Chapter 4

Livia

"What?"

Rick stared down at me with eyes narrowed in confusion. I could tell he wasn't expecting me to say that all of a sudden but I knew it would make him happy since it meant I was giving him a chance despite his mistake. But on my part I was trying to avoid the possibility.

Maybe if we get it done with, it would make our relationships much more official and Stella wouldn't have the chance to come between us anymore.

But as I watched his eyebrows arch and his muscles thicken, I was beginning to wonder if that was well with him.

"But we're not prepared."

"I'm prepared."

"We still have a lot of things to arrange."

"I don't mind, we could make it simple." He starts shaking his head lightly. "Ok, in two days then."

"But what's the rush?" He turns around and says heading towards the house.

"What's the rush?" I couldn't believe him.

"Look, we actually need more time for this, Livia. We can't just rush things. We could use a little time to adjust some decisions and make plans."

"Adjust decisions?" I spread my arms. "What does that mean, Rick?"

He sighs and brushes his hair forward with his fingers. He licks his lips and draws back to me.

"Look I just feel that it's all too sudden and... you know how it is."

"I don't know how it is, Rick. Maybe it's high time you tell me. Could it be true? Do you not think

I'm worthy enough to be by your side as the alpha?"

"Livia... I want you to understand this here. I love you Livia. So much, I do. But I'm the alpha now and the pack puts a lot of expectations on me. I have to put the interest and safety of the pack first. I am their leader and they'd expect me to have a mate who is competent enough to make decisions by my side as well."

"You don't think I'm good enough to be by your side?"

"You're an omega. It didn't matter before but now it does."

His words felt like blows hitting me one after the other. It took a lot of fit to avoid being knocked down by them. I couldn't believe those words were coming from his mouth. I just can't believe it.

"Oh. So I see why you're choosing Stella over me."

"You just can't stop bringing Stella into everything, can you?" He sighs when he realizes his tone is rising. "Look, I expect you should understand how important the duty of an alpha is to his pack. You just gotta work better on yourself. Train harder, you got all the time." He exhales before walking past me.

Hearing someone I love so much saying all that to me made me go numb. What happened to him? How did he change so suddenly? We have always supported each other in everything so what's the change now.

Even as I lay down later, I still felt the pain. It was difficult to bring myself to accept that Rick didn't love me anymore. I had always stood by him. He's supposed to respect me!

A scowl takes over my face and I take my phone and type.

'I've decided to come for the Healers Special training.'

A few seconds later, Liam texted back. 'Done with your mating ceremony already?'

'I'm not interested in it anymore.'

As I remained lying in my room, I could feel Rick trying to mind link me but I kept blocking him off. As far as I can remember this was the first time I did that. After many attempts, he sent a text.

'There's a pack meeting at Willow's.'

'Not coming' I texted back.

'Everyone is supposed to attend.'

'Count me out'

I texted back before blocking his number.

As I lay back, I went into dispute with my wolf. She wasn't really pleased with my decision to not go despite his invitation.

But I suddenly didn't care about his fear anymore. My own mate has already cast me as inferior to him. Why did I need to show any form of regard anymore?

What if he wanted to apologize to me? The opposing thoughts intruded again. Perhaps he would end up making things right.

I got up and pulled on my jeans and my jacket. I brushed my black hair and held it into a ponytail. Taking one glance at myself in the mirror,I told myself that there was no reason why I couldn't be the alpha's mate. Why couldn't I be Luna? I was going to that meeting to show them all that I wasn't just some weak omega. I was strong enough to be the luna of this pack.

This kept playing through my head as I drove to willow's Karaoke hall which was a few meters away from the pack house.

I went inside with confidence and courage. But all my plans of social presentation were shattered by the movement I got in only to be thrown aback by another shocking event.

When I got into the Karaoke hall, everyone was seated in unorganized positions so it was kind of hard to pin exactly where my mate was. A few of the seated members sent casual greetings to me and I returned. The music was low and the disco light was faint.

At first I planned that I wasn't going to find him anyway. I'll leave as soon as the meeting is over.

But just as I passed the first row of seaters, I spotted Rick in a corner cozied up on a small sofa with someone who was definitely not me. That person was Stella in a skimpy dress and plunked down on his laps while they made out her blond hair already over his shoulder.