Page 8 of Reclaiming His Lost Mate (Secret Legacy #3)
S elina
Minutes after Alexis left me reeling in the middle of the treatment hut, fleeing like I was going to plague him with a non-curable disease, I gave up trying to clean the mess that Simon had left.
That much time had passed, but not enough for the tingling sensation running across my body to subside.
This should have been the point where I fantasized about the magnetic kiss that Alexis and I shared, but the reverse was the case.
My heart had given way when he disappeared, and the pounding ache gutting through my organs still hadn’t lessened. Bitter tears cornered in my eyes, and for the first time in all my life, I truly envied Marissa.
I carefully gathered my belongings, exiting the treatment hut as my tired eyes pictured my bed, and while testing the locks, I fell into my thoughts.
From the time I was old enough to make decisions for myself, I hoped that my future woman would not end up like my mother—unmarried, lonely, and the side piece of a selfish man.
But I also promised myself that I was going to adopt her self-dignity and not grovel for a conditional or cold-hearted love .
When I met Alexis, I had hoped that things would fall into place, but tonight made me realize that Alexis was never going to be mine, only Marissa’s.
The realization hurt more than I could put into words, and more than a hundred little pins nibbling down on my neck, but this was me letting go.
“Have some shame, would you?” Someone spat from the shadows, pulling me from my train of thoughts, and I would have flared into a full-blown panic attack if I hadn’t recognized the voice of the speaker, not that it made me any less weary.
“Marissa,” I called weakly, careful not to call her by the Goddess’s name for sister, and I clutched my bag tighter for support.
She wasted no time. “Simon just had some interesting pieces of information about something that went down here, and like the two mature adults that we are, I’m here to have a one-on-one chat with you to know exactly what happened,” Marissa said, but the threat couldn’t be missed from her tone.
I was exhausted already, and the last person I wanted trouble with was Marissa. Simon must have twisted everything that happened, so I aimed to assure Marissa that it wasn’t true. I didn’t know to what extent Simon’s lies stretched, so I shook my head slowly, denying it.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Marissa.”
She cackled, slow, long, and eerily, and my throat dried up. “You are trying to steal my fiancé, Selina. Why?” The friendliness was gone from her tone, and all that was left was malice.
I schooled my features, hoping that my face did not give away the fact that I was all over Alexis moments ago.
“No, I’m not. I promise you, Marissa, Alexis is yours,” I said, ignoring the whimpering noises my wolf made at the back of my head as she mourned her loss.
I sniffed back the tears, finally lifting my chin in defiance.
Marissa inhaled a sharp breath, her left hand propped on her hip, the clawy fingers of the right one clacking against each other as she took a step forward. I swallowed, but I didn’t inch back as she caged me in, refusing to let her feed off my fear.
“You said that once, Selina, remember? And then you went on to stake your claim on him in front of everyone, asking why he would choose me as his wife instead of you.”
My eyes briefly shut tight on that memory, but I snapped them back open immediately. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore. I will have nothing to do with him henceforth, and you both won’t even know we’re in the same pack.”
“What changed then?”
I shrugged, keeping my answer simple. “It’s just better this way. We’re not meant to be.”
It was a case of less did more, seeing as the air almost completely cut off from my lungs on saying that.
Marissa smiled. “Oh, you’re right about that.
Alexis and I have been making plans, and we will soon get you out of our hair.
He was kind enough to send for the rarest supplies from Silver Moon Pack for me, and he says I own the biggest chamber in his castle because, well, I’m just a girl,” Marissa chirped, clapping sweetly, before sagging her shoulders in a dreamy sigh.
“Can’t wait for little Marissas…no, that’s not it,” she said, twisting her face, and it took me only a second to realize that she was testing her and Alexis’s name as a pair on her lips.
“Alexas!” She beamed, having found the one, and I gritted my teeth.
Hard. “I cannot wait for little Alexas to start running around our castle,” she finished, and I stifled a choked sob.
Resentment clawed at my throat at the thought that Alexis was warm enough to Marissa like that and that they entertained the thought of kids together while he could barely look me in the eye without his features turning into stone.
What did I even expect?
I hardly managed a nod, keeping my eyes facing the ground as I walked in the opposite direction even though that route branched out to steeper hills and would cost me an extra twenty minutes.
“No congratulations, Sister?” Marissa hissed, two steps in, and I stopped in my tracks, turning to face her again.
“Congratulations, Marissa,” I ground out, my eyes burning with unshed tears and my heart tearing into many invincible pieces. I blinked enough times that not only did the tears disappear, but I couldn’t feel my eyelids anymore by the time I stopped .
I didn’t sleep that night as the mate bond kept tugging at me to seek Alexis out, and I didn’t sleep for the next few nights after that either.
Alexis still occupied my thoughts day and night, so days later, when my father demanded that I attend a banquet to celebrate the successful ending of his and Alexis’s first project together, I couldn’t resist going to see him, if only for the last time.
After getting ready, my heart thundered all the way to the pack’s large dinner hall just two buildings away from the main royal building and, thankfully, a longer distance away from my secluded cabin since it gave me some time to steer the raging nerves.
Once I stepped inside the hall to take in what must have been at least a twenty-foot-long table full of food, meat, and drinks, my eyes did not settle there. Neither did they settle on the decor, the music performers, my father, who was across the table, or the handful of pack elders and packmates.
Like a bee to a hive, I was drawn to Alexis’s god-like frame mere feet away, and an involuntary, breathy sigh escaped my lips on taking him in. On cue, his stormy blue eyes found me, and the world froze as he took one intense, dragged look at me, eyes dropping lower and lower and lower.
It was what one would call an eye-fuck, and holy heavenly Goddess, my body shot to life like a bat flying straight out of hell.
It had to be a taboo, the way I craved Alexis.
He looked perfect in his suit, but I would have preferred to tear the clothing off him if someone hadn’t jumped in my line of sight, snapping our connection into bits.
It was Marissa.
Marissa was bearable, but not when she threw her hands around Alexis’s neck, inching so close that her lips pressed against his cheek, leaving a red stain in its wake. Disgust coiled in my stomach, threatening to send me doubling over with a retch.
Marissa had one hand laced through Alexis’s arm, and the other was plastered on his chest as her face shone in a wide smile. The larger pain I felt was a result of how Alexis’s unforgiving eyes remained on Marissa the entire time, not once sparing me a glance.
“Everyone, may I please have your attention?” Marissa spoke, and the chatter in the hall immediately died down.
In confusion, my eyes tracked the crowd to the other side of the table, where my father stood with a wine glass to his lips, but he only acknowledged me with a double take.
Marissa went on, now the center of attention.
“It is a thing of joy that our Nightwing Pack has established a bond with Alpha Alexis’s Shadow Moon Pack, and we can all see from the way he cares deeply about our pack’s wellness that he is a good man. ”
Murmurs of agreement rose from within the crowd while I tried to discern what Marissa was driving at, but I didn’t have to think for long before she uncovered the reason for me.
“It is on that happy note that I would love to announce to you all that Alexis and I will be getting married in two months!”
I gasped, taking a small, unbalanced step back, and I would have told myself that I may have heard wrong if the hall had not broken out into sounds of jubilation—singing, dancing, and congratulating Alexis and Marissa.
Relentless tears stung my eyelids, and it shouldn’t have hurt the way my heart bottomed out, but it did.
I tore my eyes from the ongoing scene in defeat, refusing to do so much as look at Alexis anymore.
As I backed away with limbs as heavy as lead, my cheeks burned, trembling with silent sobs, but I didn’t let any tears drop.
I walked blindly till I was outside the hall and would have continued like that till I reached my cabin, but someone stopped me.
“Selina, have you had any food to eat this evening?”
My distant, hollow eyes hadn’t even registered the face, but I knew that only one person cared enough to ask me such a question.
I blinked twice, taking Sireen’s wild and disarrayed look in—likely from overseeing the edibles for the banquet—and I shook my head. “I’m just going to call it a night and head back to my cabin, Sireen. Thanks.”
She must have seen through me, stopping me in my tracks with an expression of concern etched on her face.
“Did something happen inside there, Selina?” She nudged to the building behind us, and I considered shaking my head, but not knowing if this feeling of despair would eat me alive if I did, I nodded .