Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
“Seemed pretty easy for you to just treat me like a warm body yesterday,” Myka replied, a look of anger on his face, but in his eyes, Peter still saw the hurt.
Peter looked away, clenching his jaw as the pain in his chest grew.
“I already apologized for that.”
“Yea,” Myka nodded, “you explained that you were doing what you wanted. So, treating me like that, like I wasn’t a person, like I didn’t mean anything… that’s what you want? Just another ‘experience of freedom’ to add to the collection.”
Peter growled.
“That feels awfully hypocritical coming from you!”
“Hypocritical?” Myka questioned. “How?”
“Oh, come on,” Peter replied with a sigh. “I know what nomad life is like. A new place every week. New faces, new bodies, new beds.”
“You know nothing about the journey,” Myka scoffed.
“I know more than you think,” Peter replied. “After all, I was born into it, unlike you.”
Myka’s eyes widened.
“What? When we met, you were a Winter wolf, and you still are!”
“No, I was trying to join Winter when we met. I couldn’t join until I turned eighteen,” Peter replied. “But before that… with my parents, we were nomads.”
Myka was shocked. He had no idea.
“My parents had each other, so they didn’t live that life,” Peter continued. “But I saw it everywhere we went. The journey is about being true to your desires and embracing the freedom of nature and all her offerings. My parents were strange compared to most nomads. Committing to one person was practically unheard of.”
Myka sighed.
“That’s not me.”
“Yea, I got that.”
Myka took an irritated breath.
“I mean, I’m not someone that finds it strange your parents committed to each other,” Myka clarified. “I’m not the person you are accusing me of being, Peter. You don’t have to believe me, but the fact is, you are the only person I have ever wanted to be with. The only one I have been with.”
Peter scoffed.
“It’s true,” Myka insisted.
“Bullshit.”
“I already told you,” Myka replied. “You don’t have to believe me.
“How am I supposed to believe you?” Peter asked. “I was the one that wanted to commit. You were the one who took it as a death sentence.”
“And I told you, I was scared!” Myka growled.
“Of what?!” Peter shouted angrily. “You say you loved me, that you only ever wanted me… so why couldn’t you just follow through and complete our bond? If you wanted to be together for the rest of our lives anyway, why fight something so simple as the mark?”
“It’s not that simple,” Myka sighed with agitation.
“It’s pretty damn simple, Myka!”
“You don’t understand!”
“No, I don’t!” Peter shouted. “I really don’t!”
Myka clenched his jaw, then turned his eyes down. He took a deep breath and then licked his lips.
“I didn’t know what it meant,” Myka said quietly. “I had never been told about mates, the mark, any of it.”
Peter furrowed his brows. Myka still averted his gaze.
“When you said you wanted to mark each other… I misunderstood,” Myka said quietly, pausing and taking a deep breath. “I have already been marked once in my life. I swore that I would never belong to anyone else again.”
“You’ve been marked before?” Peter questioned quietly. “What do you mean?”
Myka swallowed and then looked up at Peter with sad eyes. He took another deep breath through his nose and pulled off his shirt.
“Do you remember this?” he asked, lifting his left arm and pointing toward his ribs where a familiar tattoo made its home.
Peter nodded.
The tattoo was of three daffodils. Peter had been surprised the first time he had seen it. Myka had told him the basic meaning but nothing more.
“New beginnings, right?” Peter commented.
Myka nodded.
“Touch it,” he said quietly.
Peter furrowed his brow. In the three weeks they had been together, that was the one real restriction Myka put on their physical relationship. Not to touch the tattoo. Peter had always assumed it was new and still sensitive.
But maybe there was something more to the story.
Peter swallowed and then reached his hand out to the patch of flesh. It was warm, and as Peter moved his fingers gently across the petals of the inked flowers, he was surprised when there was suddenly a change in the texture of Myka’s skin. It was raised, then it dipped, again and again. There was a distinct shape to it, numbers.
“What is this?” Peter asked, looking up at Myka.
Myka swallowed.
“That’s my mark,” Myka replied softly. “It’s what brands me as Gorn’s property.”
“Gorn’s… property?” Peter asked. “What…what does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” Myka sighed. “I was owned by Gorn when I was still a part of Spring.”
Peter tried desperately to swallow the lump in his throat but was struggling.
“I need something to drink,” he said.
“I have water in the tent,” Myka replied.
Peter raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, right, I’ll take the other stuff.”
Peter moved away from the fire and entered the tent. It was small but big enough for the two of them. There were two blankets laid out like a bed. Myka had never been a fan of sleeping bags. He found them too restrictive.
A large carafe and a jug were on the other side of the blankets.
“There we go,” Peter whispered, grabbing the jug and pulling out the cork. He tipped the jug back, taking a large swig.
“Careful, it’s strong,” Myka warned.
Peter smiled as he swallowed down the bittersweet liquid.
“I’m good, but you said something about being the property of the recluse Alpha of Spring? Let’s dive into that one.”
Myka lowered his eyes. He sat down on the ground; he looked down at the tattoo, and took a deep breath.
“It’s not a nice story,” he said softly.
Peter looked carefully at Myka. He could see his hurt in the memory of his life in Spring.
His conversation with Alice in the car suddenly came to mind after she told him that Myka was a Spring wolf.
“He’s the one that closed himself off to me,” Peter growled.
“And did you tell him where you came from?” she asked.
Peter’s eyes widened, and he looked at her with surprise.
“I know a little bit about a lot of things,” Alice replied to his unasked question. “I haven’t shared it, and I won’t. But you should. Just like he should share with you.”
She was right. Funny, that seemed to happen a lot.
If Peter expected Myka to share and trust his deepest truths with him, shouldn’t Peter do the same?
“Ya know, Myka, I think many of us have one or two ‘not a nice’ stories in our lives,” Peter smiled. “So, why don’t I tell you mine first? Then, if you want to, you can tell me yours.”
Myka lifted his gaze. He gave Peter a soft smile and a nod.
***
After Peter had shared his experience with the rogues, they took a break. Peter took a short walk in the trees, needing to shake off the guilt.
Myka had tried to comfort him with a touch and a word here and there. But Peter wasn’t quite ready to see his guilt as something to be settled.
When Peter returned, Myka was sitting on the blankets, waiting. Peter sat down across from him; he didn’t say a word. He had told Myka it was his choice to share his story, and he meant it.
“Torgen… he was after my time in Spring,” Myka began with a sigh. “But his training methods….”
Myka bobbed his head sadly.
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?