Alpha Ryder, You Have Lost Me Forever

Six

Chapter Six

Seraphina’s POV

My heart slams hard in my chest as the pack stares at us. No, at me. I feel even more exposed, as if all my clothes have been ripped from me.

I glance at Ryder, searching his face, waiting for his reply but his expression gives nothing away. His face is cold. Detached.

Then, he finally speaks, his deep voice cutting through the silence in the air.

“No.” He shakes his head. “This is nonsense.”

My blood runs cold, and the pack erupts in hushed murmurs I barely hear.

Then someone steps forward. He’s one of the pack elders and maybe even the oldest in the pack. He’s been assessing me all night. “Alpha, this could be a blessing.”

Ryder doesn’t even let him finish. “I don’t believe it, Blake. It’s pathetic.”

The elder, Blake, is calm but there is something unsettling about him. “The pack will be stronger if you accept the bond. It’s rare to find a fated mate. It’s a blessing from the moon goddess.”

Ryder holds out his hand in the air to silence Blake, his jaw clenching, and the look on his face, feels like a blow. I’ve never seen him this horrified about something.

“Summon the other psychics. Now!” He bellows, and Blake immediately gets into action, ordering some of the guards to bring them.

My stomach drops. The other psychics arrive immediately and he glares at them. “This woman here just made a blunder I’d like you all to correct.”

His words prick me like needles, and I blink.

What? Did he just call our mate bond a blunder? Is that how bad he hates it?

But they all confirm the first seer’s words after performing their rituals with incense, and my eyes snaps towards Ryder.

Frustration lines his face, and his body tenses up. His eyes are tight, and I can see him clenching his fist.

“What is going on? Why does this seem so unpleasant to you? What’s so bad about being fated mates?” I ask, managing to make my voice steady.

Then, he turns to me, his grey eyes piercing me, but I manage to still myself. Then, he shakes his head, his voice firm. “I will not accept this mate bond.”

If I had just been sucker punched in the guts, I would feel better than how I feel right now, at the sharp sting of his voice. My heart sinks, and my eyebrows pull together in confusion.

The gasps that follow his rejection are defeaning, and tears blur my vision.

“Why? Why are you rejecting me?” I ask.

I might have not grown up in the pack but I’ve heard a lot about mate bonds. It’s a blessing, and although I’d never considered myself as anyone who could get lucky enough to have a fated mate, I want this.

It’s a honor. Also, even though I’ve been fighting the growing attraction I have for Ryder, I’ve imagined something good happening between us. He kissed me also. That must at least mean something. He finds me attractive.

Or did I just imagine all of that?

Ryder creates an even wider distance between us, backing away from me, and he looks in-between being appalled and in denial, his body tensed. He runs a free hand through his thick curls, his expression shifting into something I can’t quite place. I spring to my feet, ignoring the pain shooting from my side from my half-patched wound, and I take a step towards him.

“What’s wrong? You’re my fated mate,” I say, my words oscillating between calm and desperate as I try to hold myself together, refusing to entertain the thought gnawing at me.

“You felt it too. The connection. I saw it. Everything.” My voice almost breaks.

Ryder draws in slow, steady breaths, avoiding eye contact with me, although I can see the mask of rage in his face. “We cannot be together, Seraphina. It doesn’t matter if we’re mates. I cannot claim you.”

I blink. Once. Twice. And again till I lose count, scoffing as his words hit me like a blow. “You can’t be serious. What do you mean it doesn’t matter? You don’t get to decide what happens when we didn’t choose this.”

I close the rest of the space between us this time, my voice rising, as I step into his space, forcing him to hold my gaze. I don’t mind the crowd and the stares. I might look pathetic but I can at least try to understand why he doesn’t want me.

But he doesn’t answer me. He seems more interested in staying far away from me because he moves away.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask again.

“This bond will do you no good. Forget about this,” he gesticulates in the air. “Forget it ever happened.” His voice drips with venom, and it stings my very core.

“You don’t mean that.” My voice is breaking now, and even though I sound pathetic, I want to understand. I search his eyes, which give nothing away, hoping he can explain things to me.

Then, with the same look of disgust from earlier, which I’d hoped I imagined, he spits, “I cannot be with you, Seraphina! You’re a weak wolf. A stranger.”

Tears blur my vision, and I stagger as the words hit me like a stack of bricks, crushing my very essence.

The reactions from the audience does not help.

His jaw tightens, and for a split second, a part of me hopes he’ll take back all he just said, but instead, he rubs more salt into my wounds.

“If I ever chose an alpha pair, it has to be someone whole. A mate who complements me, and that’s clearly not you.”

His words knock me off balance, snuff air out of me, and make my head begin to spin.

I can hardly breathe.

I almost feel like there’s something suffocating me.

More tears that I’ve been trying hard to fight drop on my cheek.

“Alpha Ryder—”

He cuts me short. “No one will speak ever again of this!” He declares.

Then, without even glancing at me again, he walks away, leaving me in the middle of the party. His humiliation stings harder as murmurs fill the air, and despite his rejection, my wolf stirs.

My hand clutches my constricting chest, and I beat my chest, hard, hoping it will quell the pain shooting from it. It’s as if the remaining pieces of my heart were just stomped on and pulverized into dust.

I finally found my mate after all the years, and he rejected me. Right on the spot. He couldn’t even bear to look me in the eyes, despite my desperation to let him accept me.