Chapter 21: Aria

Chapter 21: Aria

Alpha Lucas Black wanted me as his mate. Those were words I never thought I’d hear, let alone hear them as truth.

Hot and cold crashed inside me, creating a thunderstorm of conflicting feelings. I stared back at Lucas as his face brightened, pleased that I said yes, showing it in jubilant eyes and quirked lips. His unfamiliar delight was boyish and pure, unlike what I’d ever seen before in him. He looked truly happy. That made me want to feel happy too.

A volcanic reaction broke across the opposing pack. Oswald snarled, his wolf clawing to be set free. Wild anger made him red, teeth bared, fingers arched. “She doesn’t belong to you!” he blurted. And when he and everyone else realized what he said, Oswald sucked in a breath and straightened up. “Lucas, you can’t,” he growled.

By now, Oswald was becoming an annoyance, doing nothing productive but reminding me of the family that didn’t want me. I was too fascinated with the high of Lucas’ attention to let Oswald distress me any further. Squeezing Lucas’ hand, I sensed he felt the same impatience.

“You can’t make that girl your Alpha Female,” Oswald continued urgently. “She’s already my rejected mate. Her value became nothing the moment I denied her. Now she’s an Omega. Are you really going to devalue your pack by taking a rejected Omega as your mate? Your packmates will mock you and call you a fool, Lucas. Your business partners will see your wife as the manipulative shrew that she is. The Council will question your integrity. That Omega has already shown her worth. So either you must be under the influence of her imposter magic, or you’re simply a bad leader to take her on as your mate—your equal.”

Oswald surprised us both by turning his venom onto Lucas and threatening him, desperately trying to change his mind. It fed Lucas’ and my mutual anger until Lucas snapped, “She isn’t joining my pack as a rejected Omega. And I would mind my tongue if I were you, Oswald, spouting off traditions you and I both know had been abolished decades ago. The view you have of mates is outdated and frankly disturbing.” He flashed his teeth too. “You cannot claim ownership of someone else’s worth. To me, she’s invaluable.”

In the time it took for Oswald to respond, I glanced at Mara beside him and was struck again by shock seeing her face darken with a different breed of anger. It must have pissed her off to be brushed aside by Oswald, who was still desperate to have me back. Her claims of me being an imposter were heard and forgotten within a matter of minutes, only used for ammunition and nothing more.

But Oswald noticed my eyes had gone beyond him, and his mouth opened and beckoned my attention, twisting in tone once more. “Aria!” he sighed exasperatedly. “Fine. I’ll admit, you had a good understanding of the pack’s internal affairs. Mara and I could use your help. Forget all this nonsense, come back to the Grey Creek Pack, and I’ll take you as my second mate.”

My stomach turned. “What? No!” The reaction was involuntary, but I meant it. There was nothing Oswald could offer that would make me come back. He was too late. If he’d offered to take me as his second mate weeks ago, I might have still been tempted to say yes, but now the damage was done. His contempt for me nearly cost me my life, and I didn’t want to have anything to do with him. I couldn’t imagine how bad my life would be if I’d said yes, knowing what I do now. “Oswald, I could never go back to wanting to be your mate. My feelings for you are dead. Even if Mara could suffer through sharing you, I wouldn’t want you anyway!” I spat. There was too much anger inside me to keep my cool. I burned up inside, everything Oswald said melting away the tenets that once held me obedient to my former Alpha. “You’re willing to sink that low, to trick me into thinking I could in any way salvage the life I used to want. Well, I’m done with that life! Stop wasting your breath begging for a way to get me back because I’m not going with you. I’m staying here with Lucas.”

I knew my words would only incense him worse, but it felt right to be standing up to Oswald. Somehow, it almost felt good to see him flounder and gape at me, unable to control me like he had done ever since we found out about our fated bond. I was free of his shackles. There was nothing he could say or do short of attack me and drag me out by the scruff if he wanted me to come back.

“This is disgusting behavior, Oswald,” said Lucas. “What’s gotten into you? I would never have expected you’d disgrace yourself like this.”

Oswald nearly choked. “Alpha Lucas! You must understand how dire it is that you do not give her any sort of power!”

“You have no basis for these claims beyond rumors,” said Lucas. “Let me enlighten you on the ways Aria has proven you wrong already. She risked her life multiple times fighting off Rogues to help me, to help her pack and has been willing this entire time to share her experiences with the Rogues to prepare others. She’s dedicated and intelligent, and it shows in not only her physical skills but her devotion to helping others. If you were an ounce of the Alpha I thought you were, you’d see that Aria is just a girl trying her hardest to please the people she loves. Her kindness and compassion are a miracle, given what you’ve put her through. That she is still willing to serve others despite all the abuse she’s endured is a testament to her character. I won’t allow her to be taken for granted anymore. I’m done arguing with you, Oswald. You can join us now to meet with the other Alphas and discuss the threat of the Rogues, or you can stay here and scream at no one.”

Mara turned to Oswald, reaching out for his chest. “You’re taking this too far,” she said, anger cutting through her words while she fought to steady her voice.

Oswald ignored her. “Don’t shut me out, Lucas,” he growled. “There’s still one tradition you and I can both agree on: stealing one’s fated mate is a declaration of war!”

The onlookers fell silent as Oswald dared present the threat of war. He would go so far as to break the alliance between Silent Shadows and Grey Creek, a bond that was still so tenuous in its early stages, just to get me back. I shook my head in disbelief. “I don’t want to be your fated mate!”

“No matter what anyone says, you will always be my fated mate! Mine!” snarled Oswald.

His cruelty, his demanding, his greed—I couldn’t bear it anymore. I wasn’t going to stand by and let him think he could bargain for me or that I was his. Oswald was the delusional one. For the strained connection I had with Oswald, I reached within myself and grabbed it, choking it and ripping it out of myself. There was no warmth left in me for him. No unrequited adoration or daydreams in which I was his true love—they were all old memories that blew away like dust. There was no more fated mate bond between us. Even the smallest magnetism between us was gone. Now, looking at him was like looking at a stranger.

The destruction of our fated bond punctured his lungs. Oswald’s eyes widened, and he clutched his chest, visibly pained by the loss as if it had meant something to him. I half wondered if he was putting on a show, but the strength of the bond I had to rip out of myself implied that there had still been feelings on his end.

I didn’t care.

“I’m not your fated mate anymore,” I asserted, standing taller. “I’m nothing to you now. I’m not a call to war or a slave you can beat on and throw away when you grow bored. Our bond is gone, and with it, my bond to the rest of your pack. I declare myself a Rogue now.”

As my family shifted uncomfortably behind Oswald, I passed my eyes over them and felt nothing.

“And as a Rogue, I’m free to accept Lucas’ offer. I’m going to be joining the Silent Shadows Pack. That’s final.”

I didn’t even realize it when my voice strengthened, projecting my determination and independence at Oswald until I fell silent and found the entire crowd in awe of my powerful aura. Even Oswald stared back at me, listening to me instead of just staring daggers through me. Mara clung to his chest and arm, trying to soothe the pain of our dismembered bond, but Oswald seemed wholly unaffected by her right now. He was transfixed on me and what he’d just lost.

Then, in another split second, Oswald’s expression morphed into a snarl of rage. “You don’t realize what you’ve just brought upon yourself!” His body jerked, muscles churning, and I feared that he was about to transform. But instead, Oswald wrenched away from Mara, whipped around, and charged through the pack gathered at his heels, commanding them to follow. “You’ll regret this, Lucas!” he shouted back at us.

The rest of the Grey Creek Pack looked torn between siding with Oswald or acknowledging that this was madness. Some of them looked back at me with envy and bitterness, but all of them eventually filtered out after Oswald and Mara, leaving the border abandoned with their leftover stench. I was dumbfounded by how desperate Oswald became to keep control of me. That wasn’t anything like the Oswald I grew up knowing, and even though he’d revealed secrets about himself, it wasn’t enough to justify an entire change in personality. He’d never been so loud and aggressive before. He would never have compromised the opinion others had of him to make such stupid accusations. The person at the head of the other pack was somebody I no longer knew, and it was better that way.

I didn’t want to be associated with the Alpha of the Grey Creek Pack. He was irrational, condescending, and manipulative. He was a stranger to me.

Lucas set his hand on my shoulder and led me away. We had a strategy meeting to attend yet, and I needed to cleanse my palette of the sour taste Oswald Moore left in my mouth.