I Left Before He Learned My Worth novel Chapter 5

**TITLE: I Left Before He Learned My Worth**
**Chapter 5**

**DAMON**

“A week,” Margaret informed me, her voice steady yet tinged with a hint of concern. “Maybe longer, depending on what she finds.” She adjusted the stack of papers in her hands, her eyes briefly flickering to mine. “Is there something specific you needed her for? I can pass along a message when she returns.”

A week. An entire week without Aria, and she hadn’t even mentioned it to me. My stomach twisted at the thought, especially considering how abruptly things had ended between us. The silence hung heavy in the air, and I found it intolerable.

My wolf stirred within me, a low growl rising in protest, clawing at my insides with a surge of inexplicable panic.

“No,” I replied, my voice measured as I shook my head slowly, trying to suppress the turmoil inside. “No message. I’ll talk to her when she gets back.”

Margaret nodded, her expression shifting to one of understanding as she hurried off, leaving me alone in the dimly lit hallway. The unsettling feeling in my chest spread like wildfire, igniting a sense of dread. What was she doing out there? Was she in danger? I couldn’t shake the thought that there was something crucial she was after. Why would she venture out again when I knew she was already risking so much?

Something felt profoundly wrong. I couldn’t articulate it, couldn’t pinpoint any concrete evidence that her absence was anything more than a simple gathering of herbs, but every instinct within me screamed that this was far more serious.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, my fingers trembling slightly as I dialed Aria’s number. The phone rang once, twice, three times, before it went to voicemail. Her voice, soft and musical yet tinged with an underlying sadness she could never fully mask, echoed in my ears as she instructed me to leave a message.

“Aria, it’s me,” I said, striving for a casual tone that I didn’t feel. “Margaret mentioned you’re out gathering plants. Just… call me when you get this, okay? I want to make sure you’re safe.”

I hung up and stared at the screen, willing it to light up with her name.

But it didn’t.

The next three days blurred together, consumed by pack business and Sera’s increasingly demanding needs, which seemed to multiply with each passing hour. Her silver poisoning was worsening—or so her physician insisted. While she appeared fine to me, albeit a bit paler than usual, the doctor was adamant that she required constant monitoring.

So I found myself at Sera’s house more often than I cared to admit, listening to her reminisce about our childhood, about the dreams she once had for our future before she left for the human city.

“I never stopped thinking about you,” she whispered one night, her body curled against mine on the couch, seeking the comfort I used to provide when we were younger, long before life pulled us apart.

“Even when I was trying to survive in that horrible city, pretending to be human, I dreamed of coming home to you.”

I absentmindedly stroked her hair, offering the appropriate responses, but my mind was elsewhere.

It was consumed by thoughts of a silver-haired omega who still hadn’t returned my calls.

“Damon?” Sera’s voice broke through my reverie, her gaze piercing through my facade. “You seem distracted.”

“Just pack business,” I replied, the lie slipping from my lips too easily.

But Sera wasn’t convinced. Her eyes narrowed, and the sharpness in her voice cut through the air like a knife.

“You’re thinking about her, aren’t you? That omega. Aria.”

I stiffened at the accusation. “She’s on a gathering trip. I’m just making sure she’s safe.”

“She can take care of herself,” Sera shot back, her tone laced with irritation. “She’s been doing it for years, hasn’t she? Running around playing healer, acting like she’s so important to the pack.”

“She is important,” I interjected before I could reign in my emotions. “She saved my life.”

“And now she’s trying to guilt you into choosing her over me.” Sera sat up, her expression pained, as if my words had struck her deeply. “I’m your mate, Damon. Your true mate. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

It should have meant everything to me. After all this time, I finally had the one person I had wanted my entire life.

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