All Chapters of Alpha Mate Chose My Bully, I Left on My Birthday: Chapter 11 - Chapter 15

I slept at Dom's until two the next afternoon before I felt human again.My head was clearer. I was more sure than ever.Lucian would never agree to a rejection. He cared too much about appearances. He'd never admit his heart had wandered.So I wasn't expecting it to happen any time soon.But I believed he'd come around eventually.Humble background. Brilliant at her job. Pretty. Tough and fragile at once. Easygoing, open, and good at a little pout that never quite crossed the line.That was Serena, through his eyes. The woman whose texts he answered at one in the morning. The woman he stepped in front of without thinking.He'd fallen for her a long time ago and didn't even know it.I studied art. Since graduation, I'd freelanced. These days I was a painter who wasn't starving, which is more than most painters can say.I could work from anywhere. I'd take six months. Call it research. Call it a breather.When I told Dom the plan, he didn't ask a single question.He just kept sending me

Lucian kept blowing up my phone.It didn't touch me.On day one, I logged out of everything and got a new number just for Dom.I had plenty to keep me busy anyway. Groceries one day. Baking the next.Life got good, fast.Then one day Dom sent me a link.It was a post from a gossip account. It was everywhere, and still climbing.Someone had dug up a nobody's secret burner account.Every post on it was unhinged.She bragged about bullying a coworker so badly the girl started eating lunch in a bathroom stall.She bragged about keeping every decent guy she knew on a string as backup. Never sleeping with any of them. All upside, no risk.Then, recently, a run of new posts.First guy I've ever actually wanted, and he went and mated the little doormat I bullied half to death in high school. LMAO.She STILL almost cries after two sentences from me. Eleven years and zero growth. Out of everyone on earth, she's still the easiest target.Played sunny and confident and a little tragic, and he help

Lucian tried everything. None of it changed my mind.I flew home, and Lucian and I stood in front of the Council.I said the words.I, Ivy Mercer, reject you, Lucian Vance, as my mate.He accepted. Then he signed most of what he owned over to me without being asked.He kept his red eyes on me the whole time and didn't say a word.When it was done, he stood on the Council steps and watched me get into the car and drive away.The mark on my neck burned for a week. Then it faded.After that, messages from him came all the time. So many words. As many as when we first met.Dom says Lucian's depression is bad. He can't sleep without pills. He's lost a lot of weight.He handed Northridge to his Beta and stopped going in.Dom won't tell me more than that."People like that, you keep your distance. We're looking forward now."He bought me the house next to his, inside Stonecrest. Every weekend he drives me to Mom and Dad's for dinner.My work is starting to take off.Some days I still want to