Alpha's Secret Bride-Chapter 20: The Pull of the Mate Bond

Emma was drugged by his clean and manly scent, and she forgot that some healers were in the chamber, staring at them. Brandon, whose eyes were locked on her face, also ignored them.

"I blame myself for leaving you behind," he said, his hand brushing the bright red rash on her cheek with a possessive tenderness.

"Moonrise healer," she greeted no one in particular. One of the healers grinned and stretched forth his hand. She shook hands with him and waved at others. They smiled and waved back at her.

"Hi, I’m healer Ben. How are you?" The healer that shook hands with her asked with a moonally gentle smile.

"I’m fine," she responded with an unusual tone that matched her fragile and pathetic appearance.

"Your knees," he said, pointing at her knees. "How do you feel?"

"Just a little pain whenever I want to sit or stand."

"Were you rushed to the healing den immediately?"

"No."

"Which means you lost some blood. Would you climb the bed for an examination?" the healer asked. She hesitated because she liked where she was.

"You couldn’t drive to a nearby healing den when the incident occurred?" another healer asked.

"My...the cab driver lost his car, so he..." she paused when Brandon lifted her head. She quickly lowered her gaze.

"You were attacked by armed robbers?" he asked with a serious tone.

"No...He... pulled over in front of our pack gate."

"And then what happened?" Brandon asked again, tilting one of his brows. She did not know how to narrate what happened without provoking and unleashing the beast within him again.

"Nothing," she said, fixing her eyes on the examination bed at the extreme. The first healer gestured to the bed. She stood up and walked toward it. Brandon stood up and followed her; the other healers joined him. They surrounded her as though she was in a sacred trial, undergoing a major operation. However, her eyes were on Brandon. He lifted his face. She quickly looked away.

"You will be admitted," the senior healer said after the examination.

"No."

"Listen..."

"No, I don’t want to be admitted."

"Okay, do you have some drugs?"

"I have some painkillers and antibiotics."

"You will be admitted and discharged at moonfall. We need to carry out a complete medical check-up," Healer. Ben said with a moonally grin as he helped her up.

She was admitted into a presidential ward. She looked around and wondered why Brandon had to use another healing den when he fell sick.

She lay on her bed as she recalled what she saw in Brandon’s command chamber. Tears began to drop from her eyes again. The she-wolves were trying to seduce him, and he knew yet he allowed them. She quickly wiped them off when Brandon’s guards surrounded her ward. She looked at the door and saw him staring at her. He waved at his guards and they left the ward immediately.

He moved closer and sat on her bed. He leaned forward and began to touch her red cheeks. Her skin pricked at his touch. His closeness was so overwhelming, and her heart hammered foolishly.

He pulled his shoes off and joined her on the bed. She hesitated to move closer to him. He drew her closer, rested her head on his chest, and began to caress her arm gently. Even when the healer came to take her samples, he did not leave her side. He was behaving as if she had suffered a grave accident.

She was discharged in the evening after undergoing a series of tests. Two of Brandon’s guards took her back to her mansion. She entered her bedchamber and the guards stood at the entryway.

"Go back to your boss," she said. None of them responded to her.

"Alpha’s mate..."

"What," she interrupted the middle-aged she-wolf.

"They are your new guards; you are not supposed to talk to them. You don’t give them instructions, they know their work," the middle-aged she-wolf, Mr. Richard assigned to her, said.

"Please, please, I don’t need a guard and I don’t need you. The maids are enough."

"Alright, I’m Mrs. Thompson. Go and take your shower. I have a few things I would like to discuss with you," Mrs. Thompson said, sounding like a gentle mother figure. She walked into the bathchamber and the maids began to undress her. She did not protest at all. She couldn’t believe she was slowly adapting to the wealthy wolf’s way of life. Thanks to her overwhelmed emotions that had taken over her actions. She stepped into the bathtub and cleaned herself up.

Naomi brought down one of the bathrobes hanging on the rack. She took it from her and wrapped herself in it. She wiped her hair slowly and covered it with a dry towel.

She joined Mrs. Thompson who sat on one of the sofas in the bedchamber. She grinned, probably because of the impatience she saw in her eyes.

"Would you like him to go for a test since you don’t trust him?"

"Test for what?"

The she-wolf looked at her and smiled knowingly. She understood her question but had not expected it. Despite the number of she-wolves she saw around him, she still trusted him, and she didn’t know why. She fastened her bathrobe properly. It was an involuntary reaction.

"Did he tell you to talk to me?"

"Brandon doesn’t give us instructions; we are adults and we do our work without being told. He... is your mate; making love to him and sleeping in his arms is not a crime. I have been watching both of you and I haven’t noticed any..."

"He doesn’t want me," she interrupted and stood up.

"Sit, we are not done."

She sat down again and fixed her gaze on her.

"Do you want him?"

"Huh..."

"Do you want your mate?"

"I... need... to dress up."

"Talk to me, Alpha’s mate; I am a mother."

"What would you do if I said yes; talk to him?"

"No, but help you achieve it. So, do you want him?"

She took a deep breath, rolled her eyes, and leaned back into the chair. "Everything about him drives me crazy, especially his soothing voice and...and... yeah... I want him, but since I turned him down two days ago, he doesn’t want me anymore."

"Let’s find out if he wants you or not."

"Wow, what do you intend to do?"

"A little experiment; are you in?" Mrs. Thompson said, smiling with the quiet confidence of somewolf who understood both wolves and hearts.

Emma hesitated before allowing hope to soften her expression, realizing that the bond between Alpha and Luna demanded courage not only in danger but in vulnerability—a risk far more terrifying than battle.

Somewhere beyond the chamber walls, Brandon’s wolf waited, restless, sensing that the distance between them was not ending but transforming into something inevitable beneath the rising pull of the moon.

Brandon yearns for his mate, and the wait has become unbearable.