Page 10 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate (Secret Legacy #3)

S elina

Insatiable.

If there was one word to describe Alexis from how last night went, it was insatiable.

Almost immediately after I came twice from Alexis eating me out and then fucking me like a starved and unhinged man, I passed out to sleep, but not for long.

It was barely an hour later before I felt a hand trailing the soft curves of my body, pulling away the covers, and latching on my breasts with a groan.

My body kicked into overdrive, arousal clearing the sleep from my eyes within seconds, and we went at it again and again and again.

By the time we were done, panting, satiated, and completely exhausted, Alexis pulled me flush against his chest, running his fingers through my hair until I fell asleep again with a smile on my face.

But as soon as the first light broke and my eyes opened to what we had done the previous night and with Alexis soundly asleep next to me, confusion set in my head instead.

At the ball, just before he came to my cabin, Alexis had been hand in hand with Marissa as she announced their wedding. But his mind had changed suddenly, wanting to have sex immediately as he set eyes on me here. Why? Alexis was almost always hostile toward me in the past.

What could have prompted this change?

I couldn’t wrap my head around why or what this would mean for us now, and the unnerving thoughts did not relinquish until Alexis stirred awake. The first sounds that broke through his throat made my breath still.

Alexis dragged himself up against the headboard with a pained moan, eyes squeezed, and one hand wedging the side of his head like it hurt to stay upright on its own.

My hackles rose as alertness trickled into my system. “Alexis, are you okay?” I asked as I mirrored his movement, coming to a half-sitting position with the covers clutched against my naked frame.

“My head,” he groaned, more to himself than me, but that told me much of what I needed to know.

His eyes peeled open in the next second, scanning my face first before slowly falling to our clothes scattered across the room, and a guttural sound of disbelief worked the outline of his throat.

Furrowed brows deepened to cold and calculating eyes, putting two and two together as they tracked back to where I sat.

“What. Did. You. Do?”

I froze, speechless and confused, but I could already feel a sickening sensation brooding in the pit of my stomach.

“Alexis, what do you mean?” I still asked through the block in my throat and, most likely by now, my pounding heart.

“What in Igaluk’s name did you do to me, Selina?” Alexis’s voice raised an octave higher, eyes flaring slightly, and he shot out of the bed like it was on fire or like I bore a foul-smelling plague. But only two steps in, Alexis groaned, holding his head in his hands.

Shock and worry combined ran through my bones, chilling to frost, and I could not even focus on Alexis’s stark naked body in front of me.

“We were intimate last night,” I explained the obvious, mostly because my brain could not yet fully comprehend what the heck was happening right now. “Why are you acting like something bad happened? What’s the problem, Alexis?” I inched forward on asking, thinking it would make things better .

Alexis flinched, veins breaking out on his face, leading to eyes that were now reddened with rage, and he started muttering strings of curses as he fished his pants from the ground, wrestling his legs into them before pulling the zipper halfway.

“You drugged me?” Alexis questioned, driving his hand into his hair and tugging on it hard. I winced, thinking about how it must hurt with his obvious headache, but also from the bitter stab I felt to my chest at his words. “Don’t say we were intimate because you drugged me!”

I shook my head vehemently, pushing back the tears that rushed to my eyes and the bile to my throat, denying his accusations.

“I…no, I did not drug you. I didn’t drug you, Alexis,” I cried, panicking now with how conflicted and in pain Alexis looked, thinking that I betrayed him in such a shameless way.

“I-I left the banquet and came home early, then you showed up, kissing me first, Alexis. I would never take advantage of someone like that, and definitely not you,” I explained, but Alexis couldn’t see past his rage.

“You drugged…stay away from me, Selina. I mean it,” Alexis seethed, the intensity of his words punching me in my face without mercy right on the spot where he kissed me last night like I was a prize.

Words failed me. “Do you hear me?” He went on, uncaring.

“Do not let me set my eyes on you ever again, or I’ll expose you to the world. How could you do this?”

“Alexis,” I still cried in a plea, hoping for a chance to make him listen to me, but he was snatching the rest of his clothes from the floor already, storming to my door, and yanking it open.

“And keep my name out of your mouth.”

With that, Alexis left, leaving the door wide open, not bothering to slam it for me to hear.

That would have been better than the deafening silence that followed his departure, leaving only his ruthless words to hang heavy in the air like a torrent and my heart to bleed from the multiple unseen stabs.

I remained on the bed, unmoving, till the tears I didn’t know I’d started to shed slid in between my lips, salt tasting on my tongue. That seemed to be the catalyst that reminded me of the anguish and disappointment Alexis was in. Then the sobs truly broke free, pouring down my face like a stream .

The immense heartbreak shook my body to its core, my throat closing up around itself and only opening when I came up for shuddering breaths.

“I d-din’t…I didn’t do i-it,” I stammered to myself, lips quivering as I broke down harder than I have done since my mother left me to the hands of a cold and unforgiving world.

Losing myself to the pain made me lose track of time, but certainly not enough to dull the sharp ache, wipe the words off, or make me forget the look of disgust on Alexis’s face as he shot daggers at me.

I wiped my tears, doing that over and over as fresh streaks continued replacing the ones I’d wiped, and I began to recite the mantra in my head, “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine,” even though I didn’t believe it for a second.

It was a long time after Alexis left that I forced myself away from the bed, retrieving the packed bag I had hidden from plain sight when he knocked on my door last night.

Making sure that the guide Sireen gave me was still secured, I cleaned myself up as much as I could, and I said my goodbyes with another round of sobs.

I said goodbye to Mom first, saying the silent words with a weight so heavy in my heart, it was drowning. I told her I loved her, apologizing for leaving her pack behind. I said my silent goodbye to Sireen, too, thanking the Goddess for sending a woman as compassionate as her to me.

And that was about it.

Making sure my cabin was in order, I stepped outside, not once looking back.

With every heavy step I took on my journey, I tried to erase the only good memory I had of Alexis, even as I craved him in so many unnecessary ways.

My mind felt numb, and the desire for proper love tangled my thoughts, making it difficult to prepare for the long road ahead.

I prayed that I would find the witch, Lyvia, still residing in Matsuna.

According to the guide Sireen had given me, the town lay hidden in uncharted territory somewhere between our northeastern Nightwing Pack and the snowy Silver Moon Pack.

It made sense that Lyvia would choose to live in a place unclaimed by any packs; witches were inherently mysterious beings.

They lived independently, possessing immense inherited knowledge and thriving in neutrality, apart from the confines of pack life.

Only dark witches, driven by chaos, mingled with others, and even they were selective.

Yet, beyond their preference for solitude, I faced another formidable hurdle: their potent magic.

A witch like Lyvia could easily shroud her whereabouts with wards and charms, rendering herself invisible to anyone.

Even with Sireen's guide in hand, finding her could be as impossible as grasping smoke.

If Lyvia didn't want to be found, she simply wouldn't be.

As my quest stretched before me, the days merged into an exhausting blur.

My travels took me through town after town, every night spent huddled in makeshift shelters that did little to shield me from the harsh elements.

What I believed would take weeks transformed into a grueling month of relentless trekking across rugged terrain.

Weeks without basic amenities weighed heavily on my body.

Morning after morning, I awoke feeling increasingly fragile, my ability to keep food down waning as uncertainty gnawed at my resolve.

Still, as I pressed onward, venturing deeper into treacherous valleys, I felt Matsuna had to be within reach.

I’d thought the increasing distance from the Nightwing Pack might lessen my longing for Alexis, but it was as constant as ever. The knowledge that I was close to my destination—and that the magnetic pull urging me to return to him might soon be severed—drove me onward with desperate determination.

Around noon, five weeks after I had set out, I studied the map again, the dreadful realization hitting me that Matsuna should have been in the previous valley. But it was empty. Or... it had appeared empty.

I doubled back, finally emerging into the frozen valley again.

A brush of recognition washed over me; I had traversed this valley before, but it had been devoid of life then.

The last time I wandered through these parts, there had been nothing but open space—no signs of the house built into the very cliffside.