Chapter 7 Truth
ARYA
Jaime’s eyes flashed with something along the lines of anger, guilt, I couldn’t tell. “This is not a conversation we’re having with an audience.”
“Ryker’s not an audience.” I refused to back down. Using the same tone he was. “He’s the only person in this pack who’s shown me any loyalty.”
“Loyalty?” Jaime’s laugh was harsh. “Is that what we’re calling this? My Beta, alone with my wife, both of you looking guilty as hell?”
Ryker stepped forward, his voice dangerous. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare turn this around on her when you’re the one who—”
“That’s enough, Beta.” Jaime’s Alpha command rang through the words, making Ryker tense. “Leave us.”
“No.” My voice was quiet but firm. “If you want to talk, we talk with Ryker here. Or we don’t talk at all.”
Jaime stared at me like he’d never seen me before. Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe I’d been invisible to him for so long that actually standing up for myself was making him realize I was a person and not some inanimate husband that was part of the furniture at the pack house and the office.
“Fine.” He stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind him. “You want to do this now? Let’s do this.” He crossed his arms over his chest. Giving me the full intensity of his gaze.
I waited, blinking rapidly whole secretly hoping he couldn’t hear the sound of my heart pounding.
“The council has concerns about your ability to serve as Luna.” Jaime delivered the sentence in a calm unbothered tone. Like we were talking about the weather and not how I wasn’t enough.
“You mean you have concerns.” I shot back.
“The council speaks for the pack.” He replied, his voice remaining steady.
“The council speaks for you!” I snapped. My control was slipping. “You’re the Alpha, Jaime. If you wanted me to stay, they’d have no choice. But you don’t want me to stay, do you?”
His silence was answer enough.
I reached for my wedding ring, the simple platinum band I’d worn for five years. My hands were steady as I pulled it off.
“Then give them the Luna they want.” I placed the ring on the conference table between us. “I’m done.”
Jaime’s eyes widened with something like disbelief as his eyes trailed from me to the mahogany table. “What are you doing?”
“What I should have done years ago. I’m leaving.”
“You can’t just—”
“Can’t what? Leave you? Watch me.” I moved toward the door, but Jaime blocked my path.
“We’re not divorced yet. You’re still Luna of this pack. You can’t just walk away from your responsibilities.”
“Responsibilities?” I laughed, and it sounded bitter even to my own ears. “You mean like showing up to pack meetings you schedule without telling me? Like planning my own replacement behind my back? Or maybe spending our anniversary in another woman’s bed?”
His face went carefully blank. “I did not sleep with Elira.”
“Do you think that makes it better?” My voice broke. “Do you think it matters where you spent the night when you couldn’t be bothered to come home to your wife?”
“I needed space—”
“For five years? You’ve needed space for five entire years?” Tears were streaming down my face now, but I didn’t care anymore. “I have been patient. I have been understanding. I have been everything you asked me to be and it was never, ever enough.”
“Arya—”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’m done being not enough. I’m done being your sentimental mistake.”
His face paled. If he didn’t know before, he knew for sure now that I’d heard him say it.
“I want a formal separation,” I said, my voice steadying. “I’ll stay until the paperwork is processed, and fulfill my Luna duties until it’s legal. But then I’m gone. Do you understand?”
Jaime looked like he wanted to argue, but something in my expression must have stopped him.
“If that’s what you want.”
“It’s what you wanted,” I corrected. “I’m just finally giving it to you.”
I pushed past him, Ryker following close behind. We didn’t speak as we walked through the halls, past the staring pack members and the whispers that followed us like ghosts.
It wasn’t until we were in the elevator, doors closed, that I let myself lean against the wall. I shut my eyes, feeling the weight of the whole world on my shoulders. I thought I would feel better. Instead, the same hollow feeling and emptiness remained in my chest.
“I’m proud of you,” Ryker said quietly.
I popped my eyes openly slowly and looked at him. The man who’d been my only friend in this cold place. “For what? For finally admitting defeat?”
“For fighting back.” He smiled sadly. “Ind choosing yourself. It’s about time you put yourself first.”
About five years too late, but I guess better late than never.
The elevator opened to the parking garage. My driver was waiting, but Ryker waved him off.
“I’ll take her,” he told Thomas, who nodded and left without question.
Ryker opened the passenger door of his truck, and I climbed in, too numb to argue. He drove in silence, and I was grateful for it. I didn’t want to talk or think or feel anything at all. I wanted to just not exist for a minute. Or ten.
We ended up at the park on the edge of pack territory, where the trees grew thick and the sound of the nearby stream drowned out the rest of the world.
“Why here?” I asked as he parked.
“Because you need to breathe. And you can’t do that in that house.”
I nodded, grateful at his thoughtfulness. The pack house had never felt like home. It was just a beautiful prison.
We walked along the stream, my heels sinking into the soft earth. I should have cared about ruining them. I didn’t.
“What happens now?” Ryker asked after a while.
“I don’t know.” I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ward off the chill that was starting to seep into my bones. “The separation will take time. Weeks, maybe months. I’ll have to stand before the council, list all my failures as Luna.”
“That’s barbaric.”
“That’s tradition.” I laughed without humor. “They’ll make a spectacle of it. Make an example of me.”
“I won’t let them—”
“You can’t stop them, Ryker.” I turned to face him. “Jaime is Alpha. What he wants, he gets. And what he wants is to be rid of me.”
Ryker’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. “Then he’s a fool.”
“Maybe. Or maybe he’s just being honest for the first time in our marriage.”
We stood there by the stream, the water rushing past us like it was in a hurry to get somewhere better. I envied it.