a haunted expression. It broke his heart. He licked his lips and then moved further onto the bed to sit beside her. Pressing his back to the headboard and gently taking her hand in his.

Bell leaned her head against his shoulder.

“Wyatt bringing me to Winter was the greatest gift I have ever received. But at the time it didn’t feel that way. It just felt like I was prolonging the inevitable. After I went to the Priestess, I felt better. I didn’t remember what had happened, I just knew that I would be safe if I stayed inside of Winter.”

Bell took a deep breath.

“Over six years I found family, friends, comfort. I became a doctor, I helped people. I laughed, cried,” Bell paused and looked up at him with a smile. “Loved.”

Galen smiled and kissed the top of her head. Bell turned, laying comfortably against Galen.

“I thought that all this time, I was healing. Getting stronger and braver, putting him farther and farther behind me with each day that passed. But all I was doing was hiding.”

Bell sighed.

“I never knew what would happen if I saw him again, I never wanted to know,” she continued. “But when he was suddenly there in front of me…”

She paused, Galen moved his arm around her and held her close as he heard the way her heart had sped up.

“I froze,” she said quietly. “I was so broken, so weak… I couldn’t even scream for help.”

Galen closed his eyes, pushing against the pain that gripped his heart at her words.

“Bell,” he whispered. “This is what I mean, if we leave Winter… he’ll come for you again.”

Bell scoffed and pulled away from the comfort of Galen’s arms. She stood up.

“He’s going to come for me either way.”

She moved across the room to her dresser and opened one of the drawers.

“What are you doing?” Galen asked.

Bell reached in and pulled out a folder.

“What is that?” he asked.

Bell returned to the bed and sat down so she could look at him.

“He thought I was dead,” she began. “For six years, he believed that I was dead and gone. But he still looked for me.”

Galen furrowed his brows.

“What are you talking about.”

Bell looked at the folder in her hand. She didn’t want to look at it again, wishing she had never seen it in the first place. But she had needed to know.

“When Roman found me… he told me that he never stopped. That he was always looking for me. He said he had found me again and again, but they were never me.”

Galen’s eyes widened as he began to guess at what she was saying. Bell paused, swallowing the revulsion she felt. The guilt and fear.

“Roman was always out there, always looking for me,” she said. “I was safe, hiding behind the mountains of Winter. But… these women weren’t.”

Bell handed the folder to Galen.

He took the folder, holding it in his hand for a moment. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. But Bell already knew, she had already seen whatever was inside all by herself.

Galen opened the folder.

Inside he found printouts of online articles from all over the world. Pictures of missing women— human women. There were dozens, and they all had a striking resemblance to the woman sitting before him.

He read a few lines of the autopsy reports of those whose bodies had been found. Jaws broken, hearts ripped out of their chests and never found.

Galen closed the folder.

He took a deep breath through his nose and got up from the bed.

“I’m not sure why you thought showing me this would change my mind,” Galen said, throwing the folder down on the table as he started to pace at the end of the bed. “This just confirms that we are not leaving Winter!”

Bell stood up; she approached him carefully. He was angry, but mostly he was scared. He hesitated to let her touch him. Finally, however, he relaxed as she slipped her arms around his waist. He sighed and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

“I have tried so hard to forget my life in Autumn,” she said. “To forget Roman, my parents, the clinics… all of it. I wanted to pretend it was all just a nightmare that I needed to wake up from. But all I did was make myself a prisoner of that nightmare.”

Galen closed his eyes, hugging her tighter.

“I will never be someone that can face Roman with violence. I will never be able to fight him. But you and Axel have tried so hard to get me to see that I am not alone. That I have people willing to fight for me, to protect me. Now it is time that Roman understands that too.”

Galen sniffled as tears escaped his tightly closed eyes.

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