Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 22

ARIA

I watched the words pour out of Damon like a dam breaking, each one hitting me with less impact than he probably hoped.

"The pendant—your mother's pendant—I'm so sorry, Aria. I should have returned it years ago. I kept it in my desk drawer because... because it reminded me of you. Of what you'd sacrificed for me when you gave it to me that night." His hands shook as he held up a velvet pouch. "Sera found it. She was organizing my office and she found it, and when I tried to explain what it was, she dropped it. It shattered, Aria. Completely shattered. I've been to every craftsman in the Northern Territories trying to get it repaired, but they all say it's impossible. The damage is too severe."

My mother's pendant. The last physical connection I had to my family. The heirloom that had been passed down through generations of women in my bloodline. I'd given it to him during his darkest hour, when rogues had attacked and he'd nearly died. I'd thought he understood what it meant to me.

And he'd kept it in a desk drawer. Like a trinket. Like something disposable.

The pain should have devastated me. A week ago, it would have. But standing here with Kael at my side, I felt the blow cushioned by something stronger—the knowledge that I deserved better than someone who treated my most precious possessions so carelessly.

"I know it was your last connection to your family," Damon continued, his voice breaking. "I know how much it meant to you. And I destroyed it—or let it be destroyed. Just like I destroyed everything else between us."

I said nothing. Couldn't speak past the tightness in my throat. Kael pressed closer against my side, his warmth grounding me.

"I've been blind," Damon rushed on. "So incredibly blind. I spent years chasing after a fantasy—chasing after Sera because she was my first crush, my childhood dream. But she's not who I remembered. She's cold and manipulative and everything between us feels wrong. The bond doesn't feel right, Aria. Nothing feels right without you."

*"Do you want me to end this?"* Kael asked through the mindlink, his mental voice tight with barely controlled fury. *"Say the word and I'll have the guards escort him off our territory."*

*"Not yet,"* I thought back. *"I need to hear this. Need the closure."*

"Damon—" I started, but he kept talking, the words tumbling out in a desperate cascade.

"You were always there for me. Always supporting me, taking care of me, running my pack house like it was your own. You saved my life that night, gave me your mother's most precious possession without hesitation. And how did I repay you? By treating you like furniture. Like you'd always be there no matter how badly I treated you."

At least he was finally admitting it. Years of being invisible, of pouring everything I had into supporting him while he looked past me to Sera. Years of hoping he'd see me, really see me.

He took a step closer to the border. The Shadowmere guards tensed, hands moving to weapons, but I held up a hand to stop them.

"I was wrong. About everything. About Sera, about you, about what I wanted. And I know I have no right to ask this, but please—please don't bond with him. Not in two days. Not ever. Come home with me. Let me make this right. Let me show you that I can be the mate you deserve."

The words I'd waited years to hear. The declaration I'd dreamed about through countless lonely nights.

And now, hearing them, all I felt was tired.

For a moment—just a brief, flickering moment—I felt something stir in my chest. The ghost of old feelings, old hopes. The part of me that had loved him for so long wanted to believe he meant it.

Then reality crashed back in. He was bonded to Sera. He'd chosen her in front of his entire pack. And he was only here now because things weren't working out with her, because I'd found something better elsewhere.

I was his backup plan. His consolation prize.

"No."

The word came out firm, steady. Final.

Damon's face crumpled like I'd struck him. "Aria, please—"

"No," I repeated, feeling strength flow through me with each repetition. "I'm not coming back, Damon. I'm not going to be your backup plan, your consolation prize when things don't work out with Sera. I deserve better than that."

"You do," he agreed desperately. "You deserve everything. And I want to give it to you—"

"But you can't," I interrupted. "Because you're bonded to Sera. You put your mark on her throat in front of your entire pack. You made your choice, Damon. Now live with it."

Something wild flashed in his eyes. "I'll break the bond. It's possible—difficult, but possible. I'll go to the Moon Priestess, undergo the ritual. It will be painful, but I'll do it. For you. For us."

I shook my head slowly, feeling Kael's steady presence beside me like an anchor. "There is no us. There never really was, was there? I was just convenient. Someone who worshipped you enough to ignore how little you valued me."

"That's not true—"

"It is true," I said, my voice sharp now as anger finally broke through. "And I'm done pretending otherwise. I'm done waiting for you to see me, to choose me, to love me the way I deserved to be loved. I'm moving on, Damon. I'm bonding with Kael, becoming Luna of Shadowmere, starting a new life where I'm actually wanted."

"You don't love him," Damon said, desperation bleeding through every word. "You can't. You've known him for a week—"

"I'm falling in love with him," I said quietly, and speaking the words aloud made them real. Made them true. "He's kind and protective and he makes me feel valued. He nearly died defending me from nightwalkers, Damon. He threw himself between me and death without hesitation. Can you say you would have done the same?"

The silence that followed was answer enough. We both knew the truth—he'd let me walk into danger alone more times than I could count, too focused on Sera to notice when I needed him.

"Please," he whispered, and I'd never heard him sound so broken. "Please don't do this. Don't throw away everything we could have together just to hurt me—"

That did it. That snapped the last thread of sympathy I might have felt.

"You think this is about you?" My laugh was bitter. "You think I'm bonding with another Alpha just to get revenge? My world doesn't revolve around you, Damon. Not anymore."

*"Aria,"* Kael warned through the mindlink. *"He's moving closer. The guards are ready to intercede—"*

*"It's okay,"* I told him, though my heart was racing. *"Let him say what he needs to say. Then he'll leave."*

Damon crossed the distance between us in three quick strides, grabbing my hand before the guards could stop him. "Aria, look at me. Really look at me. Tell me you feel nothing. Tell me you've forgotten everything we shared—"

I should have pulled away immediately. Should have called for the guards, established the boundary he was violating.

But for just a second, my fingers curled around his, and I let myself feel the echo of what used to be there. The years of devotion, of hoping, of loving someone who couldn't love me back.

"I do feel something," I said softly, honestly. "I feel sad. Sad for the years I wasted loving someone who couldn't love me back. Sad for the woman I was, who thought she wasn't worthy of more. But that sadness isn't enough to make me come back, Damon. It's not enough to make me give up what I've found here."

"Deep down, you still love me," he insisted, squeezing my hand tighter. "I can feel it in the way you're looking at me. You can't just turn off years of feelings in a week. And when you bond with him, when you let him mark you, you'll regret it.

You'll wish you'd given me another chance."

I felt my expression closing off, the last remnants of old feelings being buried under new certainty.

"Let me give you everything you wanted," he said urgently. "The pups you've always dreamed of having. We used to talk about names, remember? You wanted Luna for a girl, and I suggested Oak for a boy. We had it all planned out—"

My palm connected with his cheek with a sharp crack that echoed across the clearing. Damon's head snapped to the side, and everyone went still.