The Alpha's Exiled Mate Chapter 220

Freya's POV

I sat cross-legged on my bed, staring at my phone screen. The blank message field seemed to mock me, cursor blinking like a heartbeat. After the evening with Julie at Emma's apartment, I'd come home determined to reclaim what was mine—the crescent moon pendant that meant so much to me.

Just do it, Freya. It's a simple request.

My fingers hovered over the screen as I composed and deleted multiple messages. How exactly does one politely ask the Alpha who once exiled you—and recently raged at you in jealous fury—to return your jewelry?

Finally, I typed:

[Alpha Thorne, I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to check if the binding ceremony rings still require design modifications or if you're satisfied with the current sketches.]

I read it over twice before sending. Neutral. Professional. Safe.

Then I took a deep breath and added a second message:

[Also, I was wondering if I could retrieve the crescent moon pendant you removed from my neck. It was a gift from Professor Hunter and holds significant sentimental value to me.]

My thumb hesitated over the send button. Was I being too direct? Too demanding? But I deserved to have it back. It was MINE—one of the few connections I had left to my past, to the person I'd been before exile.

I pressed send and immediately put the phone down, my heart racing as though I'd challenged an Alpha directly. My wolf paced anxiously inside me, ears alert, waiting for a response that might never come.

Enough waiting. Take a shower. Clear your head.

The hot water helped ease the tension in my shoulders. I tried not to think about Thorne—about his hands on my neck when he'd torn away the pendant, about the possessiveness in his golden eyes. Water cascaded down my body, washing away the day's stress, if not my worries.

By the time I emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, my skin pink from the heat, I felt marginally better. I checked my phone immediately.

No response.

I tried not to feel disappointed. What had I expected? That the mighty Alpha Thorne Grey would drop everything to reply to an exiled wolf's text message?

"He's probably asleep," I murmured to myself, though it was barely ten o'clock. More likely he was ignoring me. Or perhaps he was with Kaelin, planning their binding ceremony despite his claims to have postponed it.

I slipped into my nightclothes—soft cotton shorts and an oversized t-shirt—and crawled into bed. The sheets felt cool against my skin, but they offered little comfort. My wolf whined softly, missing the weight and warmth of Thorne's body next to mine, the protective circle of his arms.

"Stop it," I scolded myself. "That's not your life. It never will be."

I closed my eyes, forcing my thoughts away from Thorne Grey and toward my work. Jasper's jewelry commission. The designs for his mother. The secret search for my brother that I'd continue tomorrow.

Sleep eventually claimed me, but my dreams were filled with silver moons and golden eyes that watched me from the shadows.

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Thorne's POV

The light from my laptop cast a blue glow across my office as I reviewed files of pack business. The hour was late, but sleep felt distant, my mind too restless for rest. My phone chimed with an incoming message, breaking the silence.

Freya.

My wolf immediately surged forward, eager and alert. I tamped down the response, annoyed at my instinctive reaction to her name alone.

I read her first message—professional, detached. About the binding ceremony rings. As if that were truly what mattered between us.

Then came the second message, the real reason for her contact: the pendant. The silver crescent moon I'd ripped from her neck in a moment of pure, possessive rage. The pendant another Alpha put on her.

My jaw clenched. Of course. She wanted her precious gift back—the symbol of her connection to Stone.

I put the phone down without responding, turning my attention back to my work. But the words blurred before my eyes, my concentration shattered. All I could think about was Freya wearing a pendant given to her by Jasper Stone, the rival Alpha openly laying claim to what I—

I caught myself. Freya wasn't mine. I had exiled her, turned my back on her, allowed her to suffer. Now she lived in Stone's territory, worked for Stone's company, designed for Stone's clients.

The phone seemed to mock me from the desk. Part of me wanted to respond immediately, to tell her she could have the damn pendant back if she came to collect it herself. Another part wanted to throw the thing into the deepest lake I could find.

"Alpha?" Mark's voice broke through my thoughts as he entered with a stack of files. "The background checks you requested on the Silver Shackle guards."

"Put them there," I nodded toward the corner of my desk, grateful for the distraction.

Mark hesitated, his gaze dropping to my phone. "You seem... distracted."

"I'm fine."

"Of course." He paused, then added carefully, "Not answering that message?"

I gave him a sharp look. "Why would I?"

The question hung in the air between us, neither rhetorical nor truly seeking an answer. Mark knew better than to respond.

"Will that be all, Alpha?" he asked instead.

I nodded, and he left the room with a quiet click of the door.

Left alone again, I found myself staring at the unanswered message. Freya was trying to sever ties, piece by piece. First, by working for Stone. Then by disappearing from the hospital with Everett. Now by asking for the pendant back—removing the last physical connection between us.

My wolf growled, displeased at the thought.

Finally, I typed a response to Freya's message:

[The ring designs are on hold. My binding ceremony with Kaelin has been postponed.]

I deliberately said nothing about the pendant. Let her wonder about it. Let her contact me again. The petty move satisfied some dark part of me—the part that remembered how Stone had placed that pendant around her neck, how his fingers had lingered on her skin.

The part of me that couldn't stand the thought of her belonging to anyone else, even as I pushed her away.