She nibbled on her lip. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. She has wanted to be, you know, but I told her no. Even in high school.”
“That’s not what she told everyone.”
Landon sighed. “She lied. The truth is, Cheryl was … she helped to keep everyone else away.”
Alexa’s hand that wasn’t cuffed to Landon, clenched into a fist. “Everyone else?”
“Yeah. There were a lot of girls who wanted to be the alpha’s mate. It was … irritating. Even though they knew I was mated to you, and that we had our problems, they still tried. I guess I was wrong to let Cheryl make people think we were together.”
“How do you think she’s doing?” Alexa asked.
“I don’t know. I … I can ask my dad, but I don’t want to risk causing trouble, you know? I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I didn’t either.” Even though she was the one who ended up in Cheryl’s mouth, she didn’t want to hurt anyone else. “I had no idea that us, you know, not being together would cause this.”
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t either. My parents would just tell me to get over our petty squabble, and to see what an opportunity we had.”
Alexa glanced toward him and saw that Landon was already looking at her. “Do you even remember why we started to hate each other?”
“No, I don’t. Do you?” he asked.
“No. I’ve tried to remember, but I can’t think of it.”
Silence fell between them, and Alexa thought about the day.
That morning, Marcel had been the one to remove the cuff and wait for them to get changed into uniform. He’d placed the cuff back on them, and he hadn’t said a word. Where Gertie and her own mother had been talkative, Marcel had been cold. He’d frowned the whole time, showing his disapproval. Since he was the alpha, Alexa had felt that disappointment deep in her core.
In the past two days, she and Landon had argued a couple of times, not often, and they hadn’t hit each other.
“Do you want to get out of the cuffs?” Alexa asked.
They moved to the edge of the lake, where there was land for them to stand. She had thought about it last night, how to get the damn cuff off for both of their sakes.
Even though Landon tried to hide it, she knew his failures yesterday had pissed him off, and she hated seeing him so deflated. Neither of them deserved it. Today, with everything going wrong, just drove it home. They had to win over the pack. They had to get the cuffs off.
“Alexa, you know the only way to do that is to become mates.”
“I know, and we can hold off on that until we’re ready. Not even our alpha can force us to be mated if we don’t want to. What we can do is work as a team and come to some arrangement that shows we’re working on ourselves.” She wanted the cuffs off, but she also didn’t like the sharp slice through her chest at the thought of Landon not wanting to mate with her. It was completely irrational.
She and Landon were … complicated.
Rubbing at her temple, she looked into Landon’s eyes, but she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. She wished she did. The urge to rub at her chest was strong, but she stopped herself, not wanting to draw attention to it.
“I don’t know,” Landon said.
“Our alpha said that we had to get over our animosity toward each other. I think if we set some boundaries and agree to never argue, to take a breath, to talk to each other, and to work together, we can get these cuffs removed and find some freedom. Don’t you want to have a bathroom break without me?” she asked.
“Okay, the privacy thing is an issue. That I agree on, but, Alexa, my dad’s not stupid.”
“We’ve got to accept that we’re mates,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we have to necessarily ever be mated.” In the back of her mind, she was screaming at herself how stupid her plan was. She didn’t want to be without her mate, but telling Landon that felt like revealing a part of herself she wasn’t ready to do.
“So, your plan is for us to become besties?” he asked.
“In a way, yes. I mean, we have to figure a way to keep our annoyance with each other in at all times, but I think it’s quite doable. We don’t want to be bound in cuffs for longer than we have to, right?”
She didn’t have a problem being close to Landon, especially when they didn’t have responsibilities. Alexa wasn’t going to admit that she loved being in his arms, waking up to his scent surrounding her. Even if it was the truth, she couldn’t bring herself to admit it, not yet.