Fake Heiress True Luna (Irina) novel Chapter 31

Chapter 31: I Can’t Forgive You.

Irina’s POV

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Since Julie decided I was not on duty tonight, I decided to escape to the forest and have some time alone. I heard the commotion from the party, the distant music and laughter a bitter reminder of the life I’d lost. I couldn’t bear to sit in that tiny room, listening to it all. The forest was my only sanctuary, the only place I could breathe.

“We should head back, I’m sure she will call us sooner or later,” Theia reminded me.

She was right. Julie and the rest of the omegas wouldn’t be able to handle everything. I was the one who prepared the whole event, so I should be in my room just in case.

After all, tomorrow is my last day in Blue Moon. I won’t have to go through this again.

I slipped back into the staff quarters, the silence a welcome relief after the noise outside. My body ached with a deep, weary satisfaction. My debt was paid.

I will show Serim my notebook tomorrow, and he won’t have anything to keep me here. If he tried to imprison me or something, I would cut ties with the pack and run to the forest as a

rogue.

I pushed open the door to my room, a small, tired smile on my face, ready to pack the few things I owned.

And froze.

Aiden Keaton stood in the center of my tiny room. His back was to me, and his shoulders were impossibly broad, making the space feel even smaller. In his hand, held in a white-knuckled grip, was my notebook.

My heart stopped. Then it kick-started into a frantic, panicked rhythm that stole the air from my lungs.

Why the hell was he here?! I wondered.

He should be at the party, with his companion, not here in my room!

“Give that back!” The words were out before I could think, a sharp, desperate cry. I launched myself forward, my hand snatching for the book.

I had to get it back! It was my ticket to freedom, proof that I had paid my debt in full. I couldn’t let Aiden destroy it!

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< Chapter 31: I Can’t Forgive You.

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Aiden turned. His usually cold, grey eyes were looking at me differently. I couldn’t describe what he was feeling, but it was certainly not the same disdain he had shown me all this time.

He held the notebook out of my reach effortlessly.

I could kick his shin and then snatch it back…

“Irina,” he said, his voice a low, ragged rumble. “What is this?”

“It’s none of your business!” I cried, my previous plan thrown out because he was an Alpha. Even if I kicked him, I wouldn’t do much damage, so all I could think of was trying to jump for it, my fingers brushing against the worn leather cover. “Why are you in my room? You have no right!”

The moment the words left my mouth, I realized my mistake. I had just been rude to an Alpha. I had challenged him. In my panic, I had forgotten my place entirely.

I’m still an omega. His mate or not, I can’t be this rude to him.

He can tell Serim, and I can kiss my freedom goodbye.

I stumbled back a step, my bravado evaporating, replaced by the familiar, cold dread. I dropped my gaze, my shoulders slumping in a gesture of submission that felt like a betrayal of the strength I’d found just hours before. “My apologies, Alpha,” I whispered, the words tasting like ash. “I… I was startled.”

The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of my own frantic breathing. I could feel him looking at me, his gaze a physical weight.

“Startled,” he repeated, his voice quiet, laced with something that sounded almost like… hurt. He looked down at the notebook in his hand, then back at me. “You were keeping a ledger. To pay off a debt.”

I couldn’t speak. I just stood there, my head bowed, waiting for the blow. For his contempt, his anger, for him to tell me what a foolish, presumptuous Omega I was for thinking I could ever balance the scales.

But the blow didn’t come.

Instead, I heard a soft, tearing sound. My head snapped up.

Aiden was ripping a page from my notebook-the page with the final, circled entry: DEBT REPAID IN FULL.

He held the torn page between his thumb and forefinger, his eyes locked on mine, blazing with a fierce, terrifying intensity.

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<Chapter 31: I Can’t Forgive You.

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“There is no debt,” he said, his voice absolute, final. The paper fluttered from his fingers to the

floor like a dead leaf. “Not to them.”

He took a step toward me, closing the small distance between us. The air crackled, the bond in my chest screaming to life, a painful, electric hum.

“The only debt,” he growled, his gaze dropping to my lips for a heart-stopping second before returning to my eyes, “is the one I owe to you. And I am here to pay it.”

I tilted my head, unsure of what to say next. Aiden leaned down, and I tried to step back, but this room was so small that I had nowhere to run.

“I know you hate me right now, but please, let me take you back to Shadow Pack. You don’t have to live like this anymore,” He whispered, his lips were so close I could feel his breath fanning against my own.

If I didn’t push him away, if I don’t move my head, he is going to kiss me.

“Theia?” I called, seeking advice, but she was as dumbfounded as I was.

The silence from Theia was deafening. She offered no guidance, no sharp retort, only a stunned, resonant quiet that mirrored the chaos in my own soul. My wolf, my constant companion, was as blindsided as I was.

Aiden’s proximity was a supernova in the small, shabby room. The heat of his body, the scent of him, was overwhelming. His lips were a breath away. Every instinct screamed to close the distance, to finally, finally surrender to the pull that had been a constant, aching torment since the moment I’d met him.

But my mind, scarred and wary, screamed louder.

I turned my head, a sharp, jerky movement that broke the hypnotic tension. My cheek brushed against his, the contact sending a jolt like lightning through my system. I pressed myself back against the unyielding wood of the door, putting every inch of distance I could

between us.

“Shadow Pack is not my Pack,” I said, my voice coming harder than I had anticipated.

“Do you want to stay in Blue Moon?” he asked, his voice sounding so hurtful that it almost made me waver.

I shook my head. “No, I will live as a rogue.”

“Irina! You will die out there, your wolf is weak because of your first rejection, and if you don’t accept the bond, she-”

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