Into the Alpha’s Keep Chapter 31: 30

Few people in the world irritated me to the point of making me seek revenge. Until then, only Hunter and Marilyn were on my list.

Could I ignore Fenrir's pack, let the fact that they despised and hated me pass? I could. But nothing on this Earth would surpass the disgust of Marilyn seeing me conquer each one of them.

And besides, there was Selena. My sister needed a safe home, just like I did, and as long as Hunter wasn't eliminated or I couldn't break free from Fenrir, Dăneşti would need to serve both of us.

It had been just over a week since Hunter's wolves had shown up, since the dear alpha decapitated them and took the heads home as a romantic gift for me.

In the meantime, I had become more reclusive, recovering from the public humiliation Marilyn put me through. I reread my book a few more times, helped Nicoleta with her homework, and bathed in the lake, which had become my favorite part of the whole village. It was quiet, almost exclusive, since no one went there but me, and... it was the only place where I truly felt happy, in the entire village.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I whispered to Alexandra as we made our way through the forest.

She scoffed.

"Some will still be hostile toward you," she revealed, kicking a few leaves with the tip of her boot, making them float around us. "They don't believe Marilyn ruined your cakes. She's part of the pack, so between believing a wolf who arrived yesterday or one who's been with them for years, what do you think?"

I bit my lower lip, pondering.

"Still, it doesn't make things better," I murmured.

After I ran away from the school, Alexandra and Mihaela spoke with all the mothers and claimed the cakes had been sabotaged. Alexandra even said she had tasted one and that it was delicious. It wasn't true, but she saw Andrei taste it and love it.

However, some mothers preferred to keep avoiding me, ignoring me most of the time, while others greeted me, but the contact didn't go beyond that.

For my part, I had already gotten over the situation. My only goal was to rise above all of this and then get revenge on Marilyn. The first part was already done, now the second remained.

And this was an excellent opportunity.

Earlier, Alexandra went to Fenrir's house and invited me to accompany her. The females and pups from the village were going into the forest to show the little wolves how to find things by scent, using their sharp senses. They wouldn't learn to hunt yet since they hadn't gone through the transformation.

For a second, just a single second, I thought about refusing. My quota of humiliation was already used up. But then I remembered that, besides seeking revenge, I had my sister, and whether I liked it or not, the village was a good place for both of us.

She sighed.

"I'm sorry Marilyn did what she did, I know how hard you worked to prepare those cakes."

I rubbed my sweaty neck, wiping the droplets away with my hand.

The day was hot, the sun rays infiltrating through the tall tree canopies burned my skin. If it weren't for the commitment, I'd be at the lake, under the shade of a tree, reading my book between baths.

"I've gotten over it," I affirmed. She looked at me. "I swear. I was really upset, but... now I just want to move on and try to earn their trust somehow. I don't expect to be accepted, I just hope to be respected."

She bit her cheeks.

"I could talk to Fenrir. If he shows any... good feelings toward you in front of them, they'll learn to respect you."

A bored laugh parted my lips.

"Easier to freeze hell."

"It would be easier if you hadn't scratched his mark off with your nails. Fenrir is a very proud male, and you hit him right in his ego."

"I'm sorry his masculinity is so fragile."

She tried to control herself. Took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling. One, two, three times. Before bursting into laughter that drew a few looks toward us.

"Girl, you're really crazy." She shook her head and ran her fingertips over the sides of her eyes, drying a few tears.

"I'm not crazy, I just have nothing left to lose. I'm not afraid of Fenrir, he can do whatever he wants with me, nothing shakes me anymore."

He didn't know about Selena. He couldn't use her as my weak point. I was so... tired of all of this. Of being humiliated, despised, and rejected, that I no longer feared his anger. I just... didn't care anymore.

Hope or not. That was how I felt.

"I'm sorry, Sava," she said, and I felt sincerity in every one of her words. "Fenrir has been like this since Catalina's death."

I gave her a look and raised my lips in a sincere smile, though it didn't reach my eyes.

"Fenrir is a broken male. And that's why he tries to destroy me too. But there's something about me he doesn't know."

She furrowed her dark brows.

"And what's that?"

"You can't destroy what isn't whole anymore," I revealed, shrugging off the magnitude of it. "Hunter got to me first."

She blinked, frozen, as if she couldn't show any reaction, shocked. I quickened my pace, passing ahead of her and approaching the group.

There was a small group of pups, males and females, around ten to thirteen years old. Mihaela stood before them, reading a small list of things that had been hidden throughout the forest, while the mothers leaned against the trees, watching, anxious and hopeful for their pups' success.

I felt Alexandra approach me.

"I thought there would be more pups," I confessed, not taking my eyes off them. "I mean, for such a big pack. In my old one, the number of pups seemed bigger, even though the pack wasn't."

The Dăneşti pack wasn't small, compared to most packs I knew. It had a decent population, but... the number of pups didn't make sense, it seemed off.

"We have fertility issues," Alexandra confessed.

I widened my eyes and turned to her.

"You do?"

"We only reproduce if the partner is our destined one, that's why there aren't many pups. Some wolves find their partner, but others don't, and so they never reproduce."

Finding the destined partner was so uncommon, so difficult. Our wild nature already acted on its own to make reproduction possible. But... what Alexandra was saying went against everything I believed.

"I don't know if I can understand how this works," I confessed.

She laughed.

"Don't try. It's just something... our people suffer with."

"And is it easy to find a destined partner like that?" I asked. "In my old pack, it was kind of a legend, how uncommon it was."

"It's not easy, but about a third manage to find their destined partner and reproduce. That's why our pack isn't big or small."

I placed my hands on my hips and observed the pups, who were smiling excitedly, eager to start the challenge.

"I'd really like to find mine," I murmured, my voice barely a thread. "It would be so much easier."

Alexandra nodded.

"Most would like that."

I raised my gaze to her.

"But you don't?"

She nodded toward Mihaela.

"I've already found mine." She smiled, her eyes shining. "She's everything I've always dreamed of for myself."

As if sensing our conversation, Mihaela turned toward us and waved.

"Alexandra and Savannah, you're in charge of the boy Ruda. Follow him, without intervening in his activity. Ruda needs to find a piece of lamb meat."

Alexandra waved back.