Chapter 5

Aurora's POV

My breath gets stuck in my throat. My chest is so tight with unreleased air that my vision is also starting to get white at the edges. I hold onto the brim of the sink for support, wanting to get away. Needing to get away. But I just stand there like some sort of a masochist, listening to them.

I feel... Dirty. Unpure. And the first surge of repulsion for myself for even keeping up with this is the only thing that drives me to get away and go back to my own room.

I slam the door, having a dark hope that the sound would somehow make them stop. But of course it doesn't. Tears are leaking out of my eyes and I wipe them furiously, angry with myself.

"Why did it not work?" I ask Vega, not bothering to hide my anger. "You're my wolf. You're the one tied to this whole mate business. Why did our rejection not work?"

"I don't know," she says, and I can sense the desperation in her tone. "It should have worked. That's how it goes for a lot of people who denounce their mates. I don't know how it didn't stick with you and Mason...."

She trails off and I can tell that she is being honest. I just don't like the fact that even she doesn't know. Now it's all up to me to just control what I feel. It's exhausting.

"What do I do now?" I demand from her, but eventually she just exits our shared consciousness as though out of shame.

It's almost like she's too embarrassed for not knowing and she just wants to be out. Part of me wants to drag her back in and keep demanding answers from her until she gives in, but a bigger part of me just wishes I can exit out of my own head too.

I roll over in my bed, burying myself under the covers. I close my eyes, blocking everything out, wishing for this day to just end.

"I wish I had never turned eighteen and met my mate," I whisper to myself, and after a while, I just fall asleep.

* * *

When I wake up, the house is completely silent. The morning light is streaming through the windows and hitting my face, making me blink a couple of times before deciding to sit up.

I'm tangled in my sheets. I can feel the marks of the blanket still stamped on my face. Still, I get up and stretch, trying not to think about what happened. Trying not to think about who's still possibly in the other bedroom right this moment.

"Breakfast is ready!" Mom yells from downstairs, and I force a happy face before getting dressed and going down.

Thankfully, neither Margot nor Mason comes down with me. I wouldn't have known what to do. In fact, I don't think I can even feel their presence in the house, which is good. That means I don't have to look them in the eye and pretend everything is going....

"Good morning, Aurora," a familiar voice says from the dining table and I just freeze.

Margot. And sitting next to her finishing up his food is Mason. He looks up at me and smiles, and it's as though none of what we talked about ever happened. It's as though he never found out that we were mates.

"Good morning," he just says, and I'm forced to mutter the same thing.

Margot, as clueless or simply just as uncaring as ever, motions me to sit next to her. "Come here and eat. I heard you just vanished from the party last night, which is a shame because we ate the cake and tried to sing happy birthday for you."

"I was just tired," I say.

Mom comes out of the kitchen with a batch of fried eggs. But then she motions me to come with her. I thought I'm just out here to take some food out into the dining room with her, but she pulls me to a corner and suddenly starts to whisper.

"I'm happy with how you are handling things," she says to me, touching my face. "See? It's not so bad to just give way to your sister once in a while. Let her have her happiness. It doesn't feel bad to you to do it just this once, right?"

I want to argue that I have done it as many times as I could and I always was the one who would give way, but I just nod. "It doesn't feel bad at all, mom."

Mom grins widely. "That makes me very happy. Now go serve them up more food. I think Mason will be leaving in a while and he would need to have his energy."

I get out of the kitchen and into the living room, sliding the plate of bread to Mason's side of the table. He thanks me casually, and I'm pretty sure my heart is going to crawl up my throat so I just sit down.

But I barely even touch the table when suddenly, the home phone starts to ring.

"Can you get that?" Margot asks.

Happy to be free, I nod and head to the living room, happy for the excuse to be away from them. I pick up the phone and press it to my ear. "Hello, Everley residence."

"There you are, princess."

The familiar deep voice crawls into my ear like a cold whisper and spreads all over my body.

I nearly slam the button on the home phone but I find myself incapable of movement. I just clutch it close to my ear, my pulse racing so fast that I have to breathe rapidly to keep up.

"So, how does it feel?" he asks, almost purring like a cat. "How does it feel to be betrayed by your mate? Does it feel good? Do you like it? Do you know now what you're doing to me?"

Fuck you. The words get stuck in my throat.

"I take your silence as yes." He laughs. "You know perfectly what it feels now. So why not just put me out of my misery and do as I ask?"

"Who the fuck are you?" I finally growl under my breath. "What do you want from me?"

"I'm your destiny, and I want you."