The Alpha's Other Woman by Vielle Nye (best fiction books of all time .txt) 📖

The door opened with a crash and I relaxed when I heard the voice. "Carrie?"

It was Madeline. I swung my bag onto my back and went out to see her.

"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry that happened to you."

I shrugged as if my whole life hadn't crumbled all around me. I couldn't feel her like I usually did, nor could I feel my friends or my mother as they came up behind her. There was an emptiness where our connection used to lie.

"What happened?" Samantha asked. "You were winning, and then you just froze."

I shook my head. "I don't know. I was about to force her to submit, then there was white light in my head and it sort of stunned me, and before I knew it, Heidi had me."

The looks of concern on their faces did not comfort me.

"You need to see the pack doctor." Samantha frowned, and looked like she would move to drag me off in that direction.

"I'll be fine. Anyways, you heard the alpha. I've got less than an hour before I'll need more than a pack doctor." I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "I'll see a human doctor or something once I get away."

"You're not going to find a new pack?" my mother asked, aghast.

I shook my head. "Not right away." I didn't think it would be that easy to find one as a rogue, but I didn't want to tell my mother that. She already looked on the verge of tears. Hiding amongst the humans would help me avoid trouble with the hunters as well, as long as I kept my head down.

"You could try Lisa's pack," my mother said, referring to my much older sister who moved off with her mate years ago, when I was not even ten. She was a lot older than me, and I barely knew her.

I really didn’t want to go begging her for handouts. I wanted to make my own way. I had something to prove. "Maybe. Well, listen, I have to head to the border now if I want to make it."

"Your father's grabbing the truck. We'll drive you to there so you have a little bit longer." Of course, they would need permission to go further, and I doubted either of them were interested in asking favours of their alpha at this point.

I nodded. I was going to miss Greenwoods.

"I'll keep all your stuff here for you until you send for it," Madeline told me, her face a picture of kind sympathy.

"Thank you for everything," I told her.

I could tell Samantha and Anna were both conflicted, but I was surprised when it was Anna who spoke. "This isn't fair, Carrie."

"Nothing I can do about it now. I have some regrets, but I can't change the past."

The thing I most regretted was not telling the jerk alpha to go to hell when he first suggested the idea of chosen mates, but it was far too late for that now.

My friends tried to cheer me up, and my father came back with the vehicle, and all too soon I was saying goodbye to everyone I cared about. My parents got into the vehicle with me and my mother started crying as we drove.

"Can we just give her the truck?" my mother asked.

"It's registered to the pack," my father said with a disappointed shake of his head.

"I probably couldn't afford gas yet anyway," I pointed out.

My mother shoved money into my hand. I thanked her as I took it and shoved it into the bag. I guess she had been more prepared for the event I might lose than I had been.

"How could he do that to you?" she sniffled.

I shrugged. "He found his mate." I was just glad they didn't say they told me so.

My father pulled the truck to a stop at the border. We all got out and my parents took turns hugging me.

"Call us as often as you can." My mother wiped her tears as she spoke.

"I'll try."

"We'll send you more money if you need," my father added.

"Thanks. Well, love you, but I'd better get going. Don't let the pack break up now that I'm leaving."

Neither of them looked happy with my instructions, but it was what I wanted.

I began walking towards the edge of the territory and I knew when I stepped over. I exhaled. The first breath of my new life as a hated rogue. I was not deluding myself. As a lone female rogue, my odds of survival were not good in a world where packs would look down on me, other rogues might prey upon me, hunters would be looking for an excuse to prosecute me, and who knew what other supernatural creatures were out there.

But I was smart and a good fighter, so maybe I had a chance. I began to walk, my parents disappearing behind the trees.

And a voice broke through the sounds of the forest. "Care."

My eerie calm exploded into anger and pain. "What do you want, Dane?"