Chapter 143 HE NEVER LOVED ME! I WAS JUST CONVENIENT!

Chapter 143 HE NEVER LOVED ME! I WAS JUST CONVENIENT!
CHAPTER 143

HE NEVER LOVED ME! I WAS JUST CONVENIENT!

CHARLOTTE

I looked at Dorian and shook my head slowly. My chest felt tight and heavy. My eyes burned.

“I cannot believe you are saying this to me.” My voice came out low and strained. “I am your mate and you dare sit there and tell me I am letting jealousy cloud my judgment. Of course I am jealous. What do you mean by not letting it cloud my judgment? Too late, it's fed me a lot.”

I kept staring at him. The pain sat open on my face. My hands curled into fists at my sides until my nails dug into my palms hard enough to hurt. Anger rose hot and sharp under the hurt, making my shoulders tense.

“If you must know, I am jealous of all of this. And yes, it is in an angry way.”

My breathing turned short and uneven. Heat flooded up my neck and into my cheeks. I forced the next words out before they could stick in my throat.

“Do you think I am happy about this Luna decision you are making? Just because I have not said a word does not mean I am fine with it. I can even agree that you might marry another woman entirely and bring her into the pack to sit on my rightful throne with you. But agreeing and being happy that Selina is pregnant by you? This is the same woman who poisoned my water with wolfsbane. The same woman who attacked me in the pack house until I nearly died. The same woman who threatened to kill me if I ever told you about it. And you expect jealousy not to cloud me? Would I be a real human if I'm not jealous of all this? Tell me Dorian?”

My voice cracked on the last sentence. Tears blurred my vision and spilled over. My shoulders shook once and I could not stop them. The memory of the wolfsbane burning through my system and the weight of her hands on me returned so clearly that my stomach turned and my knees felt weak.

I kept speaking even as the tears ran down my face and my throat grew raw.

“I cannot believe that you of all people would betray me and break my heart like this. I convinced myself that you had changed. But I just realized you never loved me from the beginning. If you really did, and if you knew I was your mate, you would never have slept with Selina in the first place. You would never have touched any other woman. You would have kept that faithfulness between us.”

The words left me in broken pieces. My hands trembled at my sides. I could taste salt on my lips. I could not stand there and look at him any longer.

I turned and ran out of the office before he could take a single step toward me.

I did not stop until I reached the empty training ground. The ground felt hard and cold under my boots. I dropped to my knees and the fresh tears came harder. My shoulders shook with every sob. My breath came in short, painful pulls that made my chest ache.

Everything from the past weeks rushed back at once. The way he had withdrawn from me. The odd behavior. The strange care when I returned from Italy. The heat of the sex we had shared. I pressed both hands over my face as the memory of it made the foolishness feel even sharper and more humiliating.

How could I have believed he meant any of it?

He had already agreed to take another woman as Luna without once asking me. He had made that decision before I even returned to the pack. He had not refused. He had not fought for what we had. He'd just agreed when faced with the decision of his losing throne.

Couldn't he lose his throne to be with me?

Lumina whimpered inside me, the sound low and broken. Then she howled, the cry full of pure heartbreak. Her voice filled my head with one cruel line after another.

“”I don't even know why I'm saying this but I'm so pained by what Dorian did. He never loved you. He never loved us. You were convenient. He chose the pack over you the first chance he got. Selina is already taking your place and everyone accepts it.”

The words scattered through my mind and left no room for anything softer. I did not fully understand the mate bond.

I only knew that something real had existed between us and that it had been ripped away without any real explanation. In its place stood Selina, pregnant and already treated by half the pack as if she were Luna.

Lumina’s voice changed. The howling quieted into something more urgent.

”Do not think like that. If you do not believe me, go back. Ask him what is troubling your mind. Hear it from him again. And watch him break your heart into a thousand pieces again.”

I stayed on the ground for another long minute, my face wet and my chest aching. Then I forced myself up. My legs felt unsteady but I walked back toward the pack house and straight to his office.

I opened the door. Dorian stood the moment he saw me and started toward me. I held out one hand and stopped him before he could come closer. My arm felt heavy.

“I did not come here for your pity.” My voice was hoarse from crying but I kept it steady. “I came to ask you something.”

He stayed where he was. I met his eyes directly even though my own still burned.

“What am I to you? What does this bond mean to you?”

Dorian’s answer came after a short silence. His voice was quiet. “The bond means the world to me. I do love you, Charlotte. But it was a mistake. I have obligations to the pack that are greater than personal feelings.”

He did not say Selina’s name. He did not need to. I understood exactly what he was telling me. He was going to accept the pregnancy. He was going to take her as his.

I turned and walked out with my head high.

Inside me Lumina broke completely. She howled in raw, terrible pain and begged to be released. The sound filled every part of me until I could not fight it any longer. I did not have the strength left.

I tore at my clothes with shaking hands and shifted.