The Alpha's Exchanged Mate
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 45

Alexander’s POV…

I am so f****d. Once I heard the door open, my mind left my body, and I was finding it hard to breathe. All of a sudden, the spacious room became so much thinner, and everything appeared to be smaller. My lungs closed up against each other as I struggled to grasp for air. A moment of anger had ruined months of work. I didn’t want to look at the door as the figure quickly rushed in. I could have run back to my wheelchair, but my head had already calculated in a matter of milliseconds that it was impossible to make that run. And then I gazed up at the mirror, and a sense of relief came unto me immediately as the curvy shape figure I was expecting to see turned out to be a masculine, muscular figure.

F**k!!!

F**k!!!

F**k!!!

It was Caleb. Caleb just discovered my secret.

He stopped halfway through as I could see him perplexed. He was totally and utterly confused.

This wasn’t what he was expecting to see, as I could see him puzzled as his head cried out to understand exactly what he was having a glimpse of.

I could almost read the questions out of his mouth.

What exactly is this?

Did he just start walking?

Has he always been pretending?

Was he ever f*****g crippled?

I knew those and many more were the raging questions in his head.

How was he going to ask me all these questions?

He stood still as he kept observing, with no words coming out of his mouth.

Then he moved back and took some series of conscious steps towards the door.

I watched to see exactly what he was doing because, at this point, I found it hard to figure out what his next move would be.

Was he going to scream out and howl out at everyone that the Alpha, their Alpha is a f*****g liar and has been deceiving them, acting to be crippled, yet being able to fully walk and all that?

But to my greatest surprise and utmost amusement, he reached out for the doorknob and twirled it right to ensure it was properly closed, and I exhaled and sighed.

I wondered why for a split second, I forgot this was Caleb, the one who has proven himself worthy of my trust. So many times, he could have chosen to betray me, but he didn’t.

So I wondered why I was so worried.

Do I truly have a trust issue? I wouldn’t blame myself if I did. Humans and wolves have given me so little reason to trust them, especially people who have been so close to me. They have betrayed me in the worst possible way.

He kept staring at me, I knew we could continue with this staring competition for a long while, and nobody would utter a word to each other.

“Caleb,” I finally said, breaking the unspoken vow of silence we had both taken in our hearts a few minutes ago.

“Alpha Alex,” he replied.

He always calls me Alpha Alex whenever he wants to revere me about my position. He calls me that whenever he wants me to be reminded that it isn’t because I was familiar with him that he still sees me as the Alpha, and nothing would ever change that.

“I know you have a lot of questions,” I said gently as I moved towards the chair. I could see him observing me slowly as his eyes trailed after me. It was a moment of blind realization for him, and amazement fluttered all through his eyes. He couldn’t hide it.

“I do, and I know you have a lot of answers for me,” he replied, and I smiled.

I was glad that he had not lost that wonderful sense of stoic humor even in such an awkward moment like this.

“I do have a lot of answers for you, but can you sit first,” I muttered, trying to level the playing ground. I wanted to remind him that he was not just the Beta or someone who had sworn his allegiance to me but also my friend. I don’t think I needed to remind him that I held his words in high esteem. But I needed to remind him of this moment. I wasn’t the Alpha, but rather his friend, who wanted to talk and rub minds with him as a friend.

“Let’s start with the easy questions before we slowly graduate to the hard ones,” I said with a smile on my face, but Caleb didn’t smile back. I could see his mind searching, thinking of the question he could ask me.

“Who else knows apart from me?” He asked gently.

Not the question I was expecting. I know I asked for something simple, but I was expecting something a little bit complex that I would still find hard to explain to him. I could still see him making an effort to make things easier for me.

“Well, no one, you are the only person who knows on planet earth,” I answered, sounding more confident than I should at this moment, that I should humble myself.

I should be aware that with just one utterance from his side, all the effort I had put to sit down a*s straight in this God-forsaken wheelchair for the past months would be all for nothing.

“I am privileged,” he said with a bit of sarcasm and unfiltered humor.

“I know, right,” I chuckled, and soon the tense air became lighter as I could feel us going back to that mutual ground that had existed between us in the past.

“Have you ever been crippled, or was that all just for show?” He asked, and that was the hard question. He jumped from mini, skipped mid, and went straight to max.

That was classic Caleb for you.

My mind flashed back to the moments when I first found out that I was crippled, and my world came crashing down.

“You might not be able to walk or shift to your wolf form ever again,” the special physician for the night howlers had diagnosed me months back.

It was a devastating process for me, as that was also the same time I found out about my cheating wife and mediocre Beta. I had tried to shift to my wolf form countless times in the wheelchair, but I was unable to.

I couldn’t hear my wolf speaking to me anymore as his voice went faint and faded away in my head. I was in a state of mild depression. But one morning, I woke up and heard my wolf’s voice, it was very faint at first, and then soon, it grew louder, gradually.

“Let me out,” he cried out, and I was most joyous and excited to hear from him again. My wolf and I had an exceptionally deep connection, but it was the wild part of me, not the simple side of me. It was the side that told me to get married to Edwina to spite Sonia and Benjamin. It was the crazy side of me that told me to keep on with this act.

When it first cried out to me to be let out, I was both scared and anxious. It had been months since I shifted to my wolf form, and a lot of times I had tried in the past, it proved abortive.

But then the voice kept getting louder and, of course, unbearable.

I went downstairs to the sacred spiritual center for the night howlers. It was the place where the ancient wolves came before battles to tap into the spirit of the moon goddess and become the strongest version of themselves. It was the place where the moon and water spirits were said to meet and intertwine between themselves. It was a place that didn’t just condone but demanded intimacy. It was holy ground.

As I stepped on the grounds of its floor, the cold tiles sent a vibration to my brain. My legs were shaky, and I knew I was going to fall down in a split of seconds, but there was this force in me stronger than my will and power, and as soon as I arched my back, I saw myself begin to shift, it was painful at first as I howled out loudly and growled. It was one of the most painful shifts I have ever done in my entire life. It was taking all the willpower in me, I wanted to stop halfway, but I kept on going, and as soon as my entire body changed to the hairy big bad wolf, I howled out loudly. I could hear other wolves howling too. But I was glad they weren’t in a telepathic connection with me at that moment.

And after I shifted back to my human form, I realized I was completely healed, and I could walk just fine, even better than I could work before, if that was a thing.

“Yes I was crippled at first, months after the battle, I couldn’t move but one day I shifted to my wolf form, months after, and then I realized I could walk again,” I explained to Caleb.

I could see he still had a lot of questions in his head. He wasn’t one to stop asking questions until he was fully and completely clear.

“Then why did you keep on with the act?” He asked, and I sighed.

“For countless reasons, I don’t think we have all day to outline all of it for you,”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. He knew I was taking the easy way out of the issue, but I know we would later have ample time to send out all of these reasons to him.

Maybe it was because I was still struggling with my main reasons for doing it deep down in my head.

I want to tell myself I was doing it because of presenting the element of surprise during battles, but something tells me it was still linked to my trust issues and wanting to know who was there for me as an Alpha or as a leader.

Because when I lost my ability to move, it made a lot of people undermine me as a leader. I was going to stop this act sooner than later; truly, I was.

But when I saw Edwina, my mission, vision, and objectives changed.

My wolf had advised me again to marry her.

“What other way would you make Sonia and Ben feel your pain by marrying her,” I advised myself. I have gotten used to very abstract and crazy advice, but this one was way out of place.

“How was I going to keep faking being crippled to her, she is going to be sleeping in the same room with me, and she would be watching my bath and do other things. How in heaven’s name was I going to fake all that,” I retorted back to it, and it let out a slight growl as I grumbled within me. It does that every single time we do not agree on a subject matter.

“You have been doing it for months, you would figure it out, and I will be more silent,” it wasn’t a great assurance, but it was one that I could work with.

And I glared back at Caleb, waiting for his response.

“So Edwina doesn’t know?” I knew he wasn’t asking, but I just wanted to be certain.

“Yes, Caleb. You are the only one that knows and I appreciate it that way. I have my reasons for doing so and I am hoping you would respect it.” I said.

“Yes, Alpha Alex,” he responded, and I knew he was going back to that place where he saw me just as the Alpha and not as a friend.

“I am glad I get to share this part of me with you, you know how hard it has been, at least we will get to train for battle together now,”

He smiled. “I have always won you,”

I laughed, and I heard a knock on the door. We had forgotten that the door was locked from the inside. The knock was silent, and I knew it was Edwina. I moved back to my wheelchair while Caleb headed to the door. He opened it, and as soon as he saw her, he bowed down and exited the room almost immediately.

“Can I go to see my sister?” She asked calmly.

“Yes, sure,” I replied, and she headed to the wardrobe, took out a long blue gown, and headed for the door.

“Edwina,” I called out to her.

“Yes,” she responded.

“I am sorry,” I said calmly. She looked at me and smiled.

“I know you are, I will get someone to clean the broken glass,” she said, pointing at the glass, and headed out.