Badly

**Alpha Cedric's POV**

"Wait!" I shouted. When my eyes saw Estelle turning around with her irritated face, I still didn't want to stop looking at her, even if it would make her look at me badly.

I was the Alpha who didn't save her, I didn't defend her even though I know she was innocent. I was a mate who couldn't even make her feel safe.

Judging from those conditions, it seemed that I failed to become a good mate. Wasn't it worth my destiny to have a mute Stealer's mate? Was this only my quality in the eyes of the Moon Goddess?

"Can you explain to me what you mean by that?" I asked her. She had not turned her back completely so there was still a chance she was ignoring me.

But the tension in my jaw eased a bit after seeing her gesture at me.

"I commend Roland because he is a great man," she said. "And that's a fact."

I sighed while watching her, at her shabby clothes like the first time she came here as a slave. Didn't she get some dresses gifted to her? Why didn't she just use them?