The Exiled Alpha's Human Male Mate.[BL]

"Who is that?"

Leah’s question snapped Vincent back to reality. He suddenly realized that he had risen from the couch, standing there with a smile on his face as he stared at the message that had just appeared on his phone.

"What makes you so sure it’s a person? Maybe it’s some news," he said, desperately trying to conceal the fact that it was someone’s message that had elicited that reaction from him.

Leah rose from the couch opposite him, the table between them, and slowly walked around it until she was approaching him directly.

"Wanna share the news?" she asked.

Vincent immediately locked the screen and slipped the phone into his pocket. "I don’t think it’s the kind that would interest you," he said.

Leah’s brows furrowed.

Vincent could already feel the anger radiating from her, familiar as always, but this time she restrained it.

She did not lash out or demand an explanation, and somehow, that restraint made the tension between them feel even heavier.

He hated that he was creating distance between them, but it was not something he was doing consciously.

Bryce was getting into his head, messing with him, occupying thoughts that Vincent had never intended to give him, and he could not understand how it had happened or, more importantly, why.

He had ended his side of the bond, so why did it still feel as though the bond remained intact?

It could not be that he had started developing feelings for Bryce in those few days. That was impossible.

He was not even gay.

But how could he continue telling himself that when he had not felt even the slightest disgust at sleeping with a man, no matter how desperately he had tried to force himself to hate it?

Of course, the bond had forced them into that act.

That was true.

The bond had been the beginning of everything.

It had driven their bodies together and stripped away their resistance, leaving no room for either of them to fight what they were being pulled toward.

It was the reason Vincent had been able to enjoy touching a man, because in that moment, Bryce had not registered in his mind as a man- He had simply been his mate.

Gender had ceased to matter.

That same bond had been what made him feel so intensely alive in that moment, the reason he had wanted nothing more than to remain there with Bryce for the rest of his life.

But why on earth did he still feel the same things after ending the bond?

Why, in heaven’s name, did that night still occupy his thoughts?

Why couldn’t he find pleasure in the things that had once come naturally to him? Why couldn’t he bring himself to touch Leah and actually feel her beneath his hands?

Every time the memory of that night surfaced, something inside him stirred with the same intensity- leaving him desperately wanting to see Bryce beneath him again, to watch that beautiful face contort with pleasure, to feel his body shuddering beneath his, his arms tightening around Vincent as though he could never get enough of him?

The thought of Bryce being with someone else tortured him. Worse, imagining someone else touching him made something dark and possessive coil inside Vincent, driving him to want to go after him.

And he could not even blame his wolf.

He could not make the convenient excuse that it was the wolf influencing him, because ever since he had rejected Bryce, it had gone completely quiet, as though it had intentionally withdrawn and decided not to involve itself in his thoughtless behavior anymore.

Which meant all of this was simply him.

Even when people tried to bully Bryce and he immediately became protective, that was him.

When Bryce insisted he had no feelings for him and he found himself unable to accept it, that was him.

When he had forced Bryce to admit that he had feelings for him, that he had not forgotten what happened between them, and that some part of him wanted to experience it again, to revisit what had happened between them and feel those sensations all over again, that had still been him too.

There was nothing influencing him.

The realization was driving him insane.

And even with that realization threatening to unravel him, one thing remained on his mind- He was not going to allow their bond to end completely.

If anything, he was going to recreate it.

He was going to mark Bryce again.

He no longer cared what that meant. Whether it meant he was gay without ever realizing it, whether he simply liked Bryce, or whether he was only fascinated by a new experience...

He did not care anymore.

He was going to follow his own desires because he was living in a free world, a free country where no one was there to tell him that he had to obey the old historical laws that should have been forgotten long ago.

He was not living in that rigid wolf world, bound by the rigid rules of a pack.

He was in charge of his life now.

And as for Leah...

He did not know what to do with her.

Did he still love her?

He did not know.

Did he still want to be with her?

He still did not know that either.

Leah still carried the desire to return to the pack and become its Luna, to live the life they had once promised each other.

She still wanted the future they had envisioned together, but how was Vincent supposed to give her that?

There was no possible way they could have the kind of life they had once sworn they would share.

And now, when Vincent thought about it honestly, he felt ashamed of himself for keeping her beside him while making promises he could no longer fulfill.

He felt ashamed for having once planned to use his mate so heartlessly, and discard her afterward.

For the first time, it felt as though his eyes were finally opening to the things he had done, the things he had intended to do, and the ugliness of the person he had been willing to become.

"I’ll head out for a moment, but I’ll be back in a few," Vincent said before standing from the couch he had settled back onto, Leah leaning against him as she watched whatever he was scrolling through on his phone.

He was hoping Bryce would not send another message while Leah was watching his screen.

And even though he appeared to be scrolling through a page, supposedly occupied with matters of business, his attention was nowhere near it.

His thoughts were fixed on Bryce. He had taken so long to reply to him that he could not help wondering whether Bryce would assume he was intentionally ignoring him.

His mind visited the Sinclairs too, because he was about to launch a war against them.

The thought that Bryce wasn’t on good terms with his boyfriend, that he was actually considering leaving him, excited Vincent.

But that excitement darkened the moment he figured the man had no intention of letting Bryce go.

He wanted to control his life.

And as long as Bryce was unwilling to that control, he would make sure he was free.

After all, Bryce had turned to him for help instead of anyone else... There was something deeply satisfying about knowing that.

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