Maximillian Adonis 2

As if he had forcefully slapped her across the face, Selena stumbled back and looked at him in disbelief.

"Love? How...how can you love her? I'm your mate!"

She wanted to scream that only she had a right to his love, only she had a right to his affections and attention, but the cold, emotionless look on his face choked the words in her throat.

As unwilling and unresigned as she was, Selena could sense Maximillian Adonis, her true mate and love of 13 years, didn't give a da** about her being his mate.

For him, there was only Yusria.

"So what is it? Rejection or silence?"

Max's sharp vision caught the various emotions flickering through Selena's grey eyes. He knew he was forcing her to make a decision between accepting rejection from him or keeping their mate bond hidden so he could mark Yusria.

He knew he was being a prick for leaving such a decision to the young she-wolf, but he didn't care.

Yusria Dimitri was his dream of many years. Ever since he saw her that faithful night in the back mountain stream, ethereal and pure with her ink-black hair dripping with crystal water, clinging to her pearly skin, and gleaming under the silvery moonlight, he had vowed to make her his.

Ever since that night, his eyes searched for her figure, his ears pricked at the sound of her voice, and his heart pounded at a waft of her intoxicating scent.

To say she had become his obsession from then on wouldn't be an overstatement.

As such, even if it meant rejecting the beautiful she-wolf, he was willing to do it to make Yusria his!

"I...I'll keep...silent." Selena bit her lip until she tasted blood. She bowed her head and willed the tears not to spill.

Her heart was already broken. She wouldn't be able to raise her head if she humiliated herself before the man of her heart.

But even though her lip hurt, the physical pain wasn't enough to distract her from the gaping hole in her heart.

Violent tremors shook her body and as she stood before the handsome young male with tears clinging to her long lashes and clothed in nothing but his coat, she looked both pitiful and vulnerable eliciting tender feelings in his heart.

"Sigh. Selena, you are a beautiful she-wolf. Believe me when I say any male would feel blessed to have you as their mate. It's only...I've already given my heart to another."

"Why...? Why isn't it me?"

Max stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. The girl's fragile appearance pulled on his heartstrings. He lowered his chin on her head.

Instantly, her vanilla mint scent entered his nostrils, causing him to tighten his arms around her waist until there wasn't even a space for air to drift between them.

"Shhh...don't cry. It will be fine. We'll get through this together." He gently consoled her and rubbed her back.

'She feels so good...'

He sighed and buried his face in her lush blonde hair.

If he was honest with himself, he was attracted to the female. As the biological daughter of Beta Dimitri, Selena Dimitri had beauty and a high-ranking status in the Setting Dawn Pack that Yusria would never have. She commanded the love and respect of the pack in a way Yusria would never command.

It was for this very status that he wasn't decisive in rejecting her and instead had her make the decision.

Because he knew.

He knew she liked him and would rather decide to keep their mate bond hidden than face his rejection. And that was all he needed.

As much as he loved Yusria, he wasn't harebrained enough to not understand how weak, both physically and mentally, he would become if he rejected his mate. And that was when he wasn't even taking Beta Dimitri's influence in the pack into consideration.

So whether it was for his wolf or for his smooth succession to the alpha position, keeping the mate bond hidden between them was more beneficial to him than rejecting his true mate would be.

At the very least, he wouldn't lose his mind from the backlash of severing their bond.

"Selena, I'll take you back to the pack."

Max gently held her face and wiped her tears. Time was running out and he needed to return to the pack to mark Yusria as his before anything else happened. Because as long as she remained without his mark adorning her neck, she wasn't truly his.

A fact he needed to change quickly before his father came to know about his Beta's daughter being his true mate.

"Let's go." Placing his hand on the middle of her back, Max impatiently guided Selena out of the clearing towards the pack residence.

Back in the pack residence, the members of the Setting Dawn Pack gathered around the Alpha's mansion with Beatrice Vario and Beta Samuel Dimitri standing before the alpha with embarrassed expressions on their faces.

"We're sorry, alpha. We failed to raise the rootless runt right."

The atmosphere was thick with tension, whispers and excited murmurs passing through the crowd as they expectantly looked at the flustered couple and the grim-faced alpha with eager expressions.

"I heard the eldest daughter of the Dimitri family...yes, the adopted daughter...she ran away from the pack!"

"Seriously? Wasn't she too much of a coward to even talk back? Where did she find the guts to run away?"

"The matter isn't as simple as you think. From what I heard, the girl left in search of her mate."

"Her mate? Isn't she already married to our alpha heir?"

"Heh...that's the thing. Do you see the ugly expression on our Alpha's face? The girl wrote a divorce letter and sent it to their door. And her reason for seeking divorce is that she doesn't want to enter a mate bond with anyone but her true mate. As for the alpha heir...she wrote the only reason she accepted his proposal was because she had felt pressured by the burning glares of the pack members."

"Fu**! Did she really write that to the alpha? Is she not afraid of earning his ire?"

As the crowd grew larger, the whispers grew louder. Before long the silent murmurs and speculations turned into heated discussions that resounded in the region.

When Selena and Maximillian arrived in the pack, it was the scene of the huddled crowd that they came upon.

Oblivious to the tension in the air, the alpha heir hurriedly released Selena's hand and moved a few steps forward to distance himself from her.

"Dad, what's going on? Is everyone gathered here to welcome me back?"

The moment his voice dropped, the heads of the pack members turned as one and stared at him in shock. For a brief moment, dead silence settled over the crowd.

Finally sensing something amiss, the smile slipped off Max's lips and his face turned grave. "Dad, what is it? Did something happen?"

Alpha Xaviar Adonis opened his mouth, but upon seeing the worried expression on his son's face, he recalled the young man's excitement for his marking ceremony. Although he had never put it into words, he knew his son blamed him for stopping his marking ceremony 2 years ago.

Xavier closed his mouth and wordlessly turned his head away.

He didn't have the heart to tell his dear boy his chosen mate had run away. He couldn't tell him she deserted him in search of her true mate when he knew how eagerly the boy had been waiting for this day.

But while the Alpha couldn't bear to hurt his son, there was another individual present who didn't have such scruples.

Beatrice Vario ran to her daughter's side and scanned her for injuries.

"Selena, are you alright? You look pale."

"Mother, I'm fine. Just a little tired..." Selena's sight inadvertently moved to her mate. Although she knew the man didn't care about her, she hoped he would look at her with concern after hearing her mother's words.

Alas, the only thing she saw was his back.

'Max...he didn't even turn to look at me...'

Her heart ached and she despondently lowered her head to hide her tears.

Although the alpha heir had failed to look at the young female, Beatrice Vario's entire attention had been focused on her daughter. She not only saw the expectant glow in her baby girl's eyes when she looked at the young man but also felt the anticipation that was soon followed by dejection as the girl lowered her head.

As a mother and a woman herself, how could she not understand her daughter's feelings?

"Dad...? Will you please tell me what's going on?"

When Maximillian's anxious voice rang out again, Beatrice's eyes flashed with a thoughtful gleam.

"Alpha heir, your soon-to-be chosen mate has run away from the pack. She left a letter at home saying she was going to look for her true mate. What's more, she sent a divorce letter to the Alpha severing all your previous vows. Since the both of you hadn't officially marked each other yet, her divorce letter alone is enough to end your relationship. That's the law of the Lykan Emperor."