All Chapters of Bound to the Alpha She Was Raised to Hate : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Odessa's POVI was heading back from the kitchen when I heard the front door slam harder than any pack member would ever slam it.I turned the corner just in time to see him.Julian stood in the front hallway, jaw tight, jacket wrinkled, like he'd driven straight here without stopping to think about how he looked. No charm on his face at all. None of the polished ease he usually wore like a second skin."Julian." I stopped walking. "What are you doing here?""We need to talk." His voice came out flat, controlled in a way that felt worse than shouting would have."You can't just show up here. You know that.""I don't care what I know." He crossed the space between us fast, faster than I expected, and I backed up a step without meaning to. "Where were you last night, Odessa?"My stomach dropped. "That's not your business.""Isn't it?" Something ugly flickered behind his eyes. "I'm your fiancé. Last I checked, that makes it exactly my business.""We're not married yet.""We will be. In l

Odessa's POVI couldn't shake it.I tried, all afternoon, distracting myself with anything I could find, helping stack firewood again, walking the fence line twice, anything that kept my hands busy enough to stop my mind from circling back to that quiet, satisfied look on Julian's face.It didn't work. Nothing worked.By dinner I couldn't sit still through the meal, pushing food around my plate the same way I had weeks ago, back when the marriage timeline first got moved up. Ronan noticed. Of course he noticed, watching me from across the table with that attentiveness he always gave me now, patient, waiting for me to say something without pushing me to say it before I was ready.I finally found him alone that night, out on the back porch, staring at nothing in particular the same way I found Briar there weeks earlier."Hey," I said."Hey." He shifted over slightly, making room. "You've been quiet all evening.""I can't stop thinking about it." I sat down beside him, pulling my knees u

Ronan's POV"How does it end?" I asked, some part of me already dreaded the answer."Badly," he said. "Every time. That's the honest answer, son, and you deserve honesty more than comfort right now.""I don't need you to protect me from this.""I'm not trying to protect you from it." He leaned forward, elbows on the desk, voice steady now, the softness from a moment ago giving way to something harder, more practical. "I'm trying to make sure you walk into it with your eyes open, because I didn't have anyone do that for me.""So tell me."He studied me a long moment before he spoke again."You'll lose standing with some of the elders," he said. "Not all of them. Some will understand, or at least pretend to for my sake. But others, the ones already uneasy about keeping her here at all, they'll see this as proof that your judgment can't be trusted where she's concerned. That'll follow you long after this crisis resolves itself, one way or another.""I can live with that.""You say that n

Odessa's POVI started doing it slowly,with shorter answers at breakfast. A "fine" instead of anything real when Ronan asked how I slept. I told myself it wasn't cruel, just careful, the kind of distance that would protect him even if he didn't understand why I was creating it.By the second day, I'd gotten better at timing my movements around him entirely.I left my room ten minutes earlier than usual, before he normally was waiting in the hallway. I ate breakfast fast and alone, gone from the dining hall before he even sat down. I found reasons to be in the archive room when he usually is training, and reasons to be outside when he usually is doing paperwork in the study.It wasn't subtle. I knew that. I just hoped it would take him longer to notice than it actually did."You're avoiding me," he said, catching me in the hallway on the third day, close enough that I couldn't pretend I hadn't heard him."I'm not avoiding you." I kept walking. "I've just been busy.""Busy," he repeated

Odessa's POVThe word followed me the whole walk to the front gate, hammering through my head louder than my own footsteps, louder than Ronan's voice beside me asking if I was okay.I wasn't okay. I didn't know how to be okay with a word that vaguely hung over everything.By the time we reached the gate, Julian was already gone, the runner explained, breathless, apologetic, saying he'd delivered his message and left before anyone could reach him properly. Just those words, shouted across the border line for anyone to hear, and then he turned and walked back into the trees like he wanted the whole pack to know it, not just me."What does everything mean?" I asked, once we were back inside, pacing the length of the study while Ronan watched from near the desk, jaw tight. "That's not specific. That could mean anything.""We don't know yet," Ronan said, steady in a way that felt like it was costing him effort."But we can guess." I kept pacing, my mind racing faster than my feet. "It coul