CHAPTER 88: _ THEY HATE US

It’s complicated?

Heidi lets out another dry, bitter laugh that echoes through the trees. "Complicated? You call this complicated? I just found my wolf, I almost killed two innocent people, and then, one of my so-called mates appears, makes me feel things I’ve never felt before, denies me, and then tells me it’s because he’s already with someone else. What part of that isn’t simple?"

She wraps her arms around herself, shivering, and it’s not just from the cold, but from the raw, exposed feeling of being rejected by one of the jerks she was fated to be with. The shame, which had been shortly forgotten, now comes flooding back. The shame of being rejected by the Alpha’s son. The shame of being a low-ranking omega who just got told her destiny wasn’t good enough.

Amias takes a step towards her, and speaks in a pleading whisper. "It’s not rejection, Heidi. I’m doing this to protect you. I’m doing this to protect us. Just... trust me. Please."

He holds his hands out, his palms open in a gesture of surrender. But she can’t bring herself to trust him. She can’t even look at him. She just sees Lira’s arrogant face, a triumphant smile that she knows will now be even more secure because of what Amias just did. Lira has him. Lira will always have him.

And Heidi, the girl with the wolf who has to be controlled with a stick, is alone again.

"I hate you," she whispers the words so softly they’re almost lost in the night.

He flinches at the hurt they carry, the pain in his own silver eyes so sharp it’s almost unbearable to witness. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but no words come out. He just stands there like a naked, broken king, staring at the shattered remains of a bond he just had to reject.

Heidi turns, and the moment her bare feet hit the cold earth, her wolf lets out a triumphant howl in her mind. "Run, little wolf. Run from the hunter who hunts himself."

But before she can even take a second step, Amias’s voice pierces the cold night air. It’s now an angry sound that is nothing like the ragged whispers he’d been using a moment ago.

"Isn’t this hypocritical of you, Heidi?" he scoffs, and the words stop her dead in her tracks.

She freezes, and her body goes rigid. The blood that had been pounding with fury and pain now freezes in her veins. She slowly turns back to face him, confusion warring with the burning heat of her shame.

"What?" she whispers, the word almost inaudible over the pounding of her own heart.

He takes a step closer, his naked body gleaming like a silver beacon under the moonlight. He’s no longer the broken, pained man from a moment ago. Now, he’s the cold, unyielding Alpha’s son she’s come to know. His face is now sternly indifferent, and his silver eyes are burning with a fierce, judging light.

"You’re mad at Lira? You’re mad at me? For what? Because I said I’m still with another woman, so I can’t be with you?"

He laughs sarcastically and humorlessly, scraping against her ears. "You just spent an entire night with my brother, and you’re mad at me for having a girlfriend?"

W-what?! What... what did he just say?

Heidi’s jaw goes slack. Her eyes widen in disbelief. Her mind which was so consumed with anger and heartbreak a moment ago, is now a swirling vortex of sheer terror and mortification. She clutches her arms around her chest, as if she could hide her nakedness, her shame, and her secret all at once.

"He knows? How does he know?" Her wolf whimpers in her mind.

Even though she’s only officially met her a while ago, it’s so rare to hear the menace fret. It means the level of Amias’s anger is rising.

He takes another step, closing the distance between them until he’s just a few feet away. His face is now full of disgust and contempt, and his words are like sharp knives twisting in her gut.

"I’m only here because I heard your first howl. I knew your wolf had awakened the moment the sound hit my ears. I knew the power it would give you, and I knew how dangerous you could be to yourself and others. I came here to stop you from killing those people. I came here to protect you. I put myself in harm’s way for you, not just because you’re my mate, but because I’m also obligated to the pack. And that’s what makes this so brazen and selfish of you."

He pauses, letting his words sink in, and letting them bruise her. Heidi can only stare as her throat is dry, and her body is trembling with a mixture of shame and shock. The raw disgust in his eyes is unbearable.

"But do you know what’s even more amusing about all of this?" he asks, as a dark, sardonic smile plays on his lips. "The other Alphas also heard you. Darien felt the same pull, the same howl. So did Morgan. So did Grayson. All four of us knew what your howl meant. It was a sign that our mate had finally arrived. But they all chose to ignore it. They all chose to ignore you."

He gestures wildly, his arms open in a grand, theatrical motion. "But I... I took my time, despite having a rough night, and I came out here for you. To save you from yourself. And because I don’t want to fuck you and mark you tonight, you’re calling me all of that? You’re calling me a monster? That is the most selfish, insolent thing I have ever witnessed. You are a hypocrite, Heidi."

A hypocrite. Amias thinks she’s a hypocrite. Heidi’s mind can’t stop replaying those words.

Heidi’s mind swirls as she tries to process his words. She barely registers his hurtful accusations. All she can focus on is one simple question, one that’s screaming inside her head.

He knows. But how?

Her voice, when it comes out, is a pathetic, broken whisper. "How... how do you know?"

Amias’s expression softens a little, the anger in his tone now replaced by a weary resignation. He closes his eyes and sighs, and the sound is heavy with a sense of defeat. He looks like a man who has just confessed a deep, painful secret he never wanted to share.

"Darien is trying to keep it a secret. He’s trying to pretend that nothing happened between you two. He’s trying to keep you as his secret little plaything. But Daphne... she has a huge mouth. She had a slip of the tongue earlier. She knows about it. And now... so do I. And so do my brothers."

The world tilts on its axis. Heidi feels her stomach drop as a cold, empty feeling spreads through her. Not just Amias. All of them. Morgan, Grayson, Amias... they all know she had sex with Darien. Her private, shameful, desperate secret is no longer a secret. It’s a joke. A punchline. A story they all get to laugh at now. She can only imagine what kind of lies Daphne must have told them. How she must have made her look.

She thinks about how she was already a charity case, a low-ranking omega, a Moon-blessed. Now she’s also a slut. The girl who went after the first Alpha brother she saw, and then had the audacity to be a mate to all four of them.

"No. This isn’t happening." Her wolf howls in a wounded, embarrassed sound. "They all know. They all hate us."