The Ice Alpha’s Mate (Aria and Ryder) novel Chapter 58

Chapter 58

ARIA

6.60%

$5 vouchers

For the rest of the day, I feel like a walking bruise, and at home, hings aren’t better because now, I have Cassandra asking me how things are going with Ryder when Uncle Barty isn’t looking, and I definitely don’t want to share all my exhausting. conflicted emotions with her.

If I’m a pain to myself, I can’t imagine what I must sound like to other people.

“There’s no progress,” I whisper to her before shaking my head. “He’s going to marry someone else. I don’t see the point of

this.”

Cassandra says nothing for a long time. I’m not sure what she’s discussed with my uncle or if he told her anything. If so, she certainly doesn’t share it with me.

“You don’t sound happy about any of this.”

I shrug. “It’s how it is. My feelings don’t matter.”

“Of course, they do.”

“No, Cassandra. They don’t.”

I barely touch my dinner and I have a hard time acting normally in front of my uncle when I’m hurting on the inside. If we just rejected each other, this pain would pass, right? It’s my wolf that’s causing this. I choose to believe that.

When I arrive at Ironclaw U in the morning, I’m anxious because I’m not looking forward to seeing Ryder at all. I always react strangely in his presence and our exchange from yesterday is haunting me.

He’s not in History class, which is a relief, but now my mind is forcing me to wonder why he’s skipping class, and if everything’s alright with him. In other words, he’s not here, but he might as well be, because my thoughts are focused on him anyway.

I don’t see him for the rest of the morning, but I know I won’t be able to get rid of him during practice. I make my way to the rink, head ducked, and hope and pray to the goddess that he ignore me like he did yesterday, even though deep down,

I don’t want him to.

It’s confusing. Embarrassing. Nonsensical.

When I get there, I put my bag down and immediately throw on any uniform. My hands are shaking as I button the coat, and then I move to the tap to disinfect my hands.

Someone enters the medical room and closes the door, and tho first few seconds of wondering who it is are perhaps the worst I’ve had all day. My heart is thudding in my chest. It’s so hard for me to breathe.

I smell him before I see him.

Ryder.

I turn around quickly, forgetting that the tap is still running. With wet hands, I clutch the metal sink behind me as Ryder slowly approaches me.

Something’s off. Even the way he’s looking at me doesn’t feel right at all.

“What’re you doing here?” I ask, unable to keep the nervousness from my voice.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

1/3

17 23 Sat, Feb 21

Chapter 58

3.60%

55 vouchers

I swallow and wait. I bet he can hear my heartbeat from where he’s standing. Ryder steps closer to me. “I was thinking a lot about what you said yesterday, and I have to admit that you’re night.”

I frown. At this point, I don’t even remember what I damn said. What? I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“I want a rejection,” he claims.

I wince when these words leave his lips unintentionally. He continues, “You’re right. There’s no point in fighting about this. You don’t want me, and I’ve never wanted a mate. That’s no secret to anyone who knows me well. I’m the Alpha heir, and my marriage was always bound to be arranged anyway. It’s better that way. Strategic. It offers some benefit to the pack. I can’t disappoint my father more than I already have with this matter.

1 stare back at him and raise my chin even though my wolf is howling inside of me in a way it never has before. The word rejection is bouncing around in my mind, making me feel like

I wanted this, dammit. So why am I acting this way now? Besides, I can’t show him how I truly feel about all this. I lower my eyes and nod. “Of course. I agree with you.”

“Good,” Ryder says after a while.

“When do you want it to happen?”

“It can only be during my birthday. You’ll have to show up. I’m sure your uncle will be invited to the event. Almost everyone who works at the university is.”

I scowl. I don’t understand why it has to be on that day. It doesn’t make sense to me that we can’t do it now, when nobody’s watching. Granted, I can feel just how sick I’ll become once our matehood is severed, but it’ll pass one day, right?

It’ll have to.

“Sure,” I say again coldly. “Whatever you’d like. I’m…eager to get his done and over with.”

“Are you?” he asks with a sudden intensity as he steps forward, searching my eyes. My back hits the sink and I swallow the knot forming in my throat.

My head feels heavy when I nod, but I do it anyway.

Ryder keeps on watching me for a beat, then he says, “You’ll receive the information from your uncle soon. Make sure you come. The invitation is addressed to you, too.”

“I’ll be there.”

“I hope you will, because this convention has taken enough from me as it is, and I have to start building a bond with the woman I’ll marry,” he proclaims. Goddess, his words cut deep and I stare at him with this urge to bite his head off.

His eyes are cold. His tone of voice is rude. In other words, he’s back to being the Ryder Drexel that I met. The one who was so dismissive toward me because I was a new medic.

The one I thought was long gone.

But no. He’s still here. This whole time, he’s been hiding who he ruly is, or maybe I’m the one who didn’t want to see.

“Until then.”

He walks out of the room and I turn around, hyperventilating for a handful of moments before I look up and decide that I have to stop. What’s wrong with me? This is something we both want at this point. A rejection will solve a lot of my problems because I haven’t been performing well at all, not in classes and got in my personal life.

I just want to go back to normal.

2/3

။။

O

<

17 23 Sat, Feb 21

Chapter 58

It’s all I want.

A single tear slides down my face, but I wipe it away and straighten my spine.

1 treat this whole encounter like he was never here.

That makes this much easier to bear.

3/3

AD

Comment

Send gift

No Ads