72

ELEANOR

I let out a deep breath. My eyes are now locked with his. This is the perfect time for me to say it.

Lifting my chin, I choke down the tears threatening to escape me.

'It's now or never.' Ares whispers, almost too enthusiastically. I nodded inwardly before meeting his gaze head on.

“I, Eleanor Raven, hereby reject you, Alexander Wade, to be my mate.”

I felt my heart split into a thousand pieces all at once immediately after I uttered the words.

Saying the rejection hurt as much as receiving it, for him. It didn't make me feel things like freedom or satisfaction after the release. No, it made me feel like I'm suffocating from my own words.

I'm struggling to breathe, but watching the intense pain flash inside his cerulean blue eyes is making it more difficult than it already is.

I could hear my heart breaking as he fixed his eyes on me. A harrowed expression crawled up to his face, and all of a sudden my body stiffened in my spot. Completely unable to move.

"Why?" His deep, h