Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 152

Chapter 152

ARIA

Tom’s expression became carefully neutral. “No. It’s still there. Exactly as you left it, actually.”

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Something in his tone made me look at him more closely. “Why? Why would Sera leave it standing?”

“Because Alpha Damon asked her to,” Tom said quietly. “For weeks after you left, he’d go there. Tend to the garden you’d started. Sit in the rooms where you’d lived. It was like he couldn’t quite accept that you were gone. Sera eventually stopped fighting him about it. Said if he wanted to keep the place as a museum piece to his obsession, that was his choice.”

Museum piece. The phrase made something twist in my chest. “I think I want to see it,” I said. “If that’s okay. If I’m allowed.”

“Of course you’re allowed,” Tom said. “It’s not restricted or anything Just… empty. Come on, I’ll walk with you. Make sure you get there safely.”

We walked together through the quieting compound-more people were awake now but seemed to be giving us space. Tom’s presence beside me felt like protection, though I wasn’t sure from what. Maybe just from the hostile stares. From feeling completely alone in a place that had once been my prison.

The house came into view eventually. Small, isolated, exactly as I remembered it. Set apart from the main compound, positioned where I’d been kept separate from pack life. My personal cage, dressed up as a cottage.

“I’ll wait out here,” Tom said. “Give you some privacy. But call if you need anything.”

I nodded and approached the door. It was unlocked-another surprise. I pushed it open and stepped inside.

The interior was exactly as I’d left it. Furniture in the same positions. Books on the shelves where I’d placed them. Even the air smelled the same-like old wood and the herbs I used to dry near the windows.

But there were differences too. New things that hadn’t been here when I’d lived here.

The picture frame caught my eye first. I’d shattered it the night I left-the photo of Damon and me that he’d insisted on keeping displayed. I’d destroyed it in a fit of anger and pain, letting the glass scatter across the floor as symbolic destruction of what he’d put me through.

Now it sat on the same shelf, but in a new frame. The photo carefully preserved, the glass replaced. As if someone had gathered the pieces and restored it. As if they couldn’t bear to let it remain broken.

And beside it-my breath caught. The necklace. The one Damon had given to Sera first, back when he’d been trying to maintain his bond with her while also claiming me as his. The necklace that had been the final straw, the thing that had made me realize I’d never be anything more than his secret, his second choice, his shameful obsession.

Seeing it here, displayed like some kind of trophy or memorial, made me feel sick. What did it mean? That Damon had reclaimed it from Sera? That he’d brought it here as some kind of shrine to what we’d been?

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14:37 Thu, Dec 25

Chapter 152

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Finished

I moved through the rest of the house quickly, unable to bear looking at those objects anymore. Marle my way to the back door and stepped out into the garden.

The garden I’d started. The one thing in this place that had been truly mine. Where I’d planted herbs and flowers and vegetables, creating something beautiful in the midst of my isolation. Where I’d spent hours working with the soil, finding peace in cultivation when nothing else in my life felt peaceful.

It was still maintained. Someone had been weeding. Watering. Keeping the plants alive and healthy. The beds were neat, the paths clear. As if I’d never left. As if this space was waiting for me to return and resume tending it.

I knelt beside one of the beds, running my hands over the familiar plants. I hadn’t done any gardening since leaving Blackwood. The only time I’d harvested herbs in Shadowmere had been that day at the cliff-when I’d been gathering moonbeam plants and got attacked by nightwalkers. When Kael in his cursed form had defended me, nearly losing his life in the process.

I’d forgotten how much I missed this. The simple act of working with plants. Of nurturing something. Of creating beauty and usefulness from earth and water and sunlight.

Footsteps behind me made me freeze. I turned slowly, expecting Tom checking on me.

But it wasn’t Tom.

Sera stood at the edge of the garden, her expression completely different from the pleasant diplomatic mask she’d worn yesterday. The kindness had dropped away entirely, revealing cold calculation and barely restrained hostility.

“So,” she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “The runaway returns to the scene of her crimes.”

“I didn’t commit any crimes,” I said, standing to face her properly. “I escaped a bad situation. That’s not illegal.”

“You destroyed my mate,” Sera corrected. “You manipulated him. Used his obsession with you to drive a wedge between us. Led him to make choices that cost him his freedom and his position as Alpha. That’s criminal enough.”

She moved closer, and I saw her hand raising. She was going to slap me. Going to physically attack me like she had every right to put her hands on me with violence.

But I wasn’t that person anymore. Wasn’t the trapped, powerless woman who’d lived here for years accepting whatever treatment people decided to give me.

I caught her wrist before her hand could make contact with my face. Held it firmly, looking her directly in the eyes.

“As Luna to Luna,” I said clearly, “you don’t have a right to touch me anymore. I’m not Omega Aria. I’m not your mate’s secret shame. I’m Luna of Shadowmere, and you will treat me with the respect that position demands.”

For a moment, Sera looked genuinely surprised. Then she laughed-a harsh, mocking sound that held no

humor.

“Listen to you,” she said. “Acting like you’re someone important. Like you’re actually worthy of the title you’re wearing. But you’re not, Aria. You’re just someone playing dress-up in shoes that were never meant

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