Page 29 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
“The life you took from me five years ago wasn’t satisfying enough for you, so now you come here and put up all these decorations so you can take my daughter away from me? Is that your plan this time?” Selina’s voice trembled, eyes red and glazed over with not just her rage toward me. She was in my personal space now, but I couldn’t find it in me to feel the usual rush when all I felt from her were waves of bitter energy. “And when you take her away, do you plan to make her life miserable like you did mine for no reason, Alexis?”
“No, Selina,” I put in quickly as she drew in a sharp, unsteady breath. “Why would I do that? I do not want just her, and I don’t ever intend to take anything from you without your consent, Selina,” I tried to explain, but her mind was made up about me being a monster whose only purpose was to cause her pain.
“Don’t even start with me, Alexis. Just stop intruding!” Her voicerose an octave higher, and that caught Mia’s attention as her eyes snapped up to us.
Selina took a deep breath with her eyes closed, and when she opened it, resolve swam in her eyes while my heart plummeted to the bottomless pits of despair.
“We finally have a good life. Please, do not ruin it for us.”
The events of the past weeks leading up to this replayed on a loop in my head, and my most recurring thought was how Selina greatly misunderstood my intentions. My wolf thrashed against my skin, pushing me to use whatever means possible to convince Selina that she had the wrong information about things—that I wanted and needed us to be okay and not that I wanted to steal our daughter away like some devil. But my reasonable side sprung up, too.
I had to keep my emotions in check, or else I risked further damaging our relationship, which was already strained, fragile, and weighing on thin ice.
My voice dropped low as I nodded once, the back of my throat burning as I said the handful of words.
“Alright, I understand you. I am sorry, Selina, truly,” I confessed, turning my back to her after one last look at Mia.
With a reluctant and painful gait, I turned away from the two most important people in my life, my heart heavy as I walked out of the shop. A moment later, a call from Rhys pulled me back into reality, asking me to return to Shadow Moon for pack business. But even before I was off the phone, a plan began to crystallize—a strategy to earn Selina’s forgiveness. This wasn’t over—not by a long shot. I would go to Shadow Moon, but I’d return soon and show her I wasn’t the monster she believed me to be. I would fight for my family.
Chapter 13
Selina
“I can’t believe he’s gone just like that,” I heard Tom say under his breath with somewhat of a sullen look cast over his features as we walked the narrow path home with Mia. I wondered if I should break it to Tom that my irrational words and feline behavior toward Alexis were why there had been no sign of him around for days now and that Alexis left Matsuna because of me.
But a fiercer wave of guilt washed over me as I watched Mia, a couple of feet ahead of us, and I knew from the languid way she was kicking stones that Alexis was on her mind, too. The last few days, she’d shared countless stories of him—how he’d taught her to climb trees, how he’d helped her identify herbs in the garden, and how he’d told her stories about Shadow Moon.
The last thing I wanted was for Tommy’s comments to make Mia dwell on how she missed him again.
“Well, you have to believe it,” I muttered weakly, trying to divert my thoughts from my guilt.
In the past few days, there had been no flowers appearing at mydoorstep or inside my herbal shop when I turned to the storeroom to get something. There had been no Alexis to help around with broken stuff without me asking, and most of all, there had been no way for me to get the dejected picture of his face out of my mind right when I ordered him out of our lives.
I didn’t intend to, but I’d become the same thing I ran away from. I was unfair to Alexis, not once putting his feelings and efforts into consideration, and I was now feeling the loss of his presence.
“Well, you have to believe it,” I muttered weakly, eyes trained on Mia kicking a stone as she trailed two feet in front of us. “Life has to go on.” Difficult as that was.
“You’re right,” Tom agreed, adjusting my heavy tote bag on his right shoulder as he spoke while giving me a knowing eye. “I mean, I’m surprised he could even stay here for so long. I was beginning to fear for Shadow Moon Pack,” Tom said, unknowingly twisting the dagger of guilt deeper against my skin.
Tom had visited the shop at closing hour to bring me a sample of a new herbal plant I was trying out, and he insisted on walking us home. The gesture sprung a similar memory of Alexis doing the same thing every day for weeks, and I swallowed the gnawing feeling inside me, telling myself that Alexis’s absence was what I wanted since he returned to our lives. With him being gone, I didn’t have to fear that Mia would be taken away from me. It was for the best.
Pouring my focus into the new formula I was trying with the rare frostvine leaves Tom supplied didn’t help me think less about Alexis and how poorly we left things off, but my mantra, "It’s for the best," was what kept me going. I didn’t need to be told that said mantra was just a measly shield used to pull myself together because when Lyvia’s infused trinkets dinged around closing time five days later and I turned around expecting to find Tom offering to walk us home again but saw Alexis instead, the air completely slammed out of my lungs, and I tethered on my feet.
He was the same person, with the same electric blue eyes grounding me in place and the same commanding presence and addictive scent, but that didn’t stop my tongue from tying up in my desert-dry throat or my heart from bouncing off to the rooftop.
Alexis was here again. In Matsuna.What was he doing back here? I was sure that my words had been enough to drive him away forever.
“Selina,” the thick rumble of his voice called out and washed over me as he came into full view, and I swallowed.
Before I could choke a word out, Mia ran out of the storeroom with a gasp, having heard Alexis’s voice. “Alexis!” She yelled, running straight toward her father, whom she had become fond of over such a short time.
I suppressed a wince, asking myself if I wasn’t also being unfair to Mia by keeping Alexis away and his identity unknown to her. Letting my eyes settle on Alexis instead, I saw his usual reaction to seeing Mia. His eyes softened around the edges, and a warm smile played on his once stiff face with her presence.
“Hi, Mia,” Alexis said, crouching low to wrap his arms around Mia, who was fiercely clinging to where her height met his knees as if he was going to disappear otherwise. “Long time, no see. I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye before I left,” he added, and Mia chuckled, but it was Alexis’s words that pulled me back to the invisible veil hanging over our heads.
“Mia baby,” I called out breathlessly, wiping clammy hands over my skirt like that was going to dust off the nerves. “Go get your bag ready, let's head home.”
Mia did as I said, leaving after a small wave to Alexis, and he rose to full height, taking a few purposeful steps closer to me. Caging me in.
