I Drugged the Snake Beast Alpha… And the System Screamed I Chose the Wrong Mate Chapter 02
Rowan escorted me back to our cabin unscathed, and I was still in a daze.
He’d actually stood up for me back there. Hadn’t he always hated me?
He must have read my face, because his voice came out stiff and clipped.
“Your parents asked me to look after you before they died. I wasn’t going to stand there and let you get thrown out.”
[Sweet baby side character, don’t fall for that line. This man has been crushing on you in SILENCE.]
[Fun fact: this man is rock-solid in two places right now. One is his mouth. The other one… well.]
[When you find a tsundere who’s also down bad AND faithful? You lock that DOWN. Especially since he goes on a full revenge rampage after you die in the story. MARRY HIM.]
I pieced together what the comments had been telling me, and it finally clicked.
We were all characters in a story. Chloe and Silas were the leads, and Rowan and I were the villains.
Villains didn’t get happy endings. The leads would destroy us eventually.
What a depressing plotline.
Still, there was nothing I could do about it tonight. I might as well sleep.
“It’s late. Get some rest,” Rowan muttered. “I’ll sleep outside.”
Rowan grabbed a pelt, spread it on the ground outside the cabin, lay down, and closed his eyes.
[Are you KIDDING? You’ve got this obsessive, devoted, lovesick wolf-shifter and you’re making him sleep OUTSIDE?]
[Bring that man inside and handle your business already. I need to SEE this.]
The comments kept scrolling.
These people were going to be the death of me.
Still, Rowan had gone to bat for me today. Letting him sleep on the ground again didn’t feel right.
My father had pulled Rowan from the jaws of a wild beast years ago, deep in the forest. He’d been nothing but a scrawny silver wolf pup back then, fragile and beautiful.
We grew up together, but I couldn’t stand him. He ran cold, barely spoke to me, and the few words he did say always cut.
Before Chloe showed up, I’d been the prettiest girl in the settlement. Every male bent over backward to impress me, every one of them except Rowan.
Then I fell for Silas. He was brooding like Rowan, sure, but gentler with me, warmer with his words, the kind of attention that made me feel wanted.
When my parents died, Rowan was already the settlement’s only Alpha-tier warrior. Their last wish was for him to take care of me.
I resented the whole arrangement, the feeling that my life had been decided for me. So I hated him harder, never let him sleep inside, and barely said a word to him.
The whole settlement knew we’d gone through a bonding ceremony. They also knew we’d never mated.
I stepped outside and stood over him.
“Come sleep inside.”
His eyes opened, and confusion flickered across his face.
They were ice blue, those eyes, pale and startling. Under the moonlight, they looked like the surface of a still silver lake.
I’d overheard the other women calling Rowan the most handsome male in the settlement. I’d rolled my eyes at the time, but standing here now, I got it.
My eyes darted away, and I scrambled for an excuse.
“Rainy season’s almost here. You’ll get sick sleeping out in the open.”
Rowan said nothing. He gathered the pelt and spread it on the floor beside my bed.
I lay there listening to his breathing, slow and steady, but my mind wouldn’t quiet down.
[Great. Separate beds. We’re beyond saving.]
[I got all settled in for the good stuff and THIS is what I get?]
[I didn’t sign up for pillow talk. I want the MAIN EVENT. Somebody make something happen.]
The comments made heat rush to my cheeks.
In the shifter world, mating was as natural as breathing. The weeks before rainy season were peak mating time for most species.
Right on cue, the rabbit-shifter next door and her three mates started getting loud, and the sounds carried straight through the wall.
My skin prickled with heat. I tossed and turned on the stone bed, unable to settle.
I needed a distraction.
“Rowan. You awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it… weirdly hot tonight, or is that just me?”
He took a long time to answer. When it came, it wasn’t really a word, just a low, rough hum.
His voice sounded deeper than usual. It came out strained, like he was holding something back.
[Oh my God. That VOICE. I am on the FLOOR.]
[Somebody in that cabin is wound tight enough to snap right now, and I’d bet my LIFE on it.]
[Why is it so dark in there? I can’t see ANYTHING.]
[To the girl above me, what exactly were you hoping to see?]
My breath hitched.
“Rowan, you okay?”
He was on his feet in one motion and halfway to the door before I could blink.
“I need to cool off.”
[HE BAILED. At the BEST PART. Someone give this man a backbone and let us have our feast.]
[A self-denying, touch-starved, lovesick puppy. Who could possibly resist that?]
[Hold on, we don’t even get the cold-water scene? I’m a PREMIUM subscriber. I deserve better than a black screen.]
Rowan didn’t come back for a long time.
I lay on the stone bed and forced my eyes shut. Then it hit me. Wolves had a mating season too, and this was it.
He must have been crawling out of his skin.
My thoughts drifted, and sleep pulled me under before I noticed.
I woke to heat–not from the stifling air, but from something warm, dense, and impossibly soft pressed against every inch of me. I was buried in silver wolf fur.
I was wrapped around him like an octopus, arms and legs locked tight. My dignity had officially packed its bags.
It was Rowan in his wolf form.
Sometime in the night, I’d gotten cold, felt warmth beside me, and rolled straight into it without thinking.
The thought of how I must have looked sent heat crawling up my neck.
He was still asleep. Thank God. I started peeling myself off him, inch by careful inch.
[Oh, he’s “asleep.” Sure. This man woke up the SECOND she rolled into him and hasn’t slept a minute since.]
[Rowan’s been lying there replaying a hundred fantasies he’ll never be allowed to act on.]
[His wife held him all night for the first time ever. This man isn’t sleeping. He’s memorizing every second.]
My hands froze. I leaned in and studied his face, and there it was, the faintest tremor in his lashes.
He was faking it.
I didn’t call him out. I straightened the hide tunic around myself and slipped outside.
