CHAPTER TEN

She is with another man. They are holding hands as they enter the ballroom and everyone has their attention centred on them. This scenery is not sitting well with me and why is she even here, she was not invited. Its also strictly by invitation. I made the effort to hand out invitations to every individual in Kova, for a reason.

I quickly leave my place beside Morrigan and squeeze my way through the crowd to go confront the new guests. I finally reach where they are and stand in front of them. Now the room is dead silent , even the music stopped playing as everyone is attentive to the situation at hand.

"What are you doing here?" I question her loudly. I really don't care if everyone can hear us. I now want them to know the face that belongs to the infamous abomination.

"Woah, is that anyway to speak to your guest Alpha Aedion?" She mocks me with a smirk. I wonder what she is up to.

"This ball is strictly by invitation and I am sure you were not invited."

"Oh yes, I was not invited but however, you did invite the alphas of the Reika and Domhnall pack." She reminds me as she throws the invitations in my face. At that moment that is when I realise she is not only with her little boyfriend but with Brian and Alrik. This is now getting me anxious.

"What is the meaning of this Brian and Alrik? Firstly you arrive late and now you bring her?"

Brian tenses and looks away, whilst Alrik has a sneaky smile on his face and raises up his hands in mock surrender and then points to Avyanna.

I face her again and say "Get out of here now or I will arrest you because the last time I checked you are on top of my wanted list , you are not invited and you are not a pack member of any of these packs."

"Yes true, I am not a pack member of these two packs." She agrees, as she takes a step closer and looks me straight in the eyes.

"But I am the Alpha Female of both packs." She states with an evil smirk plastered on her face.

I release a a rumble of laughter "Wow, very funny. Guards seize her." I order. I am done with this circus show. I am really not into jokes, it just irritates me to the bone.

"No one touches her." Alrik commands as he stands in front of her.

"Look man, I have zero patience for your pranks , move out of the way Alrik." I state.

"No, I'm sorry man but she is telling the truth, she even took both territories. Can't you see why Brian is quiet, its because he is too embarrassed to admit it but as for me, I actually dig the badass, alpha chick thing, its attractive." He states as he gives Avyanna a wink.

Two growls sound in the ballroom. I know one belongs to me but the other is from the green eyed boy next to her.

"Aye, watch it , Alrik." Warns Mr green eyes.

"And who are you?" I question him

"That is none of your damn business." He answers

"Anyway, now that we got that put out of the way can we continue with the party after all." She suggests.

"Yes, can everyone resume to the celebration?" Orders my father.

I frustratingly keep starring at her and she stares back at me with a sinister smile on her face. She takes the green eyed idiot's hand and walks away and dissolve into the crowd of guests.

I run my fingers through my hair and exhale all the frustration. I don't know what I am really angry about the fact that she just humiliated me in front of the whole realm or that she is with another man. I know I shouldn't feel like this but my wolf is not letting me think properly , he wants me to run after her and claim her as mine but I refrain from doing so, to keep the little dignity I have left.

"My child, who was that lady , you had a feud with?" My mother asks who is with my dad.

I sigh and look back at my mom.

"She is my mate, the hybrid I have been after for long now." I tell my mother.

"Really, let me go introduce myself." She says as she starts walking. I grab her hand and stop her.

"Mom, No. I rejected her and she wants nothing to do with me , same way I don't want anything with her. She is an embarrassment , she is a hybrid. Mother." I rumble out everything.

I look at my mother and see that she is starring at me as if I have lost my mind.

"Aedion, I have raised you better than this. You don't treat a woman especially your mate like that." My father reprimands me.

"Look dad, I don't need a lecture right now. All I need is for her to leave." I start

"No, she is staying for this party. Aedion, she is you mate and a blessing from the moon goddess whether you like it or not. Also no matter, what you do, you are bound to her for life, you can never run away from her. All I can advise you is that follow where your heart is and its not fair on Morrigan's part to stay with someone who has a mate." My mother says and walks away with my father.

As they leave, I can't help but to think they are right, I can never run away from this.

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AVYANNA'S POV

The ball was quite impressive. Honestly, I thought it was going to be disrupted with my sudden appearance but it seems people here are good at minding their own business. So far no one has attempted to talk to to me and the few that talked to me never brought the scene that just happened earlier, we would talk about something else. Rhysand has been with me, and sticking to his promise of being by my side all night. Brian has been quite isolative with everyone, I think its because he can't bare the embarrassment of the lose of his prestigious title. However, Alrik is different, he is moving around and talking to everyone like he has no care in the world. By "everyone" I mean he has spent half of his night flirting with women and dancing the night away. I think of all the alphas , Alrik is the most free spirited ,maybe because he is younger than the others. However, if it's time to be serious he doesn't disappoint no wonder why he was alpha. If we were in a different circumstance, we would have become good friends.

"Excuse me, I have to go to the ladies. Alright?" I inform Rhysand. I have been standing all night and these heels are killing me, I just need to go freshen up.

"Are you sure, you will be fine alone? He asks

" Rhysand its only the bathroom, I'm sure I can handle."

He reluctantly let's me go.

I then rush to the bathroom. I find it and do what I need to do there. As I close the door to the bathroom and start walking down the hallway, a rough arm grabs me and pins me to the wall. I am stuck in between two large arms.

"Why do you persist on haunting me? You are everywhere I am and even if you are not around, you are scattered all over my mind?" The Alpha King hurls out questions at me. I am sure he is frustrated and fighting between his urges and his resistance especially with his wolf.

I let out a slight chuckle at his frustrated state.

"What's so funny?" He questions as he raises an eyebrow. God, he looks so good right now. But anyway I need to focus.

"Nothing, its just that its so ironic how you are irritated by the humiliation I put you through earlier when you did the same to me, this is nothing compared to the rejection you put me through."

"Well yes, I did reject you and I was sure that would break you and not cause chaos in my kingdom."

"Well then, I guess you achieved nothing. You rejected me and the chains are broken, but are you truly free?"

He looks at me skeptically and doesn't answer. Yeah, I thought as much.

"But you know I can kill you right here and now, so why come here?"He questions. I'm sure he has a lot of confusion in his head, since he thought he broke me.

" Aedion, trust me , nowadays I am not scared of death. I imagine death so much it feels like a memory." I bring my head closer to his as I choose my next words carefully. "You should be careful with your temper, anger makes you stupid and stupid gets you killed. You have made me evil and cunning. Honestly, you are loosing my interest and that is very dangerous because once I do not have anyone to save or love , I become more like a sociopath. That is when I will show you my true monster, like what you have labelled me, where I know , I'm not burdened by things like guilt or love. I will now just be a killing machine."

"Wow and here I was thinking you wanted to act all hero like and show show people you are not what they perceive." He laughs as he mocks me.

"Sometimes even heroes end up as villains in the end. Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy." I say to him. Yes its true, I have been through a lot now that I don't just care. I'm now clever as the devil and twice as pretty. I walk through hell with a smile because I have learnt to own my demons. Anyone who stumbles upon my path will have my middle finger salute them, with no exception of my dear loving mate.

"Tell me something Aedion, how did you feel rejecting me? Did you feel any better? Did you have your burdens carried off you?" I question him.

"What are you trying to say? He asks bewildered.

"I am trying to say that you really did not benefit anything here. You are the only one loosing in this situation. However, I thank you for one thing." I finish off.

"Which is?"

I finally remove his hands from my sides, take a step closer to him as I say "You helped me realise that sometimes the world doesn't need a hero.....sometimes what it needs is a monster." I state to him and walk away. Leaving him standing there dumbfounded.

Good, that is what I wanted.

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AEDION'S POV

She leaves me with a lot of questions and shock. I had followed her here to clarify a few things but only to end up with more issues. I then walk back to the ballroom.

"My love, where have you been? I have been searching for you all night. A lot of people were asking me where you were because they wanted to talk to their king." Morrigan states as she comes from the crowd to talk to me.

But my concentration was not on her. My eyes were scanning the room for Avyanna, who I finally found next to green eyes , talking. I cannot lie but seeing her having a normal conversation with that guy or any other guy and not me just gets to me, I feel a peng of jealousy that my only mate can prefer to be with anyone else when given the chance. But anyway, can I blame her, I wasn't the best mate after all. I really can't comprehend what she is doing to me , its hard for me to hate her, in as much as I would want to. Seems like the more I push her away, the stronger the bond. I need to find a way to end this connection because even if I wanted to, I can never be with her. That would be like going against what I believe in , the laws I made regarding her kind and most importantly destroying the legacy my family has managed to establish for many centuries now. I would appear as a weak King and not suitable for my title.

"Hey, can you hear me?" Morrigan asks while snapping me out of my daze and listen to whatever she is saying.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"I said let's go and greet the guests that have been asking for you." She instructs as she grabs my hand and lead us into the crowd.

I take one more glance at the place where Avyanna was standing to just look at her once more. To my dismay , she was nowhere to be found , probably she had left already. However, what was peculiar was that from the corner of my eye , I could see Mr green eyes staring at me with a slight ghost of a sinister smile on his face.

Call it jealousy or not, but I really don't trust that guy and neither should Avyanna.

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