Fated To the Alpha by Jessica Hall
Chapter 248: Marabella POV
I can’t believe I humiliated myself like that. He just stared at me and went mute, the most awkward situation ever, so I bailed and chickened out.
“I think he was just shocked you asked. You didn’t need to run from him. You could have given him a chance to answer.” Kora argued.
“Of course, you would say that you weren’t the one standing there in front of him,”
“Hmm, well, I am over all of this mate drama. I say just mark him and be done with it. Why do they have to do the marking?”
“You want me to just go take a bite out of me?” I chuckle.
“Why not, they do. I don’t see why it is always up to the man,” Kora huffs, annoyed. I knew she wanted her mate. Kyan was as much hers, maybe more so, seeing as the wolf side chooses the human counterpart of the mate. Hmm, I never thought of it that way, but then again, I was definitely not comfortable with going up and biting someone and f0rcefully marking them.
“But do we have a choice? I don’t see Kyan or Kaif marking us anytime soon, so much easier if you were a lesbian but no, you had to be difficult and like the opposite s*e*x,” Kora growls.
“Somehow, I don’t think that would be easier. I am pretty sure it is the same,”
“I don’t know because you’re not a lesbian,” Kora says.
“Are you Kora?”
“Well no, I don’t think so? I am whoever I am destined to be with, unicorn, ant, sh*t if I was mated to a tree, I suppose we would become a tree hugger,” She laughs. ‹
” Oh gosh, that would be so funny. Imagine if Kyan was a glittery unicorn with Kaif’s voice being all grr, wouldn’t be so intimidating when he growled while farting glitter and was colorful like a rainbow” She cackles.
“I think all this mate stuff is getting to your head Kor, sending you slightly insane,”
“Well duh, hello. We have a mate that doesn’t want to mark us because of some curse, and another who won’t betray his friend and mark us until Kyan does, I say, bite away. At this point, I am going to drop dead unmated. Maybe we should buy a cat.
You could become that next crazy cat lady, plus easy lunch if I got hungry,” Kora tells me. I shake my head at her ramblings, she could be bizarre sometimes, but that was one of the things I loved about having a wolf.
The random things she would come up with, or the strange way she thought. It never bothered me when she kept me up all night just rambling about random things. It stopped the loneliness creeping in. Hard to be lonely when your
wolf had enough personalities she made the dude off the movie split look sane. One minute she was all serious business, the next quirky, or damn horny, sometimes all of those things. Then other times, she was just Kora, just as lost in this world as I am.
Maybe there is something wrong with her?
“I am outraged. How dare you if I am insane you are too,” She laughs.
“Maybe we aren’t insane, and everyone else is?” I offer.
“Exactly, they are the weird ones. We are perfectly normal,” I laughed for a second. Maybe, I thought to myself. My
brows furrowed as I realized I actually hadn’t stepped in the shower yet. I was just staring off blankly while talking to Kora.
“You know you have to be in the shower to have a shower, right?” Kyan says, making me jump. Both Kora and I were so distracted talking to each other I hadn’t even heard him come in.
“You’re also supposed to remove your clothes, not that I am telling you how to shower, but most SANE people
shower with their clothes off and don’t talk to the shower screen,” Kyan chuckles. My eyes widen. We were talking out loud? Shame.
“Gosh, you can be embarra*s*sing sometimes. You really should be more observant of our surroundings,” Kora chirps. It was her fault. I rolled my eyes at her.
“I wasn’t talking to the shower screen. I was talking to Kora, wait how long have you been standing there, and how much did you hear?”
“Kora said something about you getting a cat which I don’t recommend. I hate cat fur, and no way am I cleaning kitty litter; also, Jax has a cat fetish. You would be buying a new cat every week after he ate it,” Kyan told me, and my face heats. Bloody wolf making things awkward.
“So…are we showering, or should we discuss this domestic pet’s situation some more?” Kyan asks before tugging his shirt off over his head. I nod, showering, showering. I tried to remind myself to function while Kora whistled and hollered in my head.
“Okay, well. I’m going to shower, and you just do whatever it is you are doing,” Kyan says before Str!pping his pants off. He steps closer, reaching for the shower screen door before opening it and stepping inside.
“If you were a dude, I would totally be giving you a boner right now,” Kora purrs, and I shake my head at her. Kyan moves over when I finally get up the courage and out of my own head enough to get undressed, open the shower screen, and step in with him.
“I think tomorrow we will try letting you use the shadows if you are up for it,”
“Without Jonah being here?” “Kaif won’t hurt you, Ella,” “You mean not yet he won’t,”
“We can wait until he returns, but I am not sure when that will be,” He tells me before handing me the shampoo I was trying to reach for from the niche behind him.
“Yeah, true. I wonder what is going on with Rose, maybe I should ring her when they find her. It must have been a shock for her to learn that Casen was her mate,” Kyan nods.
“Yes, but they’re mates so she needs to get over it. He isn’t that much older than her,” Kyan shrugs .
“I don’t think it is the age thing Kyan. Imagine growing up thinking he was just your personal guard only to find out he was your mate and thats why he stuck around. No wonder he always hunted her down when she started dating or dragged her home whenever she snuck out. It all makes so much sense now”
“Yes, it could have been handled better but I also understand Casen point of view of it,”
“And what’s that?”
“He watched Rose grow up. The bond is different when your mate is a child, it’s not,” he appears to think for a second like he was trying to find the easiest way to explain.
“It would be different for Casen. Rose would have been two when he realized he was her mate. I am only nine years older than you, but I also knew you were my mate at that age because of Kaif, but that didn’t mean I wanted you as a mate,” I raised an eyebrow at him. He was digging himself a hole here.
“Yeah, that came out wrong. I meant in a normal mate way. It would have been more a protection thing, brotherly at the start. Not in a creepy, I am stalking a child way. It’s different, not like my bond to you now, which screams mark and mate. It is more protect and preserve if that makes any sense,” he laughs.
“So when did that change?”
“When you were no longer a little girl, once you hit puberty, and that was when I started avoiding you completely, so I imagine it was the same for Casen, except he can’t escape Rose like I did you,” Kyan admits.
“So when you turned into a jerk basically, not that I remember any other version of you,” I tell him.
“Not long after your J3th birthday was when I cut all contact with you, so I imagine Casen has struggled for a least a few years or so now,” Kyan says, and my brows furrow as I rinse my hair out, washing the conditioner out. It was hard when he spoke of a past I had no memory of.
My eyes flew open when I felt Kyan’s hands cup my face, his thumbs brushing over my temples before he gave me the memory he spoke of back.
“I was always their Ella,” Kyan whispers as I am plunged into a forgotten memory.
Flashback
I was at Jonah’s. It was the weekend after mine and Eziah’s birthday on Thursday. Eziah was having a party, but I didn’t want one and asked to stay at Uncle Andrei’s and Aunty Sage’s place. The arguments that it caused, it was probably the o my time I ever argued with my parents and refused them. But in the end, Uncle Andrei convinced her to let me stay. It was better than hiding away in my bedroom, and I hated the thought of having to put up with Eziah’s friends.
“Which one?” Jonah asked, flopping down on the couch beside me, holding two DVDs in his hand.
“You really have to ask. You should know the answer by now. It’s always the same one,” Kyan says when I feel his fingertips graze the side of my face. I shivered before realization smashed into me.
“You came,” I shrieked before turning on the couch and hugging him. Kyan hugged me back. “I always do,” Kyan says before I felt his lips press to the top of my head when he froze next to me.
He cleared his throat before dropping his bag on the floor beside the couch and taking a step back from me. He stared at me oddly before Aunty sage’s voice dragged his attention away.
“Kyan, you’re here,” Sage said excitedly before embracing him.
“Hey, Ma.. sure am,” Kyan says, and she pats his arms before giving him a quick hug again.
“I will let Andrei know,”
“Already saw him. He is out the front with Casen and Malik, ” Kyan tells her, and she nods before wandering off down the hall to finish cooking dinner. Kyan walks past Jonah gripping his shoulder. He then plucks one of the DVDs from his fingers before shoving Jonah, who slaps at him.
“You alright, bro,” Jonah asks him as Kyan puts the movie on before flopping down on the couch beside me, he tugs me to him, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, but he was agitated before he let me go.
He fiddled with the charm bracelet I used to wear all the time before it became too heavy and I became paranoid of it slipping off my wrist, so I hadn’t worn it for a while now and it lived in my jewelry box. He slips it off my wrist.
“Any more, and it will be too heavy,” I tell him.
“Last ones,” He tells me, yet as he said it, his demeanor changed, and he looked upset. The charms jingled as he reached beside the couch before pulling out a small velvet pouch.
“Hold your hand out,” Kyan tells me before turning the small pouch up and two gold charms fall into my palm, one a cauldron and the other a letter. This one was an F. He had a weird thing with giving me letters, but I adored each one, Jonah also always brought charms for my bracelet to for Christmases and birthdays, so it was full of them.
Jonah had given me a wolf charm this year with the letter H.
“An F, I will soon have the entire alphabet at this rate,” Kyan chuckles and nods. While trying to find somewhere on the bracelet to place them.
“Where are your ones?” Kyan asks Jonah looking past me, where Jonah sat with my feet on his lap.
“Mum has them. Dad was going to put them on for her tonight,”
“I’ll do it,” Kyan tells him, getting up from the couch.
“Is he alright? He is acting strange,” I asked Jonah, who watched him leave.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Jonah said, but he didn’t look convinced. Halfway through the movie, I heard arguing in the kitchen, and Kyan still hadn’t returned. Jonah looked up the hall toward the kitchen.
“Wait here,” Jonah says. I wondered what was going on, and I could hear Uncle Andrei becoming angry as he tried to keep his voice down before it rose higher.
“It’s not the answer, Kyan, you know this,” My uncle called out down the hall just as Kyan bumped into Jonah as he walked in.
“What’s wrong?” I asked Kyan, and I watched his eyes flicker to his wolf. 0 my now I realize it wasn’t his wolf but Lycan.
“Nothing, but I can’t stay this time,” Kyan tells me, reaching for my wrist. He locks the clasp in place as he put the bracelet back on my wrist.
“Kyan, this isn’t the way,” Uncle Andrei tells him.
“I have no choice. You think I want this?” Kyan asked him.
“Come on, bro listen to dad. We can work it out. Speak to Kat,” I stared at them all confused.
“What and own up to covering up for me for years, no just let it be. It’s how it has to be, at least for now,” Kyan tells him.
“Kyan, your father didn’t want it this way,”
“Well, he is dead. He doesn’t get what he wants anymore,” Kyan snaps at him.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, Ella, but I can’t not now,” Kyan says before pecking my forehead.
“Wait, what?” Then he was gone. I looked around at everyone. Sage had her hands clasped over her mouth when I heard the door slam making me jump.
“Are you okay, Aunty Sage?” She cleared her throat while Jonah came over to me.
“Why is everyone staring at me like that?”
“What, nothing hun, I just had an argument Rose is all,” “Rose is back?”
“She just took off; Andrei went after her,” So that’s why the door slammed, I thought.
Reaching for the popcorn on the coffee table. I noticed my bracelet. “Dad put the charms on for you,” Jonah blurted. As I fiddled with it.
“I don’t even remember him giving it back to me,” I laughed, shaking my head.
“You dozed off,” Jonah chuckles before sitting on the couch beside me and reaching for the bowl.
The memory fades as I am brought back to the present and Kyan smiles sadly.
“I remembered you then,”
“I always gave them back before taking them when I would leave again, only after that I never returned if you were there,” Kyan tells me and I nod.
So I knew him until right up until my 13th birthday? Now I realized it was also why Uncle Andrei and Aunty Sage were always encouraging me to come over, knowing it was the only time I would see Kyan until he stopped coming, and it was only Jonah and I. Or me with Rose.
“Now you know,” Kyan says.
“I always thought Jonah got alI the charms,” Kyan shakes his head.
“No, I got you the bracelet when you were 8,”
“Every year I would give my charms to Jonah. I couldn’t come back after that. But you never wear it now, or did it not adjust big enough?”
“It’s at home and it fits. It just became too heavy and I was worried about losing it,” he nods.
“Yeah, it had a lot of charms on it,” He laughs.
“Yes, pretty sure it also has the entire alphabet on it too,”
“Not the Alphabet, the letters Jonah and I used to give you were our names, your 13th birthday I gave you the letter F, the last letter to Kaif,” Kyan laughs.
“I always wondered why some letters doubled up, I just thought Jonah lost count of what he put on it,”
“No, once I put my name on it, Kaif demanded his to be on it too. You should have Jax and Jonah on it, too,” Kyan tells me.
Realization dawned on me. That was also when my depression got worse when Dominic pretty much became a constant presence. It wasn’t much longer after that that I started cutting myself.
“What is it?”
“We should hop out,” I tell Kyan.
“We only just got in?” Kyan says, his brows furrowing. I say nothing and reach for the soap.
“Ella?” Kyan asked before I felt him suddenly in my head. I tried to shove him out the moment I felt him invade my head before Kaif plowed through the barrier.
“Kyan, don’t,” I went to tell him when his lips smashed against mine, cutting off my words. My back hit the tiled wall when Kyan gripped my throat gently before his fingertips on his other hand trailed up my thigh over the scars that covered it before he pulled back. He looked down at where his fingers moved up my thigh before looking back at me.
“I’m sorry,” He whispered. His thumb brushed over my jaw, and I swallowed, not knowing what to say when his hand moved to my hip before he leaned closer, this time kissing me gently.
His lips pressed firmly against mine before I felt his tongue trace over the seam of my lips, nipping at my bottom one, and I felt him smile against my lips when I kissed him back. My lips parted and he pressed closer until I could feel his entire body against mine.
Fire ignited under my skin as the buzz of the bond flared to life and his touch became harder, firmer as his tongue delved between my lips, tasting every inch of my mouth. Kora pressed forward simultaneously, I felt Kaif lurking beneath the surface of Kyan, and I pulled away from him, breaking the kiss when my canines slipped out, not wanting to bite him.
Kyan stares at me for a second and his eyes flicker to Kaif for a moment before Kyan takes back control.
“I can’t mark you, not yet,” Kyan tells me. I nodded, looking away. Disappointment flooded me and Kora whined in my head when Kyan’s hand moved, his thumb tugging at my bottom lip.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t mark me,” he says, and my eyes snap to him at his words. Kyan pressed his lips against mine briefly before offering me his neck, and Kora lurched forward like she was worried he would change his mind. Kyan chuckles at her enthusiasm before my teeth sink into his neck.
” Finally,” Kora sighs as my teeth slide through the tissue and muscle embedded deeply in his flesh.
Tears spilled down my cheeks when my head was quickly flooded with voices, memories of Kyan, Jonah, and me as every memory of us was suddenly returned to me, every single one I shared with Kyan was returned. The tether and bond sewed its way into me, bonding him to me and forging my soul to his as I claimed him.
“Now we are yours. We just gotta make you ours,” Kaif tells me, his voice loud and clear in my head, and I couldn’t stop the noise that escaped me as I pulled my teeth from his neck. They were mine, finally mine.