"You are not my Luna"
Luke repeated almost shouting, this made her heart clench.
"You are not my mate Diane you are not" he screamed and she took steps backwards, that was the first time she had seen him that way.
"What are you saying Luke" she asked in an extremely cool voice trying not to trigger any extreme emotion from him.
"I'm saying that all this .." He continued pointing at both of them.
"All of this is a lie"
Diane breath got caught in between her chest and she heaved out a heavy breath.
"I am your mate, I don't know what you saw but do you see this?.." She asked pointing at her mark on her neck.
"This is my proof Luke" She said confident.
"You don't get it do you?" A tiny almost invisible tear trailed down his eyes.
"I just met her, yet I yearn for her, I'm not sure what is happening but all I do know is that she is my mate" Luke said swallowing hard spits in between as tears threatened to crawl down the smoothness of his cheek.
"Does she feel the same?" Diane asked, a tiny feeling of heaviness in her chest.
"Yes"
For a slight second she could feel the chills that raced down her spine.
"So us..?" She asked almost breaking down.
Deep down she wanted this to be some extremely expensive joke but it did not seem to her as if he would start laughing anytime soon.
"I love you"
"So much for a breakup line" her voice wavered as she lowered her head down.
"I'm not breaking up with you Diane" he said reaching out to engage her in a desireless kiss.
"Hunh?"
"I'll reject her" Luke held her tightly.
Diane felt confused but more than confused she was troubled, she was well learned on mating and bonding and she knew quite well the toil rejecting one's mate had on the rejecter and the rejected, they suffered according to the stories she had heard.
"You can't do that" she found herself saying.
"What?"
"I said you can't do that" She repeated.
"If truly you have found your mate then you cannot reject her"
"Why?" Luke asked audible enough for their both hearing.
"Do you fear for me?" He asked and she nodded in reply drawing a smile on his lips for the first time since he arrived.
"I'll be fine, your love will help me" he wrapped her in his embrace, but worry was evident on both their faces.
"I love you Luke" Diane said with a forced smile on her face.
"So much, everything is going to be fine"
"Let's get married" Luke said and she nodded in his arms.
That night they made promises the were not sure of keeping.
They continued with their lives like nothing ever happened, Luke made sure he made no physical contact with his mate whose name he found out to be Rose.
A month passed and Diane had started to notice that somethings were off, Luke was changing drastically, his mind seemed to trail off frequently, he was seemed a bit unkept and his thought seemed to encircle around something else, but regardless he did not give her a reason to doubt him. She asked constantly if he was okay, sometimes he'd reply 'yes' and other time he would become aggressive and apologize later on.
Diane could see him suffering and it was all because he chose to remain by her side, she couldn't continue.
Luke had done a lot for her, he was even willing to risk his sanity for her and here she was playing the damsel in distress hanging on to him.
She couldn't let him suffer anymore, not when this golden opportunity for her to prove how much she loved him had been provided.
The next night she arranged for a candle light dinner to alleviate his stress as well as his pain.
"Won't you compliment on how I Look?" She asked after the food had been served.
"What more do I need say?" He questioned as he picked up his cutlery..
Her eyes sparkled with an indescribable emotion in them underneath the dim lighting of the candle lighted room.
"I'm calling off the engagement" she said inaudibly but he grasped it and stopped eating.
"Is it because of the dress?" He asked clueless.
"I'm sorry Diane you look beautiful, you shine even brighter than the stars" He said with all sincerity and Diane chuckled as tears filled her eyes.
"It's not because of the dress Luke" She replied.
At first Luke felt it was a joke but he knew Diane was not the type to joke or appreciate jokes.
"Then Why?" Luke asked.
"The people needs their Alpha" she stated with seriousness
"It's not you anymore, this is not you Luke you've become a shell, a shell of your formal self, when have you ever not complimented me on how I look, when have you ever spent an hour being lost in nothing and it's all my fault"
"If it's about the dress, I'm sorry I'm just preoccupied Diane, nothing is wrong with me, I can't lose you, No, Never" He said holding her hands tightly.
She slowly ran her fingers on his face teaching every line.
"You are suffering.." Her voice wavered.
"And it's all because of.."
"Shush" he silenced her.
"No fault is yours" He said hoping she would change her mind.
"I can't leave you Diane, even if you wanted me to" He said and she shut him up with a short kiss.
"But you have to" she said calmly.
"If you are like this now, how worse can it get after our marriage?, I can't watch you suffer, if I do what right do I have to say I love you, don't stop me from proving my love Luke, you are better of with her, whosoever she is, I will not watch my love become a disease for you, I will not watch you die as a result of my recklessness, I would rather leave you than lose you" A lone tear trailed down her cheek.
"I never asked for this Diane, I never asked you to do anything for me" He said atop his voice.
"So stop it, I'm fine, don't you see, I'm perfect, so just keep staying by my side, if you leave me I don't know how I will survive"
"This aggression, the pain in your eyes, your struggle, I see everything Luke, and I'm telling you to stop trying to resist, you once told me that you yearn for her, have you ever thought about what she is going through, how much she suffers? I hear the mating bond take a larger toil on the wolf rejected, if it was me who found my mate would you let me suffer this way?"
Luke nodded in disagreement involuntarily.
"I knew you wouldn't, you'd push me to go, so let me help you too Please, Luke, please" she said desperately.
"I would be selfish and keep you by my side" He said shabbily and Diane chuckled.
"You don't get it do you?" Diane asked
"You've never hidden anything from me but yet you hide how much it hurts, it's okay Luke let it end now, for my sake" she pleaded.
Every word she said was like a needle piercing the both of them, they spent the rest of the night holding each other like lovers who would never meet again, in fact they did not meet each other after that night till a month passed.
The news of their broken engagement spread like wide fire but the news of the Alpha's mate being found spread like an even wider fire.
The people waited in anticipation to know who the Alpha's newly found mate was. Meanwhile Luke had met with rose and had gotten quite acquainted to her.
Everytime they met or walked into themselves it sparked rumors. Rumors that never failed to reach Diane's hearing.
'Why am I even bothered?' She questioned herself once, making the decision that she wouldn't feel bothered by it, instead she would feel happy that is suffering was slowly ending.
She hated the fact that she had to watch her love slip away from her, she hated the fact that she had to act okay when she knew very well that she was not. Nothing seemed conforting to her.
Another month passed and the rumors of the Alpha's proposed wedding began spread like wide fire round the pack.
"My lady, it seems the Alpha is getting married" Diane handmaid said to her as she tended to her hair, the news was quite shocking to her but she maintained her composure, she had to hear this from Luke himself.
That night as she laid restless on her bed she saw a figure in the dimly lit room, for a slight second she felt perplexed, not until a familiar scent hit her senses.
"Luke?" She questioned as she turned on the light to see him brightly.
"You are here" she said.
"I'm going to marry her"