Page 23 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
Alexis looked stunned, speechless, rooted to his feet as his eyes shuffled between Mia and me, and I saw the moment where it clicked for him—when he figured it out. My foundation teetered, and I hoped that the ground would open and swallow me whole, but that didn't happen.
Run. Run. Run. The words chanted in my head, but I couldn't move. He had Mia in his grasp.
How did Alexis find us?
My mind raced with a million and one questions, each intangible emotion threatening to send me dropping to my knees, but most paramountly, fear freezing me in place. I didn't realize when Alexis closed the space between us, his Adam's apple working in a thick swallow.
"Selina?" He breathed out in front of my face almost inaudibly, like he didn’t believe it was me, his ripped chest heaving and my heart bouncing in my throat. Again.
"A-Alexis," I strung out.
"This child," he voiced after a short pause, sounding croaked as he glanced down at Mia a second too long before his gaze settled back on me. "Is…"
"No!" I yelled in the nick of time, my voice shrill.
No.
I wasn’t going to let Alexis break me again. Stretching a shaky, clammy hand out, I gestured to Mia. "Come here, baby. Come on." I didn’t bother to hide the panic in my voice, so it didn't shock me when Mia's face contoured with confusion. "Come here." Mia looked between me and Alexis, her smile faltering a little before she reluctantly unlocked her hand from his. I saw the reluctance in Alexis's conflicted eyes to let Mia's hand go, but he did, letting his arm fall heavily to his side.
The time it took for Mia's small legs to travel the five feet between me and Alexis felt too long and torturous, causing the veins on mytemples to pulse with blood, and once her hands touched mine, it felt like it was Alexis’s hand. I closed my eyes, shaking off the shudder that ran through me, but I snapped them back open immediately.
"Get inside," I spoke to Mia, holding on to her as though if I let go, she would disappear with Alexis. I took three unbalanced steps up the front porch stairs, opening the door quickly and attempting to shuffle Mia inside the house, but Alexis sped after us immediately, startling us.
"No, don't leave, Selina, please." I whirled around, stumbling on my feet right outside the entrance door, and Alexis’s hand shot out to mine.
On contact, heat blasted up my arm, spreading through my chest and searing itself deep into my organs till it stuck there. Alexis was too close now, and his scent stole into my lungs, distorting me for a good second as his familiar, natural, rare green tree smell hit me. It was even more potent than Mia’s scent. My wolf ran wild—for the first time in years—thrashing against my skin, looking for an out. A release. Him.
Alexis’s hand dropped from my arm, but he wrung his free hand with it, watching me with a slack expression on his face. He couldn’t possibly feel something now, right?
He spoke before I could think on it or react. “I can’t believe my eyes. Selina…Goddess,” Alexis began, and I shook on my feet, emotions rushing to my eyes, the back of my throat squeezing in pain.
Recovering quickly, I shoved Mia behind me, blocking Alexis’s view of her, and I spoke, cutting off his words. “Before you start, I should let you know that this wasn’t another attempt by me to exploit you. She’s mine, and I accept her as she is, so please, spare me the talk. I am not obsessed with you like Marissa. I did not and am not trying to defraud you by having her, and I need absolutely nothing from you. Please, Alexis, leave us alone.” By the time I finished, my chest was heaving, the shield in front of my eyes hanging on its minutest shred.
Alexis’s eyes met mine, the stormy ocean eyes I never forgot, stealing the breath out of my lungs. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He did it once more before he finally talked. “No. I don’t think that. I’m not…” he shook his head, inhaling a dragged breath. “I’m so fucking sorry, Selina…”
I gasped at the same time as Mia snickered, peeking her head from behind me to say. “Bad word. Mommy doesn’t like bad words.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexis rasped out, hands held out, and I shuffled backward, putting distance between us. “I’m so sorry, Selina…I had no idea. I fuc…I messed things up, and I’ve been searching for you. I want to fix it. I need to, please! Please, I’m sorry, let me fix this,” he rambled on, the stress audible in his tone, a sag visible around his eyes, while my brows deepened. “Let me make up for you. For us. And for her,” he said, whispering the last part, and my blood chilled.
A switch flipped in my brain, my eyes going wide with rage.
If I let Alexis go on speaking, he could ruin what took me five years to let go of and rebuild in seconds. I couldn’t have that. Not when Mia was involved. Bringing Mia in front of me, I covered both her ears with my palms, making sure she wouldn’t hear me.
Then, I lashed out.
“Don’t you dare come here and try to destroy the life I’ve built for my daughter because I will not let that happen, not on my life or even in death. Stay the heck away from us, just like you wanted me to since the first day I met you. Don’t let it change now,” I bit out, fighting the tears from falling because once they did, there would be no stopping. I went on, the fear of my daughter’s life becoming even harder than it already was by Alexis waltzing in on us whenever he pleased, grounding me. “To Mia, her father is dead! Long gone, buried, and nowhere but in her heart. Her life will not be disrupted, and you will not break her, Alexis. You. Will. Not.”
My eyes were brimming now, full to their lids, and when Alexis’s throat rumbled, sounding pained and wounded, the dam finally collapsed, starting with one, two, and then many streaks. I sniffed the tears back, angrily wiping a hand down my face, but that didn’t stop it.
“Selina,” Alexis said, pleading, but I shook my head, turning my back to him at once.
“Leave, Alexis.”
I thought I could handle seeing Alexis. I’d thought about it often, imagining that it was decades from now, but still, I thought his presence wouldn’t affect me this much. Yet, I did a terrible job even after he left the front of our cabin thirty minutes after I snapped at him.
It had been twenty-four hours now, and I still hadn’t been able to step outside the house, fearing that if I did, he would be there waiting again. My herbal shop was closed since only I had the key. I knew that I would be missing more customers than I should allow as a business owner, but I couldn’t help it.
A knock on my front door pulled me from my unmoving and aimless staring position on the couch the next evening, and I jumped in a scare. Was Alexis here again? I instantly shot up on my feet, crossing the room to the wooden framed window to crouch and have a look, expecting to see Alexis, with guards from his pack, coming to bundle me and Mia, but I only saw a woman. Her thick black hair was tied half up, half down, and her hands were freely clasped in front of her in a calm, composed grace. Lyvia was a complete one-eighty from what I felt and looked like right now.
