2

ARIANA

His words were like a sponge, sucking the air right out of the hall. I gasped and drifted back, falling hard on my tailbone. 

I barely noticed the physical pain; reality hurt far more than a fall ever could. The shattered pieces of my hope drowned in the pool of my bleeding heart.

No… no… no!.

I scrambled backward, yet his gaze never left me. He drank me in, and from the glint in his eyes, he was enjoying the view: me, in my misery.

Fuck him!

“This… this… this is a mistake,” I stuttered. “It’s a huge mistake!”

“He is our mate,” my wolf whispered.

“Shut it! He is not our mate!” I screamed, shutting her out. She purred once, then went silent.

I picked myself up and wiped my tears.

“You are not my mate!” I snapped. Unlike the other times I would hide from him, unlike the times I would shiver and curl away from his gaze, this was different. I didn’t give a damn if he was the ruthless Alpha or the "Devil" they called him.

I didn't care, not now, when everything I ever wanted was at stake. My life was hanging by a thin thread, dangling over a pit of fire.

“I am your mate,” he spoke. His deep, velvet voice sliced through the room.

“You are not!” I turned to Leon, who stood to the side, silent and unmoving. He wouldn't even look at me. “Leon, there—there must be a mistake! A huge mistake! We are mates. My wolf must be acting up because this is her first time out. I…” I rambled, spewing any nonsense I could cook up. “I…”

Without a word, Leon bolted out of the room

.

“Leon! Leon!” I called out, tailing behind him. He stalked down the stairs and out the front door. “Leon, wait!”

“I need to be alone.” He halted. I saw the way his jaw locked under the moonlight. His hair was disheveled and his gaze was dark with fury.

“L-Leon, it’s a mistake. I—”

“A mistake?” He let out a short, bitter laugh. “A mistake! Really? Or did you plan it all along?”

“What?”

“You heard me! Fuck, how could I be this stupid? It was right in front of me. That’s why you agreed to be my girlfriend, so you could get close to my brother. Because he’s the Alpha. The perfect one. The one everyone bows to. You wanted him!”

“No… no. I really do love you!”

“You don’t!” He gritted his teeth and reached out to grab my hands. I flinched not out of fear, but because of the sensitivity of his touch. 

My damn hyperesthesia.

“Everything we shared, all those years… it was a joke. A plan. All along, you wanted my brother!”

“No! Leon!” Tears burned my eyes.

“You disgust me,” he spat, before spinning around and walking away into the night.

I stood there, tears flooding my cheeks. My knees buckled and my chest tightened.

“This… this wasn’t how things were meant to go.” I choked on the air. “I wasn’t…”

No. This couldn't be happening. We could fix it. We could still be together.

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand.

 My gaze returned to the mansion, landing on the pair of eyes burning a hole through me. Levi stood in the distance, watching. 

His face was devoid of emotion, his eyes cold and distant—and yet, there was something about his presence that made my traitorous wolf purr.

“Mate,” she growled. “Take us to our mate.”

He took a step closer, stopping about seven paces away. The distance wasn't enough to stop his scorching gaze or the way my skin burned under it. It wasn't enough to stop my lungs from drinking in his scent: leather and rain. Calm, yet frightening. My stomach flipped, and those treacherous butterflies began to dance.

I pulled my legs together. There was no way I was actually turned on by him. 

I couldn't be. 

Yet, the small grin that crept onto his lips told me he knew exactly what effect he had on me. He was enjoying every moment of my torture.

I was doomed.

~~~~~~

Minutes ticked into hours as I wandered the lonely streets. The wind slapped against my skin, swaying my clothes to its will. I walked aimlessly, like a ghost. A weak, hopeless ghost.

I couldn’t go home yet. I couldn’t face my mother, and I couldn't tell my father without crying my lungs out.

I had planned everything for the moment Leon asked me to be his girlfriend. I had planned our marriage; I had imagined what our kids would look like; I had daydreamed about our future together. My life was finally going smoothly. I finally thought I had a purpose: to be Leon's wife.

I was finally happy, but…

I dragged my gaze upward, glaring at the moon.

“You had one job! Giving Leon to me was all I asked! It was all I begged of you!” A fresh spring of tears blurred my vision. My knees wobbled, and this time, I didn't bother trying to catch myself.

I fell, slamming hard against the concrete road.

“Why? Why couldn’t you just give me Leon?”

I lay there for a long time before I gathered my broken self off the ground and kept walking. I couldn’t go home, and I couldn't go back to Leon. I had no one else.

Maya.

I sniffled. Maya had been so happy for me. She always gushed about how Leon and I were the perfect couple. I needed her. 

Without wasting another second, I shifted into my wolf form and ran. She was the only one who could comfort me, who would cry with me and understand my pain.

As the Beta’s daughter, she lived in a cottage near the school. I ran until I was standing in front of her door. I shifted back, found the spare key she kept under a flower pot, and crept in.

“Maya?” My voice came out hoarse. “Maya?”

It was barely 3:00 AM. She was likely asleep, but I didn't care. I needed her.

I rushed toward the stairs. My heels made a soft clicking sound on the floor.

 Suddenly, the air shifted.

 A sharp, musky scent hit my nose.

“Ew,” my wolf muttered.

I ignored her. If she had just chosen Leon as our mate, none of this would be happening.

The sound of skin slapping against skin echoed through the air, jolting me out of my thoughts.

“Fuck! Harder, baby!” Maya’s voice followed the sound.

She was having sex? I froze. 

Fear snaked down my spine, but I pushed it away. 

She was probably just watching a movie or something. Maya might be a little crazy but she wasn't a whore.

I fastened my pace, finally reaching her bedroom door.

I held the knob, turned and pushed the door open. 

My heart stopped beating. 

My brain stopped thinking.

 I forgot how to breathe.

There, entangled on the bed, was a naked Maya with… Leon.

My Leon

Reality finally crumbled.