Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 49

ARIA

"Bring them in," Nina said, stepping back to give them room.

The healers moved efficiently, setting supplies on the nearby table and checking Ivory's vital signs with practiced hands. But I noticed the way they kept glancing at Ivory's face, at the obvious damage Damon had done, and something like anger flickered in their expressions.

"She has a heart of gold," Sarah murmured to her companion—a boy named David—as they worked. "To let herself be used as a decoy like that. To lead that violent Alpha away from the ceremony, knowing he'd be furious when he realized what she'd done."

"And to do it for them," David replied, his voice low but not quite low enough. He gestured vaguely in my direction. "To protect a bonding when she—"

Sarah elbowed him sharply, cutting off whatever he'd been about to say. But the damage was done. The implication hung in the air, impossible to ignore.

When she loves him romantically. When she's in love with the Alpha she helped mate to someone else.

My stomach dropped. That's what David had been about to say. That's what the gossip had been, what I'd overheard in the corridors and dismissed as jealousy or misunderstanding.

But looking at the way Kael stood beside Ivory's bed, at the devastation on his face, at how he held her limp hand like it was something precious—I wondered if the gossips had been right all along.

Did Ivory love Kael? Had she spent three years searching for a cure not just out of friendship but out of deeper feelings she'd never voiced? And had she deliberately led Damon away, sacrificing her own safety to ensure the bonding happened, because she loved Kael enough to let him go?

The thought made me feel sick. Made the mating mark on my throat feel like a brand of shame rather than a symbol of bond.

"That's enough," Nina said sharply, noticing the direction of the junior healers' conversation. "If you have nothing helpful to contribute, you can leave."

Sarah and David both flushed, realizing they'd been overheard. They bowed hastily—to Nina, to Kael, and finally to me with what looked like reluctance.

"Apologies, Luna Aria," Sarah said, though her tone suggested the title stuck in her throat. "We didn't mean any disrespect."

"Didn't you?" I heard myself say, surprised by the edge in my own voice. "Because it sounded like you were suggesting Ivory should have been the one bonding with Kael tonight instead of me."

Sarah's flush deepened. "I just meant—she's done so much for him. Sacrificed so much. Some of us think she deserves more recognition than she gets."

"She'll get recognition," Kael said, finally looking up from Ivory's prone form. His voice was rough with emotion and fatigue. "When she wakes up, I'll make sure everyone knows what she did. How she protected the ceremony, the pack, everything. But right now, she needs rest and healing, not gossip about who should or shouldn't be Luna."

The rebuke was gentle but firm. Sarah and David both lowered their eyes, properly chastised.

"Of course, Alpha," Sarah murmured. "We'll just finish setting up these supplies and leave you in peace."

They worked quickly and silently after that, avoiding eye contact with anyone as they arranged bandages and potions on the nearby shelves. But I noticed the way they looked at Ivory as they prepared to leave—with respect and sympathy and something that looked almost like pity.

Pity for a woman who'd sacrificed her own happiness to ensure someone she loved could be with another.

If that was true—if Ivory really had been in love with Kael all this time—then what she'd done tonight was even more remarkable. And even more devastating.

"We should go," David said quietly to Sarah. "Let the family have privacy."

They bowed again—deeper to Kael, perfunctory to me—and slipped out of the room.

The silence they left behind was heavy with unspoken thoughts.

Nina was still holding Ivory's hand, her tears falling freely now. Kael stood like a statue beside the bed, his expression unreadable. And I lingered near the door, feeling more like an outsider than I had since arriving in Shadowmere.

This was what I'd been afraid of. This complicated web of history and relationships and feelings that I couldn't possibly understand or navigate. Ivory's sacrifice had been heroic, yes, but it had also highlighted just how deep her connection to Kael ran. How much she was willing to give up for him.

How could I compete with that? How could anyone?

*You're not competing,* I tried to tell myself. *Kael chose you. He marked you. The bond is sealed.*

But the bond felt fragile suddenly. New and untested, built on political necessity rather than the kind of deep devotion Ivory had demonstrated. What did it matter that Kael had marked me if his heart belonged to someone else? If the woman who truly deserved his loyalty was lying broken because she'd protected a bonding she'd probably opposed in her heart?

"I need some air," I said quietly, backing toward the door. "I'll be outside if you need me."

Neither Kael nor Nina seemed to hear me. They were both focused entirely on Ivory, on willing her to wake up, to be okay, to forgive them for putting her in this position.

I slipped out of the room and into the corridor, where more healers were rushing past with supplies and urgency. The clinic was overwhelming—too many people, too much emotion, too many reminders of what my presence in Shadowmere had cost.

I found a quiet corner near a window and sank onto a bench, pressing my hands against my face as I tried to process everything that had happened in the past few hours.

I'd bonded with Kael under a blood moon. Accepted his mark, given him mine, sealed our connection permanently. We'd survived Damon's attack, watched him be defeated and dragged away to face justice. By all accounts, the ceremony had been a success.

So why did I feel like I'd lost something instead of gained it?