Alba's pov

Chapter 2

Alba's POV 

I pushed open the door without looking back, ready to confront him for all the four years of silence I had endured.

“Alba, why are you in my chambers when I haven’t sent for you?” he asked the second he saw me, enraged that I had shown my face when he didn’t want me to, when he was busy with his mistress, Veronica, to even recall that today was supposed to be our anniversary.

I noticed the faint smile on her lips, how she looked triumphant, as if she had won a trophy.

This same woman had broken up with Dante four years ago when his pack faced a crisis at the border which made the finances dwindle. She ran off with his previous beta who had also stolen from the pack treasury.

I’ve always loved Dante and I thought staying and helping him heal from that betrayal, especially after I found out we were fated mates on the night of my eighteenth birthday, was going to be enough to prove my love and affection to him.

I thought he would accept me after that. I thought he would one day see me for who I was. The woman who loved him and wanted the best for him.

I took over the pack’s management, using my skills and talent to help the ailing pack. I created many businesses and jobs for the wolves. 

That was what was required of a Luna. But somehow, he never seemed to notice, and last year when Veronica returned to the pack after hearing about how prosperous it was, Dante had been quick to welcome her back into his arms and made her the only mistress he kept.

“I ask again, Alba. What are you doing here?” Dante’s voice snapped me out of my haze and I stared and saw that he had dressed up. He had been busy with Veronica earlier, the important guest he was with and why he couldn’t be disturbed. Like every other day I had suffered from the crisis of the searing pain of the mate bond whenever he was with her.

“I am your mate and Luna of this pack, Dante. You didn’t even recall that today was our anniversary but you’re here with her? Just minutes before the ceremony supposed to happen in the pack today?”

“Didn’t the servants get the gifts across to you?” he asked casually.

“Veronica was kind enough to inform me to spare you some gifts. Are you now forgetting your place by demanding more?” he snapped.

I opened my lips to speak but was so speechless as I didn’t know where to begin from. He had no problem sending his mistress’s leftovers to me as a gift and on the day of our anniversary.

“This attitude of yours is exactly the reason why I don’t plan to take you to the ceremony tonight, Alba. Not only is your status humiliating enough for me, your attitude also is!”

“I….” I whispered, confused by why he was saying that.

“You do not plan to attend the ceremony with me? Why? I am your Luna! If you do not go with me, then who else is there for you to attend it with?” I snapped back, my voice rising for the first time ever since I met Dante.

His eyes twitched as he shot me a glare, perhaps shocked that I had dared raise my voice at him.

“You're just a wolfless omega I took in because the moon bound you to me. Don't forget your place, Alba, by overstepping. You have no right to question my decisions,” he said idly as he walked towards a rack on the side of the room.

It was filled with different suits in different shades. And by the side was another filled with dresses, decorated with priceless jewels. They were all designers.

While I had been in my room thinking of which dress of mine to make do with for the ceremony, he had bought designers for his mistress. Whereas I, who had worked hard for the pack for years, had never, not even for once, gotten such a gift. I’ve always had to be prudent and mindful with spending, not wanting to waste the pack’s resources on frivolities.

“I’ve assigned some guards to your chambers. They’ll make sure you do not leave nor cause any scene at the ceremony today. Don’t fall my hand, Alba. I do not want any of your dramas,” he added as he began to wear a white shirt.

Veronica got down from the bed and walked up to him, fawning over him as he kissed her lips before she picked up a dress from the racks, ready to wear.

It was sad, and almost laughable, I thought. For years I have always loved this man, always sacrificed myself for him, hoping that he would accept me, hoping that my status of being an omega, and worse, wolfless, wasn’t going to be an issue to him.

When I had managed to help get the pack out of the financial debts and crisis, he had promised me that he wouldn’t let anything come between us. He had marked me, promising me that he would take care of me as long as he lived.

That had given me a shred of hope, as I had believed that I would succeed in getting him to love me back. Who knew that after all these years, all the sacrifices and humiliation I endured just for his sake, that in the fourth year of our marriage, this was still how I was being treated?

“Are you really planning on taking her to the ceremony in place of your Luna?” I asked as my fingers trembled and I wiped away the tears threatening to fall.

“Veronica is from a beta’s lineage, Alba. She has a wolf and a prestigious reputation given her high-born background. It’s only understandable if she stands beside me today in the presence of other alphas because she is worthy of it,” he replied, earning him a nibbling kiss on his neck from Veronica.

“Were you expecting me to go with you? Do you want the other alphas would mock me for having a wolfless and useless Luna?”

“If you’re so embarrassed of having me as your mate, Dante, then why haven’t you rejected me and our bond all these years?” I asked.

“It was a mistake I marked you before in the past, Alba. Now that we’re already mates, it’s useless rejecting the bond tying us together.”

I scoffed… what a weak excuse. The only reason he hasn’t rejected me was because his wolf was tied to me. And if he were to reject the bond, it could risk weakening his wolf or even making it disobedient.

I’ve lived for years under his strict control. I wasn’t allowed to speak or laugh with any other man. I wasn’t allowed to even work with them in the pack. Dante had removed all means for me to be able to interact with other men so that I do not make a mistake that would make his wolf weak.

Such heavy precautions, and he still never cared for me. Not even once.

“What are you thinking? Go ahead and leave. Veronica and I have to prepare in order to welcome the guests,” he said sharply.

“I’ll leave, Alpha Dante,” I said, calling him by his title.

But right after rejecting you and the rejection process is completed!” 

I added, a long sigh of relief escaping my lungs that finally, I was making the choice I’ve always been scared to make, out of fear of weakening Dante’s wolf and making him hate me.

 He could burn in hell now for all I cared.