Ex-Mate Wants Me Back (Seraphina and Mortimer) novel Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Seraphina’s POV

And this was the so-called “devoted romantic.” Less than a year after mating, he’d already cheated with some human celebrity 2

Whenever I heard people call him a romantic now, I felt secondhand embarrassment for the

guy.

Trista wiped her eyes and shook her head. “No, it’s not about him”

She looked at me. “I’m just… I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through.”

I blinked, forcing a smile. “What are you talking about?”

Trista’s eyes were rimmed with red, looking like she was seconds away from another meltdown.

“Sera, I know everything.”

I had a feeling I knew what she meant. I moved my lips, but no sound came out.

“That avalanche in Alaska… I remembered your hotel was right in the middle of the red zone. Those five days you went missing? That wasn’t a signal problem. Something happened to you, didn’t it?”

I opened my mouth to deny it, but Trista cut me off instantly. “Don’t even try it. An avalanche in a sub-zero wilderness? You wouldn’t have just been ‘stuck indoors.’ You didn’t fly all that way just to sit in a lobby. You were out there, and you got caught in it, didn’t you?”

The words were barely out before the tears started falling again.

I finally let out a long sigh and patted her shoulder. “Look, I’m alive, aren’t I? They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. My luck is bound to turn around soon.”

I used the same line the round-faced girl on the plane had told me to calm her down.

But to Trista, it was basically a confession.

She started crying even harder.

“I knew it! I knew something was wrong. Mortimer is a pathetic excuse for a mate. How could he leave you out there and go on vacation with Vivian? What kind of twisted bond is this?”

Trista lost it completely, trashing Mortimer’s name.

I just nodded along, frantically trying to dry her face.

+15 Bonus

“Stop crying, everyone’s watching. I’m fine now. That’s all that matters.’

I was terrible at comforting people; “I’m fine” was about all had in my vocabulary.

Trista finally stopped sobbing and stared at me, her eyes full of frustrated anger. “After all that, tell me you aren’t actually going to forgive him.”

I paused, then shook my head with a small smile. “Forgiveness doesn’t really factor into it. He wasn’t technically obligated to stay with me on my vacation.”

I tried to explain that we didn’t have that kind of deep connection, that she shouldn’t waste her energy on him.

But she took it as me making excuses for him. Her chest was heaving with rage.

“You’re still defending him? You’re his mate! He’s not ‘obligated’ to stay with you, but he’s obligated’ to babysit that manipulative omega? God… you’re going to be the death of me.”

She started pacing in circles.

“No, I’m not defending him, it’s just—”

“It’s just what? Stop making excuses!” Trista snapped.

“Birds of a feather, Sera. No one in Wilmot’s circle is worth a damn.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

I should have realized that a long time ago. At least it wasn’t too late to see the truth.

“What I meant was…”

I thought about it and finally decided to tell her the truth-that Mortimer and I were just a business arrangement. A contract.

Trista froze. It took her a full thirty seconds to process it.

She just stared at me, blank-faced. “So… it was just a name-only bond?”

Once we got back to the office, we both dove into work.

I’d been on leave for two weeks, and my surgery schedule was backed up.

Cardiothoracic surgery was the busiest department in the entire healing center.

Even with our species’ healing abilities, deep lacerations from claws or specialized weapons needed precise surgical intervention to knit the tissue back together.

I’d used every favor I had to clear those two weeks for Alaska. 1

+15 Bonus

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify