Filed to story: Claimed by My Ex’s Alpha Brother
“Promise.”
I tried to look confident and secure. Ella needed a support system right now. But on the inside, I was beyond terrified. My brain was jumping to the worst-case scenarios, rapidly flipping through the names of the ailments that couldn’t be cured by a healer or a witch.
Ella took my hand and faced me.
Whatever it is, I’m going to help her through it.
“Liam, I-“
Ella was interrupted by an impatient knock at my door.
“Yo! Dude, open up. It’s me.” Noah’s loud voice was clear even from the other side of my door.
Ella looked at the door and then back to me. She froze for a moment, looking like an animal caught in a trap.
“Shit,” I muttered.
Why did Noah have to knock on my door now? My Mate needed me.
A pang of guilt hit me in the stomach as I imagined Noah outside my door, waiting for me with his hands in his pockets. Even though Noah had been disrespectful toward Ella by cheating on her, I knew it wasn’t right of me to sleep with Ella the same night it happened. I should have fought the Mating bond for my Mate’s sake and for my brother.
The right thing should have been to spend the night comforting my Mate after what she had just gone through and the next day I should have had a conversation with Noah, telling him about the Mating bond and warning him that if he ever treated Ella with disrespect again, there would be hell to pay.
But over this past month, I’d barely seen Noah. He’d been extremely secretive, and he was never home. The times I’d seen him, our parents were always around. It had never felt the right time to blurt out that my Mate was his ex-girlfriend.
“Come on, Liam. Open up,” Noah said through the door. “It’s graduation night! Joshua’s having another party. Just because you’re in an arranged marriage doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun.”
Disgust crawled over me. How could he be thinking about parties and girls right now? As far as he knew, the woman who he had been considering marrying a mere month ago was still lying in a hospital bed.
“If you don’t open up, I’m coming in! You’re going to that party tonight instead of being your usual boring self,” my brother called. “Just because you’re Mom and Dad’s golden boy, doesn’t mean you can’t have a little bit of fun.” There was an edge of bitterness in his voice.
Typical Noah. He had been MIA for a month, but when there was a big party, he would be the first one there and the last to leave. And he wanted to drag me with him.
“Hold on, Noah!” I shouted.
“I’m coming in there in five…four…” he began to count down, as if this were some sort of game.
When the knob to my door turned, my stomach fell to the floor.
I hadn’t locked the door.
Shit!
If Noah found Ella in here, he would know something was going on between us. Would he be vindictive enough to tell the Elders that Ella knowingly put the pack in danger? I’d like to think he wouldn’t, but I couldn’t say for certain. And I wasn’t going to take a gamble on Ella’s safety.
Noah’s words from one week ago ran through my head.
Don’t worry Liam, if someone were to stand in the way of your marriage to Olivia, I’d kill them myself.
Icy fear washed over me.
Would Noah actually kill her? Would the rage of finding his first serious girlfriend in my room and the fact that Ella and I had risked the arranged marriage deal that would protect our pack make him snap?
Would he actually hurt Ella? Attempt to kill her?
Noah’s insistent pounding on my door made my head ache.
“Three…” Noah said, dragging out the word.
There was a sour humor in his tone that made me sick to my stomach.
“Ella, you have to go.”
“But I have something really-“
I cut her off as my brother shouted “Three!” and the doorknob continued to turn.
Don’t worry Liam, if someone were to stand in the way of your marriage to Olivia, I’d kill them myself.
Kill them myself…
Alarm bells went off inside my head, and the only thought in my mind was to protect Ella. I had to get her out of my room no matter what.
All of this took me half of a second to decide. The knob was still turning slowly.
“There’s no time,” I whispered and grabbed her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “As your future Alpha, I’m ordering you to leave.”
“Liam, there’s something I have to tell you. I don’t give a shit about Noah finding me in here.”
There was a determined set to her jaw and I realized I had to do something drastic.
I had to get Ella out of my room before Noah discovered her here. When we found out we were Fated Mates, I researched the term more thoroughly. One of the articles I found explained that when a Mating bond was broken, the two people were overcome with the need to distance themselves. The pain from a broken bond was increased through nearness.
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?