The Alpha's Surrogate [The Alpha's #1]

Chapter 38

ANASTASIA MULBERRY

She didn't care if she was being rude or far too obvious about the whole ordeal, but Anastasia had made it her daily mission to avoid Marcellus – her unfortunate mate – at any and every cost.

On more than one occasion Marcellus had tried to get her alone or strike up a conversation when in the presence of others, but each and every time she had made a point of ignoring him, even going as far as to leave the room if it was necessary. While this raised many questioning eyebrows, no one dared question the tension that was evident between Marcellus and Anastasia and for once, she was glad of the perks that came alone with his rank.

It was at night that Anastasia struggled the most.

She wouldn't be able to sleep until she heard him turn in for the night, usually quite late as he remained in his office into the earlier hours in the morning. More than once she had heard him shuffle outside her door however, he hadn't been able to enter as she had made sure to lock the door every night, more so because she didn't trust him.

Even though Anastasia was angry at him and knew that she had every valid reason to be, merely thinking about him made her want to give up her anger and go running into his arms, ready to forgive him and accept his apology even though it barely covered the gravity of his actions and the harm that they had caused to what could have possibly been a very bountiful relationship if only he had given them a chance.

The perks of the mate bond.

A week had passed since that fateful conversation, if one could even call it that, and while she had only stuck around at the insistence of Justas, Raphael and some of the other pack members, she was now determined that it was time for her to leave.

Once she was finished packing her case – all of her clothes managing to fit in this time as she had folded each article properly – Anastasia did one last scan of the room she had inhabited for the past six weeks. As there were too many bittersweet memories in here, she sighed and turned around to exit the room, wheeling her suitcase behind her.

Her steps were heavy and slow as she walked down the hallway, almost as if anticipating that he would choose that moment to come out of his office and she would be able to see him one last time before she left.

As she passed the second door, she just knew that he wasn't behind it and so continued until finally, she was stood outside the first.

There were a lot of things she could do now if she wanted, most of them including actually pressing down on the door handle and going into his office however, there was something holding her back. She wanted to be in there and didn't want to be in there at the same time; almost as if there was an invisible barrier between them, keeping them separated; more than just the physical door in front of her.

The fact that she was still immensely angry didn't help, and not for the first time she reminded herself that she wasn't interested in him if he continued to act this way, if he was going to continue lying to her and acting as if she wasn't worthy of his time when in fact, she truly believed it to be the exactly opposite.

Alpha Marcellus was not worthy of her time and she needed to remind herself of it in fear of caving in, which would only make him think that he could continue getting away with this kind of shit in the future which couldn't be further from the truth.

The fact that she knew that she would never dream of treating him, or any other person – human, werewolf or other supernatural creature – this way just made things all that much worse as looking past the surrogacy misunderstanding, deep down, he had also been prejudiced against her because at the time, he had believed for her to be human. It was only when he found out that she was part wolf and possessed a few supernatural abilities that his interest in her piqued.