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Nimue POV

The morning sun filtered fresh rays through the small window of my cottage, I appreciated the subtle warmth on my skin as I teased and turned in between tangled sheets. I stretched my hand across the bed, a soft smile already forming on my lips as I prepared to meet Reginald’s warm embrace.

My fingers brushed against the cold empty part of the bed.

I opened my eyes, blinking against the light. The spot beside me was completely vacant. The sheets were cold, meaning he had been gone for hours.

Or maybe I was just assuming things.

"Reginald?" I called out, drowsily, in between sleep.

Silence answered me.

Uneasy feelings began to settle into the pit of my stomach. I sat up, pulling the blanket around my shoulders, and looked around the small room. Everything looked exactly as it had last night, except for a small piece of folded paper resting on the table.

I could only manage a smile as I assumed maybe he stepped.

I don’t know how much I had slept, but I loved the joy that bubbled inside of me.

But then, not waking up to Reginald by my side was so unusual it had my heart drumming violently against my ribs.

Normally he would be curdled up at a corner sleeping or mischievously watching me while I slept. Every time my eyes met those dreamy eyes of his, I envision having three pups for him, wishing and praying they would look just like him.

I scrambled out of bed, barely noticing the chill of the wooden floor against my bare feet. My hands shook as I picked up the paper. I opened it slowly, my eyes scanning the hurried handwriting.

I'm sorry, Nimue. I can't do this life with you. I'm leaving for America. You're better off without me.

The words blurred. I read them again. And again.

America.

The paper slipped from my fingers, fluttering to the floor. I collapsed into the wooden chair, the very chair he had been sitting in just hours ago when he told me I would own a winery one day. The very chair where he had laughed and stolen bread from my hands.

I struggled to gather myself together as my heart beat dubbled it’s rhythm.

There was no way this was real.

I rubbed my hands around my neck, the back of my neck and forehead just to be sure I was not dreaming, my temperature spiking almost instantly.

It was all a lie.

This letter was a lie.

Reginald could not have abandoned me.

No way was this possible.

My mind flashed back to how he had smiled in my face, made love to me until the early hours of the morning, and whispered promises of love.

It was difficult to reconcile all the sweet things he had done with this damning reality that he did all those things all along knowing he was going to abandon me.

What even hurt me more was that he had taken my innocence, held my heart in his massive protective hands of his, and crushed it without a second thought.

"You coward," I whispered into the empty room, tears finally spilling over my eyelashes and scalding my cheeks. "You miserable coward."

Alpha Reginald had left me.

He promised he would be mine and I would be his forever.

What becomes of my orphaned heart now?

And while I understood he didn't want the hard work. He didn't want the mud, the whispers of the villagers, or the struggle of building a life from nothing. He had assured me he was going to make sure we lived comfortably and not had to rely on the pennies we earned in the winery.

I was very much okay with the pennies we earned as long as I got to share with Reginald, he had become my world. So apparently, Reginald Hathaway, chose his comfort over me.

I looked down at the dried grape flower resting on the table. It was the one I had given him months ago, a silly token to make him stop complaining about carrying baskets. He had left it behind. It could only mean that nothing we built here mattered to him.

Deeply engulfed and suffocated by grief, I wanted to curl up in the blankets and sob until the pain went away. I wanted to scream at the Moon Goddess for allowing me to trust him.

What the hell was I thinking trusting a Man.

What in the hell was I thinking a wealthy heir of the Hathaway pack would settle for an impoverished, dumb and wretched omega like myself.

The whole time I was delusional and stupid, and this was my stupidity being paid forward.

“Ügh! Oh!” I struggled to breath trying to contain the myriad of emotions coursing through me.

But as I sat there in the quiet cottage, staring at the note, the grief slowly began to harden into something else.

I prayed to the moongoddess for strength to move on.

I remember I had begged him to be careful with my heart, and he had broken his promise within hours.

I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand, breathing shakily.

It was high time I came to terms with my reality.

I was an omega, half -educated, delusional day dreamer, left alone in a village that already looked down on me. I had no money, no family, and now, the man I loved had abandoned me. If I let this break me, I would destroy myself.

I stood up, walked over to the note, and picked it up. I tossed it into the small fireplace, watching the flames consume his apologies until nothing but ash remained.

I woud survive.

If Reginald thought I was better of without him, why would I sit here and waste away, crying over a privileged coward?

I walked to the window, looking out at the vast rows of the vineyard. The sun was fully up now, and the workers would be arriving soon.

"I will build that winery, Reginald," I whispered, my voice no longer trembling. "You would not meet me the same way you left me, I will make sure you pay for this heart ache, even the moon goddess will not save you from my wrath."