Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy Chapter 7

ARIA

I felt heat creeping up my neck. "That's... well, that's something for the future."

"Have you kissed him yet?" a tiny girl who couldn't have been more than five whispered loudly, her eyes wide with the scandalous nature of her question.

My face went completely red. "I—we haven't—that's not—"

"Alright, alright, give the poor woman some breathing room!" Nina appeared like a guardian angel, shooing the children away with good-natured firmness. "Luna Aria will answer all your questions eventually. Now go on, don't you have lessons with Teacher Marcus?"

The children groaned but obeyed, scampering off toward the education lodge with backward glances and giggles.

I pressed my hands to my burning cheeks. "I wasn't expecting that."

"They're excited," Nina said, linking her arm through mine as we continued our rounds. "We haven't had a Luna in three years—not since Kael's mother passed. The pack has been... incomplete without that feminine energy, that nurturing presence. They're ready to welcome you with open arms."

"Even though I'm an outsider? Even though this bond is arranged, not fated?"

"Even though," Nina confirmed. "You're here, Aria. You came when we needed help. That's what matters."

I wanted to believe her. But doubt still gnawed at me as we made our way back toward the pack house. I was settling into a life I wasn't sure I deserved, preparing to bond with an Alpha I'd barely met, trying to fill shoes that seemed impossibly large.

Later that afternoon, I was in the small office Nina had set up for me—really just a converted storage room with a desk and some filing cabinets—when a young wolf named Thomas knocked on the door.

"Letter for you, Miss Aria," he said, handing me a sealed envelope. "Came through the neutral courier system."

My stomach dropped when I recognized the handwriting on the envelope.

Luna Margaret.

I waited until Thomas left before opening it, my hands trembling slightly. The letter was brief, written in Margaret's precise script:

*Aria,*

*Alpha Damon has been asking questions about your whereabouts. I told him you were on a gathering expedition that would last a week, but he's growing suspicious. He's been calling your phone repeatedly, and I fear he'll discover the truth soon.*

*You must send him a message. Tell him you're staying longer to gather rare plants, that you're safe and will return when you're finished. Make it convincing. If Damon discovers you're in Shadowmere territory preparing to bond with another Alpha, he will come for you. His wolf won't accept losing you without a fight, and the resulting conflict between packs could be catastrophic.*

*I know you're angry with him—you have every right to be. But please, for the sake of peace between our territories, don't let him find out where you really are. Not until after the bonding ceremony, when the bond is complete and irreversible.*

*Do this one last thing for the pack that raised you.*

*—Margaret*

I read the letter three times, each reading making my hands shake harder.

Damon was looking for me. Calling me. Growing suspicious.

Part of me—the part that had loved him desperately for years—wanted to feel triumphant about that. Wanted to believe it meant he cared, that he was finally realizing what he'd thrown away.

But the rest of me knew better.

Damon didn't want me. He wanted Sera—he'd made that abundantly clear. What he couldn't handle was losing control, losing the omega who'd devoted herself to him, who'd been conveniently available whenever he needed someone to make him feel less guilty about his choices.

My wolf snarled at the thought, offended on both our behalves.

I pulled out my phone, staring at the screen. Seventeen missed calls from Damon. Twelve text messages, each one progressively more urgent:

*Where are you?*

*Aria, call me back.*

*Margaret said you're gathering plants. Just let me know you're safe.*

*Why aren't you answering?*

*This isn't funny. Call me.*

The last one had come in just an hour ago: *I went to your cabin. Where the hell are you?*

I should have felt guilty. Should have felt something other than the cold numbness spreading through my chest.

But all I could think about was Sera wearing my mother's pendant. Damon rushing to her side every time she called. The mating mark on her throat that should have been on mine.

Still, Margaret was right about one thing—if Damon came to Shadowmere looking for me, it could cause a territorial conflict. Kael's pack didn't need that, not when they were already dealing with their Alpha's curse.

I owed them better than that.

So I opened a new message and forced myself to type:

*I'm fine. Found a lead on some rare healing herbs in the Eastern forests. Might take longer than expected—possibly two more weeks. Don't worry about me.*

Short. Impersonal. The kind of message you'd send to an Alpha you respected but didn't love.

My finger hovered over the send button.

Two more weeks would get me past the blood moon ceremony. Past the point where the bond with Kael would be complete and irreversible. Past the point where Damon could claim any right to interfere.

I hit send before I could second-guess myself.

The response came almost immediately:

*Two weeks? Aria, that's too long. Come home. Whatever you're looking for, we can send a team.*

I stared at the message, at the word "home" that felt like broken glass in my throat.

The Blackwood pack had never been home. Not really. It had been a prison I'd convinced myself was a palace because the warden occasionally smiled at me.

Shadowmere, with its curious children and welcoming wolves, with its cursed Alpha who'd looked at me like I was salvation itself—this place felt more like home after four days than the Blackwood territory had in sixteen years.

I typed back: *I'm already here. I'll return when I'm finished.*

Then I turned off my phone completely, ignoring the immediate buzz of another incoming call.

Nina found me an hour later, still sitting at my desk, staring at the darkened phone screen.

"You alright?" she asked gently.

"My old pack is worried about me," I said, which wasn't exactly a lie. "I had to let them know I'm safe."

Nina studied me with those knowing eyes. "And are you? Safe?"

I thought about Damon and Sera. About the bond mark on her throat and the broken photograph in my empty cabin. About the desperate gold eyes of a cursed Alpha who'd spoken his first words in a year just because I'd walked into his den.

"I'm safer here than I've been in a long time," I said finally.

Nina smiled and squeezed my shoulder. "Good. Now come on—it's almost dinner time, and Marcus really did make his famous venison stew. You need to eat something; you've been working yourself too hard."

As I followed her out of the office, my wolf stirred restlessly. She was anxious about something, though I couldn't quite pinpoint what.

Outside my window, the moon was waxing toward fullness. Eleven days until the blood moon.

Eleven days until I bonded with Kael and became Luna of Shadowmere.

Eleven days until there was no going back.

My phone sat dark and silent on my desk, and I tried to ignore the part of me that wondered what Damon would do when he realized I wasn't coming home at all.