CHAPTER TWO

ALORA’S POV.

My heart feels like a war drum against my chest. The captivating smell keeps ransacking my mind and the fact that he’s staring at me so intensely with those deep green eyes of his isn’t making things any better for me. The weight of his stare is like an anvil, making each inhale progressively more difficult.

What the hell does he mean by saying I am his mate.

That can’t be true.

I am Alora Leandro, born of a servant woman. I have been working as a servant in this household since I was five years old and as of now, I’m not sure I can be anything else in life other than a servant.

There is no way I am Alpha Myles’ mate.

“Yes, you are! Stop trying to deny it.”

That strange, little voice comes through in my mind again. It’s a calm feminine voice and once again, I flip my head from left to right, checking if someone by my side has said something but there’s no one by my side. Daphne, Alpha Myles and I are the only ones in this living room and Daphne could not have been the one who said that. As it is now, she is too stunned to speak. For the first time in my life, I’ve seen Daphne look shocked and distraught about something. She has gone pale like a ghost.

I’m dead meat.

My spine goes rigid when Alpha Myles leans closer to my left ear. I calmly back away, but he leans even closer, not allowing me the space I tried to create between us. My pulse quickens as I gently tilt my head up to look at his face. Electricity zaps between us when our eyes meet. Immediately, he tears his gaze from mine and looks back at my ear. The few seconds he spends staring at it go by slowly like a million years. I nearly combust when he takes a sharp inhale of my scent. He does it three more times before retreating with his face and taking a step back.

My face is on fire. My guts are forming knots in my stomach.

What in the seven hells is going on here?

“What is your name?” He poses and for some reason, my eyes go over to Daphne who’s still staring at us. Her twisted expression has my blood rushing up my ears.

She warned me not to ruin things for her and here I am, doing just that.

She’s going to kill me.

“I asked you a question.” That deep baritone voice makes my organs tremble within me.

“Alora.” I blurt out before tearing my gaze away from Daphne’s murderous glare and staring up at him again.

“Alora is no name.”

“I’m sorry.” I apologise fervently. “Alora Leandro is my name.”

“Alora Leandro” He repeats the name and something comes to live in my chest.

I cannot recall the last time someone called my full name in such a calm and soothing manner. I’m even tempted to smile. I would have done so if I couldn’t feel Daphne’s scorching gazing boring holes through my face from where she’s standing.

“How old are you?” He poses another question and I clear my throat.

“I’m eighteen y…” Mid-sentence, my brain reshuffles and I swallow the next word when I realise I’m about to tell him the wrong age.

I’m not eighteen years old. I mean, I was until this morning.

It’s my birthday today. I turned nineteen years old today!

My eyes widen in shock. I gasp in shock and my hand flies to my mouth and cover it up to prevent the scream in my throat from tearing out.

How on earth did I forget my birthday? The most important one at that.

When werewolves turn nineteen, their wolves get activated and they have the abilities to find and connect with their fated mates. My eyes flicker to Alpha Myles who is staring down at me with a perplexed expression on his face.

Is that why he called me his mate? Could it really be true? Is this a prank?

“What's wrong with you?” his stern voice asks and I suck in a deep breath and brace myself to reply to him.

“Today…” I breathe hard. “I turn nineteen today. Today is my nineteenth birthday.” My voice is nearly inaudible but I know he heard me because he nods his head and takes two steps behind.

“I see.” The expression on his face is completely unreadable. I cannot tell if he’s happy or disappointed in the fact that I’m his mate, but I can take an obvious guess that he is indeed disappointed.

I am nothing. I come from nothing. I have nothing. I don’t think I’m ever going to amount to anything.

How on earth did the Moon goddess pair an almighty Alpha with a low life like me? This is wild.

“Stop looking down on yourself so much, will you?” that low feminine voice I heard in my mind a while ago speaks again and this time around, I recognize it.

That voice belongs to my wolf. She has been awakened and she has been trying to bring the mate bond to my notice but I was too shocked by Alpha Myles’ sudden reaction towards me before I can reply her, Alpha Myles’ voice comes through again.

“Six years!” He mutters under his breath. “I waited six years for this?” He scoffs in derision. “You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m mated to a maid?”

My chest tightens from his admission. My pulse throbs through every inch of my body as I watch his expression change from shock to disappointment to complete anger.

As expected, he’s not impressed.

I have nothing to say so I bow my head down and keep my gaze glued to the floor. My chest feels like it’s been cut open with his words. Tears are stinging at the back of my eye lids and I’m finding it hard to breath properly. I feel like I’m going to pass out soon.

“Look at me.” His order makes me tremble in fright. Horror skates through my veins as my eyes meet with his almond shaped green ones. All the softness they had a while ago is long gone.

Anger, disappointment, loathe, contempt and every other negative emotion is all I see in his eyes. My wolf whimpers in pain. She can feel his hatred for us. His disappointment in the fact that he’s mated to us and so can I.

He is going to reject us. I can feel it in my bones. He’d be a skeleton before he accepts someone like me as his mate and future Luna of this pack.

“You are a mere servant therefore you are no match for me and I know you know that.”

I said it.

A huge tear rolls down my left eye and the rest follow suit like they have been waiting. He eats up the space between us with his eyes zeroed on me. My eyes are searching his face, my brain is working more than it should. I’m brainstorming the possible things I could do to stop him from riding on with that sentence. To stop him from rejecting me.

Cry. Get on my knees and beg. Threaten to kill myself. Beg even more.

What exactly can I do to escape this impending rejection?

I can’t get rejected by my mate. My life is already as tragic as it can get. I have no parents or siblings or distant relatives. I’m a servant in a household where everyone hates me. My roommates will likely kill me one of these days and make it look like an accident or suicide.

The only hope I had to get out of this predicament was finding my mate. My mate who would take me away from this hell hole.

Now he’s here and he’s the fucking Alpha of the pack, yet he’s about to reject me.

I was definitely cursed by a witch at birth.

My face is completely drenched as I stare at his basalt-turned face. He looks so determined to reject me. I doubt even the Moon goddess would be able to change his mind if she were here with us.

“I can’t be with you. You’re nothing.” Those words slice through my very soul. “The only thing I’ll get from being with a low-life like you is ridicule from my subjects and other fellow Alphas. I cannot afford to soil myself like that. You deserve to be mated to a guy of your status, not someone like me. I’m way out of your league.” I follow his gaze towards Daphne. His eyes stop on her and he looks at her for a long time before turning back to me. “Alora Leandro…”

He starts and I know I should say something. I should cut him off. I should tell him he can’t do this to me, but the words seemed to be glued to my tongue. I can’t even find my voice.

“I, Alpha Myles Leroy, reject you as my mate and future Luna on the basis that I do not see you fit to qualify as my equal. As my companion for life. You do not deserve to be with a man of my calibre and I, as an Alpha, deserve to be with a woman of high social status. Therefore, I denounce every bond we share in the name of a mate bond. I denounce every lingering feeling I might have developed for you within these minutes of finding out that you were my mate. I want nothing to do with you, therefore from now on, we are perfect strangers. I am not yours to claim and neither are you mine to claim. You are free to go out there and find love and comfort in the arms of another man. It’s up to the Moon goddess to bless you with a second chance mate, so pray she does. For me, I’ve already found the woman I would love to spend the rest of my life with. I’ve already found my chosen mate.”

The walls of my world come crashing down when he steps away from me and heads over to where Daphne is standing. She looks so confused, the expression on her face would have made me laugh if I had not just gotten rejected by my mate.

My poor heart stops when he stops in front of her. I die ten times in the second when he stretches his hands forward and takes her hands in his, then turns to face me.

“I don’t need to go over the reasons why I’m choosing Daphne over you. They are clear enough.” Then he turns to Daphne, whose gloomy look has faded within seconds. She has a bright, hopeful look on her face that shatters my heart into a million pieces. “Daphne. You are the one I want to be with. If you say yes, I will accept you as my mate and make you my companion for life and Luna of this pack.” Daphne was already nodding like a lizard before he finished his sentence.

“Yes! Yes of course I accept to be your chosen mate. I want to be with you.”

My mate… or should I say ex-mate smiles for the first time since he got in here. My knees nearly give up when I watch Alpha Myles lean closer and gives her a light peck on her lips. I want to look away… I mean I should, but my head is static.

I watch him hold Daphne by the hand in the most affectionate way and proceed to lead the way out of the living room but before she follows, she gives me one last look.

A look that says:

‘I saw what you tried to do.’

A look that says:

‘This isn’t over.’

And I know she means it.

I can’t believe I lost my mate to my greatest nemesis.