Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Wolf’s Bullied Mate Chapter 14

Jada

What a no-good, rotten, ungrateful, lying bastard. My head spun with about a dozen of the same curse words mixed up with other words. Creative spirals formed where I wanted nothing more than to plan for the future, to picture a world where I had the freedom to move and breathe. A world where people kept their promises without being complete dicks about it.

But I wasn't quite sure that world existed. With a duffle bag in my left hand, I circled the attic space, snatching up clothes from wherever they rested, shoving panties to the bottom that I had bought specifically to show off to my boyfriend-to my ex-boyfriend-that he didn't deserve to see anymore.

Fine. I would wear them for someone else. It didn't matter how good his c**k felt inside me. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of shifter men out there who would undoubtedly satisfy my needs. In every way possible. My alpha wasn't an unfair leader. If I showed him the facts-that Isaiah was nothing but a bully with an ulterior motive and no allegiance whatsoever to the Haydens-then he would pair me with someone else.

He just had to do it. I didn't have any other options. I was getting to the point in my life where having a mate was not only appropriate but a safety issue. After all that crap with the Gilberts, I didn't want to be without protection.

But it looked like I was going to have to protect myself for a while. It wasn't like we had any major threats. Other than that creepy doctor they kept in captivity like a wild tiger owned by some rich entitled jerk, we didn't have any enemies. None that were current. Everything was fine for now. Couldn't the alpha just cut me some slack?

My temples throbbed. A headache was on the way. It was the way that freakin' coffee smelled in here along with the fact that Isaiah had lied to me. If he would lie about something as simple as coffee, then he would probably lie about other things too. It wasn't hard to keep a dang promise. Everybody else did it just fine.

What's wrong with him? I thought as I angrily shoved more clothes in my bag. It was overflowing at this point, but I didn't really care. The movement did something for me. What's wrong with me? Why did I ever believe a bully would be honest?

That was the saddest fact of this situation-Isaiah would never change his ways. He was always going to be the musclehead who wanted to be on top of everyone else. Even after we'd hooked up and gotten friendly with each other, he fought to be in charge. He challenged me at every turn. He made my life a living obstacle course.

I peeked at the stairs leading to the second floor. Was he listening to me charging around the room? Was he going to stop me? Was he going to propose?

My heart jolted with a million volts. A proposal-like that would help things along. It was as sure to work as a cold shower on a drunk. Improbable despite how much it would wake the drinker up. Some of the good gods needed to step in on this one because if Isaiah tried to pull anything while I left, then I would shove my foot squarely in his abs.

Soft tingles erupted along my spine. That was the other part of this mess that I hated so much. Isaiah breaking his promise hadn't broken my attachment. My body yearned for him the same as always and it drove me mad to think that he might feel the same way. Well, had he ever felt that way? I was distinctly aware of how each person responded differently to pheromones. Some shifters simply couldn't resist the call of heat. Maybe Isaiah was one of those people. He had habits he couldn't break and an addiction to cleanliness. It was certainly possible he had other addictions I didn't know about.

I stopped in the middle of the guest room. For a moment, it felt like my whole world was crashing down. A split second was all it took for that to happen.

And then explosions, dust, soot, ash.

How could something like this be so fragile? I didn't think of myself as the type of person to break under pressure, but I couldn't stop the way it made me feel, the horror of it all crashing into me like loose stones breaking away from a poorly constructed tower. That was us. We were poorly constructed from the very beginning. We had never been true mates-just two people shoved together by our alpha.

Well, my alpha, anyway. I knew intimately the opinion Isaiah held of Blake.

The sheer, blatant disrespect was raw. And real. And uncalled for.

I hoisted the bag over my shoulder and padded toward the stairs quietly. Could I make it past him without him saying anything?

Did he care?

I frowned with irritation as I descended to the second floor. Of course he didn't care. Why would he ever care? Broken promises made it clear that he lacked the care necessary to have a great relationship with me. Honesty was just one of many things that would make this situation work.

Honesty and... Love.

I hung my head when I reached the next set of stairs. The condo was void of noise. I couldn't sense any activity-I couldn't even smell the rich patchouli that often invaded my nostrils when Isaiah was around.

It seemed like he had left too.

***

The moment I stepped out the door, I texted Skye and Laurencia. I needed girl time. Badly. And there was one place I knew I could make that happen. A few minutes later, I stood in front of my old apartment located behind my parent's house. It wasn't unusual for them to spot me walking back here since the first floor was still my dance studio.

But maybe it was unusual to see me carrying such a huge bag. The same bag which I'd used to move out initially. That seemed like ages ago. Had it already been a month or more since I was paired with Isaiah?

My frown deepened as I let myself in. Well, Blake and I were about to have a long chat about that in the near future. Right now, I wasn't interested in talking to any men about anything. It wasn't like they were sensitive to what I had to experience regularly as the field manager. Sure, I got plenty of respect, but somebody's dad or grandpa was always ready to one-up me with something or other.

Just like Isaiah had done.

Just like he continued to do.

That man was a menace. I should have held tight to my morals and protested my alpha despite how much my body refused. That was the hard part about having an alpha at all. Once I had sworn allegiance to Blake in the solitude of my makeshift library in my parent's home, my body responded to his command.

It wasn't the same as how I felt with Isaiah. That wasn't what alphas did. They didn't take advantage of their members like that. At least that wasn't what Blake was all about. The way my wolf howled for my alpha was out of respect. We bonded similarly with mates, but it wasn't obedience that kept us locked together in the throes of passion.

Shifter souls were prone to attachments much like human relationships. Something happened on a spiritual level that made us lock into each other. It must have been for survival or something at some point. Ironclad bonds were more likely to progress the species. That made sense to me.

But it was far from important. Isaiah had hurt me. He had hurt my alpha by disrespecting me. Whatever came of that was on him. My only job tonight was to dance my heart out and spend time with my girlfriends. Some truly long overdue time.

As soon as I cleaned the floor and changed into some tight biker shorts with a sports bra, I turned up the music. I pounced into action once the rhythm dropped, flinging myself across the room recklessly, allowing my body to lead. My wolf yipped with excitement when I called her forth. Though it would tear my clothes, I was sure a minor shift would grant me more control of my muscles.

And it did. The way I pranced and danced toward the mirror reminded me of my power. I raised my arms above my head and leaned into the stretch as I extended my right foot forward. I hopped through the movement and then spun around a few times, feeling the rightness of my claws in my fingers.

Beard Girl. The taunt captured my attention as I halted in the center of the floor, holding a tense position with my arms in front of me like I was about to hug my reflection. She needs a hug. That's for sure.

Hair receded from my chin and jaw. Long claws retracted, disappearing into my fingers. My muscles reduced in size from about half of what they would have normally been in my full wolf form. A few tears sat at the hips of my biker shorts and the straps of my sports bra clung for dear life.

But I felt better. Even after that rotten memory that had popped up.

The doorbell chimed lightly. I sprang toward it and whipped it open, yanking my two best friends inside without even bothering to see what they had brought with them. They knew the drill-wine, ice cream, bad romantic comedies. That was surely what they had been carrying and surely what had just fallen to the ground.

We could clean up later. First, my inner child and I needed a damn hug.

Both women hung onto me like the world was about to end. Might as well start now considering my relationship had exploded.

"Upstairs," Skye commanded while sweeping up the DVDs from the ground. "To the television!"

Laurencia grinned while scooping up the pint of ice cream and a bottle of dark red. "Want to make floats again like we did when Skye had that run-in with Kyle?"

I nodded. "Please. I'm desperate to forget."

"Why don't you tell us what you want to forget so we can make you forget?"

Laurencia took my hand and led me up the stairs. The whole place smelled like fresh linens and lemon. Mom must have come up here and tidied up at some point recently. It was nice to know that she kept this space clean even if I didn't actively live here. Well, I guess that was about to change.

Sorrow welled in my eyes. The first of the tears were coming. It was useless to resist the urge to cry, especially when I was safely tucked away in the comfort of my previous apartment. Most of the pillows and sheets in here still smelled like home. It was home. And if that was the case, then why did it feel so foreign to me?

My heart twitched as I made my way to the fold-out couch where Skye was making a nest out of a giant blue comforter and squishy round animals. She beamed as I nestled into the middle of it all-right where I needed to be. Part of our unspoken girl code included how to handle forgetting a jerkwad like Isaiah.

Which meant I had to be in the middle for optimum comfort.

The room blurred as the first wave of tears consumed me. Laurencia and Skye sandwiched me in between them as they prepared the television and the snacks. A cold pint of ice cream was shoved into my lap and then a couple of my favorite stuffed animals-a fat giraffe and a rotund rhinoceros. Why hadn't I taken these things with me when I moved in with Isaiah?

Because he would have made fun of me for wanting to cuddle my stuffed animals at night, I realized. I stabbed the ice cream with my spoon and popped the delicious vanilla into my mouth. Because he would never let me live that down. Because he- I cringed. "Brain freeze."

"Easy on the goods, doll," Laurencia warned affectionately. She handed me the bottle of wine without the cork. "Take a sip. Just a sip."

"Fuck sipping," Skye joked. "We chug in this household."

I rolled my eyes fondly and tried to get comfortable. "I'll sip for now."

"What did Mr. Izzy do to you?" Skye inquired as she hopped across the room to pop a bag of popcorn into the microwave. She must have hidden some snacks in her hoodie. "Did he hurt you? Do we need to hunt him down and gut him like a fish?"

I shook my head. Then, I nodded. Then, I collapsed back into the couch. Deeper into the cushions would hide me away from everything, wouldn't it?

"He was just a jerk," I whined. "He lied to me. He hurt my feelings. He made me feel small. Is that a good enough explanation?"

"And so, we forget the man who made you feel small," Laurencia announced regally as she procured a pen and a tiny notebook from her jacket. "Write his name in the burn book. We'll burn it out back later."

I smiled weakly as I accepted the items. She always knew just what to do, my Laurencia. Skye was a bubbly and brutally honest wild thing with a calm streak that only appeared around animals. No wonder she was calm around Isaiah. He was a dang animal if I'd ever experienced one.

My phone buzzed with a new text. I slid it from my pocket to check the screen, expecting a message from my mother about the noise. The music was still playing downstairs. I hadn't turned it off yet. I should have probably done that.

But what I saw was a goodnight text from Isaiah.

No apology. No acknowledgment of what had happened. Just a goodnight and a heart emoji and a promise that we would talk tomorrow.

A promise. That we would talk. Did he truly mean that?

I blinked at my phone, debating a response, wondering if Laurencia and Skye had noticed, yet I hadn't truly moved. No, Skye was too preoccupied with the popcorn and Laurencia was reciting those forget him chants from her witchy book. Not like shifters could actually practice magic. But she insisted on making the mind match reality, and the other way around, and apparently, chanting a bunch of Latin from a PDF printed off the internet would help with that.

Who was I to complain?

I texted goodnight to Isaiah. Ultimately, it was the gut response that drove me to do it. I didn't really care to talk to him. I didn't care to patch things up. He was committed to being a total jerk and I was sure whatever "talk" he was referencing would just be him lecturing me about how I should fall in line under his rule.

Because that was how he saw our relationship-as something to rule.

And I swore as I jotted his name into the book that I would never fall for him again.

Even if his text had stirred warmth into my heart.