CHAPTER 5: My Rejected Mate Is Alive

Damien’s POV

I have not slept properly in five days, every night felt worse, every hour felt worse.

My wolf kept pacing inside my head like a mad beast.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

The word never stopped and I gripped the edge of my desk harder as another painful wave hit my chest.

Damn it. Why did the bond still exist? I rejected her.

I rejected Ariana publicly in front of the entire pack.

So why did my wolf still scream for her? The office door suddenly opened and Selene walked in smiling.

“Damien, you missed dinner again.”

I said nothing and she walked closer and wrapped her arms around my neck from behind.

Usually I would let her but not anymore.

The moment her perfume touched me, anger rose inside me instantly because it was not Ariana’s scent.

Nothing smelt right anymore, not my room, not my clothes and not my bed.

Everything still smelt like Ariana. Her vanilla scent still covered my sheets and I still remembered the way she sounded underneath me on our anniversary night.

The way she grabbed my shoulders while moaning my name and the way she looked at me afterward.

It was like I was her entire world.

My chest tightened painfully and Selene kissed my neck lightly.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

I suddenly stood up and move away from her and her smile disappearsesimmediately.

“Damien?”

“I’m busy.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“This is about Ariana again?”

My wolf growled violently at hearing her name and Selene noticed instantly and her expression changed.

“You rejected her yourself,” she snapped. “Stop acting like somebody forced you.”

I then looked away silently.

That image flashed inside my head again.

Ariana crying while the guards dragged her away.

Please…

You don’t mean that…Damn it.

I grabbed the whiskey bottle on my desk and drank straight from it but nothing helped, nothing calmed this pain.

Not alcohol, not  sex and not sleep, especially not Selene.

Three days ago she climbed into my bed trying to seduce me.

The moment she touched me, my wolf nearly tore itself apart inside me and I pushed her away so hard she hit the floor.

Since then, she kept staring at me differently, like she realized something was wrong because there was something wrong.

I thought I made the biggest mistake of my life.

Suddenly, my Beta burst into the office.

“Alpha!”

I turned sharply.

“What?”

“There’s a rogue outside the gates demanding to see you.”

My wolf rose instantly. Rogue.

“Bring him.”

Minutes later, two guards dragged a wounded rogue into my office and blood covered his body.

Fear filled his eyes the moment he saw me.

“Speak,” I growled and the rogue swallowed hard.

“The rejected Luna…”

My heart stopped.

“…is dead.”

The room exploded and I grabbed the rogue by the throat violently and slammed him against the wall.

“No!”

The rogue choked painfully.

“Alpha…”

“No!” I roared again because my wolf still felt her.

Weak, far away but alive. Alive.

“You’re lying.”

The rogue shook violently in my grip.

“She was attacked in rogue territory. Nobody survives there.”

I threw him across the room angrily and my wolf kept roaring inside me. Alive. Alive. Alive.

I then turned toward my Beta immediately.

“Search the rogue lands.”

He hesitated. “Alpha, rogue territory is dangerous at night.”

“I said search!”

The next few nights became hell and I secretly searched rogue territory myself every night.

Nobody knew, not Selene, not my pack. Nobody.

I shifted and ran through the forests desperately following Ariana’s fading scent.

Rain. Blood. Pain.

Her scent still lingered everywhere, every broken branch made my heart rang harder and every blood stain drove my wolf insane.

One night, I finally found another rogue hiding near the river and the moment he saw me, he tried running and I pinned him against a tree instantly.

“Where is she?”

Fear filled his face immediately.

“I don’t know!”

I slammed him harder against the tree.

“The girl from Blackwood territory. Where is she?”

The rogue shook badly.

“She was taken!”

My wolf went mad instantly.

“Taken by who?”

The rogue looked terrified now.

“A powerful man.”

Power rolled off me violently.

“What man?”

“I don’t know his name!”

I bared my teeth furiously.

“What did he look like?”

The rogue swallowed hard.

“Black wolf. Massive. Eyes like death.”

My entire body froze. No. No way.

The rogue kept talking desperately.

“He killed everyone. Tore them apart like animals.”

Fear suddenly moved into my chest because there was only one creature powerful enough to do that.

Lycan.

Another man touched my mate. Another man carried her, protected her, maybe even held her.

Jealousy exploded through me so violently that the rogue started shaking harder and I finally understood everything now.

Every possessive moment, every storm night, every time my wolf reacted to Ariana.

She was always mine. My true mate. Not Selene. Never Selene.

Ariana.

The woman I rejected, the woman I humiliated publicly, the woman I threw away.

And now another man had her.

My wolf nearly lost control completely.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I staggered backward breathing heavily and I remember our anniversary night again. Ariana in black silk.

The way she whispered:

“You’re still my husband.”

I remembered kissing her against the wall, holding her too tightly afterward and wanting to tell her not to leave me.

Then rejected her the next morning anyway.

Idiot. I was a complete idiot.

Days passed again.

Then one night, while standing near the northern borders, I suddenly froze  and my wolf exploded violently inside me.

Mate.

I smelt her. Ariana. She was alive and strong and my breathing turned uneven immediately and then another scent hit me too.

Male, it was dangerous and ancient.

Lycan.

My eyes darkened instantly and the scent came directly from the distant mountains.

The Lycan Kingdom. My wolf completely lost control and I slowly looked toward the dark kingdom far away and then growled darkly:

“Whoever is keeping my mate from me…”

My eyes turned completely black.

“…will die.”