Mated to Her Alpha Instructor (Eileen and Regis) novel Chapter 184

Chapter 184

Eileen

She hadn’t moved from where I’d left her, still sitting on the edge of the bed with the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, still staring at that same spot on the wall. I settled myself in the wooden chair, close enough to talk but far enough to give her space, and for a long time I just sat there in silence, letting

her adjust to my presence, letting her decide whether or not she could bear to acknowledge me.

“I know you probably don’t want to talk,” I said finally, keeping my voice low and even. “I know that right now it probably feels safer to stay silent, to keep

everything locked inside where it can’t hurt you. I understand that impulse more than you might think.”

No response, but I thought I saw her eyes flicker slightly in my direction.

“I spent most of my life being told I wasn’t enough, I continued, the words coming easier than I’d expected now that I’d started. “Being told that because I couldn t shift, because I didn’t have a wolf, I wasn’t really part of the Pack. My own parents looked at me like I was a disappointment, an embarrassment they had to tolerate. They took my money, took my labor, took everything I could give them, and when I had nothing left, they made it clear I was worthless

to them.

I saw her shoulders tense slightly, saw the first sign that she was actually listening.

“There was a boy,” I said, and even now the memory carried a sting of humiliation. “Derek. I thought I loved him, thought that if I was just patient enough, sweet enough, useful enough, he might see me as something more than the wolfless girl who followed him around. I wasted two years of my life waiting for him to notice me, making excuses for him when he ignored me, telling myself that his cruelty was just awkwardness and that eventually he’d realize what he

had.

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A soft sound from the bed–not quite a word, but acknowledgment.

And when I finally started working in the kitchens to earn money my family wouldn’t take from me, there was another man. Andrew. The name tasted bitter. “He cornered me in the forest, called me filthy names because I was pregnant, tried to…” I had to stop, had to breathe through the memory of his hands on me, his breath hot against my face. “I defended myself. I used a spray to get away. And when I tried to report what happened, when I tried to stand ap for myself, the Elder told me it was my fault. Told me I’d provoked it, that I was probably lying, that I should just sign a paper saying it was all a misunderstanding and be grateful he didn’t expel me for attacking a student.”

Now Nina turned, actually turned to look at me, and her eyes were wide and wounded and full of terrible recognition.

I almost signed it, I admitted, feeling the shame of that moment wash over me again. I almost gave in, almost agreed that I deserved what happened to me, because that’s what I’d been taught my whole life. To be small. To be sorry. To accept whatever treatment I got and be grateful it wasn’t worse.

“But you didn’t,” Nina said, and her voice was hoarse and raw from crying, from screaming, from years of keeping silent. You’re here You’re alive and you’re… you’re the Luna. You got away.”

“Not on my own,‘ I said quietly. “I had Regis. I had someone who refused to let me believe those lies about myself, who stood between me and the people who wanted to hurt me, who taught me that I had the right to defend myself, to say no, to be angry about the injustice of it all I leaned forward, catching her gaze and holding it. And now you have us too. You have me, and Regis, and we are not going to let Silas or anyone else hurt you again Not if we van help it.”

She was crying now, silent tears tracking down her face, her whole body shaking with the effort of holding back sobs. You don’t understand, she whispered. “You’re a wolf, even if you couldn’t shift before. You’re Pack. You belong. I’m… I’m not even supposed to exist. If they find out what I am, what my mother was, they’ll kill me. The laws-

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Mated to Her Alpha Instructor

Chapter 185

“Say nothing about healing, I interrupted firmly. Say nothing about students who’ve done nothing wrong except have the misfortune of being born to the wrong bloodline. Nina, I don’t care what the old laws say. You saved lives at that medical station. You helped me figure out the parasite cure.