Too Late for Regret, Alpha!

Chapter 6: The Mate I Once Rejected

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I never meant to become the Luna of another pack.

For the first few weeks after my fake death, I barely left my room. My body was still recovering from the strain of the broken bond, and my wolf needed time to accept that Adrian was no longer her mate.

Ash Thorn gave me that time.

He was the Alpha of the Thorn Pack, one of the most powerful packs in the region. His territory was rich, his warriors were feared, and his resources rivaled Blackwood territory. Ash and Adrian had been rivals for years, though neither had ever openly declared war.

But Ash had another connection to me.

Eight years ago, before I met Adrian, I had met Ash.

He had been my fated mate.

I remembered the day the bond had awakened. The pull between us had been immediate, powerful, and terrifying. Ash had looked at me as if he had finally found the person he had been searching for his entire life.

And I had rejected him.

I had chosen Adrian instead.

At eighteen, I had believed love was stronger than fate. Adrian had been the man I wanted, the man I trusted, and the man I dreamed of building a life with.

Ash had accepted my rejection without forcing me to stay.

But he had never taken another mate.

When I finally learned that he was the one who had found me after my collapse, shame burned through me.

“Why didn't you tell me?” I asked him one evening.

Ash stood near the window, his broad shoulders silhouetted against the moonlight.

“Tell you what?”

“That you were my fated mate.”

His jaw tightened.

“Because you already knew.”

I lowered my eyes.

He was right.

“I thought you had moved on,” I whispered.

Ash gave a quiet laugh, but there was no humor in it.

“I waited eight years, Elara.”

My heart clenched.

“Why?”

He turned toward me.

“Because I loved you before you ever chose him. And even after you rejected me, I couldn't force myself to stop.”

Tears filled my eyes.

For years, I had believed I had made the right choice. I had sacrificed everything for Adrian. My pride. My happiness. My place in my own family. Even my relationship with my son.

And now I was standing in front of the man I had rejected, realizing that he had never once asked me to sacrifice myself for him.

“I'm not ready to be your mate,” I admitted.

Ash nodded immediately.

“Then you won't be.”

I looked at him in surprise.

“The bond doesn't decide what you owe me,” he said. “You don't owe me a marriage because fate chose us. You don't owe me affection because I waited. If you stay, it will be because you want to.”

Something inside me broke.

Not from pain this time.

From relief.

For the first time in years, someone was giving me a choice without asking for something in return.

I stayed in the Thorn Pack.

Not as Ash's mate.

Not as his Luna.

Just as Elara.

Slowly, my strength returned. I began walking through the territory again. I trained with the warriors. I helped the healers. I sat beside the river and watched the moon rise without wondering whether Adrian was looking at it too.

My wolf began to heal as well.

And for the first time in five years, I stopped waiting for someone else to choose me.

Meanwhile, far away in Blackwood territory, the ashes of the woman they had taken for granted were all Adrian had left.

He had believed I would always forgive him.

He had believed I would always wait.

He had believed I could never leave.

But my death had finally taught him the truth.

I had been gone long before my ashes reached his hands.

Three weeks after I disappeared, Ash found me sitting beneath the old oak tree outside the pack house.

He stopped a few steps away.

“You look happier,” he said.

I smiled faintly.