Filed To Story: Goddess's Design His Fated Mate (Willow & Reuben)
he asked, leaving me speechless.
I stared at him in surprise, his question stabbing at my heart. Would I really have agreed to help Reuben with this when I had hidden my heat from him, all to avoid having sex with him?
He glanced at my slightly red eyes and shaking hands. “Just go,”
he said, smiling in a way that pained me to see.
“Then what about you?”
I couldn’t help but ask.
“I’ll manage,”
he murmured.
His answer stunned me. “How?”
There was no way a rut could be overcome without sex, unless the wolf endured three to four days of physical pain that would render them bedridden.
“I have my ways,”
he simply replied, but my eyes landed on the phone in his other hand, where I could still see messages popping up.
Ella’s earlier message asking if she could come to meet him crossed my mind, ripping my heart into an infinite number of pieces.
“So it’s like that. The way you’re talking is Ella, right?”
I secretly clenched my fist as his brows furrowed.
“Ella?”
“Am I wrong?”
I darkly chuckled as my heart burned, turning to ash at the thought of the two of them together, “She’s on her way to take care of you. That’s why you were rushing to get me out! You should have been honest with me, Reuben. I would have gladly left to give you and your fiancée privacy,”
I snapped, rising from the ground to leave.
What the hell was I thinking coming back to check on him? I supposed that was my mistake. I shouldn’t have returned. That way, I wouldn’t have had to face such an ugly truth.
“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SAYING?!”
he roared, grabbing my hand so that we stood face to face. “How many times do I have to tell you that there’s nothing between ELLA AND I! You are the only one that I love. Why do you always have to bring another woman between us, Willow?”
he demanded, his wolf attempting to break out as he momentarily overcame his rut and pain.
“Really? Am I really the one who brought another woman between us?!”
I shrieked, shoving his hand away, “YOU ARE THE ONE WHO BROUGHT ANOTHER WOMAN BETWEEN US, REUBEN! THE SECOND YOU BROUGHT THAT ALPHA’S DAUGHTER BETWEEN US SIX YEARS AGO!”
My words echoed throughout the house. I had finally spoken what I had kept hidden in my heart for years, suffering under its weight in silence. Everything fell silent between us as we stared into each other’s eyes.
“What Alpha’s daughter?”
His voice was low, filled with confusion and a hidden anger, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Don’t pretend to be innocent, Reuben. I know everything,”
I chuckled manically, holding back my tears. “That day six years ago, when you brought an Alpha’s daughter back to the pack as your fiancée. I remember it clearly. She was so beautiful that you fell for her at first sight. You didn’t even consider telling me about your new interest in that woman, I had to hear it from others in the pack. It was that day, and then just like today, you will always choose your Alpha position over me. You betrayed me, used me to assuage your wolf and your desires, then discarded me when I had been knocked up by you ”
“Enough!”
he growled, grabbing both of my arms tightly and pulling me closer to his chest. “I never fucking used you to keep my wolf happy! I never chose my Alpha position over you, and I sure as fuck never fucking had an Alpha’s daughter as a fiancée six years ago!”
he yelled.
My eyes widened. He was still laying it on a bit thick. Did he take me for that much of a fool? I had enough.
“You are lying to me. I’m not falling for your bullshit again. You used to lie to me then disappear for weeks and months, just so that you could spend time with the Alpha’s daughter that you fell in love with at first sight. You were only furious over my pregnancy because of her. You betrayed me, Reuben ”
He stared at me in silence, his aura sharpening like the honed edge of blades, and his eyes burning with anger. “I used to disappear for the sake of our future!”
he stated, his voice heavy and deep.
“For our future?”
Willow
“For our future?”
I gasped in confusion at his unexpected statement. “What do you mean?”
He locked eyes with me for a couple of seconds, the silence growing heavy with unspoken memories. Then, as if peeling back layers of the past I had been unaware of, he began to reveal a story hidden in the depths of its shadows.
“Inheriting royal blood and being born with the title of Prince, I was supposed to spend my life in the palace, destined to fight for the crown when the appropriate time came. I had no objection to the path that had been chosen for my fate until you came into my life. Having you in my life made me greedy. I wanted to be with you, but it was impossible because royal law would never allow me to be with a she-wolf that was not an Alpha.
“My father and the current King were identical twins, but in the realm of royalty, only one could wear the crown. My father, the younger of the two, harbored no desire for the throne. He willingly relinquished his claim, granting him the freedom to establish and lead the Emerald Bright Pack without interference from the royal family. However, my circumstances were not so easily navigated. Even though our pack operated independently, our ties to the royal family remained unshakable, and my identity as a prince was inescapable.
When I approached my uncle, the king, about assuming my father’s position as Alpha of the Emerald Bright Pack and abstaining from the crown’s contention with my cousins, I was presented with only one path to freedom. I had to prove myself worthy by serving the kingdom for five years. During this time, I dealt with countless treaties, faced deadly wars, and occasionally found myself embroiled in the less savory tasks demanded by the royal family.”
At 18 years old, I was willing to do anything to ensure a future with you, so I accepted the obligation of serving the royals for five years. This commitment meant leaving the pack frequently, not for leisure or to interact with other she-wolves, but to fulfill the tasks assigned by the king and return to you as swiftly as possible. I kept my ties with the royal family and the reasons for my absences from the pack hidden from you, knowing that revealing them would likely cause you to panic and distance yourself from me even further. You were already fervently attempting to conceal our mate bond because of my status as the alpha’s son, so I never dared to confide in you about these matters. Additionally, you never expressed any curiosity about the reasons for my departures. For five years, everything proceeded smoothly, until I entered the final year of my obligation and somehow, my father discovered our relationship.
In those two months following my departure from your house, after spending that rut night with you, I encountered Elder Frank. I settled accounts with him, but a month later, my father unexpectedly visited me with evidence of our relationship that I could no longer deny. Someone had sent him explicit photos of us, including our intimate moments, and it was clear that Elder Frank wasn’t responsible. It was the work of someone else entirely.
I confessed to my father that I was deeply in love with you and that I intended to spend the rest of my life with you. It was my final decision, but he couldn’t accept the idea of an Omega as my mate and future Luna of our pack.
Dad and I found ourselves in a heated argument right then and there. He demanded that I expel you from the pack and forget about you entirely, but I stood firm in my decision not to break things off with you. He was equally resolute in his determination to either force me to end our relationship or remove you from my life altogether, and I understood all too well what he meant by that. Having witnessed since childhood how he dealt with Omegas he deemed unworthy, I knew the extent of his threats.
In a moment of desperation, I issued a deadly warning of my own father, declaring that I would kill him if he laid a hand on you. Knowing I wouldn’t return for another two months, I was prepared to do whatever it took, including issuing threats, to protect you in my absence.
My father understood that my warnings were not empty threats. He envisioned himself meeting a violent end, perhaps even with the entire Emerald Bright Pack going up in flames. At that point, he realized that he couldn’t even think about harming you without risking losing a lot more, including his own son. He knew that my interests had never been tied to position or pack, but that I had become obsessed with protecting both since you entered my life.
His entire body trembled with anger, but he knew he was powerless to act. In the end, he agreed not to lay a hand on you until I returned to take over the pack. However, he issued a chilling warning that if you became pregnant, he would eradicate both you and our child. I understood the gravity of his threat, but in the moment, I brushed it off, believing that once I assumed leadership of the pack after those two months, he would no longer be able to meddle in our relationship. That’s how I interpreted the situation.
Little did I know that during our rut, I had engaged in unprotected sex with you, and our children were already growing within your belly.
That’s why when you told me you were pregnant, I was shocked and filled with anger. I lost control and lashed out, saying whatever came to mind. I vehemently opposed your pregnancy at that moment because, as per my father’s warning, if you were impregnated by me, royal law dictated that the she-wolf would be executed immediately. The royal law was heavily biased in favor of men, placing all blame on women for pregnancies, regardless of the circumstances. It conveniently ignored the man’s role in the situation.
I was fully aware of the dire consequences, and in that moment, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you. The reality of your unexpected pregnancy weighed heavily on me, and I reacted with anger and frustration because there was no way to turn back time and prevent it.
I felt utterly trapped, experiencing a sense of weakness for the first time in my life, which was entirely unacceptable and infuriating for me. I could have chosen a more selfish route, perhaps saving you by ending the life of the baby growing inside you. But the mere thought of voicing such a notion was abhorrent to me, especially when I could already feel the connection with our pup. That innocent life, our blood and flesh, stirred something deep within me, and I longed to welcome our first child into the world. Despite this, I felt like a pathetic excuse for a man because I couldn’t save both you, my soulmate, and our child.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.