MATED TO THE ALPHA AND HIS BETA - Season 5 Episode 83

Stella

“Oh, my sister will shit a ton of bricks if she found out her precious little snookum-ookums was out last night. At the Crescent, of all places? Girly, she never even liked going there herself. She said it was trashy.” Selena snorted more laughter and shook her head. She put the mug on the table and swiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Shit. What were you doing there?”

I put the decanter of vodka back on the cart while I tried to get myself into some kind of emotional coolness. Selena had really made me mad. Hurt my feelings, too.

With my back to her, I said, “Why are you being so mean to me for no reason?”

“Aww, puddin’. I get that you think you’re special, but trust me. I’m just a bitch to everyone.”

I took the seat next to hers. “I don’t think I’m special. I actually am special, Aunt Selena.”

“So fucking earnest, too. And don’t call me that.” She grimaced.

“Why not?”

“Because I told you not to, kid, and I’m your elder.”

“Don’t say that,” I told her harshly. “Don’t call yourself anyone’s elder. That’s…they’re gone.”

Selena’s mean laughter faded. So did her smile. She studied me in silence, and after a few seconds, shook her head. “You’re a piece of work. I can tell you’re my sister’s daughter, all right. You both have the same smug, self-satisfied face.”

My hands flew up to touch my cheeks. At her wide eyes, I put them down. I tried hard to stop myself from frowning. “I don’t. And you shouldn’t talk about my mother that way.”

“I’ll talk about her any way I want to. She was my sister long before she was your mother.”

“But…it’s mean,” I said, sounding helpless. “I just don’t understand.”

Selena got up and stalked to the bar cart. She opened the vodka decanter and drank directly from it. She put it down, then whirled to face me with her fists clenched. I could see the flare of her gaze even through the dark sunglasses. Her wolf snarled, and she bit it back.

“She abandoned me,” she said finally. “She just up and fucking left, okay? No clue where she was. What she was doing, if she was okay, nothing. I had to watch my mother grieve her like she was dead, okay? I can never forgive her for that.”

“She was trying to save you. And everyone else. And she did,” I told my aunt, even though I could tell my words weren’t going to change her mind.

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I could do something else to her that would, though.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Selena growled. “I can see it on your face, I told you that. If you’re going to go around manipulating people, you’d better learn to hide it with a little more skill.”

I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t try to use any energies to calm her down, either.

Selena made a wild gesture at the books on the wall. “Yeah, I studied up on you, kid. Some of these books, only a couple, have information in them about Celestials. So I know all about you, and what you’re capable of. So don’t you dare try.”

To my alarm, her breath hitched in and out on sobs. Silver tears trickled out from beneath the sunglasses. She didn’t bother to wipe them away.

“You think it’s been easy for me? Ever since I turned eighteen, it’s been like every step I take, some horny dude is there trying to get in my pants. I can feel their stupid wolves circling mine. I can’t even go out dancing without having to fend them off. The other girls are nearly out of their minds with jealousy because all the guys they’re interested in taking as mates are slobbering over me. I can feel them,” Selena said. “I can feel them starting to hate me because everyone wants me so much. And none of them, not a single damned one, actually wants to take me as his mate. My sister has three mates, and I can’t even get one guy to like me.”

“That’s not my mom’s fault. She didn’t make you a hybrid.”

“No, but she sure as hell could’ve stuck around to help me figure out how to get through this!”

I shook my head and kept my voice low. “Ah…I mean, Selena, she couldn’t have. Don’t you get it? There was more at stake than you. If she hadn’t gone off the way she did, you probably—”

“Oh, I know. I’d have been mated the moment I turned eighteen. Probably to two males who might not have liked me, either. But don’t you get it? As awful as that might’ve been, at least I’d have had my sister here!” Selena burst into thick, harsh sobs.

I knew she didn’t want my sorries, so I didn’t say it again. I did step closer to her. I reached but didn’t dare touch her. Instead, I said the only thing I could think of.

“I can help you.”