Mated to My Intended's Enemy novel Chapter 170

Chapter 170: Chapter 170 Too Late to Say Sorry

Silvano

I stood in the hallway outside the conference room,feeling my wolf prowling restlessly beneath my skin. The merger agreement with the Eastern territories had consumed most of my morning,but my thoughts kept drifting to what Adrian had told me last night about seeing Freya at the hotel.

"She was helping Elena into the elevator," Levi had confirmed when I questioned him. "She looked... different somehow. More distant."

Even now,hours later,my wolf was still unsettled by this information. Freya had been avoiding me for weeks,ever since she’d moved out of the pack house. The bond between us had grown dangerously thin,stretched almost to breaking point.

"Alpha Silvano,the documents are ready for your signature," my assistant announced,pulling me from my thoughts.

I nodded,my face maintaining the cold,composed expression that had become my signature in these business dealings. Every wolf in our territory knew better than to mention my mate around me these days. The subject had become a minefield that even my closest allies avoided.

As I walked back to my office,my phone buzzed with a message from Aurora.

*"Isabella asked if she could stay with me again tonight. I told her to check with you first."*

My wolf growled at the presumption. Aurora had been spending far too much time with my daughter lately,creating a bond I found increasingly concerning. While Isabella adored her,I couldn’t ignore how Aurora subtly encouraged my pup’s distance from her mother.

*"Tell her no. She needs to focus on her studies tonight,"* I replied tersely.

I paused before entering my office,sensing a familiar scent lingering in the hallway. Freya had been here,probably just minutes ago. My wolf surged forward,desperate to catch even that faint trace of her. Without thinking,I followed the scent trail toward the development department where she’d been working since moving out of our home.

Through the glass walls,I could see her at her desk,head bent over her computer,fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard. Even from this distance,I could see the tension in her shoulders,the slight furrow between her brows as she concentrated. My wolf whined,urging me to go to her,to bridge this growing chasm between us.

"Alpha Silvano?" Chad,one of my senior assistants,approached with a stack of documents. "These need your immediate attention."

I tore my gaze from Freya and nodded. "I’ll be in my office."

Hours later,as I was reviewing quarterly projections,Chad entered my office looking unusually flustered.

"Sir,there’s a... situation with Secretary Freya."

My head snapped up,wolf instantly alert. "What happened?"

"She refused to complete an urgent task I assigned her and left early," he explained,a hint of accusation in his tone. "She seems to believe her connection to your family grants her special privileges." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

My wolf bristled at his words. Freya had never once leveraged our relationship for special treatment – in fact,she’d always worked twice as hard as anyone else to prove her worth independent of being my Luna.

"What exactly was this ’urgent’ task?" I asked,my voice dropping to a dangerous register that made Chad take an involuntary step back.

"The Eastern territories resource allocation report," he admitted. "It needs to be processed before tomorrow’s meeting."

I narrowed my eyes. "That report isn’t due until next week,and it certainly doesn’t fall under Freya’s current responsibilities."

Chad’s face paled. "I thought with her expertise—"

"You deliberately targeted her," I cut him off,my wolf’s anger bleeding into my voice. "Was this your idea,or did Aurora put you up to it?"

As her car pulled away,I felt the mating bond between us stretch painfully. My mother had warned me this might happen if I continued to neglect my Luna. "The bond between mates is sacred," she’d told me. "If you don’t nurture it,it will wither like a flower without water."

I hadn’t listened. I’d been too focused on securing our territory,on preparing Isabella for her future role,on maintaining the delicate balance of power in the North American packs.

And now my mate was slipping away from me,taking pieces of my soul with her.

My phone buzzed again – this time a message from my father,Alpha Leo.

*"Council meeting tomorrow. Victoria wants to discuss the Howlthorne situation. Be prepared."*

I closed my eyes briefly,dreading another confrontation about Aurora’s growing influence in our territory. My mother had never trusted Aurora,convinced she carried the same manipulative nature as her grandmother and namesake.

And perhaps she wasn’t entirely wrong.

As I drove toward Aurora’s residence where Isabella was waiting,I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was moving in the wrong direction – away from the one person my wolf recognized as home.

The bond mark on my shoulder throbbed painfully,a physical manifestation of the distance between Freya and me. I pressed my hand against it,feeling the echo of her heartbeat through our weakening connection.

My wolf growled a single word in my mind: *Mate*.

And for the first time in years,I allowed myself to wonder if I had made a terrible mistake in letting her walk away.