Chapter 276: The Alpha King's Rejected Mate

Orian’s pov

"What happened in here?" She looked around the office seeing how haphazard it was, "Did you both fight?"

"Nothing serious." I walked to her and took her in my arms before sitting on the chair and settling her in my lap, "What did you get me snyek?" I asked even though I had seen them before.

"Flowers and chocolate." She thrust a bouquet in my face and the little box of chocolate followed, "See the chocolate box is in a heart shape, it was the last one left grump and I thought of you when I saw it, I had to buy it."

"You are perfect, aren't you?" I brought my hands to her face, cupped it, and placed a kiss on her nose before grazing my fingers across her reddened cheeks, "My perfect girl." She blushed harder at the compliment, "Thank you, I love them." I collected the flowers, they were white tulips and after inhaling their scent, I placed them aside and took the chocolate box from her, opened it and we began to eat.

"Are you nervous about tomorrow?" She asked me when we were done and I was trying to get off the chocolate stain from the corner of her lips with my thumb, "I am, but are you? I am worried about you. I know how you feel about crowds. If you don't want to give your speech, I can hide you in my skirt. Oh, that wouldn't go well."

I laughed at her blabber, my heartache being eased at the light she brought to me and I pulled her closer with my arms wrapped around her, "I will be fine as long as I have you by my side."

"Sure?" She asked bringing her fingers up to my face to graze my moustache.

"Sure." I nodded, "Just you and I as you promised, no one else."

"No one else." She whispered and I sensed a hint of sadness in her voice.

"How was your trip to town?" I asked not wanting to directly inquire about Cyrus, "Was it enjoyable?"

"Yes, and I need to go back." She stood up releasing herself from my hold like all she wanted at the moment was to get away from me.

"Where are you going?"

"I will be back later on." She bent to kiss me on the cheek and breezed out immediately before I could ask why she was going back.

I stood up and walked to the window to see that she had already gotten down and a carriage was waiting for her outside with a man next to it.

I could see that it was Cyrus and he opened the door for her to get in before going around to get in himself my next move was the grab my coat and find a way to follow them but a blinding pain shot through me making me fall to the ground.

"Fuck!" I groaned as it spread through my abdomen and I got to a sitting position trying to curtail the pain despite the ache in my heart at the fact that Amara just left me and went out with that same man again. I could only listen to the small voice in my head telling me to trust her while I sat still waiting for my pain to subside.

________

Amara didn't come home for dinner that night, she came home way past dinner time when the food had already ran cold and I was past too many bottles of vodka to be of a sound mind.

My head banged as I struggled to get up from the floor at the bottom of the stairs where I was when I heard the door click. I let out a groan when I got to my feet with the intense pain that wracked through me as I perceived Cyrus's scent on her while she walked in the castle.

I stood still with my hands laying limp by my side, my senses heightening as her scent greeted me with proof of who she had been with throughout the whole day. I had tracked her while she was away, noted how he took her around the kingdom past my territory to see his kingdom, that of the Gorgons and demons too which I intended to do once we were coronated but he beat me to it.

I wondered why she had his scent on him, what had happened between them that I would never get to know and that same stupid pain struck me in the heart as if validating my thoughts of her abandoning me soon.

She hummed to herself as she walked towards where I was and then she stopped, her eyes going from me to the bottles on the ground, the empty glasses, and back to my wasted self, "Orian, you are drunk." She whispered coming towards me, her nose wrinkling and I remembered her once saying she hated the smell of vodka.

"Sorry." I muttered bending over to pick up the bottles and Clean up after myself, "I made dinner earlier-"

"I am not hungry." She cut me off rather quickly, "Why are you still up?"

"I was waiting for you..." I looked at her with a raised brow wondering if it took her a whole day with someone else to forget that we always went to bed together, "How was your day?"

"I don't want to talk about it, sorry." Her cheeks were flushed as she spoke further rousing my curiosity and I turned away keeping my lips shut before I said something that I would regret.

I staggered my way towards the kitchen to dispose of the bottles and she followed me behind quietly watching my moves while I cleaned up and put the food away, "This is our last dinner here, last day here." I muttered low enough for my hearing, "I wanted to share it with you."

"I am sorry Orian." Amara had heard my words and she walked up to me, "I will make sure we have a lifetime together, missing today is nothing."

"It is."

"It's not." She stood her ground as she advanced toward me and I noticed her eyes were glossy like she was about to cry, "Come on, it's time for bed, we have a long day tomorrow and it isn't good that you wake up with a hangover."

"Amara." I called placing my hands on her shoulders with my gaze fixated on her face and when she held mine looking into my eyes, I saw a tear slip down her cheek from the corner of her eye and panic rose in me, "Amara, did I hurt you? I am sorry if I did, please don't cry, don't leave me."

"Orian let's go to bed, you are drunk." She tried to get me to stop talking as she hooked her arms with mine and began to pull me out of the kitchen while I replayed the last few days in my head wondering where I went wrong.

We got to her room and she sat me on the bed asking me not to move while she got down to get me a glass of water as she handed it over to me, I could see her fingers slightly shaking around the glass and from our mate bond, I could tell that she was nervous.

Something is going on and I couldn't quite place my hand on it.

I downed the glass anyway and handed it over to her. She got down to return it while I used the bathroom and came back to the bed waiting for her so we could sleep in together.

When she got back, the room was silent as I watched her change into her nighties and put her hair up. I was becoming heavy with sleep, my eyes gently pulling close but I struggled to keep them up waiting for her. She came to me after she was done and got into bed with me.

We lay next to each other, my hand wrapped around her and I chose not to say a word not knowing what to say because I could feel how tense she was like she was up to something she wanted no one to know of.

While I lay there, my thoughts fleeted back to my discussion with Nexus and as I pondered upon the happenings of today and the oath I took a few years ago, I realized something.

Hector having us take the oath with a seer he knew far away from the kingdom, him immediately deciding that I was to give up my mate, and the seer dying a week after wasn't something that happened as a coincidence.

I thought long and hard about what the other leaders might have given up but nothing came forth and I remember Nexus saying that the only consequence he knew of was the punishment decided on by the leaders and nothing else meaning I most likely wasn't supposed to give up my mate for the oath.

My head was splitting, my thoughts spinning as I tried to wrap my head around it and I remember Emery educating me on what I needed to know about the oath before going forward with it and then it dawned on me.

Hector had tricked me.

I tried getting up from the bed at my realization that I had been tricked for no reason into giving up a mate that I didn't even know I had but my limbs felt weak and it left like I had ingested sleeping tablets and they had just begun to kick in.

Amara moved against me, our fingers linked together as I gave up getting up and settled for staying by her side while I let sleep overcome me with bitterness unlike I had ever felt before spreading through my heart at the realization that Hector destroyed my life just when I had a chance to get a different shot at it and sadly it would end in my death and I had no power to do anything about it.