Page 43 of Plus-Size Bullied Mate

Being invisible wasn’t good, and it never was sustainable, but even that slow damage I was accruing felt like mine, and I knew how to do it. I don’t know how to do this, and I don’t know how I’ll ever feel normal again.

***

When I reach the house, it’s quiet as I enter, feeling the exhausting weight of far too much attention than I’m used to. It makes my bones heavier than usual, leaving me sluggish and so worn down that it takes everything in me to keep moving.

I sense Hunter in the kitchen, and I feel his eyes on me next. Somehow, it makes everything else that much worse, even if he’s supposed to be my other half. While a piece of me wants to relax in his presence, it feels too much like a trap now.

“Tessa,” he says, catching me before I can get far.

Stopping at the sound of my name, I glance over at him, but I don’t cut the distance between us.

His dark brows furrow as he looks me over, and a glimmer of concern settles in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

That question feels like salt to my wounds, since he should know better. He should know what this arrangement is doing to me.

“I’m fine.”

My tone sounds more lifeless than I mean for it to, and that makes the crease between his eyes worse.

“You don’t have to pretend. You can tell me.”

A quiet huff escapes me, but I just shake my head, lacking the energy to put up any real fight. Everything has drained it out of me, even to the point where my inner wolf stirs in his presence, but doesn’t do more than that.

Hunter’s worried look lingers, but when I keep moving and head upstairs, he doesn’t say anything else. He likely knows he won’t get anywhere right now, and he’d be correct in assuming that.

So emotionally exhausted to the point of it manifesting physically, I muster what energy I can to get myself up the steps, and I close myself into the spare bedroom.

I was supposed to have the woods, but now, it feels like I don’t have anything at all.

Chapter 16 - Hunter

Tessa’s crumbling under the pressure of change, and it feels like the solution is just out of my reach.

When I get up, she’s still asleep, but the rigidity in her spine hasn’t left her at all. If anything, she looks even more tense, and there’s nothing I can do to soothe it. If anything, all of my attempts to help her only seem to make it worse.

It’s getting under my skin more and more. Not being able to take her pain away despite trying so hard to make her life easier makes me feel useless in a way I’ve never known before.

She isn’t adapting well to this arrangement, and I know it. Still, all I can do right now is hope that enough time and distance will help her see that I’m not trying to ruin her life. That I want to protect her, and I want this to be more than resentment and reluctance.

I’m sitting on the back deck when my phone buzzes on the arm of my chair, and I see Dominic’s name pop up on the screen. With a slow breath, I reach for it and answer.

“Yeah?”

“Have you been living off-grid recently or what?”

“Or what,” I murmur, expression flat despite being alone. “I’ve been busy learning how to be an alpha and keep my head above water, not that you’d know much about that.”

In the usual Dominic way, he chuckles. “Guilty. The freedom’s nice, but I will say, I’m getting a bit jealous of all this alpha dominance going around. Congrats, by the way.”

“Thanks,” I say, leaning back a bit more. “Did you call to kiss ass, or does this conversation come with a point?”

“You’re all the same now… but yes, I’m getting there,” he tells me, sighing before his tone switches to something more serious. “We’ve been tracking Hayes since he breached your territory, and Zane spotted a few of his men near Delmont late last night. They weren’t being subtle.”

My brows furrow. “Do you think they were watching for Naia again?”

“It’s hard to say; they split off the moment they caught Zane’s scent, and they’ve been taking random routes around the island. If I were to guess, I’d say Hayes is firing blind and hoping he hits something.”

“That seems likely. His ego has been bruised more than once, and he needs a way to prove he has things under control,” I say, absently rubbing at my jaw. “It won’t be long before his pack starts challenging him as they did with Dawson.”