Ex-Mate Wants Me Back (Seraphina and Mortimer) novel Chapter 19

Chapter 19

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Seraphina’s POV

Just then, a few healer assistants walked by. When they saw Mortimer, their eyes lit up instant attraction.

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They looked at me, grinning and nudging each other. “Seraphina, is this your boyfriend? He’s gorgeous. Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

I felt a jolt of awkwardness and instinctively cut my eyes toward Mortimer.

Our mating was a well-kept secret.

Outside of a tiny inner circle, no one knew we were mated.

And I knew Mortimer-an arrogant Alpha like him wouldn’t want our private arrangement turned into workplace gossip. He hated being pried into.

To keep him from feeling offended—and to stop him from dropping a lethal aura in the middle of the cafeteria-I shut it down fast. “No. Not my boyfriend.”

I denied it so cleanly it was clinical.

The second the words left my mouth, the air pressure around the table plummeted.

Mortimer’s deep eyes darkened instantly. That/top-tier Alpha aura bled out, cordoning off the table like it was his private territory.

The two assistants, with their fragile human nerves, looked like they’d been grabbed by invisible claws. Their smiles froze, and their breathing hitched in pure, instinctive terror.

They turned pale, stammered some incoherent apologies, and practically scrambled away.

Watching them bolt, I felt a chill run down my spine.

I tried to smooth it over. “They were just joking. Don’t take it personally.”

Mortimer’s gaze was like ice, trying to bore through my eyes to see what I was really thinking.

He ignored my explanation and leveled a commanding, judgmental look at me. “Are you that afraid of people knowing about us?”

I stayed silent.

I didn’t understand why he was hung up on this. His reaction was totally irrational.

I wasn’t sure what the “right” answer was anymore.

If I said I wasn’t afraid, he’d think I had an agenda to go public.

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If I said I was… what exactly was I afraid of?

Before I could find a logic, his aggressive pine scent swirled around me, wrapping me in an invisible net.

“Why deny who I am?”

My heart went cold. He was just looking for a fight.

He was the one who insisted on a secret mating. He was the one who drafted the contract. And now he was interrogating me for following his own rules? 2

The irritation in my gut was getting harder to swallow.

I frowned and gave him a dismissive shrug. “You’re my mate, aren’t you? Of course you’re not ‘ that kind’ of boyfriend.”

I was just trying to blow him off, but when Mortimer heard that, his tight jaw actually loosened a fraction. A faint, ghost of a smile even touched his eyes.

As his mood shifted, the suffocating pressure around us evaporated.

“But you didn’t tell them I was your mate, either.”

I thought the conversation was dead, but Mortimer was being weird today.

He was obsessing over a total non-issue. My patience was officially redlining.

“There’s less than two months left until our bond expires,” I said, my brow furrowing. ” There’s no point in creating unnecessary drama. If people found out now, I’d just have to spend more time explaining things later when it’s over.”

I tried to keep my voice level, but the tail end of the sentence dripped with pure annoyance.

He froze.

The faint smile vanished, replaced by total shock.

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Looking at him, I guessed he’d actually forgotten. He’d forgotten we had a three-year contract, and that it was set to expire in exactly two months-on our third mating anniversary.

If I hadn’t been ditched in Alaska, I might have looked at him now and thought he’d actually gotten used to us. That he’d gotten used to this life.

But that thought flashed and died.

Seeing how casually I brought it up, he stared at me, the warmth in his eyes replaced by a deep, dark shadow.

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He let out a sharp, mocking snort, and his aura dropped to a freezing low. The pine scent turned pungent, almost stinging.、

“You certainly have the date memorized. What’s the matter? Can’t wait to end the mating?”

I caught the venom in his tone and looked at him, genuinely confused.

I didn’t get why he was pissed. This was what he wanted, wasn’t it?

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