My Alpha Rejected Me for a Dare, So I Walked Away novel · Chapter 3 of 16

Chapter 3: My Little Pup

The Alpha Tone doesn't touch Elodie, a call from her son convinces Bowen the boy is his, Evangeline tells her to kneel for Helena, and Elodie says she has a new mate and the pup isn't his.

The Alpha Tone hit the room.

The humans didn't feel it. They just went quiet and didn't know why.

It washed right over me and kept going.

Three years ago that voice would've bent my knees.

I wasn't his pack anymore.

I set the milk jug down.

"No."

Bowen blinked.

He'd never heard me say that word in that voice.

He tried again, lower, teeth showing.

"Evangeline grew up with me. She's like a sister to me."

"She's family. Can you stop treating her like an enemy?"

"If you won't do it for yourself, do it for me. Be nice to her. Please."

Evangeline sniffled into his blazer.

Over his shoulder, she smiled at me.

I'd seen this exact scene a hundred times, three years ago. The same words. The same tears. The same smile over his shoulder.

I was so tired of it.

"Both of you, get out of my café."

My phone buzzed on the counter.

A video call.

The screen said: My Little Pup.

Bowen saw it.

His eyes went bright gold.

He lunged across the counter and hit accept before I could stop him.

I snatched it back.

My son's round face filled the screen.

Asher. Two years old. Dark curls, fat cheeks, a smear of applesauce on his chin. His sitter was holding the tablet at the nursery.

"Mommy! I miss you!"

Bowen heard that one word and his whole body shook.

I could feel his wolf howl from a foot away.

He thought he'd just seen his son.

"Hi, baby," I said. "Mommy misses you too. Be good for Miss Dana. I'll pick you up at five."

"Okay! Bye bye!"

Bowen reached for the phone again.

I hung up.

"Let me see my pup!"

He was grinning ear to ear.

All his fury was suddenly gone.

Behind him, Evangeline's face went dark and still.

"He's not your pup."

I locked my phone and put it in my apron.

"Stop coming here. Both of you. You're a pair of delusional freaks."

Bowen didn't even flinch.

The smug grin stayed.

"Come on, don't be mad."

"I really missed you. And our pup."

I stared at him.

He wasn't hearing a word I said.

A male this sure of himself would never believe I'd moved on. Not until he saw my mate standing in front of him.

Then Bowen changed the subject.

"My mother's birthday is coming up."

"You're a great cook. Make a few of her favorite dishes."

"Use it to fix things between you two."

"Now that you've given her an heir, she won't give you a hard time anymore."

So he'd known.

All those years, he'd known exactly what his mother did to me.

Helena Ironwood hated me from the first day.

Low-born. No bloodline. A she-wolf from a nothing family on the edge of the territory.

Bowen marked me in front of the whole pack. It was official. It didn't matter to her.

She never once let me sit at the pack table.

If Helena was in the dining hall, I ate in the kitchen with the cooks.

Bowen sat beside his mother.

He never said a word.

He never did a thing.

I folded my arms.

"Let me ask you something, Bowen. Just hypothetically."

"Say I cook your mother a feast. Say she still won't let me sit at the table."

"What then?"

He hesitated.

"Just say something nice to her. Soften her up."

"You know how she is. She barks loud but she doesn't bite."

Evangeline dabbed her eyes.

"Elodie, there's no shame in a young she-wolf showing respect to an elder."

She said it so sweetly.

"Helena really softens up when someone gets down on their knees and begs."

The woman at table three made a small sound.

Evangeline was telling me to kneel.

In my own café, in front of my customers, she was telling me to kneel to the woman who made me eat in the kitchen for three years.

I laughed.

It came out dry and short.

I looked Bowen straight in his dark eyes.

"Bowen. It's been three years. Everything's changed."

"I have a new mate."

His grin froze.

"And the pup is not yours."

I turned to Evangeline.

"Why don't you try kneeling a little harder?"

"Maybe in three more years you'll earn a room in that pack house that wasn't mine first."

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