MY NEW BOSS IS MY EX MATE

realization and backstory

It all started after Adien took over as the alpha of Reanon pack at a young age, naive and groomed by the elders, the senior wolves, the pack's inner circle. He has been taught that the Raenon Pack alpha position carries weight and the position of the luna isn't just a partner, she's a symbol, they all had their unspoken standard: the alpha's mate needed to project strength, status, dominance while Rose was an omega. A quiet, overlooked, late-blooming omega with no wolf, no family name worth mentioning, no political value, no power or authority. The whispers had been going on long before the ceremony, people would whisper behind him "Is that girl really his mate? Her? The omega? Will the Alpha accept her?"

Adien felt that pressure every single day he delayed telling her. He knew she was his mate for a while before he ever approached her, that delay wasn't gentlemanly patience, No, it was him hoping the problem would resolve itself somehow, that she would maybe leave, that he'd find a way out, that maybe the mate bond was wrong or something would happen, he didn’t want to be the one to cause the pain to her and he had wished she left or rejected him first.

The elders and council had quietly suggested more than once that a true alpha could reject a weak mate and wait for a stronger second chance, wasn’t that selfishness? He knew but listened anyways. They framed rejection as leadership and dominance. Adien told himself he was making a hard but necessary decision, but in reality, he was really just doing what he'd been told was acceptable. He felt the bond, he liked her--- there was always something that draws him to her, that he couldn’t take his eyes off her, but he still gave in to the pressure. Why? Because he believe an Alpha must have standard and mustn’t let emotions cloud his judgement.

And there was Diana playing the long game of manipulation. She was there all along, before the rejection, before he found his mate and realized they couldn’t end up together, broke up with her but she stayed. She stayed visible. She stayed close. She stayed useful and positioned, within reach. Diana was older in the pack dynamic, polished, everything the elders approved of, but they Adien couldn’t be with her.

Diana knew about Rose being Adien’s mate using her means, she came to Adien who admitted the truth, Diana spread the news, because she knew everybody would be against Adien taking Rose as his mate. All these was to push Adien rejecting Rose as his Mate.

She was too smart to confront Adien directly, so she used subtle means. She would always say "She's sweet but... do you really think she's ready for what your position demands?" "I just worry about you, Adien. You deserve someone who can stand beside you, not behind you." She planted that seed of doubt.

She framed Rose's quietness as weakness, her invisibility as a liability, her omega status as an embarrassment the pack would never respect or accept even. She made Adien feel like choosing Rose was choosing failure for himself and for the pack. The night before the ceremony, Diana had a conversation with him, dressed as concern, Leaving him with doubt he couldn't shake, and so he made up his mind to do what he thought was the right thing to do to save both him and Rose.

Of course Diana expected that after the rejection, Adien would eventually turn back to her and see her use. She had positioned herself as the logical alternative but she never accounted for Rose transforming, for her working at Adien’s company or for Adien falling for the new version before he knew who she was.

The pressure was real, Diana's manipulation was real, but neither of those things made him do it. He had a choice and he made his choice in the worst possible way publicly, cruelly, and with no warning, because of one thing: he was afraid. Afraid of what exactly? He was afraid of the bond itself. The mate bond demands vulnerability, It demands that an alpha, who has spent his whole life being controlled and in control, surrender something. Adien had watched his father lead the pack and never show softness, the bond felt like a weakness he couldn't afford, especially, after experiencing first hand what Rose wolf could do to him if she fully awakens. He was afraid she would awaken something he had locked hidden within him for years, no matter how much he lied to himself, he still can't deny that feeling of satisfaction and pleasure he felt for a moment, he has never experienced something like that before but he liked it. it was like he was happy to submit to her and it scared the hell out of him, it was better to avoid it all by rejecting her but who would have know it will all come back to bite him in the ass.