Chapter 5 What Was That?

After I argued with Zell, I shut myself in my office. I keep asking myself where we went wrong. I never meant to disrespect her like that. I have been so angry lately. Zell and I had a perfect life. She came in a put her all into saving my pack. We were struggling for so long. There were times when I didn’t know how I was going to feed the pack. We had to depend on hunting for most of our meat. Zell was so dedicated to me and making our pack great. I didn’t know what to think when Khalis first came to me and told me that Zell was cheating on me. What reason would Zell have to cheat? We had everything. I scented her when I was 16. She was just 11. I didn’t tell anyone until she was 16. I am the only male she has known. Khalis said that Zell had boyfriends, but I know she was a virgin when we mated. I didn’t want to believe that the little girl who followed me around would ever want anyone but me once we were mated. Khalis kept pointing out all the late-night and long meetings with unmated alphas. I understand the need for that when she first came. We were broke, and we needed to work all the time to support the pack, but we have been doing better. The pack is starting to enjoy a lot of luxuries now. There shouldn’t be a need to work as much anymore, and why are all the meetings with unmated alphas? Don’t we do business with mated alphas? Then there are all these long phone calls with who knows who. Khalis has called me several times to come listen in on the calls. I come to listen through the door. The calls seem normal but always end soon after I get there. Since Zell has been here, we have had so many new alliances with a lot of the unmated alphas we do business with. Some of them I reached out to before Zell came, but they were not willing to work with me. Zell negotiated better terms than I initially offered. Khalis asked me what Zel was offering these males to get the terms we wanted. After so many offers, I began to wonder the same thing. Was she really that good at negotiating, or was there more to the story? I mean, why would her best friend come to me with this if there was nothing there? I honestly would not have suspected anything if Khalis had not come to me. I asked why she would tell me something like this about her friend. Khalis said that she has always covered for Zell. She said she gets the bad rap, while Zel always comes out looking innocent and she does not want me to be fooled by her innocent act. It’s so confusing. I know that Khalis sleeps around and Zell was pure when we mated, but things are not adding up. Khalis makes it sound like Zell is the one having all the relationships and she gets blamed for it. While I know Zell has not slept with anyone else, Khalis makes a valid argument. Maybe Zell is not as honest as she pretends to be. “Why would you think something like that about our mate? Zell and Sapphire would never cheat on us. They love us.” Emil whins. “How do you know? Her friend has no reason to lie to us? What if Khalis is right? What if Zel is pregnant and trying to pass some bastard off on us?” Kosta said. “Do you hear yourself?” Emil asked, “You know for a fact mate has not had sex with anyone else. If she is pregnant, the pup is ours. Did you forget that we were trying to have a pup with our mate for the past few months until you let that evil woman pull us away from our mate? I miss mate. I want to be with her, but I don’t think they will ever be with us again after what you did.” “If that is true, why was she begging us to have sex with her for the last three weeks?” Kosta asked. “Maybe because you suddenly stopped making love to our mate, and she still wanted us. What would you have done if she suddenly stopped making love to us?” “I wouldn’t beg,” I huffed. “You are impossible. You are such an idiot. I don’t know why I got paired with you. You are going to cause us to lose our mate,” Emil whined. “What if the pup is not ours? How are you going to feel about someone else’s pup being your heir?” “I don’t have to worry about that because mate would never do that. We would feel it if our mate ever cheated on us. Why are you so dumb?” “Khalis said that Zell had a way around the mate bond so we wouldn’t be able to feel it,” Kosta said. “It sounds like you are looking for a reason to be mad at her. I can feel our bond weakening from the things you have been doing. It’s like you want her to leave us. You might just get your wish. I can’t believe you would treat our mate like this after everything she has done to make us and our pack better. If I lose Sapphire, I will never speak to you again. Let’s see what kind of alpha you will be without your wolf.” “Zell would never leave us. She loves us too much. Besides, where would she go? She is not a child anymore. She can’t just run back to mommy and daddy.” “Now I know you are stupid. Have you forgotten that our mate is the daughter of an alpha and the niece of the next alpha king? She has plenty of places to go. Besides that, our mate is a billionaire. She can literally buy herself a pack if she wanted.” Emil said in exasperation. “Go back to your corner. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” Emil huffed and blocked me. Good, just one more person mad at me. Why can’t everyone see that I am hurting? My life was not supposed to be like this. I gave up being with different women when Zell became old enough to feel it when I was with someone else. I never wanted to cause her pain. I don’t want to believe the things that Khalis said, but no one is as perfect as Zell seems. I just don’t want to think about this anymore. I’ll worry about this tomorrow. Tonight I just want to rest. I pour myself a drink and sit at my desk. A couple minutes later, my beta walks in. I can see the disappointment in his eyes. I don’t need this tonight.