The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate (Jason and Laila) by Caroline Above Story novel Chapter 151

Jason’s POV

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I sat in the chair next to Ava’s bed, taking a moment to recover myself after having just donated more of my wolf essence. Perhaps it had been too soon to donate again, but with everything that was happening, it helped soothe me to be here, helping someone, rather than at home where I had to pretend to be happy about an event I dreaded.

I was resigned to it by now. I knew nothing would change. But, I still dreaded being bound to Brittany. It felt like I was giving away too much of myself. That was what I had to do thought I was Alpha. I lived only to serve my pack.

“…Alpha Jason…?”

I blinked, not having expected to hear my name, especially in that soft child voice. Then I looked up to Ava’s face.

She was awake.

And she was crying.

“Why are you marrying someone else and not my mom?” she asked me, and sniffed.

“Ava! You are awake! We have to tell someone!” I started to stand up.

“No,” she said quickly. She sat up so abruptly that it seemed like she hadn’t really been sleeping. At least, not this whole time. She was moving with no grogginess, not like someone who had just been unconscious for days. “Don’t tell anyone yet. Not until you answer my question!”

“It’s important the doctors look at you,” I tried to tell her.

She shook her head. “Nothing is more important than this.” Fat tears fell down her cheeks. “Don’t you want to be a part of our family?”

I should have gotten the healer. Should have told her that her health was more important and we could talk about this later, with her mom. That together maybe Vanessa and I could help her understand.

But in the face of her heartbreak, my own heart was aching. I couldn’t leave things like this. I had to try to convince her not to cry at least, for both our sakes.

“Ava,” I said. I moved closer to her bed, but she recoiled, pulling back away from me.

“That’s it, isn’t it? You don’t want to be part of our family?”

“That’s not it at all,” I told her. “If it were up to me…”

I sighed. “Ava, if I could somehow change things would. I swear I could. I would make it so that I would maybe be free to date your mom, and maybe… But that’s not reality. In reality, I have to get married as soon as possible.”

“So marry my mom.” She made it all seem so simple. To her, I supposed that it was.

Unfortunately, I lived in a much harsher reality. One where, if I didn’t make the right choices, people could be killed.

“I have to marry Brittany. But it’s not because I love her, or I’m choosing her for myself. It’s because I am an Alpha, and my duty is to my pack over my own feelings.”

Ava listened, considered this. Her tears slowed someway, but didn’t totally dry up. In addition to being sad for herself, she also seemed to be a bit sad for me now, in a way she hadn’t been before.

At least she wasn’t angry with me anymore.

“I am sorry,” I said.

“But I thought people only mated for love,” Ava said.

“Usually yes. But not in the case of some Alphas. To us, duty is the most important thing.”

She frowned deeper. “That’s

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