6. Raine
6
Raine
A murmur of excitement ripples through the entire dining room at the sight of our host having finally arrived to join the festivities.
Aiden smiles at a few of the females closest to him, nodding along as one by one, they introduce themselves, all with varying degrees of awe and reverence. The entire world around me drowns out as I watch him— my goddamn mate—laugh and sit down at the head of the table.
“Gods, he is gorgeous ,” Delilah whispers to me.
The compliment should delight me—he is my mate after all, a reflection of me in some way, and despite everyone fawning over him, my soul is the one that he’s linked to.
But instead, all I feel is jealousy.
How can he not have noticed me by now? I felt my wolf stir inside of me the second he stepped into the room, and her howling the moment I heard his voice addressing the room. Did his wolf not respond in some way toward me? Could there be something wrong with our bond?
“Oh, Your Grace! Please tell us you’ll be at the ball tonight to join us for dancing.” One of the females directly next to him flutters her lashes.
He lets out a hearty laugh. “Of course I will.”
Aiden takes the female’s hand in his and brings it up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles that has her swooning and the other females next to her seething with jealousy.
Humiliation burns my cheeks red.
Why? Why is he doing this when I’m right here? I thought I’d finally escaped this kind of humiliation. I thought that the second our mating bond snapped into place and Aiden sought me out last night, my life had been changed.
Clearly, I’m wrong and Daniel’s chokehold over me is as strong as ever. Even when he’s not here, I’m still treated like nothing more than dirt.
I’m so angry.
I need to run and let my wolf burn off some of the energy that’s threatening to boil over. Causing a scene by screaming at Aiden is only going to lead to me being kicked out and dragged back home, where I’ll more than likely face a worse punishment than Daniel simply locking me down in the cellar.
Especially if it gets back to him that I embarrassed his pack in front of the soon-to-be king.
Shoving my chair back, it screeches loudly against the floor, suddenly silencing the entire room.
Fuck.
I don’t look up from my plate as I stand, nor do I glance over at Delilah, who’s starting to reach for my arm to tug me back down. I can’t stay here any longer and watch Aiden flirt with girls in front of me. It’s going to actually cause me to shift and kill someone.
“Miss?” One of Aiden’s advisors addresses me. “Everything alright?”
Without even having to look up, I’m aware of several dozen pairs of eyes on me. Forcing my chin to rise, I don’t bother turning my attention to his advisor, and instead shift it over to the alpha still sitting with his hand grasping another’s.
Aiden stares at me with wide eyes, clearly shocked—but for what, I can’t imagine. He had to have known I’ve been sitting here this entire time. The tug of our bond is like having another limb.
That’s the worst part about having a fated mate—being separated feels like death.
I force a large smile onto my face. “Your Grace, my apologies.” I bow deeply at my waist, a flowery show of respect that is hopefully enough to get my point across to him. “I unfortunately am not feeling well and must retire to my room. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
He says nothing. Not even a single noise of complaint or acknowledgment is thrown my way, which only makes my cheeks feel hotter.
I don’t look at him or raise my eyes from the floor. It’s too embarrassing. But I wait for him to dismiss me. I can’t move unless he does so and until then, I’m simply stuck bowing to him for an infinite amount of time.
Maybe this is how he’ll torture me—force me into bowing for the rest of the meal until he’s finally had his fix of entertainment. This certainly wouldn’t be the first or last time that I’ve been used as nothing more than a cheap trick at a party. Daniel’s certainly a fan of doing so himself.
No one else in the room moves either, barely breathing while we all wait for Aiden to say something. Do something.
Finally, he clears his throat. “You may go.”
The words have no emotion behind them. They’re simply devoid of anything other than abject boredom. It hurts me, I think, to hear him say them so callously to me, as if last night meant nothing. As if the sweet words he whispered to me, each time he tantalized an orgasm out of me and held me afterward when my body shook from the force of it, meant nothing.
How cruel.
But then again, what do I expect? My lot in life is this—misery.
Keeping my eyes low in submission, I turn on my heel and quickly leave the dining hall, aware of the multiple pairs of eyes following me until I’m finally out of view and heading back up the stairs to my room.
My eyes burn the entire way while a sob chokes at my throat.
How could last night mean nothing to him? How could he stand our bond being tested like this?
Is this some kind of test? To see how loyal I am? If so, it fucking sucks.
I’ve never been in the presence of another pack alpha outside of Daniel. Even when my dad was still around, he never spoke of the other packs or how their inner politics worked. So honestly, I can’t even be sure if this is a normal thing—for a pack alpha to test their mate for…some reason.
Maybe to see if I’m resilient? If we were to make this public, I’d be named his Luna immediately. Perhaps this is him teaching me?
I hope so. Because if it’s not, then I don’t know how I’m going to survive this.
***
After breakfast comes and goes, Delilah heads up to check on me.
I send her away soon after though, not wanting to socialize or even get into why I rushed away from our meal so soon after sitting down with Aiden. It would be much too complicated to try to tell her anything while my thoughts and feelings are still a jumbled mess.
Plus if I involve Delilah now while I still have no answers from my mate, then she’s likely to go scorched-earth on my behalf and get us both into trouble with Daniel.
So I fake an illness and stay in for the rest of the morning and afternoon, hiding myself away while Delilah promises to be back when night falls before disappearing out the door to go explore the rest of the Pollis pack grounds.
I wish I could be like her—not caring about things or letting anything get me down. It seems silly in comparison to have an alpha I barely know rule my emotions so heavily. What will happen once I’m forced to go back to Andromeda?
Will Aiden ask me to stay?
Flashes of him smiling and kissing that other girl’s hand send me into a bitter rage again as I flop over onto my other side and curl under my covers.
Fuck him.
I never needed a mate before this. I certainly don’t need one now.
The door to my room opens quietly, alerting me to Delilah’s return. I peek out from under my covers at the window next to me. Dusk has just begun to fall, leaving the fading sunset to still illuminate the room somewhat.
I keep my back to the door and hunker down again.
Maybe she’ll figure out that I’m still not feeling well and forgo asking me to come with her down to the ball. Surrounding myself with other females and flirty Pollis packmates sounds like the worst idea on Earth at the moment, given my already foul mood.
The bed dips next to me, at my hip, as she sits down carefully. She must think I’m sleeping and is being quiet, trying not to wake me.
For some reason though, she keeps moving, leaning farther over me in a tentative manner. It has me raising a brow as my body dips the other way, toward a hand that is placed near the wall and leaned heavily on. I feel her caging me in.
“Raine?” comes a soft whisper.
My entire body freezes.
That is not Delilah’s voice.
My wolf immediately comes to life, howling.
Rolling onto my back, I rip the covers off of my face and stare up into the deep, bottomless golden eyes of Aiden.