Chapter 2: Kissing The Masked Alpha

BRAVE'S POV

My heart raced faster than the tears that instantly blurred everything before me.

"You want to reject me?" I gasped between breaths, supporting my weight with a chair.

Dan's brows knitted on me. "You were expecting something else?"

"You saved me repeatedly, helped me when others bullied... I thought..." I shook my head repeatedly until it felt like my brain would fall off.

Dan's face dipped into a frown. "You shouldn't go around making assumptions, omega. You were needed in the pack and I couldn't have hurt you!"

Right. I pressed back the tears that burned in my eyes, swallowed back every one of my emotions and stared back at him.

"Right!" I was stupid to have thought anything would have happened between me and the Alpha heir.

I was pathetic to have thought that I was even worthy of him. Hell, the moon goddess might think this funny, a joke to break me even more and some sort of entertainment for her.

"Go ahead, you wanted to reject me, right?" I tried to keep a calm face and not to crumble to the floor.

"I, Alpha Dan of Crescent Pack, reject you as my mate!"

My hands trembled under my garments, sheer pain crashing right into my bones. Dan stared at me, blinking flatly.

"Yes... I... I, Omega Brave, reject you as my mate!"

The sheer pain instantly flooded through my body as the bond between us shattered. My breath caught and I pushed back my tears as I crumbled to the ground.

Even when the hot feeling that burned in my chest gradually faded, I could not breathe, I couldn't sob.

I picked myself up from the ground, lowering my head not to look at the Alpha.

"I will go on with my duties now!" I ran out of the hall.

I didn't head for the kitchen or to continue with my duties. I headed for the darkest space in the pack.

The only place where I could be me and where the disdain-filled gaze of the pack members wouldn't burn into my back.

The warm tears trickled down from my chest. I palmed my face, to push them back, to act strong.

But I couldn't. Not when one of the only few people in the pack that I thought genuinely loved me just made me look stupid. Just rejected me without even a second thought.

I remained there until the salty liquid formed crust on my face and there were no more tears for me to pour out.

My wolf howled in the agony of the broken bond while I tried to comfort her despite the pain.

"I knew that you would be here!" A voice trilled right behind me.

I didn't realize that my assistant chief maid had been standing beside me all along until she touched me right from behind.

When I turned around to look at her, more tears poured from my eyes almost instantly and she pulled me into a warm tight hug.

"He doesn't deserve you, Brave. He's a dick and you're going to show him that, by not showing him that you're hurt!"

"Right!" My heart ached even more than the pain that spread throughout my body.

"I should go ahead with my work now." I tried to step away but Genea caught my wrist.

"Gurl, you're going to remain here and bawl out your eyes for as long as you need to.

But you will not come out of this place looking all washed up and defeated."

"Genea, I still have work to do!" I tried to tell her, but she shook her head stubbornly.

"I don't think we should be friends if you think that I cannot cover for you!" She smiled back at me, pushing back the pain in her eyes.

She didn't know how to console me, that I could tell and her presence was very much appreciated. She didn't need to say anything else.

"Trauma bonding? Or let's say patheticness bonding!" A sharp tone rang through the halls.

The vixen and her cohorts' voices rang through the hall. I was too exhausted and Genea frowned deeply, quickly shielding me from her glare.

"Have some decency, witch, she's grieving."

Before she could even finish, a slap tore right into her face and Helen held up her chin tightly.

"Thank your stars that I am not here for you!" She sneered before tossing Genea off to her cohort.

She struggled to break loose from their grip watching Helen make her way towards me with a vicious sneer while I flinched.

Helen stood before me with a glare. She held my chin tightly and slapped me in the cheeks repeatedly.

"So you really thought that Dan would be your mate, didn't you!"

"Leave her alone!" Genea rocked harder with sheer pain in her eyes. It only made Helen even more vicious.

"You thought that the Alpha heir would want anything to do with a fat ugly butcher like you? How pathetic!"

She slapped me, hard, until my face and my heart had gone too numb to respond. I just stood and stared blankly and it provoked her to her bones.

"I know just the right punishment for you for even daring to harbour such a thought!" She held me so tightly by my chin, lifting my head to hers.

She dragged me closer to the conference hall. The scent of powerful men hit my nostrils. Some of the Alphas were around already and socializing, not that I cared.

Her fingers jabbed at one of them, the one in a mask and I flinched, really hard...

'What's she thinking?' My trembling body carved a smile into the face of Helen; her friend trilled behind me with Genea in their grip.

"You will go and kiss Alpha Callum, and I will let you off the hook for what you have done."

"Are you mad? You want her dead?" Genea roared and my feet buckled.

She wanted me dead. Nobody had ever crossed the masked Alpha's path and lived to tell the story.

My nails dug into my thighs, pulling out blood. I was tired, exhausted of being their little runt. Losing my mate was more than enough already, I didn't plan to die on the same day.

"I will... not, Helen." My voice broke up into multiple shatters and her gaze instantly turned devilish.

"You dare to refuse me!" She slapped me, harder, and harder until my face was swollen red.

That was the worst that she could do, nothing more.

I was wrong. Her lapdog dragged Genea forward and my breath caught.

"Your friend stole food from the stores and I have evidence that she did.

I know she did it to comfort you, you know how dire the consequences would be if I report her to the Alpha."

'She will be dead.' I trembled under the weight of her words.

The last omega that dared to steal from the pack was executed. No matter how little it was.

I couldn't let my best friend die, not when she was trying to help me. I would never be able to live with the guilt.

My heart and my hand hardened. I rose off from the ground and Helen smiled at me.

"That's a good little fat omega."

"Please, don't, Brave." Genea begged, trying to reach out to me.

I smiled back at her, a dry smile that didn't reach my teeth. "Make sure you add rose flowers to my grave."

With that, I drowned out every one of her pleas and walked straight into the hall. Nobody recognized me. To them, I was another serving omega.

Until I turned my lifeless body towards the Alpha. I turned him around with my trembling hands and tiptoed into his lips.

My eyes were shut tightly and my chest pounded against my ribs. I expected pain, the cruelest and vile form of it. Yet none of those came.

A hand wrapped around my waist and he leaned harder into the kiss, filling every part of my lips.

His mask slipped, hitting the ground and my eyes widened, even though I didn't pull out from the warm and filling kiss.

"Green eyes!" My widened gaze locked into his.

"Mate!" His voice mixed with the most primal form of his wolf.