The Alphas’s Revenge Bride

Chapter 4: I Was Never Meant to Be Yours

Aria POV

The knock came at seven in the morning.

I opened the door still in my sleep shirt, hair loose, completely unprepared for the sight of Damon standing there looking pressed and polished like he had somewhere important to be.He did not say good morning.

“The regional Alphas are coming tonight," he said, already talking like I was a meeting he needed to get through. "A Council gathering at the main hall. I wanted to let you know."My heart did something embarrassing. Something hopeful. He's telling me. He wants me there. Maybe

“You won't be attending."I blinked. "Excuse me?""Evelyn is coming with Alpha Reed's delegation." He said her name the same way he said everything else. Flat. Unbothered. Like I was supposed to accept it. "It would be messy with both of you there. Stay home, Aria."

Stay home.Like I was a dog he was leaving behind.Before I could even find words — before my brain could process the sheer disrespect of what just came out of his mouth — he turned and walked away.Just like that. Down the hall. Gone.

Sable went deathly quiet inside me. That was worse than any growl she could have let out.

I grabbed my shoes and went after him.

“Damon." My voice bounced off the walls. "Damon, I am your mate. You don't get to just—" He stopped at the main entrance and said something low to the two guards posted there. Both of them turned to face me with that same look — sorry, but orders are orders.

“Luna Aria." The taller one stepped forward. "The meeting area is restricted. Alpha Damon's instructions." I stared past him at Damon's back as he disappeared through the doors. He used security guards to stop me from following him. His own mate. In our own home. I could feel the guards avoiding eye contact with me. Not because they felt sorry for me — because they were uncomfortable. Everyone in that hallway knew this was wrong. And somehow that made it worse.

Not one person stopped him. Not one person told him he was humiliating me again.While Evelyn walked in freely.I stood there for five full seconds. Long enough to feel every person in that hallway holding their breath waiting to see what I would do. Long enough to feel the heat rushing up my neck and the sting behind my eyes threatening to embarrass me completely.

I turned around. Walked back to my room. Closed the door without slamming it. And stood in the middle of the floor until I stopped shaking.

The contract was still on my bed where I'd left it.That last clause looked up at me like it had been waiting.

All prior mate bonds shall be permanently and irrevocably dissolved.I picked up the pen.

Then I put it back down. Not yet. I needed to look Damien Cross in the eye before I signed anything that permanent. But by the time morning came, I already knew what I was going to do.

I dressed like I meant it the next day and drove to his estate.Damien was at his desk when I walked in, sleeves rolled up, reading something. He looked up the moment I entered — like he had been expecting me, which he probably had.

“You look like something happened," he said.

“He blocked me with security." I didn't bother softening it. "From a Council gathering. In my own home. Because Evelyn was going to be there."Damien set down whatever he was holding. His expression didn't change but something behind his eyes shifted — cold and very, very still.

“Sit down," he said."I'd rather stand."He almost smiled. "Still." I pulled out the contract and dropped it on his desk. "The last clause," I said, pointing to the paragraph at the bottom. "You cut my bond with Damon permanently. You left that part out of your text. On purpose.""Yes."

Just that. No apology.

“Why?"

He leaned back in his chair and looked at me steadily. "Because if the bond stays open, you go back to him at the end of the year. Everything you're planning collapses. The pull is too strong and you know it." He paused. "I needed you angry enough to come to me before the bond settled back in and you convinced yourself to forgive him."

The air left my lungs slowly."You calculated this," I said. "From the beginning. "I know how you think." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I've known how you think since we were teenagers, Aria."

Something about the way he said my name — quiet, certain, like he'd said it a thousand times in rooms I wasn't in — made my chest do something I wasn't prepared for.I looked away first.

“My terms," I said, pulling myself back together. "One year. Public Luna. You stay out of whatever I decide to do about Damon and Evelyn. And when the year ends, we walk away clean."

“Agreed."

“No complications. No feelings. No”

“Aria." He cut me off gently. "I said agreed."

I uncapped the pen. Pressed it to the signature line.bThought about the security guard stepping in front of me. Thought about obligations. Thought about standing in that hallway with everyone watching and having nowhere to go.

I signed.

Damien leaned forward and signed below mine without hesitating. When he straightened, he looked at me with an expression I couldn't fully read — something careful, something held back.

“Welcome to Blackridge," he said quietly. "Luna Aria."

Not obligation. Not Poor Aria.

Even Sable exhaled.My phone rang the second I got in my car. Damon's name lit up the screen.

I looked at it for a long moment — his name, his contact photo, three years of history summarized in a rectangle of light.

I pressed decline. Then I started the engine and pulled out of Damien's gate. He could leave a message.

For the first time in three years, I genuinely did not care what it said.