All Chapters of Once His Mate, Now His Regret: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

I didn’t kneel. Not for four hours. Not for four minutes.When Matthias told me to kneel at the study, I walked there—and saw her. That massive portrait of Nerissa hanging on the wall like a shrine. I stood in front of it, staring.Then I tore it down.The crash was satisfying.Suddenly, a maid rushed in, followed by two more servants. Their eyes widened at the sight of the wreckage.“My luna—what on earth are you doing?” one gasped.Another stepped forward, voice sharper. “Why would you do this? That was Lady Nerissa’s portrait!”I turned to them calmly, brushing a splinter of frame from my hand. “Well, since she’s not dead, I don’t see why we’re still hanging her funeral tribute on the wall.”And with that, I walked past them—chin high.I went straight to my room, showered, and changed my clothes into something nicer. I needed to get out of here. Go to my appointment, eat something. And talk to Cassiel. I looked at myself in the mirror. If you ignore the sadness in my eyes, you’d

The plan was to sleep somewhere else to avoid the meltdown that would happen when my parents, Nerissa, Matthias and matthias’s parents end up at dinner tonight. I shall not be heading for that mess. And not to mention that Matthias texted me to inform me that his grandmother would be there. If the devil had a mother it would be that woman. So I’m not going to waste my time with that. I think my stress levels might never go down if i show up there. I lodged at a classy hotel for the night, and ordered delicious meal. I took off my shoes and crawled into the bed. Letting myself sleep without worrying about someone breaking in to attack me or some stupid shit like that. For the first time I felt like i was having a peaceful sleep. It made me uncomfortable. I’d never slept so soundily in my life. It felt nice, and nice was uncomfortable. I was halfway through the best sleep of my life when the hotel phone rang. I know it’s the hotel phone because mine is silenced. And on do-not-disturb

I could have spent the night at the hotel, but it already seemed like the best plan for me. But I got a knock on my room door, and it was from the cleaning lady here to tell me that the receptionist downstairs told her to pass me a message. It was from Matthias, at like nine pm./Come home, now./That was all, but I could smell his pheromones through that single piece of paper. It made me feel funny. Like worried, funny because I could sense how angry he was. My stomach twisted, but I still folded the note and tossed it aside. I wasn't going anywhere.A few minutes later, my phone rang. Matthias.I picked up out of spite. “Unless this is about speeding up the divorce process, don’t call me.”There was a pause. Then his voice, cold and clipped:“Come home, Aurielle. Or I’ll make sure every elder on the Council hears exactly how you faked a pregnancy to manipulate me. You think a custody case will go well for you with that kind of lie hanging over your head?”My blood ran cold.“You wo

Showing up with Nerissa was a mistake—I can admit that now. I acted out of anger, plain and simple. She said she wanted to come, and I let her. Meanwhile, Aurielle had locked herself in her room for three days, refusing food, refusing to speak. According to the staff, she hadn’t made a sound since the night she called me a wife beater.That word… it hit harder than I expected. She said it to wound me, and it worked. Aurielle always knew how to twist things, how to cast herself as the victim and paint everyone else as villains in her melodrama. Still, I shouldn’t have retaliated by parading someone else in front of the entire pack before the ink on our divorce was even dry. That was shortsighted. It looked bad—really bad. The judgment was thick in the air, and no one was more obvious than Alpha Aldric.The man had everything—respect, position, the approval of the entire council—and he still had the nerve to look down on me like I was some reckless pup. Worse, I swear he looked pleased.

The taxi pulled into the gas station parking lot and parked beneath the dim halo of a flickering overhead light. Though the sun was blaring down on me, I still got out. The day's silence surrounded me, but my phone shattered it with a constant stream of vibrations. It wouldn’t stop buzzing in my pocket, like it was screaming at me to face what I already knew was spiraling out of control.Dozens of messages lit up the screen—Matthias demanding answers, his texts sharp and furious, like knives meant to wound. Then Nerissa’s name popped up. Her messages were colder, shorter, but still filled with that same venom that always managed to coil around my throat and squeeze.She was perfectly fine admitting it to me on text that I deserve to be dragged across the floor for cheating when she knows I didn’t cheat. What is in that photo is me getting into a cab, looking like hell, and Cassiel holding the door open. I stared at the screen for a long time before finally typing one reply to Matthi