Hunted by Guilt

Connor’s POV

The grand hall loomed dark and tense as I was shoved through the heavy double doors, the distant murmurs of shocked guests echoing behind me. The slam of the doors echoed like a judge’s gavel—final, damning, and absolute.

Lila’s sharp heels clicked against the stone as she caught up to me. “What the hell was that?” she hissed, her voice laced with fury. “You embarrassed me, Connor! Like a rabid animal.”

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. My chest heaved as I fought to steady my breathing, every muscle in my body taut with the rage I couldn’t shake. My hands still curled into fists at my sides, the image of Ivy—no, Aria—burned into my mind.

The way she looked at me tonight, her defiance and strength radiating in a way I’d never seen before, had torn through every wall I’d built.

The girl I had rejected…

The girl I had broken.

“Connor!” Lila’s voice rose, cutting through my spiraling thoughts. She grabbed my arm, yanking it roughly. “Are you even listening to me? What was that in there? Why did you go after her like that?”

I wrenched my arm out of her grasp. “Leave me alone, Lila,” I snapped, my voice cold, bitter. She staggered back a step, stunned at the sharpness of my tone. I didn’t care. I couldn’t—because my mind was somewhere else entirely.

Ivy.

No. Aria.

The name didn’t suit her, not really. Aria was delicate—like the sound of music in the middle of silence. She used to be small, fragile, like glass on the edge of breaking. My Aria.

But tonight, when I looked at her, she wasn’t fragile anymore. She wasn’t small or broken.

She was fire—unrelenting and untouchable. She stood tall and proud, wrapped in the strength of her own defiance. I saw no trace of the girl who had once looked up at me with those wide, tear-streaked eyes, begging for an answer I couldn’t give.

I had done what was right. I told myself that over and over again. I had to do it—for the pack, for my title, for the responsibility that weighed on me from the moment I was born.

An Alpha couldn’t take a mate like her. An outcast. A murderer. Her blood was tainted, or so they said. What kind of Alpha would I have been if I’d accepted her?

But looking at her tonight, I didn’t see the outcast I had rejected. I didn’t see the stain on my reputation or the burden to my title. I didn’t see the shame my pack had drilled into me from childhood.

I saw the woman I had thrown away.

And it killed me.

“You’re pathetic,” Lila muttered under her breath, her arms crossed as she glared at me. “All that power, and you can’t keep it together over a girl. Over her!”

I whipped around, a growl rising in my throat. “Watch your mouth.”

Her eyes widened at my tone, but she smirked anyway, twisting the knife deeper. “Do you think she’ll take you back, Connor? After what you did? Please. You rejected her like garbage. And look at her now—she’s moved on. Found someone stronger than you. Someone better.”

The words hit like a punch to the gut. I didn’t need Lila to tell me that. I saw it with my own damn eyes. Her fiancé.

His presence had been suffocating, a predator stalking its prey with no hesitation, no fear. For the first time, I had been the one cowering, my wolf curling in on itself beneath the weight of his power.

And the way Ivy—Aria—had looked at him…

It destroyed me.

Because she used to look at me like that. With trust. With hope.

I staggered back until my shoulders hit the cold stone wall. My breath left me in a shudder, and I sank down to the ground, unable to keep my legs from buckling.

I had done what was right.

I rejected her for the title, for the pack.

For a future that meant nothing without her in it.

And yet, even knowing that I had shattered her, that I had walked away when she needed me most, I could still see her face from that day. The raw pain in her eyes as she clutched her chest, like she could physically feel the mate bond snapping.

I had watched it break.

Every day since, I’d felt that regret clawing at me, festering in the shadows of my mind, eating away at the edges of my pride.

“Connor,” Lila snapped, her voice sharp and grating. “Get up. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

I ignored her.

All I could think about was Aria—how small and broken she had been that day. And how strong she was now.

She didn’t need me anymore.

But, God help me, I still needed her.

“Aria’s not yours,” Lila said softly, but her words carried venom. “You rejected her. And now you’re letting some stranger—”

“That wasn’t a stranger,” I interrupted, my voice low and cold. “Whatever he is…he’s not human. And he’s not exactly like us.”

Lila blinked. “What are you talking about?”

I stopped pacing, my mind racing, the humiliation twisting into something darker. I had seen a lot in my life—rogues, alphas stronger than me, wolves who could break bone with a single snarl—but nothing, compared to what I felt back in that room. The man’s presence had been monstrous, predatory. Like something ancient. Something that didn’t belong.

“Didn’t you feel it?” I muttered, more to myself than to her. “That power? He made my wolf cower, Lila. He made me cower.”

“Connor…” She scoffed, stepping closer to me, her voice dripping with condescension. “You’re losing it. You embarrassed yourself in there. Ivy has moved on. He’s just some—”

“He’s not just some man!” I roared, spinning to face her. My shout echoed through the hallway, making her flinch. My wolf surged forward, clawing at my control, desperate to remind her—to remind everyone—of who I was.

But as quickly as my anger exploded, it ebbed into a suffocating bitterness. I sank against the wall, staring blankly ahead.

“Aria’s mine,” I whispered hoarsely, my voice trembling. “Mate pull or not. Rejection or not. I’ll tear apart anyone who thinks otherwise.”

Lila’s laugh was sharp, brittle. “You’re pathetic.”

I didn’t look at her as I spoke, the words coming out like a vow. “If he’s not one of us, then he’s something worse. Something dangerous. And I’ll find out what he is. I’ll rip him apart piece by piece if I have to.”

Lila’s face contorted with frustration, her voice a hiss. “What about me, Connor? Me! I’m your mate now—”

“You were never my mate,” I growled, the words icy and deliberate. Her face fell, the sting of rejection flickering in her eyes, but I didn’t care. I was past caring.

I pushed off the wall, already turning toward the exit door at the end of the hallway. Lila’s voice rang out behind me, sharp and furious. “Where are you going?”

“To figure out what the hell Leo Ashton really is,” I replied without looking back. My wolf stirred, growling in anticipation. We’ll find out. We’ll destroy him. And we’ll take her back.

No one would take Ivy away from me. Not him. Not anyone.

And if he thought he could keep her, he was about to find out just how wrong he was.