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1140 Words
I don't know where I got the strength from, but I shoved Dante as hard as I could, breaking his hold on me and putting some much-needed distance between us, shattering the ambience.
With Dante's hands off me, my thoughts cleared.
“You are delusional,” my voice didn't shake as I spoke even though the only thing keeping me upright was the solid wall behind me.
“Even before you rejected me, I was never yours.”
Dante's nostrils flared, his eyes dark with rage then his expression blanked, and it was as though I had imagined it all but at least he didn't try to touch me again.
“You will not have a relationship with Jordan,” his voice was cooler than ice. “I do not allow it.”
He wouldn't allow it? Who the hell did Dante think he was?
Fighting the urge I had to hit him across his annoyingly handsome face, I shrugged.
“Good luck with that. You don’t f*****g dictate my life, Mr. Orion.”
With that I turned on my heels, walking away from Dante Orion and back to the diner.
“Are you alright?” Jordan asked, his voice full of concern.
I stared at Jordan. How had I not seen it before?
He and Dante might have had different eye colors but shared the same hair and that proud almost aristocratic bearing all royals had.
I wanted to confront him. To ask him why he had kept something so important from me but the last thing I wanted to do was give Dante the satisfaction of seeing us argue.
Yet I couldn't bring myself to carry on with the dinner like nothing was wrong.
“I'm fine,” I forced a smile on before grabbing my bag. “I got a call in the restroom, there's a situation I've got to get to.”
Jordan’s look of concern deepened.
“I’ll drop you off. Let me just get the bill then we can—”
“I'm fine.” I cut him off before he could finish, standing to my feet. “We can catch up later.”
I didn't wait for him to respond before I walked away feeling the burning glare of Dante’s gaze all the way out.
As my chauffeur drove me home, I wondered how exactly I had managed to remain oblivious to the fact that Jordan was a royal.
In my time at the palace, he had never visited, and I had been too busy avoiding court in general to pay attention to court gossip. Was that how I’d missed it?
Another thought hit me. In my time away, what else had changed in court that I was unaware of?
Mia had been incessantly asking me when she could come by since the day I had gotten back, and it seemed it was time to take her up on her invitation.
“Come give Aunt Mia a hug!”
Mia didn't give Mason enough time to accept her request before she swept him off the ground.
“No one can save you now,” Mia nuzzled him playfully causing Mason to squeal.
“Moooom! Help!” He called out and I couldn't help but smile at their antics.
Soon, it was just Mia and I left in the sitting room as Nora went to drop Mason off at his new school.
Mia was visibly radiant with happiness and the inextinguishable glow of finding her mate and life partner was evident.
Mia left the Shadow Pack shortly after I left Dante, under the guise of going to college and two years ago, she found her mate, Ronald.
From the plenty I had heard about him from Mia, I knew he was a good werewolf. A bit on the quiet side but I thought that balanced well with Mia’s more extroverted personality.
He also came from a rather well-to-do family that was not only well connected in the werewolf and human society but also in the Lycan society.
Which was the entire reason I’d sought out Mia.
“I didn't think you would actually return,” she said, settling in next to me while carefully watching my facial expression.
I shrugged. “I’m still not sure if it was the right choice.”
Mia sighed, shaking her head.
“You can't run forever, Ivie, you'll have to confront the past at some point.”
I looked away.
“I'm not running. That life is simply no longer mine. I don't want anything to do with it anymore.”
I thought of how easily Dante had pinned me to the wall, keeping me captive with my own desire and I repressed a shudder.
“Once I finish my business here, I'm heading back home.” I stated definitely.
Mia nodded even though I knew she still had her reservations. She was a good friend, a true one that I still doubted I deserved sometimes.
“I need you to tell me everything you know has happened in the Lycan court that I missed in my time away,” I said.
Mia paused and I could see from her expression that she didn’t expect my question, but she simply nodded once.
“Alright.”
Long after Mia left, I was still shaken by her words.
In my time away, despite Mia’s numerous attempts to keep me abreast of the situation in the Lycan court, I had refused.
But now I wished that I had asked even once.
The throne was at stake without an heir, and Jordan might just be in line to inherit since Dante and Miranda lost their child barely a month after he rejected me.
According to Mia, Miranda had lost her head since then, acting for all intents and purposes like a manipulative, bloodthirsty tyrant.
But deep down I couldn't shake the instinctive feeling that even before the loss of their child, Miranda had been exactly like that.
I couldn't help but remember how she had feigned fainting at the exact moment the pain from Dante’s rejection had all but knocked me out.
I recalled the fire in her eyes when she’d told him she would leave with their unborn child to avoid breaking the mating bond between Dante and me, maybe it had been just me, but her words had been literally dripping with insincerity.
I felt a pang of pity for Dante. Just a pang. I couldn't imagine losing Mason.
Maybe immediately after I’d left the palace, I would have felt it was karma for all the terrible things he had done to me.
But I had been a different person then.
Empty and hollow before Eric.
“I want you to take over my business.” Eric’s voice was raspy, the stench of his blood heavy in the air.
- Writer
