The Alpha's Exchanged Mate
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 44

Authors POV…

He knew this wasn’t all it seemed to be, she sounded like an entirely different person, but deep down, this has always been what he wanted, to be noticed by her, that when she finally sees him as worth her love, he would have measured up to her standard.

But now that he has that, she even came to offer a truce to him. Why does he still feel strange and indifferent about the whole thing?

He left her office after a short casual chat. He could even consider them friends now. But why does friendship feel like that of one with fringe benefits?

He walked past the hallway and took the stairways leading to the ground floor. He wanted to go talk with Alpha Alex.

Then when he was about to take the last turn, he bumped into Becca, who was holding some toiletries in her hands and all of them fell off.

“I am so sorry,” he said as he quickly bent down to pick them up for her.

“It’s nothing,” she also bent down to pick them up, and in the course of that, their fingertips touched.

There was suddenly this synergy that followed between them.

“Here,” he said calmly as their eyes locked in each other, and they got up gently and slowly.

“How have you been?” He asked her, still looking at her.

This was the first time he was looking at her in this manner, Caleb is a young, strong man in his early thirties, and Becca is in her forties. Their relationship has always been one of friendship, especially the fact that the late husband of Becca was a mentor to Caleb. He took him not just as a mentee but also as a friend. Regardless of the age difference between them, he was always shouldering Caleb, especially on the battlefield.

So when he passed away in battle, he got close to Becca out of sheer respect for her husband, and he would take care of her because he noticed how lonely she had become without her husband.

But then, a genuine friendship emerged between them over the years. But that was it. There had been nothing more than that.

He gazed at her with the kind of intensity he had never done before. He noticed how she looked so good for her age. In fact, she doesn’t look her age. Her wavy blonde hair brought out her beautiful blue eyes and her slightly oval face.

He marvelled at how he had never noticed how beautiful she looked before.

“I have been great,” she replied and moved back. She lowered her head down. She was a bit uneasy by the way he was staring at her with such intensity. It was a look she wasn’t used to. It was a look only one man had for her, the man she had vowed to love forever.

“Are you heading to the Alpha’s room?” She asked, trying to get the attention away from her.

“Yes, I need to run through some things with him,”

She exhaled as she could step back a little, giving her room to breathe.

“I see; things have been so intense the last few days,” she replied to him. She was still staring at the floor, trying so hard to avoid his gaze.

“Yes, it has been, from the new Luna and now the escape of Ben, it has been a whole lot lately, and a lot of people are now leaving the pack and swearing their allegiance to our rivals,”

“Does the Alpha know about all this?” She asked as she moved heretofore until her back was resting on the wall.

“Not the full details. I don’t want him to get so worked out and worried,” he replied, taking a step forward. She doesn’t know what kind of game it was they were playing, but she didn’t like it because it seemed she was losing. Her legs were growing weak at every step he took closer to her.

She sighed because she knew exactly what to do to level the playing ground once more.

“What about Ramona? I am sure she must have reached out,” she asked, and a slight frown appeared on his face. Becca was aware of Caleb’s undying love for Ramona because he had told her a lot of times.

“She reached out to me, calling out for truce,”

Becca tried to hide her disappointment, not the reply she was expecting because she knew when it came to the battle with Ramona, she stood no chance.

“Really? She did?” Becca asked as she raised herself from the wall and was about to start walking away. She didn’t want to walk away but maybe was hoping he would follow her. After all, she was heading somewhere before he rudely bumped into her but then instead, he held her by her arms and just like a robot that was being controlled using a remote, she stopped immediately. When they came in contact with each other, it felt like the world had come to a pause, and everything had stopped moving. The world was in slow motion, and every other thing had been put on pause. Only the two of them existed in their world.

“Don’t go, I know you have a lot to do but I need someone to talk to, I need a friend,”

And that word “friend” sank all the ships floating in her head and killed all the butterflies stretching their wings to fly.

That word friend reminded her of all she was to him and all that she would ever be. She slowly pulled her hands away from him.

“Okay, I am all ears,” she said blankly, trying to hide the hurt in her eyes.

“It has just been a lot for me, starting from being ordained as the new Beta and then other problems that have to do with Ben and this threatening war. I don’t know if I can withstand all that,” he lamented, and she could see the glimpse of fear in him.

“It is okay to be afraid, _.”

“I am not afraid, just overwhelmed,” he quickly interrupted her, and she smiled because it reminded her of how her husband never agreed to be afraid of any battle but almost always ended up having a mental breakdown before any battle.

“I never said you were, but it is okay to be afraid sometimes because you get to turn all those fears into fuel.” She paused, and he smiled, ” I had seen you before you were made the Beta. You fought so courageously and with all your heart. With or without a title, you have always been fierce at heart, and I would want you to always hold on to that fire in your heart. That is what makes a good Beta,”

“You are such a wise woman, and your words are so comforting. Thank you so much,” he said and pulled her into a hug. She didn’t try to hit back, maybe because of the things already in her hands or maybe because she knew it was just a gratitude hug and meant nothing.

“And I am still observing Ramona, people don’t just change like that, but I am glad we are on good grounds now,” he finally said, and at the mention of Ramona, her heart came sinking again.

“Hmmm,” she muttered, “Okay, I am sure you know what you want,” she paused, “see you later,” she said, and without even waiting for his response left, he was about to follow her to ask about her sudden change of attitude as he noticed the change in her countenance before she walked away when he heard a loud noise of glass being broken, the sound was coming from the Alpha bedroom. He quickly rushed towards the room and, without even knocking, opened the door.

And he immediately stopped.

He was puzzled and confused as he saw the Alpha standing on his two feet before the broken mirror.