Our second chance encounter

"I reject you Alpha"

AERIS GREYHOUND'S EYES WERE LIQUID NITROGEN.They were so cold, they threatened to burn me in an instant, a flash freeze that would turn my skin white and cause blisters to lift on the surface. I stared up at the powerful man looming over me, who had one hand on each of the armrests of my chair, and I held in a painful breath. There wasn’t any air left in the room or the space between us. He’d used it all when he’d trapped me beneath his inescapable gaze.

For a second there, he watched me with eyes I hadn't seen in a long while. Eyes full of concern, full of care....and love. Aeris still loved me. He always did. He never stopped. He just went a distance away from me to protect his businesses.

I didn't know where he got keys from, but his hands were slipping from my forearm and going behind me to unlock the cuff binding my hands. As he moved closer, his cologne filled my nostrils. I couldn't remember the last time I'd come this close to him in a long while. And I suddenly craved him.

My hands went limp as he released them. Pain shot through my entire arms. Aeris came forward and placed his arms above my shoulders, helping me up. I felt impossibly closer to his hard body. At that moment, all that mattered was me and him. At that moment, I was willing to let it all go, let all the pain go to savor this moment, to remain with him forever. I was willing to forget all Calandra and Rhema did and just focus on him, on us.

After everything Calandra told him, I hadn't thought he'd still tend to me so gently.

"I ......i'm sorry...." I managed to let out.

Aeris's body towered over mine intimidatingly. Ironically, he shielded me from the pains of this world, and I liked to be in his embrace. He lifts a hand and reaches over my face to move my scattered hair behind my ear.

"Yes, you are sorry," he spoke gently, " you'd almost miss the venom in his voice," but..."

I waited for him to make his final judgment. But the longer he waited, the more I saw all the answers in his cold eyes.

"You don't believe all she has just said, do you?" I asked desperately. ."I am not leaving. This is my rightful place. I haven't done anything!"

He let's go of me and took a step back, then said " Aira..."

The way he said my name, the sounds of his voice saying my name, leaves goosebumps spreading through my entire body. But the feeling didn't last, after I heard the next thing he said.

"I am sorry, but there's nothing I can do. You're going to have to be prosecuted,"

My eyes went wide. What? Just like that? After everything I had to endure to wait for him to get here?

I watched with blurred eyes as he moved away from me and went over to Calandra, who gave me a smile of victory, a smile that mocked me. I felt anger building up inside of me, threatening to erupt. Was he even blind?

"If you must know, Calandra is carrying my Heir, the Heir to the Alpha fortune, and also the next Alpha in line after me." Aeris said, and my heart split into two. Calandra was pregnant? With his child? Was he sleeping with her? All these while he was sleeping with her while I mentally defended him of such acts? No....

My heartbeats quickened. The anger I felt seconds ago wasted away and turned into a weakness. My body wanted to give up.

My eyes moved to Calandra again, and she moved her hand protectively over her stomach. There was no sign of a baby bump yet, but that doesn't mean she wasn't pregnant. Aeris couldn't have been lying. Calandra smiled at me. She openly mocked me.

My eyes moved over to Rhema, and she watched me with her arms folded across her chest, a look of fulfillment written all over her face. They all hated me. Each face threw lazers at me, like they would do anything to watch me burn down in front of them now. Why so much hate? What is my crime? Is it loving a broken man like him?

I looked back at Aeris and sought ways to change his mind, a last straw to pull.

"She is cheating on you Aeris, she is sleeping with your enemy Joxer, and they are planning something against you!" My throat was dry and my words came out dry and low.

For a second, I thought I would see the surprise in his face. But I didn't. Instead, his jaw clenched, and he stepped towards me.

"Tell me why I should believe a single word that comes from your lying mouth, Aira." He said to me, nearly throwing me off balance."What have you done since being the Luna of my pack?" You could see the venom at the end of his tongue, his eyes suddenly more icy cold than before. He hated me. "I would do you a favor of allowing you leave here with your life. That's my gift to you..."

My heart sank. What?

".....did you ever loved me, Aeris? " I asked, my voice trembling, tears flowing freely down my eyes.

"I do not owe you that or anything, Aira, i never did.."

I watched his eyes and let him say all that to me. And he was right. I did this to myself.

I tried to speak but I couldn't. The silence was defening as tears streamed down my face. I watched all their faces, and my heart broke into more fragments. After everything, after all I fought for, this is how it all ends.

I put my life on the line for years for a man who never even cared for me.

I don’t owe you anything, he’d said. Maybe it was true. All I could feel was the cut of his betrayal, sharp and excruciating and deep to the bone. A nasty voice inside my head hissed. I should have seen it coming. Betrayal was a staple in the myths I adored, and the mortals always suffered at the hands of the gods. A heavy, expensive ring gleamed on my finger, but my marriage to Aeris meant nothing. Marrying him had only made me a Greyhound in name—not an immortal like everyone else in his family. It just made me a target. A pawn in the game between an Alpha and his pack.

With a heavy heart and limbs that threatened to fall off my body, I managed to close the distance between us.

I watched his eyes, and for a moment there I would have thought that I saw something different in them, something untold, some form of remorse, some sort of sadness but I wouldn't allow myself believe all those lies anymore.

Alpha Aeris doesn't want me anymore. He never did.

Taking a deep breath, i said "I Aira Jamison reject you as my chosen mate and as my husband"