Chapter 2: The Other Woman

Aria's POV

"Damien, please." I reached his arm and my voice broke. “I'm an omega. My wolf can't handle the sting--"

He jerked his arm away. "That's not my problem."

I gazed at him and I was trying to know how the man who I loved could look at me as though I was filthy. "You don't care if I die?"

He laughed bitterly. "Care? I have wasted enough of my life about you, Aria. I regret every second of it."

I choked, my throat was tight. "Don't say that--"

"I'll say what I want!" His voice boomed in the room.

My chest tightened. "Damien, please stop."

He came nearer so that I could feel his breath on my face. "You're cursed, Aria. You always have been. And you transferred that curse to her.

I jumped at a sharp knock of the door.

"Mom?" Lyra was softly trembling in her voice.

My heart twisted. I hurriedly wiped the tears on my cheeks. "Go back to bed, sweetheart! Everything's fine."

But Damien gave a savage laugh. "No, it's not fine. Perhaps it is time she was told the truth.

"Damien, don't--"

He yanked the door open. Lyra was there standing in her nightdress with a bewildered look on her face.

You and your mother must know something, he said coldly and pointed at us both. "Know your place in this house. You're nothing to me. Neither of you."

"Stop it!" I stood in between them trembling. Don't you ever speak to her like that!

He sneered. "You can't stop me."

My daughter, I said, turning to her. "Please, go to your room, baby. Everything's okay."

Her eyes were open wide with hurt, as she looked at me and her father. "Dad?"

"Go!" I pleaded, a little, and had to smile.

After a pause of indecision she fled, shutting her door behind her. I swung around to Damien, anger and hurt swirling within me. "She's your daughter!"

He made himself a drink out of the cabinet, and he did not pay me any attention. “I do not wish to discuss this any further.”

"Then what do you want from me?" I asked helplessly.

He sipped, and looked coldly up at me. "Nothing. You have already destroyed my night. I'm going out."

"Out? Where?" I demanded.

To a person who knows how to make me really feel alive.

My blood ran cold. "You mean her?"

He smirked. "Selene. Yes."

"Damien, please don't go." I extended my hand, holding on to his arm, in despair. "It's late, you're drunk--"

He pushed me aside, and I fell down against the wall. I felt the pain in my shoulder but not half as much as what he said.

"I said I'm done with you."

And he walked out the door just like that.

I followed him with my bare feet, and my robe was touching the ground. "Damien! Please, don't do this!" I could be heard echoing along the quiet street. He didn't even glance back.

I trailed him, not noticing the looks of the wolves passing. I did not mind what anybody thought. I only had to keep him--had to think that everything was still rightable.

He was a purposeful walker, and his direction was toward the western side of the territory of the pack. My stomach turned over as I knew where he was headed.

Selene's house.

As he arrived at the front door he did not even take the trouble to knock. He simply strolled in as though he was a part of it. I stood still a moment, my heart beating. Then I pushed the door open and went in.

There was Selene, with her dark hair falling down her back and in a silk robe. She smiled at seeing him--smiled as though I was not standing there at all.

She said very sweetly, "Damien," and embraced him in her arms.

He didn't push her away.

I stared, unable to move. You are still there, I said to myself. Having done all that, you do not even feel ashamed.

Selene looked at me, feigning surprise. "Oh, Aria... I didn't expect you."

My voice shook, I said to myself, clearly.

"Papa is back?" And a little voice said and a little boy ran out,slumbery, eyed and holding  a stuffed toy.

Not a baby.

“Oh hi Aria, since you’re here, you may as well meet our FIVE years old son.” Selene said, emphasizing on the word “Five.”

Damien didn't deny it.

My knees went weak. "Five years..." I whispered. Five years you have been cheating on me?

Both of them did not say anything.

The agony in my chest was not bearable. I needed air. I needed to forget.

That's how I ended up at the bar.

I was not part of them, yet I did not mind. I ordered one drink. Then another. Then another.

The room soon became blurred and I could only think of all that I had lost--all that I had wasted my life believing in.

Damien's face. His words. Selene's smirk.

I wanted to erase them all.

Somebody sat down on the stool next me--a man. He was younger, perhaps in his middle twenties and he smiled in a kind manner.

What a terrible night you had, you look like it, he said.

I laughed bitterly. "You have no idea."

He didn't ask questions. He has just ordered two drinks more and gave me one.

That was the end of things. I recalled laughing, chatting and at some point walking out of the bar with him. I recalled how dark the light in the hotel room was, how his hand felt warm, and how his eyes seemed to tell me that I was not broken.

Then suddenly all was black.

As I awoke the sun was peeking through the window. I was aching in my head, aching in my body and the memories were flooding in like a slap. I lay on the bed, with the sheets twisted about me, the other side vacant.

The stranger was gone.

I rose gradually as the reality struck me.

What have I done?

The quietness was interrupted by the buzzing of my phone in the night stand.

Lyra.