The Alpha's Exchanged Mate
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 40

Edwina’s POV…

I know the only reason Xander wasn’t blowing up at me was that he had promised me he wasn’t going to get angry at me, but I could see, with every fiber of being in him, that he was mad at me. I could have prevented all this; I could not have let Ben escape if I had only told them the day he had told me. Now we have a f*****g walking, living, breathing problem in our hands, and that was the most catastrophic thing I could think of right now.

I was gazing through the window of the see-through glass as I saw him talking with Caleb, he was downstairs, and I stood on the balcony surrounded by pink flowers upstairs. He was strong from left to right, and you could tell from all his facial expressions and indication that he was super agitated and perplexed about what to do. I was also.

I knew this wasn’t the right time to start casting blame on anyone, but apart from Ben, who was foolish enough to escape, again, I blame myself. Maybe I was too naive and indeed a good person. Of course, people will always take advantage of that. But what kept stroking my mind was all the incidents surrounding this.

Could I say that Ben escaped because of me or because of Sonia? Why was I even associating it with any one of us? Ben is selfish and self-centered, and he isn’t one to consider anyone when doing something. He only thinks about himself and what would be of benefit to him.

I glared again at Alex through the window.

“I can’t believe this cut your honeymoon short,” someone said from behind me, almost startling me. I would have been startled if my mind had not immediately recognized the voice to be that of Becca’s.

Becca wore a blue flair gown, and there was something about the way she looked today that felt different. Was it that because I had not seen her in a day? Her hair was packed into double buns, and for a woman in her late fourties, she does well to package herself up.

“Good evening ma’am,” she greeted me when she noticed I had not altered a word, and I kept glaring at her and her new looks.

“Good evening Becca, ” I replied, still scrutinizing her, and I could see her blushing pink as all my eyes were on her.

“You look beautiful___,” I paused a bit and added, “different. Do you have a date?” I asked, and she immediately chuckled. I couldn’t tell why she was laughing. What was funny about me asking her if she had a date?

There was nothing, absolutely nothing funny about that.

“Why are you laughing?” I asked, gazing at her.

“It’s the fact that you think I have a date. I don’t remember when last I went on a date,” she replied honestly, and I knew it was not a call for pity, but somehow I felt sorry for her.

“Why is that?” I asked again. I wasn’t devoted to this conversation, but I saw it as an avenue to get rid of the anguish in my heart,” I would give anything, absolutely anything, to feel a different way right now.

“I have given myself the past few years to this job, and ever since my husband died, I haven’t had time to date again,” I could see a familiar sadness in her eyes, and that was when I saw it, she was also a woman who had lost a lot.

“I am sorry about your husband. What happened to him?” I wasn’t sure that was an appropriate question to ask, but I could already feel my heart feeling empathy and not anguish anymore.

“During battle four years ago, he died a hero,” she said proudly. I am not sure I can be so proud to talk about death like that due to the fact of how I was bullied when I was young and treated as an outcast. I had never seen any form of service and loyalty to die for the pack. I saw it as sheer foolishness.

“It must have been hard on you,” I replied to her, and she nodded her head. I continued. “But it has been four years, I don’t know him, but I am sure he would want you to move on with someone special to you,” I said to her, and she smiled. She had this pure kind of smile that couldn’t be misinterpreted for what it was not.

“I think he would want that too for me,” she replied, but I could see a sort of familiar sadness in her eyes, she was saying something I understood, but I didn’t want to relate my situation to hers completely.

“But sadly, the only person I had seen worthy enough to move on with, doesn’t see me and would never see me in that light,”

She said sadly, and my eyes widened, wait, was she in love with Alpha Alex? I wasn’t sure what exactly it was, but she said it like I knew the person.

I have gotten to see this in TV shows, she loves the Alpha, and because she is a maid, she never gets to express it to him, and he never gets to see her in that light.

“Do you love Alpha Alex?” I took all the courage in me to ask her, it was one less battle I didn’t want to have to fight in my head, and I damned myself for having this conversation with her. Now I was caught in a point of sympathy, and that, to me, didn’t feel good. She glared at me and soon burst into an uproar of laughter. I became so confused.

“God, no, why would you think so?” She said, laughing, and I felt so embarrassed and wished the ground would open and swallow me into it.

“The way you said it,” I said and paused and glared at the window where Alex and Caleb formerly stood, conversing “and you were looking at the window,” I said and saw that Alex was no longer there, just Caleb. I used my hands and slapped my head. She meant Caleb. How didn’t I notice any sooner? “You meant Caleb, didn’t you?” I said, and she nodded her head.

“Yes, I meant Caleb,”

“Why do you think that he doesn’t like you? I have seen the way he acts around you. He is nice to you,” I spoke to her gently.

“Yes, he is kind to me because he was my husband’s friend, my husband was also an omega pack wolf, but apart from that, there is nothing more,” she said, and I could see her eyes on him. She looked at him with so much passion and love.

I wonder why I had not seen or noticed it until now.

“And ever since I had known him, he had been in love with Ramona,” she added sadly.

Wait, Ramona, the same Ramona she had suggested we called to assist us with the event planning, that Ramona.

“Ramona, the Secretary of the Alpha?” I asked if there was any other Ramona I knew. And there was not.

“Yes that one and the annoying thing is that she had never seen him for who he was, she had always told him that she could only be mated to either an Alpha or Beta and he was just a common omega, now that he is the Beta, I know she would conveniently throw herself at him.” She mumbled out loud.

“Hmmm,” I sighed. I noticed from afar that Alex was approaching us.

“I will get to talk to you later, Becca,” I said to her. She glanced at Alex, also approaching, and nodded her hair.

“Thank you so much,” she said and paused, “please, he needs you now more than ever,” she said and walked away. How does he need me now more than ever? If there is one thing I am sure of is that he blames me for the escape from Ben, but how was I to know that he was going to escape so soon? It wasn’t like he told me his plan and carefully outlined it to me, and I chose to hoard it.

“Hey,” Alex said when he approached the balcony leading to the back of the house where I stood, and I twirled back and faced him.

“Hello,” I greeted back. Ever since he came back, there has been this tension in the air, and I knew it would keep being like that. We had not talked about anything that happened.

“I am sorry we had to cut our honeymoon short,” he muttered. That wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. I was expecting him to blame me for all that had happened and maybe throw some shades of hard truth my way about how I was protecting Ben. I wouldn’t argue this because, somehow, I was not sure who I truly stood for.

“Please don’t be mad. This is all my fault. I am sorry, I should have told you immediately when I got back home that day, I have no excuse for telling you now, when it was already too late,” I muttered my apology sympathetically. I was not in sympathy because of how I felt but because of the outcome of all my choices.

“Can I ask you a question, Edwina?” He asked; normally, I don’t like it when someone has to ask your permission before asking you a question. It would only mean that they were about to ask you something hard or something that you would be relatively uncomfortable about, and to me, I am not sure I have an answer to hard questions.

“What is that?” I asked back, not responding with a yes or no. I do that often to keep my options open.

“Who are you loyal to, the night howlers or Ben?”

I knew it. He was going to ask me a question I wouldn’t be able to answer truthfully. Why can’t he just ask me questions about my loyalty to him and Ben? That would have been a much easier question to answer.

“None of them,” I replied truthfully, and he sighed.

“Why?” he asked again.

“Because they had both done me a great disservice, I grew up hating the night howlers because of how I was treated as a kid and having not being considered one of its own. Also, I can’t be loyal to Ben because he wasn’t loyal to me,” I explained explicitly.

“So you aren’t loyal to the territory. This is a pack, and you are it’s Luna. How do we have a Luna who isn’t able to give her best to the pack?”

He retorted. I expected that reaction from him because he wouldn’t understand what it meant for me growing up, dejected and not in a good headspace.

He asked the question that I knew I wouldn’t struggle with because I knew for sure where my loyalty lies.

“So what about me or Ben? Who are you loyal to?”

“You are my husband and I swore my loyalty to you the day that I agreed to be your wife,” I said subtly.

“I am not sure how you can swear your loyalty to the Alpha of a pack and not to the pack itself.

He made a lot of sense because it was automatically attached to it.

“I am an alpha whose pack doesn’t see him as a capable leader because he is a cripple, but that doesn’t change the fact that I will protect its honor and swear all my loyalty to it. That’s what I want from you, Edwina, I know you have been dejected. I know that you have been looked down upon as worthless, but that shouldn’t change the fact that we will stand by the honor of the pack and defend it against everyone who poses any form of threat to the realm.”

I glared at him. I was so sure at that moment that this man was a man of integrity. His words suddenly pushed me to say it.

I bowed my head to him, “I swear my loyalty, my husband, not just to you but to the night howler’s territory, to protect its honor from anyone that poses any form of threat to it.”

He smiled at me, and I knelt down as he took my lips into his with a long passionate k**s.