Chapter 3 ~ Running Away

{Ciril’s POV}

My mate was engaged in a dialogue with Luna Dolores and Ivanka so none of them had noticed me yet.

Impulsively, my legs started to take me towards them while my eyes blissfully rested on this wonder in male form. And this continued until I was close enough to claim their attention. 

My mate was the first to look at me, and as his gaze met mine, it was pure ecstasy.

His eyes were dark brown with softness and his expression was like pink clouds on blue-violet ocean waves. He was handsome. And with his appearance, I figured he was one of the important guests Luna Dolores had been talking about. 

I was happy with this fact because being a guest meant that he was a he-wolf from another pack far away, one who would take me away from this Hellhole.

He wore a blank expression now as he stared at the file he was holding and I motioned to speak to him but Luna Dolores beat me to it. 

“She’s the one.” Luna Dolores told the Alpha randomly and grew a satisfied smile on her face.

What does she mean by ‘She’s the one?’ I wondered as I stared between the both of them but then I promptly dismissed the thought. I wasn’t going to allow Dolores or her daughter to distract me from my fate so I ignored them completely.

I directed my gaze back to the stunning bloke and tried forming words but it just ended in shambles.

“I… I uhm. Y-You...” I trailed off and took in a deep breath, trying to control both my excitement and my growing anxiety. It was hard talking to him.”5

How’s he not as tense as I am? Mate bonds are felt by both parties, right?

I attempted to speak again.

“I… I think we’re mates.” I finally said and then I grew a bright smile. But then, there was silence. 

Ivanka chortled, but then she stopped herself from laughing further. The silence persisted and I grew confused.

The air grew really tense now and it felt like Dolores and Ivanka were purposely being mute for the He-wolf to say something— and then he did.

“I know.” He said, and his voice, effortlessly calming, sent galvanizing spurts racing through my body. 

I smiled gently.

He knew I was his mate… That means my inkling was accurate. I truly have a mate.

“But.” I heard him say and I broke out of my clouds of thoughts to look at him. 

But?

“That was before.” He started slowly, his face crumbling into a frown. 

Huh?

“You were my mate, but not anymore.” He dropped the words and I felt my heart squeeze up at once. “I rejected you already… and you probably didn’t feel the sting because you were too excited— or maybe you did but ignored it because you thought it was something else. But in summary, we are not mates anymore.” He said and turned his attention back to the files in his grasp while I stumbled backward in piercing shock.

“Y… you rejected me w… without knowing who I was?” I asked in confusion. Tears flew out in streams but my confusion drowned me instead.

“Correct.” The Alpha muttered emotionally, not bothering to spare me a look. “Run along now.” 

“Confused?” Dolores joined in, calling my attention to her as she crept towards me. 

She smiled wickedly at me now and began trailing her fingers up my arm to my hair and I knew very well what was about to happen next.

“Well, I’ll explain things to you. Once Alpha Dylan got here and followed me to this Hall.” She started to say with a cowing tone as she placed a soft grip on my hair. “We noticed the switch in his countenance. And when I asked him what was wrong, he told me his mate had just been here— in this very Hall and he could sense her. And for some strange reason, I just knew it had to be you— Cinderella!” She said and yanked my hair down, forcing my head to tilt to the side. 

Pain shot through my skull and I gnashed my teeth, but I didn’t react or struggle. Despite the pain, my whole attention was devoted to knowing where her narration was headed.

“But I had to validate things.” Dolores continued. “So I gave Alpha Dylan a piece of your cloth to sniff, the one I had borrowed from your dress earlier, remember?” She said, flashing me her wicked smile. “And when he perceived your scent, he validated my assumption that you were the one— you were his mate. How irritating is that?” She said and laughed. Ivanka joined her and they both made a cackling chorus before everywhere grew quiet once more.

Luna Dolores used my hair to pull me closer to her face now as she reduced her voice to wittering whispers. “I then told Alpha Dylan a little bit of your foul history. I told him how cursed and unfortunate you are, and just like that.” She snapped her fingers in the tense air for emphasis. “He rejected you.” She concluded and pushed me roughly away. I almost fell.

Hot tears rolled down my eyes now while the weight of the ache in my chest threatened to send me down to my knees but I managed to steady my stance. I needed to understand things— I was still in doubt.

I return my teary gaze to the Alpha, who only spared me a numb glimpse before returning his attention to the files in his hands.

“If you want an apology. You’ll not get any.” He said. “Please take your leave now. We have other important things to attend to— the arrangements for a contract marriage actually, so what you’re doing is highly inappropriate. Leave. He said. 

He was curt and his words tore up my heart like whetted pendragon daggers. My breaths suddenly felt heavy as I stared at him in terror.

Contract marriage?

So, I’m a reject.... Just like that? 

I thought a mate was supposed to be your divinely matched half that would find it punishing to leave you. 

That was what I was told.

But here I was, promptly rejected by mine and discarded like filth.

I stared at him in my anger and piercing hurt. I wanted to tell him how evil he was by doing such a thing to me but then a puzzling thought hit me.

— more like a realization. A shocking one.

Ivanka… She had told me that a prominent Alpha was coming to marry her in a contract marriage, an alpha who was best friends with Alpha Prince Landon. “He would make her life better,” Ivanka had said. But then the other night, the night I almost had my mouth stuffed with veiny flesh, I had overheard her telling her girlfriends that a certain ‘he’ was also coming today, and he would serve as her entry ticket into the Royal Palace and to the Alpha Prince. 

So if Alpha Dylan was here for a Contract marriage and was best friends with the Prince, that means she's...

“She’s using you.” I muttered. Everyone looked at me.

I raised my gaze from the ground to look at Alpha Dylan’s face.

“Ivanka… She just wants to use you to get close to Alpha Prince Landon! It’s him she wants, not you. You’re just her ticket to him.” I told him earnestly, my chest bobbing up and down with heavy breaths.

There was silence now. 

Ivanka, Dolores and Alpha Dylan all stared at me but I left my gaze on Alpha Dylan, hoping that he understood what I had just said. 

Within the following brief moment, I noticed a switch of expressions on his face. With the cold expression now on his face, I figured I was beginning to convince him and this made me smile hopefully… but then he made my smile swiftly vanish.

“Leave.” He said strictly.

“Huh?” I muttered.

“I’ve been calm regarding your stupid interruptions. Don’t make me throw you out of this room myself. Leave!" He voiced harshly and I tensed. Ivanka laughed. She didn’t try to stop herself this time around.

I stared at Alpha Dylan with shock as he returned his attention back to the files in his hands.

I was forced to realize one thing now. Everybody was fucking the same! Fated or not, they were all Cruel and heinous creatures. Every single one of them!

I wanted to cuss this Alpha with all the vile and cruel words in this world but then I couldn’t even form words. My lips were trembling and every time I tried to speak, my words just kept warbling with my sobs. I could only shed tears.

“Ivanka.” I heard Luna Dolores’ voice loud and harsh.

“Yes, mother?”

“Take this Clod out!” She instructed and I watched Ivanka grow her characteristic smile.

“Gladly.”

Immediately I heard those words, I felt Ivanka’s wicked grip on my hair and with that, she tugged me towards the exit. I cried bitterly as the occasional bouts of pain struck me.

Ivanka kept hauling me until we were out of the Alpha Mansion and in the open square which was crowded with Pack members.

Typical Ivanka; always likes to make a scene 

“Wow, Ciril. You’re a sneaky bitch, you know that?” She glunched at me. “You think you could use fate to steal my man or even worse, ruin my plans??” She muttered and laughed and then she glared. “Well, you’re wrong! How did you expect him to believe you when he didn’t even believe in the divine bond you two shared just moments ago?” She laughed again and pulled me close to her glare.

“You’ve lost, Ciril. Even with fate, he chose me over you because you’re a lowly, cursed and fucked up pilfer! You’ll never know happiness! She voiced while I just poured out tears.

It felt like my heart squeezed, hearing her utterances. 

Her words bruised me emotionally.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I was never going to find happiness. I’m just a pile of sadness and misery that moves around.

“So cunt, Alpha Dylan is mine— at least, he will be once we get married tomorrow. Then he can take me to the Palace and I can begin the next phase of my plan.” She said and I cried the more.

“Aw.” She muttered and tugged my hair to the side, causing my head to tilt roughly with pain.

She smiled at me now. “See this as me doing you a favor by saving your ex-mate from the doom that is you, okay?” She said and tugged my hair roughly once more before letting go and strolling away.

Pain claimed my skull and I winced and sniveled, knowing she had successfully uprooted a few strands of my hair. But then the pain was nothing compared to the crooked sting in my chest. I felt like I was bleeding in there.

As expected, a large crowd of my lovely Pack members had gathered and they had witnessed the whole thing as they were now chattering, laughing, and making my existence a sour topic.

Nothing I wasn’t used to.

However, this time around, I was really broken and their ridicule was beginning to get to me. I needed some sort of support.

I drove my teary gaze through the crowd now. I had no mother, no brother… no cousin out here I could call on, so I sadly settled to search for Feryt, my best friend, instead. She was the only one that could at least offer me some level of comfort. 

But as time went by, I realized I was alone in this crowd of haters. So I struggled to my feet and began lurching aimlessly in a random direction. 

I trailed helplessly for a bit but then a daring thought crossed my mind and I halted in my tracks.

I could run away from this hellhole.

I should leave this place and maybe join the Rogue wolves at the coastal border of the country. That life would be a hundred times better there than being here, and if I’m over there, these barbarians wouldn’t get the chance to touch or torture me— I would never have to see their hideous faces ever again!

I sniffed. 

Thinking about the just-concluded episode in the Wilter Hall, made me realize two things.

Men are disgusting rakes! 

And the only person that truly cares about you is you. 

If my fated mate could betray me without even bothering to see or meet me, then everybody else in this goddamn Reigns is a ruthless and cruel canine! 

Running away was a feasible action and I made up my mind right then and there.

I gazed around now, taking the environment in one last time. I needed to remind myself not to ever come close to this vile place ever again… and when I was done, I took to my heels into the woods, not knowing where I was heading but not turning around or stopping.

Fuck you, RawHowl.