Feral Bonds: Claimed By Rogue Alpha Brothers
Chapter 151: An Emotional Mess

Chapter 151: An Emotional Mess

Draven:

I ran.

I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t care.

The moment I stepped out of that suffocating little cottage and shifted, I let my wolf take over, at least halfway. I still had just enough control to keep myself from barreling through the towns at the door of the mountain or crashing into the woods blind. But my thoughts... those were beyond my control.

She’s pregnant.

The words kept bouncing around in my skull like shattered glass, slicing at every coherent thread I was trying to pull together.

Not with your pup...

No.

No, that was the worst part.

My mate, our mate, was carrying another male’s child.

A male who had rejected her.

A male who didn’t want her.

And yet, she had kept it. She was still carrying that child inside her, all while looking at me with those tear-filled eyes, hoping I would stay.

And I left.

"Coward," my wolf growled inside me.

I growled back, loping through the woods, branches snapping beneath my paws as I leapt over stones and tore through underbrush. I needed the burn in my lungs, the cold night air on my fur, the thunderous rhythm of paws against earth.

Because the chaos in my head? That wasn’t going anywhere.

The moment she told us, me and Oscar, about the pregnancy, something in me had just... broken.

I thought I had felt pain before. Thought I understood betrayal, shock, fear. But nothing compared to that moment.

I wasn’t just angry. I wasn’t just hurt. I was devastated.

And my wolf?

He was feral with heartbreak.

"She lied," he growled again. "She kept this from us. She chose to hide it."

"She was scared," I snapped back, mentally. "She had a right to be."

"She should have trusted us. Trusted you. Mates don’t hide things like this."

My wolf’s bitterness coiled tighter in my chest, wrapping around the fear I was too damn proud to name.

I wasn’t just scared because Eva had kept secrets.

I was scared because I didn’t know what this meant for us.

Was I supposed to look at her every day, knowing that the life she carried wasn’t mine?

Could I?

The questions were eating me alive.

After what felt like hours, I finally stopped. My body was aching, my breath was coming in short pants as I shifted back to my human form behind a thick patch of pine trees. Naked and shivering, I walked barefoot toward the safe house.

The place was supposed to be my retreat. My place of peace when the world got too loud. But tonight, it felt like a prison.

I stepped into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and let the water cascade over me. First ice-cold. Then boiling hot. Then cold again.

But neither was working.

I was still shaking.

I pressed my forehead against the cold tile and shut my eyes, trying to control my heaving chest.

Why? Why hadn’t she told us sooner? Why had she let things go so far?

Because now it was too late.

I had already fallen for her. Not because of the bond, not because the Moon Goddess had forced our paths to cross... but because of her.

Because of the way she always looked like she was about to bolt but stayed anyway.

Because of the way she laughed with her eyes before her lips caught up.

Because she tried. Even when she was scared. Even when she was clearly falling apart inside.

I had fallen in love with Evaline Greystone.

And now I didn’t know what to do with that love.

Still dripping wet, I stepped out of the shower and threw a robe on. My hand reached automatically for my phone, even before I knew what I was doing.

Oscar.

I needed to know if she got home safe.

"Because you left her," my wolf sneered. "You left her to cry alone. Pathetic."

I ignored him and hit dial.

No answer.

I tried again.

And again.

My pulse was pounding louder with every ring. Why wasn’t he picking up?

On the fourth call, the line finally connected.

"What do you want?" Oscar’s voice was slurred, heavy, like he had already downed more alcohol than he could handle.

"I just..." I hesitated, finding my throat suddenly dry. "I wanted to know if... if she got back safe."

There was a beat of silence. Then, quietly, he answered, "I dropped her at the Academy."

His voice was rough, frayed at the edges. "She’s probably safe," he added, then ended the call.

I stared at the screen for a long time, watching it fade to black.

She was safe.

That should have been a relief.

But all I felt was... emptier.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing my hands over my face, trying to breathe through the tangle of thoughts and emotions crashing through me.

Anger.

Confusion.

Fear.

Guilt.

Goddess, the guilt.

I had left her. I saw her falling apart in front of me and I still chose to run. Because I couldn’t be the mate she needed. Not then. Maybe not now either.

"She’s not who we thought," my wolf murmured, quieter now. Not cruel. Just... sad.

I didn’t answer.

Because he was right.

But I also knew something else.

That night, in the arcade, when I held her hands over that claw machine... the way she smiled when the bunny dropped... the way she looked at me like I was the best part of her day-

That was real.

And when I brought her here to my safe house and watched her eyes light up at the fairy lights - hell, the fairy lights I thought she would laugh at - that was real too.

I knew her. Not all of her. But enough of her.

Enough to know that her pain wasn’t made-up. That she hadn’t kept her secrets to deceive us.

She had kept them because she was terrified. Because she didn’t think we would stay.

And maybe she was right.

Because here I was, in my own safe house... while she was probably curled up alone in her dorm room, thinking I had turned my back on her.

Had I?

I lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Tell me what to do," I whispered.

My wolf didn’t answer.

He was quiet now, mourning too.

And suddenly, this cabin wasn’t feeling safe anymore. It was feeling like the loneliest place in the world.

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