Alpha's Fallen Angel

Chapter 2-Amara

As soon as I made it home, I let my tears fall. I'm humiliated and confused. Sophie followed me home and just hugged me while I cried, not saying anything. I feel Tamisra's white-hot rage start flowing through me; she's furious that our mate disrespected us, furious that he would do it with a pack member who we have to face. It seems she missed the part where I realized I didn't feel a thing. She's pacing around in my head, growling, but stops in her tracks when she realizes too.

'How is that possible, Tamisra?' I ask her, hoping she has an answer. She thinks for a minute, but her answer only makes everything worse.

'The only logical answer is that he's not our mate.'

'You use the term 'logical' loosely; you identified him as our mate; we marked and mated. How does that make any sense?'

'I don't know, I don't know! But if he was our fated mate, we would have felt it; there's no way to block that off! Not even a witch who can manipulate bonds can block off the pain of a betrayal!'

"What are you thinking?" Sophie asks, pulling away from me and looking me in the eyes

"I didn't feel his betrayal, Sophie; I didn't feel a thing," I tell her looking down at my hands. 

She stays quiet, not knowing what to say. The only reasonable explanation is what Tamisra said; he's not our fated mate. But why? For what reason would he seek out a fake bond? And how? As far as I know, the few witches that resided in our lands were elemental; there was no spirit witch who could manipulate a bond. Any witch with that power in our lands would know it was a crime against the pack and the Moon Goddess herself. I knew all of the witches on the land because they had to go through Felix to be granted permission to stay on the land.

"It makes sense, you know," Sophie says quietly

"What does?"

"That he's not your fated. I would do anything for Colton; my soul is connected to his. You never felt that for Felix; everything makes so much more sense now. I can't believe I didn't pick up on it sooner. You never were wild about sex with him. It made no sense to me; when you dated Derek in high school, you guys were at it all the time."

My hands are trembling as her words sink in. I thought it was me, that I was faulty for not being head over heels for him. But the whole time, he had me tricked. I felt dirty and used. Tamisra kept trying to say it wasn't my fault, that she should have realized he wasn't our fated.

'We both missed it; he tricked both of us,' I say to her while her sadness and humiliation bleed into me, mixing with mine.

"How did he do it, though? There are no spirit witches on our territory; I don't think any of the allied packs have any spirit witches. They're a liability for this exact reason." she adds.

"Any witch who wants to settle in our territory is handled by him. He probably made a deal with one or something or just paid her. I guess I don't know him like I thought I did, so I don't know what he's capable of." I sigh, "You know, I'm not even heartbroken. I'm just embarrassed that I have to face the pack now, and Goddess only knows how long it will be until everyone finds out. I'm actually relieved he's not my mate, the whole time, I thought I was too broken to even love my own mate. Now I know why I felt that way. I don't know how he tricked me and Tamisra. Neither of us picked up on it or how odd it was that we didn't love him. I feel so stupid. I feel dirty and used and stupid," I say, putting my head in my hands and sobbing.

"Amara, he fooled all of us. But you're not stupid. Do you hear me? You're not his used goods. You're still Amara, you're a badass bitch, you can kick the ass of any man out there on that warrior squad, and you'll look hot as hell while you're doing it. You're still a queen, the same queen you were before he did this to you." she tells me while I smile through my tears at her.