< The Alpha Who Never Loved Me
Chapter 16
Serena
I slipped the card into my pocket. Then I told them the thing I’d been carrying since the hospital.
“I want to get a job.”
My father’s knife stilled. I braced for hesitation, for the careful reminder that the Luna of Crimson Pack didn’t need employment.
Instead, his face broke into the first genuine smile I’d seen from him in weeks.
“That’s good, Serena. We’ll support you however we can.”
A smile broke across my face. “I need you to introduce me to Gerald Finch.”
They both went quiet. They knew what that meant. They knew what I’d given up and what I was reaching for again.
Before Kieran, I’d been a pianist. Trained since I was seven, performed across three territories, accept into:04
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That dream died when I found a new purpose.
Kieran had been exposed to wolfsbane during a border skirmish years before our wedding. The poisoning should have killed him, and while he’d survived, residual traces lingered in his blood, flaring without warning. Some nights his wolf would seize mid-shift, trapping him between forms until the episode passed.
I’d enrolled in a medical program, then transferred into traditional healing – the old discipline rooted in centuries of wolf knowledge, passed through bloodlines and apprenticeships. Healers who could read the spirit of a shift the way doctors read an X-ray. My specialty had been wolfsbane exposure and shifting disorders, the rarest track within the field.
After I managed to treat him and rid him of any residuals, I stopped attending sessions, to become fully his wife.
Years had passed. I’d have to start from scratch. Gerald Finch was the best in wolfsbane pathology, and my father had helped fund his clinic back when Blackthorn still had
resources.
My father made the call right there in the kitchen 2/1
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When he hung up, he was smiling again. “He’ll see you
this afternoon.”
Gerald’s clinic occupied a tucked-away section of St. Michael’s east wing. The hallway smelled of dried herbs distinctly wolf medicine. My wolf lifted her head for the first time in days.
Gerald was mid-sixties, silver-bearded, with scarred hands from decades of handling volatile compounds.
He didn’t sugarcoat it. Everything I’d learned was outdated. I’d be his assistant, not a practitioner. The hours were long, the pay was low, and I wouldn’t touch a patient until he decided I was ready.
“Your father pulled me out of a bad situation once,” he said. “But favoritism ends at my door. You earn your place or you don’t stay.”
I was so excited but had to contain it. I nodded.
“Understood.”
He handed me a form. “Full body workup – blood panel, wolf vitals, hormones. Get it done downstairs and bring me the results on Monday morning, nine sharp.” 3711
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Before I left, he introduced me to Raymond, his senior apprentice. He was in his late twenties, he had
wire-rimmed glasses. According to him, he had soent four years under Gerald’s wing.
“I’ll send you some reading material for the weekend,” Raymond said. “Current protocols on wolfsbane treatment and shift stabilization for your head start.”
When we finished, I went outside the clinic. The city was bustling as ever but suddenly not so overwhelming. I pressed my palm against my stomach.
“I’m going to make us happy,” I whispered. “Both of us.”
Aina purred, a low vibration spreading warmth through my chest.
Dinner with my parents was quiet and easy. My father grilled chicken with lemon and rosemary. My mother insisted on making a salad despite my protests. Neither of them mentioned Kieran.
It was the kindest thing they could have done.
When I pulled into the driveway, the living room lights :04
< Chapter 16
were on.
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He was here.
Kieran sat on the couch, tie loosened, scrolling his tablet. He looked up when I walked in.
“How’s your mother?”
I didn’t answer.
I pulled the black card from my pocket and placed it on the coffee table. “My parents want you to have this back. The balance from my mother’s hospital bills and everything you have been sending are all here.” I kept my voice flat. “They’re also moving to my uncle’s house. They want to support themselves.”
He looked at the card, then at me.
I didn’t wait for a response.
He was quite dutiful as a son in law which was just entirely an act. It was a good decision to hand his money back to him.
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I walked upstairs, then pulled a quilt and pillow from the
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linen closet, and headed for the guest room.
Sleeping next to him was impossible, if he was against me moving out, at the very least, I could get another room. I could manage that.
His hand closed around the quilt before I made it three
steps.
“As long as we are married,” he said, “you sleep in this room. With me.”
He pulled the quilt from my hands, tossed the pillow back, locked the bedroom door behind us.
“Open the door, Kieran.”
He obviously didn’t.
He moved toward me and I stepped back, but the bed caught my knees and I sat down. He was over me in a second, his weight pressing me into the sheets.
“Get off me.” I shoved at his chest but he didn’t budge.
He caught my wrists and pinned them above my head,:05
then slid a pillow beneath the small of my back with his
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free hand.
I thrashed beneath him, arching up, trying to throw him
off.
He took a moment, staring at me, his eyes were deep and sensual, clouded with lust.
So he knew he still lusted after me but he could still betray me?.
His phone rang.
The sound pierced through the room, and Kieran froze above me. His eyes flickered toward the nightstand where the phone vibrated against the wood.
He rolled off and grabbed it.
The second his weight lifted, I ripped the pillow from
underneath me and hurled it at his back.
“Is it her?” I was on my knees on the mattress, shaking. “Is it your precious Sophie?”
It felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest. Even though this was not the first time was seeing how he
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would discard me for his precious first love, in every moment, I was hurt, broken by his actions and his words.
Why couldn’t I just be apathetic?
Why did I have to love him for so many years?
Why were my eyes always burning because of him?
He stared at the screen and his eyes darkened.
I couldn’t take the mystery anymore, I lunged for the phone.
He acted impressively fast, lifting it above his head, holding it out of reach while keeping me at bay with his other hand. The ringing kept going, each vibration drilling into my skull.
I stopped reaching.
I dropped to my knees on the floor instead and grabbed the waistband of his pajamas, yanking at the drawstring.
“You wanted to sleep with me just now.” My voice
gracked down the center as I dipped my hand into his 1:06 boxers to grab hold of him “So do it. Stav. Choose me for
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once in your life.”
He caught my hands. “Serena-”
I tried to struggle off him, trying to wrap my hand around him. “She calls and you don’t want me anymore?”
He shoved me backward. My spine hit the bed frame and pain bloomed across my lower back.
“Cut it out!” His voice filled the room. “What is wrong with you?”
I stared up at him from the floor.
He exhaled, calming himself. “You don’t need to sleep in another room. I’m going out. I’ll come back when you’ve
calmed down.”
He walked into the closet and came out minutes later in a pair of black pants and a black shirt tucked in.
I scrambled up and followed him into the hallway.
His voice reached me first, low and warm, already speaking into the phone.
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“Don’t cry. I’ll be there soon. I’ll bring something for you to eat.”
The tenderness that used to be mine felt so foreign now.
Words he only ever said to me.
This bastard! He was leaving his wife to go be with another woman.
“Kieran!” I ran after him, bare feet on hardwood, reaching the front door just as his headlights cut through the rain.
The engine of his car roared and soon the car reversed out of the driveway.
I chased it.
Three steps into the downpour and I was blind, rain plastering my hair to my face. The taillights blurred and shrank, swallowed by the dark.
My feet slipped against the ground and sent me tumbling down.
“Kieran!” His name tore from my throat swallowed by the
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Aina howled inside me, long and broken, a wolf calling for a mate who had already gone.
I knelt there watching the empty road, hands pressed against the gravel, trembling so hard I couldn’t tell where the shivering ended and the sobbing began.
I pressed my hand to my belly, rain streaming between my fingers.
I couldn’t keep doing this.
Every time I reached for him, he reached for her. If I didn’t get out now, there wouldn’t be anything left to
save.
I had to save my baby. I cannot raise my child in a house that had him as a father.
“I’m done,” I whispered.
But the rain swallowed that too.
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