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049 | Time to Go
Last Updated:
2023-12-13 23:28:52
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The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 050 | Stay or Go?
Aurora’s POVI yelped, yanking the covers up and hiding my exposed body. “Ethan!” I squealed. His gaze darkened as he looked at my bare shoulders, his pupils dilating. His tongue flicked out, wetting his lower lip. Then his throat bobbed, and he took an involuntary step back.“Oh.” Zoe bit back a grin, but it was still a ghost of her normal smile. “I’m sorry, Aria. I didn’t think you’d be…”“You didn’t think I’d be in bed?” I asked scathingly. “That’s funny, considering I’m on bed rest.”She went pale. “Sorry,” she muttered again. I felt a twinge of guilt for wiping even the ghostly smile from her lips, but a small, vindictive part of me relished in it. Zoe deserved to feel bad. She’d slept with Ethan and then kept it from me. Whether it was in the past or not didn’t matter; it was just wrong. And making herself out to be the victim, when I was the one who’d been forced to fake my own death and run? I ground my jaw and decided that I didn’t feel bad at all.Ethan, at least, had the d
Last Updated : 2023-12-14The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 051 | Decision Made
Aurora's POVGuilt wrapped around my heart as I tucked a note Ethan had left me into my suitcase. He'd slid it under my front door at the crack of dawn. I'd heard him muttering to himself and hesitating on the porch before the paper had been folded twice, quickly, with purpose, and it had scraped over the door mat before I'd heard the sound of his rapidly retreating footsteps.Sighing softly, I picked it up and read his carefully written words again. His handwriting was neat, painstaking, and I knew this wasn't something he'd scribbled down in a rush. Dear Aria, it read,I didn't mean what I said in the hospital. I was upset, and frustrated, and I lashed out, and I'm sorry. You were right, too, when you said I needed to think this through. It's not just Selene I have to think about, but Serena as well. This effects us all and I don't want to act impulsively.That said, I know how I feel. I know the Moon Goddess has given me a second chance, and I'm not going to lose it. I'm not going
Last Updated : 2023-12-17The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 052 | Home
Aurora’s POV“We’re here.” Swallowing hard, I squeezed Sammy’s little hand. It was clutching mine so tightly I was losing feeling in my fingers, but I didn’t say anything. He needed me.And, right now, I needed him more than ever. We were setting foot somewhere I’d never expected to see again. The hair on the back of my neck prickled as we took our first step away from the car.The Silver Shade Pack looked different to how I remembered it, but then I’d never spent much time on the actual pack grounds. Ethan and I had our house and our life and, although I’d once been its Luna, Silver Shade had never been as much a part of my life as it had been his.Add to that the fact that I was seeing my old home through new eyes, and it made total sense that the once-familiar buildings and gardens looked a little odd to me.But I didn’t think it was me. The pack grounds were deathly silent as we inched our way towards the medic’s quarters, hand in hand, both of us quiet, the only sound we made th
Last Updated : 2023-12-18The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 053 | Two Mates?
Ethan’s POVThings were about to get… weird. I’d thought this would work. I’d thought Selene would stay in Berlin. It didn’t matter what I’d said to Aria when I’d tried to placate her; I wanted to believe her, but she was hell bent on thinking Selene was behind every bad thing that had happened to her. It had been easy to get caught up in her delusions when she’d looked so fragile, so scared, but the truth was that as soon as I’d been back on my own, I’d realised how crazy it was to think that Selene would lie about being in Berlin to antagonise a sweet, innocent doctor she’d never met.Selene had her faults, but they were always logical. I could understand why she worked so hard to keep up appearances; she was a wealthy heiress with a lifetime of expectations weighing heavy on her shoulders.What Aria believed held no logic. There was no way Selene was lurking in Midnight City, twiddling her moustache after orchestrating a car crash. It was impossible.I had to focus on reality. Al
Last Updated : 2023-12-19The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 054 | Stepping Back in Time
Aurora’s POVThe lift dinged, announcing its arrival, but I didn’t react to it. I couldn’t.My eyes were fixed on Ethan and Selene outside. His hand tangled in her hair. His eyes fluttered closed. His chest heaved. I could feel the intensity of the mate bond as I watched. Violet was crying out in my head, making my own despair worse.Selene grabbed him around the waist, her long, slender red nails digging in to his sides. She leant back; he was quick to support her, tugging her closer.I gulped. I felt like I’d stepped back in time. This was just like walking into The Midnight Club and coming face-to-face with the two of them kissing, uncaring who saw, gleeful and amused by their own twisted deceit.Ethan had told me he and Selene were just together for the public eye. He’d even said she was seeing other people, in secret. But this didn’t look like a performance for the public or the press. This looked intimate. This looked real.“Doctor Aria? Is everything all right?” Leyla tugged
Last Updated : 2023-12-20The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 055 | First Encounter with Selene
Aurora’s POVSelene looked exactly the same as I remembered. Perfectly curled blonde hair. Cat-like green eyes. Beauty mark under her eye. Her beauty was almost intimidating up close. Even when I’d looked like her, I’d never carried myself the way she did. She oozed confidence without quite touching on arrogance. An Omega like me could never pull that off.Even so, it was like staring into the past.But something more important struck me up close.It was her. I knew it.It was Selene who’d been there at the car crash. It was Selene who’d been in the woods with Dominic Butcher. It had all been Selene.It didn’t matter what anyone else believed or what they told me. It didn’t matter that her pretending to be in Berlin made absolutely no sense at all. It didn’t matter because I knew, deep down, right to my bones, that she’d been there for the worst moments of my life.I realised this as I pasted on a smile, scrambled around to find my friendly doctor persona, praying all the while that s
Last Updated : 2023-12-21The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 056 | Another Complication
Aurora’s POV“What happened?” Sammy gasped. “I don’t know,” Selene said, with the perfect amount of worry and calm carried in her tone. Enough to keep Sammy calm, but enough to let him know how concerned she was too. Yuck. “I was just giving your mum this welcome hamper and she collapsed.”Sammy’s hands pressed to my face. I couldn’t open my eyes; everything was swirling and spinning, making me so dizzy I felt like I was going to be sick.Realisation burrowed beneath the nausea. Sammy had come out of our room. Selene could see him. If Selene could see him for long enough, up this close, she could see how much he looked like Ethan. That gave me enough of a jolt to open my eyes. “I’m okay, sweetheart,” I croaked.He held out his hands to help me up. I took them but pulled myself up, letting him think he was hefting the bulk of my weight. “Thank you,” I whispered, smiling softly at him.“What happened, Mummy?”“I just got a bit light-headed, that’s all. I’m fine now.” I forced my smile
Last Updated : 2023-12-22The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 057 | This Is Your Life
Aurora’s POVI let Selene drag me downstairs. I was too dazed and confused to put up any sort of a fight. Violet kept chattering away, making side comments and hooting uproariously at everything she said, and I felt so alone with this abnormal version of her in my head that I couldn’t dredge myself out of my misery for long enough to fight back. I’d lost my son and, along with him, all my sense of purpose. Sammy scurried off ahead of us to find Ethan. I made a little sound of despair as he rushed off.He didn’t even look back.‘What do you call a deer with no eyes?’ Violet crowed. ‘No idea! Get it? Like no-eyed-deer? Ha!’‘Who are you?’ I groaned. ‘Um, your wolf? Girl, what is with you today?’‘What’s with me?’ I cried. ‘I’m the normal one here! You’re acting like a you’ve had a personality transplant!’Violet scoffed. ‘Says the baby snatcher. Incorrect, boo. Try again.’I rolled my eyes at her but otherwise ignored her jibing. She wasn’t my wolf. I didn’t know what had happened to
Last Updated : 2023-12-23
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The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 083 | Lines of Communication
Ethan’s POVRage bubbled in my chest.There was no sign of Selene or Serena anywhere in the house. Even though I knew they’d gone, I expected to find something - a toothbrush, one of Serena’s drawings, anything - but it was all gone. Our house was always clean, but now it was too clean. Too perfect. Too… empty. Their absence was everywhere I looked.Selene going didn’t bother me. If anything, it made my life easier. But taking my daughter? My hands curled into fists.It didn’t help that Aurora and Sammy were gone, too. Aurora’s exit had left a ragged, aching hole where my blackened heart was supposed to be.With my pack silent, save for the weak moans coming from the medical centre, I felt more alone than ever.I aided the few wolves still capable of working. I tried to understand the research Aurora had left for the last remaining member of staff in the hospital, but nothing about this illness made sense. Dragging my hands through my hair, I kicked my chair back from the desk and
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 082 | Progression
Aurora’s POV I rushed to my son. I couldn’t hear over the rush of blood in my ears, but I could feel the tearing of my throat as I screamed. “Sammy,” I choked, grabbing him just as he hit the floor. I scrambled to keep him upright, clutching his head to my chest and stroking his clammy forehead. “Is he okay?” Zoe croaked, trying to sit up to see. “I don’t know.” My hands flapped uselessly. “I don’t know what’s happened to him.” ‘Calm down,’ said Violet, her voice firm. ‘You aren’t helping him by panicking.’ ‘You’re right. I can deal with this,’ I said, more to myself than to her. I was exhausted, and my nerves had been frayed to their ends - but dwelling on that wouldn’t help Sammy. “His heartbeat is strong, but too fast.” I spoke aloud, both to steady myself and to keep Zoe informed. “He’s breathing, but each breath is shallow.” I took a deep breath. “He’s alive.” I ran my eyes over him, giving myself one last second to be a caring, terrified mother. He looked so small
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 081 | No Natural Cause
Aurora’s POV I knew it was Zoe - but if I hadn’t been made aware of her condition beforehand, I never would have recognised my dear friend. She sat hunched in the bed, frail shoulders curved in on themselves. She’d aged years since I’d last seen her; wrinkles carved into the skin of her face, like gorges left behind years after the rivers had evaporated. Zoe wore no makeup. Her eyes looked softer without her signature eyeliner, creased and small and sad. Her black bob hung limply about her shoulders, dishevelled and left to grow out longer than I’d ever seen it. Grey streaked through its lengths.“Zoe?” I breathed, my voice lodging in my throat. This couldn’t be her. It didn’t matter that her father was stood beside her bed, his expression drawn. It didn’t matter that she looked up at me when I said her name.This couldn’t be my friend.“Hi, Aria,” she croaked. “Hey, Sammy. You both look well.”I swallowed hard. “I wish I could say the same about you.”Alpha Brutus shot me a men
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 080 | Back to Eternal Bonds
Aurora’s POVSammy slept the whole way to the Eternal Bonds pack. My heart throbbed painfully every time I looked at him. I was terrified for my friend, but I still had no answers about what had happened to my son.At least I finally felt peace about Ethan. He knew who I was and he knew that Sammy was his son. My shoulders were lighter after baring those truths to him.I just wished he could have come with me.Violet perked up like she had something to say. I spoke before she could. ‘I know why he couldn’t,’ I sighed. ‘I just wish he was here. We’ve just…’‘I know,’ she said softly. Sammy woke up just before I pulled into the car park. I’d told him what was happening and where we were going before we’d left, but he still looked around with a confused furrow to his brow.“Are you okay?” I murmured, reaching over to smooth his hair back from his forehead.He was too warm. He wasn’t sweating, but I could feel heat pooling in front of his skin. I held a worried hand there a moment longer
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 079 | Telling Selene
Ethan’s POVI stood outside my house, balling my hands into fists. ‘How do you want to do this?’ asked Sterling.‘No idea,’ I replied. I’d never been scared to go inside my own house before. Dawn had broken over the horizon, painting the sky in eerie shades of grey and purple. It swelled like a bruise over the quiet expanse of my pack.My heart felt too full to go and face Selene. Telling her I was leaving her for Aurora - no, I had to make sure I said Aria - was going to be hideous. ‘Do you have to say Aria?’ said Sterling. ‘I’m pretty sure Selene knows who she is. She keeps nearly saying Aurora when she’s meant to say Aria.’I cracked my knuckles. I wasn’t a coward; I wouldn’t hesitate out here a second longer. ‘Let’s go and find out.’I thought of my Aurora as I went inside. I was doing this for her, and for our son. I wouldn’t make Sammy grow up in a broken home. No more broken than it already had been…A tiny prickle of anger ran down my spine. I let it warm me.I held the ima
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 078 | Emergency Call
Ethan’s POVI couldn’t stop staring at Sammy. I’d been pummelled by revelations today - Aurora was alive, and here, and she was willing to forgive me - and, perhaps even more incredible than that…I had a son. We had a son.The woman I had pined for was here, her warm body pressed to mine, our son slumped against us, asleep, and I couldn’t believe it. My life had been turned upside down. That didn’t mean I wasn’t angry. Damn it, I was furious. She’d kept my boy from me. ‘You can’t blame her for that,’ sighed Sterling. ‘I know. Don’t make me remember,’ I replied, but it was too late. My mind was spinning down the one path I wanted to always avoid.I’d been swayed by idiocy and left my mate out in the cold. The fact she’d lost our other baby because of me…I wasn’t the same man I’d been then. I couldn’t believe I’d treated her like that.But I had.I’d pushed her to make those crazy choices. She’d gone to extremes to keep herself, and our child, safe from me. It made my throat fill
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 077 | I Am Both
Aurora’s POVThe words lingered in the air between us. I could’ve reached out and plucked them with my fingertips. They were a palpable thing - a curse I wished I could recall.Then Ethan let out a single, sharp breath.My chest squeezed as I watched the emotions racing across his handsome, chiselled face. His jaw tensed, then relaxed, then tensed again.I waited on tenterhooks for him to speak.“I knew it,” he said eventually, the words rough around the edges. “Not for sure, but… I felt a connection to him. And, damn it, Aurora, he looks just like me.” His brow creased; he refused to meet my eyes. “I wondered why I wanted to be close to him. Separate from wanting to be close to you, I mean. I-“ He cut himself off and dragged a shaking hand through his dark hair. I had so much to say, but I held my tongue. He needed to process this. He finally looked at me. “You kept my son from me.” It wasn’t an accusation. It was simply a fact. A cruel, horrible, awful fact.“I had no choice. I wo
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 076 | Fatherhood
Aurora’s POV Ethan spent the night. Not in the way I’d anticipated or even hoped - and yet it was infinitely better. I longed to share a bed with him, skin on skin, a melding of bodies and minds as we kissed and talked and made love… But instead he was here, taking care of us. I had a front row seat to watch my son’s relationship with his father bloom. Before everything had happened, I’d dreamt about bringing up a child with Ethan. Then I’d feared him ever finding out the truth. Now, telling him the truth felt like the most natural thing in the world. How he hadn’t seen it for himself I didn’t know. They looked so alike, sat together on the sofa, heads bowed as they spoke. Ethan ruffled Sammy’s hair; my heart squeezed painfully. ‘It’s only a matter of time until he works it out,’ Violet said. ‘He knows who you are now, and he knows how old Sammy is. It wouldn’t take a genius to put two and two together.’ I bit my lip. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. I’ve had so much else to think
The Alpha's Rejected Mate is the True Heiress 075 | Who Took Him?
Aurora’s POV I glanced back at Ethan. He nodded, his jaw set. He stepped closer to me, a silent promise that he - quite literally - had my back, no matter what I opened the door to reveal. I opened it. Sammy lay crumpled on the floor. I dropped to my knees with a cry. “Sammy, sweetheart, look at me,” I pleaded with him. He mumbled something incoherent. I scooped him into my arms; Ethan held the door open for me so I could bring him inside. His eyelids flickered as I laid him down on the sofa. “Sammy?” I whispered, pushing a lock of dark hair off his forehead. He looked so pale, but I could see the steady rise and fall of his chest and hear the soft intake of his breaths. “Shit,” Ethan cursed, running both hands through his hair. He looked between me and the still-open door. “They only just knocked. Whoever took him has to still be close, Aur. I can go after them, or I can stay here with you and Sammy.” I cradled Sammy’s icy cheek. I wanted him to stay, to comfort
