Chapter 75

Olivia

“It's perfect, Nathan,” I murmured, my eyes filling with tears. “It tastes just like my dad's.”

Nathan let out a sigh of relief. “Good,” he said, grinning. “I’m glad you like it.”

The tender lamb stew was exactly as I remembered it. The smell, the taste, it was like being wrapped in a warm, comforting blanket. It reminded me of the good old days with my dad. The nostalgia made me smile, and for the first time in a long while, I felt a spark of genuine happiness.

Nathan had nailed it. He had managed to bring me a piece of home and, in doing so, had momentarily swept away the worries and heartaches. For a moment, it was as if I was home again in my dad’s little kitchen, blissfully ignorant of the storms brewing around me.

After dinner, Nathan and I cleaned up the kitchen, exchanging light-hearted banter. The tension from the morning seemed like a distant memory, replaced with an easy camaraderie. Once the dishes were done, Nathan retreated to his room to work on some pack business.

The echo of laughter still hung in the air as I retreated to my own room, the taste of my father's lamb stew lingering on my tongue.

I curled up on my bed, phone in hand, ready to mindlessly scroll through social media. The world outside of our pack seemed so distant and unreal. But the more I scrolled, the more that distance began to blur.

However, as I scrolled, a screenshot of a post from a private account suddenly caught my eye. The caption read, “Trapping Alphas 101.”

I squinted at the blurred image, tapping to enlarge it, and felt my stomach churn. It was a photo of me walking out of the OBGYN’s office. When had this even been taken?

I sat up, my eyes wide, as I read the caption.

“@Alpha_Truths: Seriously, Olivia? Using a pup to trap our Alpha? Not cool. We all know Nathan deserves better.”

Below it, the comments were even worse.

“@Howl_At_The_Moon: Trapping Alphas should be a crime.”

“@Pack_Princess: Olivia has always been overly ambitious for her own good but this is seriously a new low.”

The words were like punches to the gut, each one pulling me further into the darkness. Tears welled up in my eyes, the screen becoming nothing but a blur.

The sound of my sobbing echoed in the silent room. Moments later, my door swung open, and Nathan rushed in, looking frantic.

“Olivia?” he called, scanning the dimly lit room for a brief moment before his eyes found me. “What's wrong?”

I held out my phone for him to see, unable to form the words. His brows furrowed as he read, his grip on the phone tightening with each passing second.

His anger was palpable. “I’ll handle this,” he growled, already turning towards the door.

“No, Nathan,” I choked out, catching his arm as I frantically sat up. “Where are you going?”

Nathan shook his head. He was still gripping my phone tightly in his hand. “I’m gonna figure out whose account this is, and I’m gonna make them pay.”

“How?” I asked, standing. “It’s a private account, and it’s too late anyway. The posts have already been made.”

For a few moments, Nathan was silent, his jaw clenched tightly as his chest swelled with anger.

“Please, Nathan,” I urged, still gripping his arm. “Whoever this is took pictures of me, and I didn’t even notice. We don’t know what they could be capable of. Freaking out might just make it worse. This isn’t just some waitress who made a singular nasty comment.”

“I can handle it,” he persisted.

Nathan didn’t know this, but I was no stranger to smear campaigns. I sighed and finally decided to tell him.

“Once, when I was in high school, I had a crush on a boy who turned out to have a girlfriend. When his girlfriend found out that I was talking to him, she spent the next six months making my life a living hell,” I said, sitting down on my bed.

My friend’s eyes widened. “What?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

I shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I guess I sort of forgot about it until just now.”

“What did she do?” he asked, his voice laced with genuine concern.

It pained me to think back on it. “It started like this, with social media posts,” I explained. “Eventually, it evolved into posters with my face on them plastered all over the school, and people drew all over them and wrote and depicted horrible things. Then…”

My voice faltered as I thought back to my junior prom, when it all came to a head. My classmates voted me as prom queen. For once, I thought that maybe people were starting to like me, and that they were trying to make it up to me.

But they didn’t like me. It was all just a big joke. When my ‘crown’ came out, I quickly discovered that it was made from toilet paper and pieces of trash. Everyone laughed at me. I ran away and insisted that my dad let me transfer schools after that.

“Olivia?” Nathan asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Please, just...stay with me?”

My words seemed to take Nathan by surprise. His eyes widened slightly.

There was a moment of hesitation, a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes, but finally he nodded and sat down next to me on the bed.

We sat there in silence for a while, my tears slowly subsiding. Nathan, the man who was not only my childhood friend but had now become a sort of protector to me, offered quiet solace.

The light in the room grew darker as the night wore on. Nathan, noticing how I wavered where I sat, gently pushed me down on the bed. I felt my heart practically beating out of my chest as he laid down beside me.

“Thank you, Nathan,” I murmured.

Nathan said nothing.

Comforted by his presence, I found my eyelids growing heavy and, without thinking, I allowed myself to drift off to sleep.

I was nearly slipping into unconsciousness when I felt his hand move over and his fingers intertwined with mine.

I woke up the next morning to the soft morning light filtering through the blinds and the sound of the finches, who had made their nest by my window, chirping happily.

The previous night’s events felt like a bad dream. In the light of the morning, nothing felt quite so awful now; but the emptiness of the bed next to me was a harsh reminder of reality.

Nathan was gone, probably off to handle the mess that the post had stirred up. He was always looking out for me, even when I wished he wouldn't.

As I sat up, wrapping the blanket tighter around myself, I felt a strange mix of warmth and sadness. The comfort of Nathan’s presence had been real, the safest I had felt in a long while. But the morning only served as a reminder of our complicated reality.

Sighing, I pulled the blanket up to my chin and inhaled the lingering scent of grapefruit.