Three Alphas, Fated To One, Played By One, But Mated To One

Mike’s POV

"You made your position clear last night," I continued. "So I’m acting accordingly."

Hearing Valerie say those words tore a wound I didn’t even realize I had in my heart.

I had said those words out of frustration last night and never intended for them to hurt her.

But they had hurt her anyway.

Enough to make her want to leave.

I clenched my fists at the side trying to hold myself back.

"That was...." I hadn’t finished when she cut in.

"A mistake?" She asked with a sarcastic tone.

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know how to.

Was it a mistake or was that really what I wanted to say?

"You don’t get to humiliate me in public and then expect me to stay here," She said.

"I won’t give you that chance."

Her voice was so calm it was unsettling.

"You’re overreacting," I said finally.

But that was a mistake because she laughed. However, it wasn’t the usual laughter she had when she was happy.

It was a hollow, mocking laugh that pierced my chest like a knife.

"Am I overreacting?" She asked with her eyes trailed at me.

"Yes." I replied as calmly as I could.

But she shook her head slightly.

"No, Mike. This is me reacting exactly the way I should have from the beginning."

Her insistence made me feel challenged and I started to lose my cool again.

"You’re being irrational, Valerie." I said without thinking and she shot back just as fast.

"And you’re being selfish."

The words came out sharper than before.

I could tell she was getting angry and agitated.

It stunned me for a moment because I never expected her to talk to me like that.

"You don’t get to decide when I stay and when I leave," she continued. "You don’t get to treat me like nothing and then expect me to remain by your side."

Her gaze burned into mine.

"And what exactly do you think is waiting for you out there?" I finally asked.

"Freedom."

The answer came without hesitation.

"At least, I won’t be anyone’s slave." She added.

"You won’t survive alone." I said with certainty but she shot back immediately.

"I have survived alone for years now.."

I couldn’t argue with that. She had indeed survived worse alone.

"I am not asking for your permission," she said quietly. "I am informing you."

"And I am telling you no." I rejected her immediately.

Honestly, I didn’t understand why I was so against her leaving, but I had a nagging feeling that if I let her go now, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

She looked at me for a while in silence before speaking again.

"You don’t have that authority over me."

I could feel my eyes flashing dangerously as Jerry threatened to surface. But I held back.

I couldn’t scare her anymore.

"I am your Alpha."

"And I am not your subject."

That was the final blow.

I felt as if something inside me snapped.

As an alpha wolf, I hate being questioned, and Valerie had crossed that line.

However, before I could curb whatever was surfacing, Valerie turned around and kept walking.

Leaving me standing there alone.

"Valerie." I called out to her, but she ignored me completely.

She didn’t stop.

That was the first thing that hit me hard. Not the fact that she was leaving or her defiance.

It was the way she didn’t stop even when I called out to her. She didn’t even hesitate.

She just kept walking away like I didn’t matter to her at all.

Like, I wasn’t enough to make her falter.

My jaw tightened as I stood there, watching her retreating figure disappear further down the path.

Each step she took felt like something was being ripped out of my chest.

Something I didn’t understand.

Something I didn’t want to acknowledge.

"Valerie."

I called her again.

My voice was sharper this time with a cold edge to it.

It had the command of an alpha.

Any wolf would whimper and drop down in submission.

But she didn’t respond and didn’t even slow down.

My fists clenched at my sides.

A dangerous growl rumbled low in my chest as Jerry almost surfaced.

But that didn’t even make her waver. She kept walking.

I could feel my anger climbing.

No one ever walked away from me. And no one dared to ignore me the way she did.

That infuriated me more than anything.

"What the hell is wrong with her?" I muttered under my breath.

But even as the words left my mouth...

Something didn’t sit right.

Because deep down I knew exactly what was wrong.

And I knew exactly who caused it.

My gaze darkened as I stared at the empty path where she had disappeared.

She had actually left.

Like it was the easiest decision in the world to make.

It was as if I was nothing and this pack that raised her was nothing.

My chest tightened painfully.

A sharp, unfamiliar feeling clawed its way up my throat.

But I ignored it and pushed the pain down like I always did.

Such feelings were useless to me.

But no matter how much I tried to suppress it...It didn’t go away.

And something felt unsettling down in my chest.

Because something about this situation didn’t make sense.

Valerie wasn’t supposed to leave.

She wasn’t supposed to walk away.

She wasn’t supposed to choose anything without me.

She was my mate.

My Luna.

Mine.

That word echoed in my mind repeatedly.

I kept telling myself it was okay. She wouldn’t survive for long without me and would come crawling back to me in no time.

I was absolutely sure she was mine and nothing could change that.

So why did it feel like I had just lost something?

Something important.

Something I didn’t even realize I had until it was gone.

My fingers curled into fists.

Until my nails dug into my palms and bled.