WADE
This isn’t how I remember it. This is not it at all.
What used to be a riot of whites, yellows, soft pinks–lilies and ptunias, the ones my mother planted with Sorin years ago- are gone. They’re all wiped out. Every last goddamn one replaced with blood–red roses standing tall like arrogant soldiers.
The scent hits me first, it’s extremely sharp and cloying, suffocating instead of soothing. Roses. Always roses. Ariel’s signature stamp of ownership, as if she can just erase history with petals and thorns.
My fists curl before my brain even catches up. “What the fuck is this?” My voice carries across the courtyard, sharp enough to slice through the chatter of the Omegas still fussing over the flowerbeds.
They all freeze. A few glance at one another nervously. Someone mutters, “The Luna wanted to surprise you, Alpha …….”
I step closer, boots crunching over petals that never should’ve been torn up in the first place. “Surprise me? By gutting my mother’s garden? By ripping up the only goddamn thing left of her and…” Sorin? Was what I was supposed to say, but what can it do when I’m ought to marry another woman.
The Omegas shrink back. None of them answer. One finally gathers the courage to mumble, “What’s wrong with the Alpha? Luna Ariel’s doing this for him, and he screams like—”
“Get the fuck out.” My voice booms, final and unforgiving.
They scatter like frightened birds, skirts swishing as they practically run for the gates.
Silence. The kind that gnaws at your ribs. I crouch down and grab one of the roses by its stem, thorns biting into my palm until blood beads between my fingers. I rip it straight from the soil and fling it across the stones. Another follows. And another. My hands don’t stop tearing, destroying, until the place looks like carnage.
I don’t care. Let it look ruined–because it already is.
My throat tightens as memory slams into me. My mother’s voice soft and tired from a life of holding too much together. “When you marry Sorin, I want these in her bouquet. All of them. Every lily, every petunia. Promise me, Wade.”
And I had promised. Christ, I had.
I swallow hard, forcing the burn down, and straighten up, wiping my bloodied hands against my trousers. The roses mock me from every corner. They don’t belong here. She doesn’t belong here.
I don’t even think as I storm across the packhouse, feet eating up the corridors. I know exactly where to find her.
The door slams open under my hand, crashing into the wall.
Ariel turns from the mirror, silk spilling around her in a white cascade. A wedding dress. Her hair pinned up, pearls glinting
at her ears. For a split second–just one agonizing, cruel split second–my mind betrays me.
It’s Sorin. Standing there. Those green eyes, soft smile, with flowers in her hair.
Then it’s gone, Just Ariel. Always Ariel, because Sorin’s not here. And maybe never will be again.
The air leaves my lungs in a rush.
She tilts her head, lashes fluttering like she’s posing for a painting “Why do you look so angry, Wade?”
I shut the door with my boot, the bang echoing through the chamber. My jaw clenches. “Why did you change the flowers?”
Her brows lift, feigning innocence. “Flowers?”
“The garden,” I bite out, crossing the room toward her. My reflection in the mirror looks wrecked, bloodied hands against black clothes. “Those were my mother’s lilies. My mother’s and “I stop. The word catches.
Ariel’s lips curl, finishing it for me, “Sorin’s.”
The sound of her name in Ariel’s mouth is poison.
She sighs, turning back to admire herself in the mirror, smoothing her hands over her stomach–her swollen, pregnant stomach–as if that excuses everything. “They were dull, Wade. They looked washed out. This house deserves life. Color. Not… old, drooping memories.”
My nails dig into my palms. “They weren’t just flowers.”
“They’re weeds now.” She flicks her fingers like she’s dismissing a servant. “And I replaced them with something better. Roses are timeless. Bold. Strong. Just like what our union should be.”
Union. The word makes my skin crawl.
I bark a humorless laugh, stepping closer until I tower over her reflection. “You think a rose makes you my Luna? That ripping out what mattered to me is gonna change the fact you’re just-”
Her hand flies to her stomach again, cutting me off with a pitiful gasp. “Careful, Wade. Don’t forget who I’m carrying. You’d risk upsetting your heir over flowers?”
I stare at her. My pulse pounds. My chest feels like it’s being split in two.
Because once again, she’s right.
And once again, I hate her for it.
Ariel’s perfume clings to my shirt, the expensive floral crap she drenches herself in until it makes me lightheaded. She walks over across the velvet couch like she owns the place, her fingers lazily trailing across her swollen stomach though the world should stop just because she’s incubating a brat.


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