SIX MONTHS WITH THE CRUEL ALPHA KING

Esmeralda’s POV “You have never been of good use to me, Esmeralda, I never even loved you and I can never love you, it’s something that’s never going to happen,” Dante declared and I felt my world crashing down before me. “The only reason I chose you as my Luna was because Nyla was not around and now that she’s back here, I do not want to have anything to do with you again.” He finished, my heart tightened against my chest and my stomach clenched. It was as though my entire existence had come to a halt and everything that made the world colorful was completely gone as everything, including Dante, appears to be in monochrome form. I wanted to speak but that seemed far-fetched as I merely stared with my tongue tied. None of this made any sense to me, I was caught off guard and not only by his words but also by the way his eyes peered into me, emotionless. He really meant everything he said. Dante never loved me. I shuddered, a soft gasp escaping my parted lips as Dante threw my bag at me, causing it to hit me so hard on my face that I staggered and even though I tried not to, I fell to the ground Whispers filled the room and I shook my head as though none of this had happened and I was just stuck in a really bad dream but the beating of my heart, the gut wrenching pain I felt inside me all pointed to the fact that everything was in fact real. “I, Dante Williams, reject you, Esmeralda and banish you from this pack right now!” The rejection hit me hard, my heart dropped to my stomach and it was as though someone had tightened a knot in my stomach. “You have just five minutes to pack whatever belongs to you out of this pack and leave! I do not ever want to see your face ever again!” He spat and my mouth opened but I could barely let out a sound. I forced down the bile that formed at the back of my throat as I lifted my gaze to look at the man that had just rejected me, my mate, and all I could see in his eyes was disdain. TWO DAYS BEFORE THE REJECTION. “Nyla?” Dante called into the microphone, his eyes filled with glints of wonderment that I didn’t understand until I followed his eyes and turned to look at the door. I could see what he saw, the beautiful woman standing by the door and staring right at him with a smile plastered on her face. Her brunette hair fell freely on her shoulders and her eyes shone brightly. It would be blasphemy to say she isn’t gorgeous. It didn’t take long for everyone present to start murmuring and everyone looked like they'd probably seen a ghost. Neither of them looked like they could believe what they saw as they all kept muttering to each other about who they thought the woman who had just shown up was. Walking past me with no regard whatsoever, I watched as she made her way to Dante who seemed overly excited to see her. Something knotted inside me as they held each other without caring about what everyone else was going to say or even about the fact that I, his wife, was present. “Oh my—” Dante gasped as he rushed down from the podium with an urgency like never before and soon he was face to face with this strange woman. Without hesitation, Dante held her hand and brushed his lips lightly against it before pulling her into him again. He hugged her so tightly that I could see how much he didn’t want to let go of her as he showered her with wet kisses. I have never seen Dante that happy since we got married. Blood began to pound in my temple and my cheeks burned, I didn’t need a saint to tell me just how red my cheeks must’ve gotten from the embarrassment I felt. Fingers were pointed at me as everyone whispered a thing or two to their partners with eyes boring into every pore in my body. Resentment filled me as my pride had been bruised by my husband’s behavior, I couldn’t believe he would do something like that and that too in public, with no regard for me. With renewed humiliation, I looked away from them as a deep sense of shame made my stomach turn. Lifting my hand, I signaled to my most trusted guard with a snap of my fingers and he joined me in a blink of an eye. “Who is she?” I asked, my embarrassment threatening to push me over the edge, “everyone seems to know her but I feel like I’m in the dark.” I added, turning to face him. I caught a hint of pity in his eyes as his face fell and he lowered his head probably so that I wouldn’t see any other emotion he might show. “That’s Nyla, the Alpha’s childhood mate.” He responded and my heart stopped as it felt as though my blood had suddenly frozen over. My mind burned with the memory as the name finally struck a chord in me, my mind returned to its tortured thinking as I remembered every single moment. Dante has never kept his mouth shut about Nyla for once before, he was always talking about how much he misses her and how much he wished she was with him. So, this is Nyla? A cold shiver spread over me as I looked away from the guard to see Dante holding hands with Nyla and introducing her to every single person in his sight. My lips tightened, the sight caused resentment to fester in me and I felt another wave of embarrassment wash over me but overpowering my humiliation, overpowering the embarrassment I felt when he hugged and was showering kisses on her was the anger that gripped me. My teeth gritted as I watched them grinning from ear to ear, talking to everyone that cares to listen to them. I was irked by their cool demeanor, they both acted as though they were doing the right thing when it’s glaring that they were both in the wrong. Unable to keep my eyes on them, I tried to disguise my annoyance with a fake smile but the closer I got to them, the harder it became and I just couldn’t do it. “Hi, hello” I tried to force out a smile but as my lips curved, I was burning deep within me with my hand stretched in a polite manner to greet the woman my husband was gushing over. “If you don’t mind, could you please excuse us? I need to have a word with Dante.” I added, forcing the smile to stay on my face as she looked from me to Dante. I bit my lower lip as hard as I could to keep myself from doing anything irrational while I waited for her to excuse us but she only looked back at me like I’d just said something stupid. “Who is this, Dante?” She asked, directing the question at Dante as she looked back at him and it was taking all that I had in me to not do something stupid, something I might regret. “She’s noth—” “I’m the Luna of this pack and Dante’s wife,” I cut in before Dante could say anything, “who are you?” I threw the question back at her as I tried to fight the chaos of my rage. “Oh, I’m—” “You really don’t need to introduce yourself to me,” I cut in again with a silent laugh that caused Nyla’s eyes to light up with anger, “just, let go of my husband’s hand, you’re holding a married man too tightly, isn’t that a little shameful?” I smiled and watched as her cheeks flushed. “I’m—” “And I don’t know where you came from but you’ll be doing a lot of people a huge favor if you just go back there.” I finished as I stared into her eyes that were tearing into me and if looks could kill, I probably would be dead by now. “I’m sorry.” Nyla muttered amidst a laugh and I smiled back as I shook my head and watched as she tried to let go of Dante’s hand but he pulled it back and tightened his grip around it. He doesn’t intend to let her go. My eyes widened, my fist clenched and rage quickened my blood as I watched the subtle interaction between them. Nyla tried again to let Dante’s hand go but he didn’t budge, he only held her even tighter. Nyla plastered a sweet smile on her face that only caused rage to throb inside me like a heartbeat as a fresh swell of rage rose in me. “You don’t have to worry, Dante,” she smiled as she held his hand with her other free hand and pulled it off the hand he was so desperate never to let go of. “You know why?” She continued, her voice annoyingly low and calm, “because I’m here to stay and you’re going to be seeing more of me.” She finished with another smile that made me feel like barfing. What was that supposed to mean? “What? Did you hear that? Nyla is here to stay.” Murmurs rose in the room again because everyone had heard what she’d said to Dante. Without caring about the multitude, Nyla turned to look back at me. The mischief, anger and disgust she immediately felt towards me was stark and vivid in her eyes as she glared at me. Her eyes didn’t leave mine even for a second as she walked towards me, an evil smile on her lips and not visible to anyone else but me as she stopped briefly beside me. “You heard what I said before, didn’t you?” She asked in a really low whisper as she chuckled lightly, probably to fool everyone else and inside me, I was seething. “I’m here to stay and whether you like it or not, Luna,” I heard the slight mockery as she called ‘Luna’ “I’m taking Dante away from you.”