Part B: Chapter 21

***Aidan’s POV***

Everything inside me broke into a thousand tiny pieces. I couldn’t believe my eyes. After all the time I spent looking for her, she was in freaking Sean’s arms. What the fuck?
I watched as her eyes saw me and they widened in shock and then disbelief at seeing him there. That fucking slut, how dare she just use me like that and then move on to the next man. She removed her hands from Sean’s shoulders and got out of the chair she had been sitting on.

Sean was giving me a triumphant smile as he sat on the chair she had been occupying and made her way to me. “I can explain what you just saw,” she said quietly, her eyes brimming with unshed tears.

I couldn’t look at her without feeling my resolve crumbling to dust. How could she do this to me? After everything we had been through, this was how she honours our scared moments together? Maybe Shelly had been right, I wasn’t cut out for this. At least no one from my pack had seen her commit such a disgusting and disrespectful act.

“Aidan please listen to me,” she said and tried to hold my hand but I pushed away from her. I wasn’t ready to talk about anything after she had just crushed my heart and my trust. How were we supposed to get past this?

“Don’t,” I said and stormed over to where Sean was sitting enjoying the whole thing. That son of a bitch was going to pay. How dare he have his filthy hands on my mate? Didn’t he know that she was mine? I punched him and he stumbled from the chair, clutching his jaw.

“Stop,” Jemila said, rushing over to his side to help him back up. “It’s not his fault.”

She had to be kidding me, not his fault? “Not his freaking fault?” I yelled, throwing my hands up in exasperation. “He kidnapped you for crying out loud and I spent weeks trying to find you. How the fuck isn’t that his fault, huh?”

She gave me a look and all I wanted to do at that moment was rip both of them to shreds. I couldn’t believe she was taking his side. She wasn’t even happy to see me yet she wasted no time in rushing to his aid. Was I the bad guy in her book? Had he poisoned her mind against me so much that she couldn’t remember the times we spent together? I could feel my heart breaking all over again as pain from her actions pierced through my heart like a metal rod.

“If you would just let me explain instead of going on a warpath then we could clear up whatever misunderstanding we have here,” she said, turning her attention back to Sean who had a smug smile plastered on his face, telling me with his eyes that he had won and I had lost but then changed his expression to that of pain when her eyes landed on him. “Are you okay?” she asked him, her voice laced with worry.

What the fuck had I missed?

“She’s my mate and you fucking touched you son of a bitch,” I snarled.

“I didn’t do anything she didn’t want,” Sean spat back as he got back onto his feet. “I didn’t even have to force her to do anything which I’m sure you do. She doesn’t want you man, get over yourself.” He was still clutching his jaw, a look of anger evident in his eyes.

“Both of you, stop it,” Jemila shouted and my gaze shifted from Sean to her, trying to understand what was going on.

I growled so loud that Jemila had to cover her ears with her hands but I didn’t care. I was too pissed to think about how I made her feel. For fuck’s sake, she had used me and now she was with fucking Sean for crying out loud. I didn’t think my pride could take it. I felt myself lose control over my wolf and without thinking, I pushed her aside and began punching Sean over and over. He tried blocking my attacks but he wasn’t half as strong as I was. I kept punching and punching as blood began to pour out from his nose.

There was a muffled sound coming from behind me but I couldn’t hear it and I didn’t care. This fucking arsehole had to be taught a lesson not to mess around with my mate, the future Luna or my pack.

“Aidan, stop,” I felt someone pulling away from Sean’s almost unconscious body but I shoved them back and jumped back on him. All I could see was red. “You’re going to kill him and that will only start a war, one that will only end in pointless bloodshed.”

The mind link was so powerful that I could feel my resolve crumble and my senses slowly begin to come back. I blinked back and Carter was staring at me in disbelief, a solemn look across his face while he knelt next to Jemila who had one hand wrapped across the other that was bleeding. I took my surroundings in and dread filled me. Had I done all this?

“Take her back,” I said, my voice not sounding quite like mine. “I need to clear my head.”

I felt my bones change shape in order to accommodate my wolf until I was fully transformed and I ran out of there.

*****
When I finally returned back to my pack’s boundaries, I transformed back into my human form and just sat under the tree, looking out in the distance. I couldn’t face Jemila after what had happened and I sure as hell knew that Carter was pissed off with my actions but there was nothing I could have done in the moment. I couldn’t get my mind off finding my fucking mate in the arms of Sean and then taking his side.

“You know you’re gonna catch a cold if you stay outside butt naked for a long time,” Carter said from somewhere in the shadows and I turned my head in the direction his voice had come. He was a few metres away, his hands tucked inside his pockets. “What happened back there?”

“First get me some clothes and we can talk.”

“Lucky for you I already thought that far ahead.” He pushed from the tree he was leaning against and picked up a bag from the ground then made his way over to where I was. Carter then tossed the bag and my feet and folded his arms across his chest. “If only you were a woman, then the view would definitely be worth it.”

“Shut up.”

I picked the bag and changed into the new pair of clothes Carter had brought. “You could have brought me something from my own clothes, you know.”
“I know, but this was fun.”

I shot him a look as I bent down to put on the shoes then stood back up to my full height. “You can be a real jerk sometimes, you know that right?” I asked, leaning back against the tree.

Carter laughed as he moved closer and now we were both leaning against the tree trunk. “I miss the days when we used to smoke,” he sighed, “used to help take some of the stress from training with your father.”

I scoffed, “nothing could ever take the stress off. He treated us like crap all the time and only eased up when mum gave him an earful, which wasn’t as much as I would have liked.” I stared out in front of me, feeling anger bubbling inside. I despised Gerald so much I wish I had killed him when I had the chance.

“She was a great woman and mother,” Carter added. “I always miss her in such times.”

I snapped my head in his direction, not wanting to talk about my mum anymore. “What did you want?” I asked instead.

Carter sighed. “I want to know why you did that back there? I know you’re the Alpha but sometimes you act like a little spoiled brat who can’t think for himself. You put the entire pack on the line with that little rampage of yours.”

I took a deep breath, “I know but you should have seen what he was doing to her. For fuck’s sake, she’s supposed to be my mate but she was all over and then she sided with him. What would you have done if you were the one in my position?”

Carter paused for a second and then ran his fingers through his hair. “I would have ripped him into shreds. So what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know.”