Chapter 20 Elara's POV
The woman stood in my doorway, her perfect face twisted with rage. Her eyes burned into me with such hatred that I pressed myself back against the headboard.
"You." She hissed again, taking a step into the room. "You think you can just-"
"Get out."
Kaden's voice cut through the air like a whip. He appeared behind the woman so suddenly that she jumped.
"Kaden, I just wanted to-"
"I said get out, Selena." His voice was low and dangerous. "Now."
"She doesn't belong here! She's nothing but a servant! Why is she in your private quarters?"
Selena's voice rose higher. "What is she to you?"
"That's none of your concern."
"None of my concern? I'm going to be your Luna! Everything about you is my concern!"
Kaden grabbed her arm and physically pulled her away from my door. "You are not my Luna and if you ever come near her again, you will regret it."
"You can't be serious! You are choosing her? Somebody omega over me?"
"Leave now before I have you forcibly removed from the pack house."
Selena's face went white, then red. She looked past Kaden at me, and the hatred in her eyes intensified. "This isn't over," She spat.
Kaden dragged her out into the hallway. I could hear her shouting, and hear him responding in that cold, dangerous voice. Then a door slammed and everything went quiet.
My whole body was shaking.
Damian rushed into the room, his face tight with concern. "Are you alright? Did she hurt you?"
"No, I-" My voice broke.
"I don't understand. Why does she hate me? What did I do?"
"You didn't do anything. She's just-" Damian stopped, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
"It's complicated."
"Everything is complicated!" The words burst out of me.
"Everyone keeps saying things I don't understand. Looking at me like they know me. Like I should know them. And I don't! I don't remember anything!"
The tears came suddenly and violently. I couldn't stop them. They poured down my face as my body shook with sobs.
"I'm so scared," I gasped between sobs.
"I don't know who I am. I don't know what happened to me. I don't know why that woman hates me or why the Alpha is protecting me or why any of this is happening!"
Damian pulled me gently into his arms, letting me cry against his shoulder. "I know, I know it's terrifying but you are safe now that's what matters."
"How can I be safe when I don't even know who my enemies are?" I pulled back, wiping at my face.
"Please know something. I can see it in your eyes and tell me the truth of it all."
Damian was quiet for a long moment. Then he sighed.
"What I'm about to tell you, I only learned today. From Kaden. And he doesn't know that I'm telling you, so this stays between us."
I nodded, my heart pounding.
"You are not just a servant here, Elara. You are Kaden's mate."
The words didn't make sense. "What? No. That's impossible. I'm nobody. He is an Alpha. That doesn't-"
"It is true you are his fated mate who chose you for each other."
I stared at him. "Then why doesn't he act like it? Why does he look at me like... like I'm breaking his heart?"
Damian's expression darkened. "Because he rejected you."
The words hit me like a physical blow. "He... what?"
"About seven weeks ago, you and Kaden were together one night. And the next morning, he rejected the mate bond and told you it was a mistake."
I felt sick. "Why would he do that?"
"I don't know if he wouldn't tell me his reasons. But the rejection hurts you badly. That's why you left the pack lands. That's why you were alone in the forest when the rogues attacked you."
My mind was spinning. Kaden was my mate. We had been together and he had rejected me.
And then something else Damian said registered.
"Wait. Seven weeks ago?"
Damian nodded slowly. "Yes."
"The baby." I whispered.
"The baby is six to eight weeks old, you said that yourself."
"Yes."
The realization crashed over me. "Kaden is the father, he is the father of my baby."
"Yes."
I couldn't breathe, couldn't think my mate, the man I was supposed to be bonded to for life, had rejected me while I was pregnant with his child and I couldn't even remember it.
"Does he know?" I asked.
"About the baby?"
"Yes. I told him today."
"What did he say?"
"He broke down and started crying. He didn't know you were pregnant when he rejected you. If he had known..." Damian trailed off.
"If he had known, what? He wouldn't have rejected me?" I felt anger rising through the fear and confusion.
"Or he just would have felt guilty about it?"
"I don't know, Elara. I can't speak for him."
I pressed my hands to my head. This was too much too much information, too many emotions, too many things I should remember but couldn't.
"I need to remember," I said desperately. "I need to know what happened. I need to understand."
"Your memories will come back with time, you can't force it."
"Yes, I can." I closed my eyes, concentrating hard trying to push past the fog in my mind.
Trying to find anything, any memory of Kaden, of us being together, of the rejection. There had to be something. Some piece of the truth buried in my broken mind.
I pushed harder, searching desperately for anything familiar.
"Elara, stop, you are going to hurt yourself."
But I couldn't stop. I needed to remember. I needed to understand why my mate would reject me and needed to know who I really was.
I focused all my energy on that blank space where my memories should be. Pushed and pushed and pushed against the darkness.
Something sharp stabbed through my head. Pain exploded behind my eyes.
"Elara!"
I felt something warm on my upper lip. I reached up and touched it. My fingers came away red. My nose was bleeding.
"Lie down. Now." Damian's voice was urgent. He pushed me gently back against the pillows.
But the pain was getting worse spreading from my head down through my body. Everything started to go numb: my fingers , my arms , my legs.
"Damian," I tried to say, but my tongue felt thick and clumsy.
"Something is wrong."
"I know just breathe, stay with me."
The door slammed open Kaden was there, his eyes wild.
"What happened? I heard-" He saw the blood. Saw me lying there with Damian pressing something against my nose.
"Elara!"
I tried to answer but couldn't because the numbness was spreading faster now. My vision was going dark at the edges.
I heard Kaden shouting and Damian responding. I heard the panic in both their voices. But I was fading, slipping away into that darkness again.
The last thing I heard was Kaden's voice, broken and desperate, growling my name.
"Elara!"
Then nothing.