Mated to Her Alpha Instructor Chapter 24

Eileen

Understanding flickered in his eyes, and he shook his head slowly. "I can sense your feelings through what's left of the bond, Eileen. When you touch your belly, when you think about the life growing there, you're not filled with revulsion or fear. You're... tender. Protective." He paused, and something vulnerable crossed his face. "And besides... this is our pup. I want him. Or her. I want this."

*I want this.* The words echoed in my head, colliding with every assumption I'd made about what would happen when I told him. He wanted the baby. Not just accepted it as an obligation, but *wanted* it. Wanted me.

But the old fears, the ones that had been carved into me by years of being the disappointment, the broken one, the wolf-less failure, rose up like a tide. I looked down at my hands, at the scars from a childhood spent trying to prove I was worth keeping despite my defect. "I'm just a student," I whispered. "And you're an instructor. And I can't even shift. The pack will talk. The academy will have questions. How can you—"

"If you're worried about appearances, we can keep it quiet from the students and other teachers for now," he interrupted gently. "You can continue wearing scarves to hide the mark once I re-bond you. We'll tell the Elder Council you're moving out for health reasons, which isn't even a lie—you'll need rest and proper nutrition during the pregnancy. As for what others think..." His eyes met mine, fierce and unwavering. "I don't care what they think. I only care what you want."

The sincerity in his voice made my throat tight. No one had ever spoken to me like this, as if my wants and needs were the center of the universe rather than an inconvenient afterthought. Not my parents, who'd made it clear I was only valuable if I could be useful. Not Derek, who'd kept me dangling on the hope of his attention while never actually caring what I felt.

But Regis, this powerful Alpha who could have anyone, who had no obligation to me beyond the accident of a bond neither of us had chosen, was standing here in the moonlight asking what *I* wanted.

"I..." I swallowed hard, gathering every scrap of courage I possessed. "There's something else you need to know. Something that makes this... complicated."

He waited, patient and still, and I forced myself to meet his eyes.

"I can't shift," I said, the words coming out in a rush. "Which means I can't complete the bond the way normal mates do. I can't bite you back, can't mark you, can't... can't give you what an Alpha is supposed to have in a mate. The bond will always be one-sided. Incomplete." My voice dropped to barely a whisper. "You'll be tied to someone broken. Someone who can never be a proper mate."

This was it. This was the moment when he'd realize what a mistake this all was, when the reality of being bound to a wolf-less girl would sink in and he'd withdraw that gentle offer, that impossible kindness.

But Regis just shook his head, his expression unchanging. "I've never cared about that."

"But—"

"Valdor doesn't care either," he added, and there was something almost shy in the way he said it, as if he were revealing a secret. "He's wanted you since the moment we woke up in that forest and found you kneeling beside us with your hands covered in healing salve. He's been half-mad with it these past two weeks, howling in my head every time your scent faded a little more."

I felt my face go hot, my heart hammering against my ribs. His wolf wanted me. His wolf, that magnificent silver-black creature I'd seen in the moonlight, that embodiment of Alpha power and grace, wanted *me*. The wolf-less girl. The broken one.

"I don't understand," I whispered.

"Neither do I, entirely," Regis admitted, taking another careful step closer. "But I know what I feel. I know what Valdor feels. And I know that when I thought I might never see you again, when that mark faded and the bond went silent, it felt like losing part of my soul." He paused, his voice roughening. "So no, Eileen. I don't care that you can't shift. I don't care what the pack thinks. I care that you're standing here in front of me, carrying my pup, and I have a chance to make this right."

I stood there trembling, my mind a chaos of thoughts and emotions I couldn't begin to untangle. Derek had made me feel small, insignificant, like I should be grateful for any scrap of attention he deigned to throw my way. My family had made me feel like a burden, a disappointment, someone who existed only to serve their needs and expectations.

But Regis... Regis made me feel *seen*. Like I mattered. Like my choices and my feelings and my broken, wolf-less self were worth fighting for.

And underneath all the fear and the uncertainty, I realized something that terrified me more than anything else: I wanted this too. I wanted him. Not just because he was offering me a way out of an impossible situation, not just because his scent made me feel safe in a way nothing else ever had, but because when he looked at me like he was looking at me now—like I was precious and rare and worth protecting—I felt something I'd never felt before.

I felt like I might deserve to be loved.

"I'm scared," I admitted, my voice barely audible over the wind.

"I know," he said softly. "But you don't have to be alone in it anymore."

I took a shaky breath, my hands still trembling, and made myself look directly into those ice-blue eyes. "Okay," I whispered. "I... I accept. The bond. The pup. All of it. I want to try."

For a moment he just stared at me, as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd heard. Then his eyes lit up with something that looked almost like joy, bright and fierce and utterly unguarded, and he moved forward several steps before stopping himself again, maintaining that careful distance even as everything in his posture screamed that he wanted to close it.

"Thank you," he said, his voice rough with emotion. "Thank you for trusting me."

The moonlight fell between us, silvering the space where our future hung suspended, fragile and new and full of terrifying possibility. The mark on my neck was gone, the bond that had tied us together dissolved into nothing, but standing here looking at him—at the hope and the tenderness and the fierce protectiveness in his eyes—I could feel something else beginning to form. Something that had nothing to do with wolf magic or fated mates or accidents in the forest.

Something that might, given time and patience and care, turn into something real.

"What happens now?" I asked quietly.

Regis's lips curved into the faintest smile. "Now we figure it out together."