Chapter 4: Rejection or no rejection.

Coren's aura hits me violently, grinding the force behind my rejection into dust and settling his will over mine instead. My hands grip the tablecloth tightly and when tears drop from my eyes, I don't try to stop them. 

Why is he even doing this?

He doesn't need me anymore. 

He has a heir, a mistress, and I’m now just the unwanted and unneeded woman in his life. Why can’t he just let me go with my dignity and esteem still intact? 

The accumulated pain and betrayal of the past nine months all erupt in this moment and I sob. 

"Please, don't cry, Destiny."

Coren doesn't even sound sorry, just exasperated, like he's tired of all this, tired of me acting like something is actually wrong.

His voice is softer as he persuades, "What's going to happen to Eva if you leave? Who else does your mother have except you?"

I raise my hand and wipe my tears away but more drop to replace them as I struggle to gather myself. A fresh wave of grief tears through me as I hear his words.

Eva, my mother, who's been terminally ill for the past six months. 

I had to watch her become weaker with each passing day, then come back to the Alpha mansion and realize that I wasn't only losing my mother, I was losing my mate too.

For the past few months I've watched both of them fade. 

I’ve sat up at my mother’s hospital bed every day crying my eyes out, sometimes over her health and other times, over Coren.

My mother died three days ago…. and when I tried to reach out through our mate-bond mind-link, my mate blocked me.

I left several missed calls on Coren’s phone that day but he ignored all my calls and never returned any back. When he came back, he apologized and claimed he was on patrol, but the next day, Tracy came over and told me the truth.

”Y’know he lied to you again.

He said he was working late in the office, but we both know that he was with me. You mean nothing to him, barren Luna.”

Every time he's missed a chance to go to the hospital with me to visit my mother, and every time he's been too busy with pack patrols to come comfort me as I wept in the gardens, or too busy with work at the office that he came back at the wee hours of the night, he was with her. 

He's been with her all along.

He blocks me each time he goes to see her, thinking it'll prevent me from knowing, but I know. His betrayal has been open for me to see all along.

The only ignorant one is him.

"You can't stop me from leaving, Coren." 

My voice trembles but the decision is settled in my mind. The loss of my mother was the final stake in my already damaged heart. Since she's dead, what else do I have to live in the Silvercrest Pack for?

I don’t wait, I act. 

I head up the stairs, going to the bedroom to pack my things into a box. I'm leaving today whether he likes it or not. Rejection or no rejection.

My hands have just reached for the box on the top of the wardrobe when a familiar strange sensation makes me pause suddenly. Coren is blocking me from feeling him on our bond again.

Why would he do that? 

It's not like he's with Tracy right now.

My eyes dart to the door and my heart thuds as I see him standing there. I didn't even know he had followed me upstairs. The look on Coren's face is grim as he stares at me.

“You’re not going anywhere, Destiny. I am your mate and your husband, you can’t leave me.”

He announces this decision like he has the right to decide my freedom, but underneath all that he sounds desperate. Coren sounds like he’s trying to hold onto a lifeline, but I’m the one being hurt by his irrational dominance.

If he thinks he owns me, he’s wrong. Being my mate and Alpha doesn’t mean he owns me or my life.

I realize too late what Coren is actually doing.

Coren takes the key to the door out of the keyhole and he stares at me with that cold, dead look as he speaks, "I can keep you with me forever if I want to, Destiny. And I want to. 

You just need a few days to calm down so I'm going to let you have them. But you are not leaving. Not now. Not ever."

I stare at him in disbelief. 

“He’s locking us away.” My wolf roars inside me, her fury feeding something in me and sharpening my need to fight.

Rage explodes from my shattered heart, hot and violent in my chest. I throw a punch without hesitation.

Coren catches my fist in his palm easily. Fuck! 

I’m too sluggish compared to the speed of an Alpha who's spent years training for war.

"Stop throwing tantrums like a child!" Coren growls, shuts the door with a sharp clack behind him and locks it from the outside. 

I run towards it immediately, grabbing the door’s handle and pulling but it doesn’t budge.

“Coren! Coren open the door.”

I’m pounding against the heavy hardwood door, the action hurting my hand even harder each time I do it and soon, I'm screaming.

“Coren! Coren, You can’t do this to me. Let me go, please!”

Violent, ugly, sobs are wracking through my body, but I continue, pounding and screaming his name even as I hear his voice rumble one command on the other side of the door.

"Luna Destiny is not to leave her room until I say so.”

No. That saps the last of my strength from me, and I crumple to the floor, my head leaning on the door as I cry my heart out. 

Coren’s footfalls as he goes back downstairs are like a seal on my fate. 

Why is he doing this?

Why is he determined to keep hurting me more than he already has?