CHAPTER 83: CHAPTER 83: HATE GREATER THAN LOVE

Selene’s POV ~

I felt dread creeping along my spine, no... I would never allow this, he could not know it was me. I had to do something, anything, my mind kept chanting the same desperate words like a broken mantra: I have to get out, I have to leave, I cannot let him see through me.

But the man in front of me was hell-bent on keeping me in place, his grip so tight around me that I could not move even an inch, it was like he was terrified that if he loosened his hold, even for a breath, I would vanish into thin air.

And perhaps he was right, because that was all I wanted, to escape his iron grasp, to slip free, to vanish from here and be rid of these cursed chains that bound not only my body but my very power.

I was planning, thinking of ways, searching for a chance to get out from here, when suddenly a jolt ran down my spine, and I froze.

His warm and trembling breath was against me, brushing so close along my bare neck that it made my skin burn. His entire face was pressed into the crook of my neck as if he wanted to disappear inside me.

But that was not what shook me.

It was the tears.

His tears.

Hot drops sliding down onto my shoulder, falling silently, breaking against my skin. My heart lurched, and my breath caught. Was he... crying? Why?

The question slammed into me and sent a tumbling ache to the very core of my heart. I wanted to be a statue; I wanted to be cold, unshaken, untouchable.

I wanted to be the kind of person who could laugh in the face of his tears, the kind who would never break under the weight of a bond I never asked for. But the truth... the truth was unbearable.

I felt him. Every single piece of him. His despair bled into me, his agony carved itself into my bones, and his fear and his hope—yes, even that fragile, desperate hope—all of it crashed over me like a tidal wave.

I could not stop it, could not shut it out, it was inside me, clawing at me, as if I were living his despair as my own.

And still, one question echoed louder than everything else. Why?

Why now? Why this pain, this despair, this sudden crumbling of walls he himself had built around his heart? Why did he have to break here, in front of me, when I was barely holding together my own shattered pieces?

Was it because the mate bond finally showed him the truth? Was it guilt, was it regret, or was it some pitiful attempt at atonement for everything they had done to me? Did he finally realize just how wrong they had been?

But the truth was even crueler...what if I had never been their mate? What if I had only ever been Alpha Eirik’s daughter, nothing more? Would they have shed a single tear for me? Would they have felt even an ounce of this so-called despair if I had not belonged to them?

The answer was cruel and crystal clear.

No.

And the clarity hardened something inside me. My mind, my heart, all the chaotic emotions that had been crashing through the mate bond—I blocked them out, slammed the door shut, because I dared not accept it.

I could not. I would not. I refused to take in a love that was built on conditions, a love that existed only because of a bond neither of us chose.

If I ever found love in this broken world, I wanted it to be real.

I wanted it to be mine.

Love for who I am, not for what I am. Not for my status, not for my bloodline, not because fate tied me to someone’s soul.

"Selene..." His voice cracked, broken, nothing like the powerful Alpha he was supposed to be, nothing like the man who once made me tremble with fear.

His lips brushed against my neck as though clinging to the last warmth he could find. "Please... please come back to us. Don’t shut me out, don’t do this... I beg you."

His grip tightened, trembling now, desperate, as if his body alone could chain me to him. "I know we were wrong. I know we hurt you. But give us a chance...just one chance, and I will make it right. I will fix everything. I swear I will. Please... don’t turn away from me."

His words spilled against my skin like a fever, frantic and restless, the kind of pleading that made even my bones ache to hear. I felt his chest heaving against mine and felt the way his breath hitched each time he forced out another vow.

"Selene... don’t leave. Don’t leave me like this. I cannot bear it. I can’t..." His voice broke entirely, shattering into a choked sound that could only be called grief.

And yet... I stood there like stone.

I let his tears fall.

I let his desperate pleas sink into the silence.

I gave him nothing.

My body was there, trapped in his arms, but my soul was far away, unreachable. I heard everything, every broken syllable, but I did not respond. I was a statue carved of ice, staring into the void, refusing to give him even the mercy of a word.

The silence cut him deeper than any rejection. I could feel it—how his desperation twisted tighter, how his fear bled through the bond.

He shook me slightly, as though trying to jolt me into responding, into saying something. His voice cracked again, louder this time and more frantic.

"Say something! Please—anything! Even if you curse me, even if you hate me... just don’t stay silent. Selene, please... I can’t take this silence. Tell me... tell me you feel it too, this bond, this pull, this..."

Finally, I turned my head slowly. My voice when it came was steady and merciless, each word sharp enough to dig a wound that would never heal.

"Don’t push me to hate you more than I already do, Aeron."

His breath caught like I had driven a blade through his chest. His hands faltered, shaking, as if my words had ripped the ground out from under him.

"I would rather burn alone in the ashes of my own heart than let my love be built on your guilt."