The Bully Alpha's Fake Alpha Mate (BL)-Chapter 41: CAMPFIRE CONFESSIONS

ASHER

We ran until my lungs were burning and my legs felt like they might give out. Reed finally slowed when we reached a rocky outcropping that formed a natural shelter. He checked the perimeter twice before declaring it safe enough to make camp.

The sun was setting, and we’d been running for hours.

My whole body ached, blood had dried on my skin and clothes, making everything stick and pull uncomfortably. Rogue blood, my blood, Reed’s blood all mixed together until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

Reed started gathering wood for a fire without a word, his shoulder had stopped bleeding, but the claw marks looked bad and inflamed.

I dropped my pack and sank to the ground. My hands were still shaking from the fight, from the adrenaline crash, and from everything.

The pill was wearing off again, I could feel it in the way my skin felt too warm,too sensitive, and the way Reed’s pheromones were getting stronger, more overwhelming with every breath I took.

I had three pills left, and we still had at least another day out here.

"Here." Reed tossed me a water bottle, I caught it and drank, the water did nothing to calm the heat building under my skin.

Reed got the fire going quickly, the flames casting dancing shadows across the rocky walls around us then he sat down across from me, his movements stiff and pained.

"Let me look at your shoulder," I said.

"It’s fine."

"Reed—"

"I said it’s fine." But his voice lacked its usual edge, he just sounded tired, so we sat in silence as the fire crackled between us. The temperature was dropping fast now that the sun was down, I pulled my jacket tighter, but the cold wasn’t what was making me shiver.

"You fought well today," Reed said finally.

I looked up but he was staring into the fire, his expression unreadable.

"So did you," I said.

"That’s not what I meant." Reed’s jaw worked. "You could have frozen, you could have gotten yourself killed but you fought like..." He trailed off.

"Like?"

Reed’s eyes found mine across the fire. "Like you belonged there, and you belong with me."

My throat went tight, the words shouldn’t have affected me this way, they were just words but the way Reed said them, the raw honesty in his voice, made my chest feel like someone had reached in and squeezed.

"We make a good team," Reed continued, his voice quieter now. "In a fight, at least."

"Yeah." The word came out rough. "We do."

The silence stretched between us, but it felt different than before. Less hostile, and more... something else. Something that made my chest ache in ways I couldn’t name.

Reed shifted, wincing as the movement pulled at his shoulder. His eyes stayed on me, studying my face in the firelight.

"Tell me something," he said quietly.

"Tell you what?" I asked, totally confused.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

I blinked, taken by surprise. "What?"

"You heard me." Reed leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. The firelight caught in his gray eyes, turning them amber. "From the moment you walked into this Academy, you’ve been pushing back against me, challenging me, and refusing to submit when every other student falls in line. Why?"

"Because you’re a bully."

"That’s not an answer."

"Yes, it is." I met his gaze across the fire. "You terrorize people, you use your Alpha status to control everyone around you. You make people afraid of you because it makes you feel powerful."

Reed’s expression stayed neutral, but something flickered in his eyes, something that looked almost like pain.

"And that bothers you," he said.

"It disgusts me."

"Why?" Reed’s voice was soft now, and almost gentle. "Why does it bother you so much, Asher? What did I do to you to make you hate me this much?"

My hands were clenching into fists, my nails dug into my palms hard enough to hurt. "You don’t get to ask me that, not after everything you’ve done."

"I’m asking anyway." He said, and we stared at each other across the fire. My heart was pounding. The heat under my skin was getting worse, making it hard to think straight, and making it hard to remember why I was supposed to hate him.

"You want to know why I hate you?" The words burst out before I could stop them. My voice was shaking. "Because you’re exactly the kind of Alpha I spent my whole life trying to avoid. The kind who thinks power gives you the right to hurt people. The kind who—"

I stopped, I’d said too much. The words were hanging in the air between us, exposing more than I meant to expose.

Reed was watching me with an intensity that made my skin prickle, and made my pulse race.

"Who hurt you?" he asked quietly.

"What?"

"Someone hurt you." Reed’s voice was barely above a whisper. "Some Alpha, that’s why you fight so hard against dominance, and that’s why you refuse to submit."

My throat was closing up. I couldn’t breathe properly. "You don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Don’t I?" Reed shifted closer to the fire, closer to me. The movement was slow, and careful like he was approaching a wounded animal. "I’ve been watching you for months, Asher. Trying to figure you out, and the only thing that makes sense is that someone broke you, and made you afraid of what Alphas stronger than you can do."

The words hit me harder than any physical blow could have. My vision blurred at the edges. "I’m not afraid of you."

"I know." Reed’s eyes were boring into mine, and there was something in them that looked almost like regret, almost like guilt. "That’s what makes you different. You should be afraid of me. Every other student at that Academy is but you? You look at me like I’m the enemy like you’re waiting for me to prove you right."

"You did prove me right. You declared war on me, you threatened me, and you tried to—"

"I know what I did." Reed’s voice broke on the words, the sound sent a jolt through my chest. "And I’m trying to understand why I did it. Why you make me so fucking crazy that I can’t think straight."

The air between us felt different, and my whole body was trembling now, and I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or something else entirely.

"Maybe we’re just meant to hate each other," I said quietly.

"No." Reed shook his head. The firelight caught in his hair, making it look almost red. "We’re not because if we were, we wouldn’t fight like we did today. We wouldn’t move together like that. Like we were..."

He trailed off.

"Like we were what?" My voice barely worked. My heart was hammering so hard I thought Reed might be able to hear it.

Reed’s eyes found mine again. "Like we were made to fit together."

My breath caught, and stopped completely for a moment.

The fire crackled between us but neither of us spoke. The silence was so heavy I could feel it pressing down on my chest.

Then Reed stood up and moved around the fire, then he sat down next to me instead of across from me. I could smell his pheromones which made my body respond in ways I couldn’t afford, ways that terrified me.

"I don’t understand you," Reed said quietly. "And it’s driving me insane."

"Good."

"Is it?" Reed turned to look at me. His face was inches from mine. "Because from where I’m sitting, it feels like torture for both of us."

My heart was trying to break through my ribs. Every instinct in my body was screaming at me to move away, to put distance between us but I was frozen.

"Reed—"

"Tell me something true." Reed’s voice was soft, almost pleading, the vulnerability in it made my chest ache. "Just one thing. Something real."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I’m tired of fighting." The words came out rough. "Just for tonight, I’m tired of hating you when all I want—"

He stopped himself.

"What do you want, Reed?" The words came out as a whisper. Reed’s eyes dropped to my lips, and my whole body went rigid. Panic flooded through me, cold and overwhelming.

"All I want," Reed said slowly, "is to figure out why you smell like that. Why you make me feel like this? Why I can’t stop thinking about you even when I’m supposed to hate you."

"You do hate me."

"Do I?" Reed’s hand lifted, slow, and careful. Reaching toward my face but I jerked away.

The movement was violent, instinctive, and pure panic overriding everything else.

Reed’s hand froze mid-air. Something flickered across his face, it was a deep, genuine hurt that made my stomach twist.

Then confusion, then his expression shuttered completely.

He pulled back, and put some distance between us again. The warmth of his presence disappeared, leaving me cold.

The moment shattered, and I could almost hear it breaking.

"Get some sleep," Reed said, his voice was cold again, and empty. All the vulnerability from moments ago was gone. "We have a long day tomorrow."

He moved back to his sleeping bag on the other side of the fire without another word, and without looking at me.

I sat there, my heart pounding, my hands shaking, watching him settle into his sleeping bag with his back to me.

What the fuck had just happened?

Reed had almost touched me, he had looked at me with those eyes full of something I was too terrified to name, and I’d ruined it. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The thought made my chest tighten painfully.

No.

I couldn’t think about that, so I crawled into my own sleeping bag, my whole body trembling from the cold, from the fear, and from the way Reed’s voice had sounded when he said he was tired of hating me.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but all I could feel was the phantom warmth of Reed’s hand almost touching my face, and all I could see was the hurt in his eyes when I’d jerked away from him like I thought he would hurt me like I was afraid of him when the truth was so much more complicated than that.