Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 519

Chapter 519

ARIA

He was quiet again. The specific quality of quiet that had the wolf in it — not the wolf's absence, the wolf being present and processing something alongside the man.

"The wolf," he said, and his voice had the quality of someone saying something they were still making sense of, "was aimed at you. Specifically. They aimed him at the things that matter to him most." He paused. "You were in that room."

"I know," I said.

"You're one of the things," he said. Not a declaration, not the big statement version. Just — the honest version. The version that said what it said without dressing it up.

I stood beside him in the clinic that was being rebuilt by people who loved both of them and looked at Ivory through the treatment area doorway and thought about the conversation she'd had with me earlier in the evening — fated bonds and building love and a perfect world and being too broken.

"Kael," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"I'm not leaving," I said.

He looked at me.

"Whatever they activated in you tonight," I said. "Whatever the root is and whatever needs to happen to fix it. I'm not leaving." I held his gaze. "I know you've been waiting for me to decide that I was. I know you've been holding part of yourself back because you're not sure this is where I've decided to stay."

"Aria," he said.

"This is where I've decided to stay," I said. "I'm telling you directly because I'm trying to be the person who says things directly instead of letting them sit." I paused. "This is my pack too. This is my home. And I'm not going anywhere."

He was very still.

The wolf, through the bond, was doing something. Not the wall — not the closed-off absence that had been there for months. Something warmer. The specific warmth of something that was allowing itself to feel what it had been holding at a distance.

Silver, in my head, said: *There he is.*

"Okay," Kael said. The word was simple and full of everything that was more complicated than simple.

"Okay," I said.

Around us, Shadowmere kept rebuilding.

The pregnant woman had finished with the compounds and moved on to the shelving. Edna was telling someone a story that seemed to involve her bones again. Jordan was making notes in his notebook about things that were definitely not the Damon plan but which had the suspicious quality of someone continuing to think about the Damon plan while claiming to document other things.

Nina came out of the treatment area and looked at the room and then at Kael.

"You're going to owe them," she said. "All of them. For a very long time."

"I know," he said.

"They'll lord it over you," she said. "Every single one of them. When you least expect it, someone is going to say: remember when your wolf came through the clinic window." She paused. "And you're going to nod and say yes, I remember, and they're going to say, good, and they're going to feel better, and then they're going to do it again in six months."

"I know," he said.

*All progress is slow,* Silver said. *That's what makes it progress instead of just movement.*

I stood in the clinic that was being put back together by sixty-some people who'd come out because they'd been scared and had stayed because they were Shadowmere, and I felt the bond thread between me and Kael warm and present and more open than it had been yesterday.

One day at a time.

That was how all of this got done.

One thing forward, even when the day had involved a wolf through a window and a baseball bat and a queue and bones temporarily leaving an eighty-three-year-old woman's body.

Even then.

continuation from last a/n

Then what happened next, things were going smoothly for them {not Aria who had personal opinions and was making herself a victim and comparing herself} when their Luna said someone attacked Ivory and ivory was poisoned, after having an argument with Ivory and nobody else could back up what she said, and the luna could not bring in any valid evidence, that she didn't see who attacked ivory.

But for some reason, you guys expected that with the invincible attacker, and the fact that she is Luna, her words should be trusted, sure, with the evidence and reasons for Aria being the one to have every reason to carry out the attack was there. When that didn't happen, and she was put under suspect watch and then Ivory found evidence that saved her life, who again did it lead back to, her previous pack Damon, Sera who decided to set Aria up. Then again, Aria came up with the notion that she wants to change everything that is happening well in the pack just because she can and she is Luna, for no reason at all, they resisted and refused to let it happen

Now they heard that their Luna was in an attack with their alpha and who is behind the attack, her ex Damon, who asked her to come with him, and their Luna says yes and almost leaves, but luckily backup came in the form of people who used ivory boosters that cost them severely, but remember this, Aria decided to leave with Damon Like who does that, and what was her reasoning: he promised not to attack if I left with him, like did she really think Damon would say, oh I got her back, I won't attack and kill this people who are already at my mercy? Okay remain calm, breathe in, and out, {this is for me} okay, they didn't say anything about that, focusing on the actual people who actually did something while she is stuck in her woe personality where mind you, nobody is a fucking telepath, so Aria is stuck in her little daydream world, then again, a ghost hunt comes around and they are happy, participating, cheering, laughing like old times until it gets to the ending when they were watching the big finale, when Aria is then confessing that she had been secretly visiting her ex without anyone knowing, the same ex that nobody knows how he got out, the same ex that had been causing problems for months, their Luna had been seeing him behind their backs for VALIDATION. Like what the fucking hell is wrong with this woman? Okay sure they were not nice, but they did not actively make her life hell, {aside the execution thing, but apologies} and the only thing she got was a fucking guard and house arrest, which was fine, and then their Luna starts doing things reasonable, stops competing with the ghost of ivory and actually starts doing reasonable things and they are impressed and starts seeing her change and they now have a good opinion and now her biggest defenders, more than Kael can say for himself, but Kael has PTSD, trauma and a DID which is okay, in his case valid.He is a shitty alpha but yes he has reasons unlike Damon who did his just cause he can, but somehow the comments insists damon is better than kael, because he is obsessive over aria, which is another thing that is creepy and not healthy because damon wants her back, will mate her and keep her locked up, he doesnt want anyone to have her, not that he even give a damn about Aria unlike Kael who cares for her as a person but hates that they are mates, and he feels he has to be responsible for her, even when that love isn't there and he has more issues because he cant even be on the same fucking page with his wolf, and still having ptsd because aria's kind cursed him, which means aria can still do the same curse, and do not say oh they are mates, being mates doesnt make one not act horrible to their mate, we have kael parents, we have damon and sera, and yes we have kael and aria as examples.

Do you see how the pack was seeing this, if I wrote the entire story from the pack POV, none of y'all will be on Aria side because what you will see is a wannabe Luna who keeps clinging to her ex, and going back to the said ex because she still loves him and can't let go while mind you, Kael has been trying his best to create dates and memories and he thinks its going well, he genuinely thought he got it in the bag, but in aria's mind, she is oh he went here with ivory, oh he did this with ivory, oh they breathe the same air, ughh? Okay fine, I understand. Aria had to go through character development, but you guys wanted her to start doing things she had not even done at all.

Yes they should have given her more grace, yes they should have opened more, but just because they didn't, doesn't make them villains or aria the only victim in this story.