Page 11 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate
Selina
Minutes after Alexis left me reeling in the middle of the treatment hut, fleeing like I was going to plague him with a non-curable disease, I gave up trying to clean the mess that Simon had left. That much time had passed, but not enough for the tingling sensation running across my body to subside. This should have been the point where I fantasized about the magnetic kiss that Alexis and I shared, but the reverse was the case.
My heart had given way when he disappeared, and the pounding ache gutting through my organs still hadn’t lessened. Bitter tears cornered in my eyes, and for the first time in all my life, I truly envied Marissa.
I carefully gathered my belongings, exiting the treatment hut as my tired eyes pictured my bed, and while testing the locks, I fell into my thoughts.
From the time I was old enough to make decisions for myself, I hoped that my future woman would not end up like my mother—unmarried, lonely, and the side piece of a selfish man. But I also promised myself that I was going to adopt her self-dignity and not grovel for a conditional or cold-hearted love.
When I met Alexis, I had hoped that things would fall into place, but tonight made me realize that Alexis was never going to be mine, only Marissa’s.
The realization hurt more than I could put into words, and more than a hundred little pins nibbling down on my neck, but this was me letting go.
“Have some shame, would you?” Someone spat from the shadows, pulling me from my train of thoughts, and I would have flared into a full-blown panic attack if I hadn’t recognized the voice of the speaker, not that it made me any less weary.
“Marissa,” I called weakly, careful not to call her by the Goddess’s name for sister, and I clutched my bag tighter for support.
She wasted no time. “Simon just had some interesting pieces of information about something that went down here, and like the two mature adults that we are, I’m here to have a one-on-one chat with you to know exactly what happened,” Marissa said, but the threat couldn’t be missed from her tone.
I was exhausted already, and the last person I wanted trouble with was Marissa. Simon must have twisted everything that happened, so I aimed to assure Marissa that it wasn’t true. I didn’t know to what extent Simon’s lies stretched, so I shook my head slowly, denying it.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Marissa.”
She cackled, slow, long, and eerily, and my throat dried up. “You are trying to steal my fiancé, Selina. Why?” The friendliness was gone from her tone, and all that was left was malice.
I schooled my features, hoping that my face did not give away the fact that I was all over Alexis moments ago. “No, I’m not. I promise you, Marissa, Alexis is yours,” I said, ignoring the whimpering noises my wolf made at the back of my head as she mourned her loss. I sniffed back the tears, finally lifting my chin in defiance.
Marissa inhaled a sharp breath, her left hand propped on her hip, the clawy fingers of the right one clacking against each other as she took a step forward. I swallowed, but I didn’t inch back as she caged me in, refusing to let her feed off my fear.
“You said that once, Selina, remember? And then you went on tostake your claim on him in front of everyone, asking why he would choose me as his wife instead of you.”
My eyes briefly shut tight on that memory, but I snapped them back open immediately. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. I will have nothing to do with him henceforth, and you both won’t even know we’re in the same pack.”
“What changed then?”
I shrugged, keeping my answer simple. “It’s just better this way. We’re not meant to be.”
It was a case of less did more, seeing as the air almost completely cut off from my lungs on saying that.
Marissa smiled. “Oh, you’re right about that. Alexis and I have been making plans, and we will soon get you out of our hair. He was kind enough to send for the rarest supplies from Silver Moon Pack for me, and he says I own the biggest chamber in his castle because, well, I’m just a girl,” Marissa chirped, clapping sweetly, before sagging her shoulders in a dreamy sigh. “Can’t wait for little Marissas…no, that’s not it,” she said, twisting her face, and it took me only a second to realize that she was testing her and Alexis’s name as a pair on her lips. “Alexas!” She beamed, having found the one, and I gritted my teeth. Hard. “I cannot wait for little Alexas to start running around our castle,” she finished, and I stifled a choked sob.
Resentment clawed at my throat at the thought that Alexis was warm enough to Marissa like that and that they entertained the thought of kids together while he could barely look me in the eye without his features turning into stone.
What did I even expect?
I hardly managed a nod, keeping my eyes facing the ground as I walked in the opposite direction even though that route branched out to steeper hills and would cost me an extra twenty minutes.
“No congratulations, Sister?” Marissa hissed, two steps in, and I stopped in my tracks, turning to face her again.
“Congratulations, Marissa,” I ground out, my eyes burning with unshed tears and my heart tearing into many invincible pieces. I blinked enough times that not only did the tears disappear, but I couldn’t feel my eyelids anymore by the time I stopped.
I didn’t sleep that night as the mate bond kept tugging at me to seek Alexis out, and I didn’t sleep for the next few nights after that either. Alexis still occupied my thoughts day and night, so days later, when my father demanded that I attend a banquet to celebrate the successful ending of his and Alexis’s first project together, I couldn’t resist going to see him, if only for the last time.
After getting ready, my heart thundered all the way to the pack’s large dinner hall just two buildings away from the main royal building and, thankfully, a longer distance away from my secluded cabin since it gave me some time to steer the raging nerves.
Once I stepped inside the hall to take in what must have been at least a twenty-foot-long table full of food, meat, and drinks, my eyes did not settle there. Neither did they settle on the decor, the music performers, my father, who was across the table, or the handful of pack elders and packmates.
Like a bee to a hive, I was drawn to Alexis’s god-like frame mere feet away, and an involuntary, breathy sigh escaped my lips on taking him in. On cue, his stormy blue eyes found me, and the world froze as he took one intense, dragged look at me, eyes dropping lower and lower and lower.
