Chapter 2 Unwanted Visitors

• I throw the door to the main hall where the noise is coming from open, my heart thrumming loud in my ears and the moment I step inside, every eye turns to me and silence falls on the room like a blanket. It goes so silent that if a feather dropped, the sound would be deafening.
• I look at Jace and then at the woman sitting beside him with black doe eyes and short black hair, but it is the sight of the boy sitting on her lap that cinches my heart with pain. He is an exact replica of Jace, having the same facial structure, natural blonde hair and blue eyes.
• ‘What are you doing here? Go back to your room,’ The cold sound of Jace’s mindlink sounds in my mind while he glares at me.
• My breath hitches rapidly and tears pool in my eyes, unable to find the words to reply to him, deeply shaken by his betrayal. I just keep staring at the boy, feeling like my heart is being ripped from my chest.
• The boy looks about four or five years old, which means Jace….
• Tears run down my eyes and I clamp my hand over my mouth to stifle my sobs as I run out in tears, realising that throughout all the times that I had suffered stillbirth after stillbirth and Jace would comfort and console me, he always had a family outside of us.
• How could he do this to me?
• I wail, throwing the door to my room open, and I slam it shut. I collapse to the ground, my heart clenching in pain, my breath turning ragged as I suddenly find it difficult to breathe.
• What did I do to deserve this cruelty from Jace, this ruthless betrayal?
• This whole time I thought we were in this together, that we would weather this storm plaguing ourmarriage side by side, but it turns out I have always been by myself.
• I know our union is not one of love, but I thought we at least shared a mutual trust and understanding.
• The door creaks open, and I raise my head up to see Jace walk in, his eyes cold and unreadable as always, but his aura is calm.
• He slowly shuts the door behind him. “You shouldn't have come down to make a scene, I was going to come tell you myself.”
• I stare wide-mouthed at him, rage and bitterness swirling deep inside me, unable to find the words that would tone down the hostility I want to spew at my Alpha and husband for treating me with such contempt and dismissal.
• “Why?” I finally manage to speak, sniffing and wiping my face with the back of my hands, but the tears won’t stop falling, the pain isn’t something I can handle, it feels too lethal and seeing him stand in front of me with such calmness and no remorse whatsoever only compounds my misery.
• “How old is that boy? Four? Five? You’ve been cheating on me for how long?!” I yell at him, breaking down in tears again before I can even finish my sentence.
• “I’m glad to know you think so little of me,” Jace replies in a calm tone, his eyes showing neither pity for his wife nor remorse for his actions. He just observes me like a malfunctioning object of some sort, and if he has any emotions at all, he doesn’t show it.
• I sneer at him with teary eyes, shaking my head slowly, “Don’t you dare lie to me, it’s obvious you have been–”
• “She’s my fated mate,” Jace cuts me off in that same stoic tone of his.
• My mouth falls open. The words that just came out of Jace’s mouth seem to knock the air out of my lungs for a moment.
• I blink rapidly, staring at him in confusion, and my heart pounds even faster in shock from his revelation.
• Jace... found his fated mate?
• My mouth quivers. “But - we–we promised each other on our wedding night to reject our mates if we ever found them.”
• “Exactly, Sheila. Except I found Alina before our wedding. It was a fortnight after your father informed me that I was going to marry you and become Alpha after he stepped down. Jeremy and I went on a scouting mission, deep in the East blade territory. I met her at a bar that night, we had a few drinks, sparks flew, matebond and all that, and we spent the night together. I was going to explain my situation to her in the morning and reject her, but she was gone before I woke up. I haven’t seen her since that day, not until today.”
• Jace wasn’t born an Alpha; he is the youngest son of Beta Jared, the beta of Alpha Stone, who was my father. After the death of my mother, Alpha Stone refused to remarry and named me his heir, but according to the customs of the Moon Storm pack, a woman cannot be the Alpha, so he betrothed me to Jace.
• The proper thing would have been to betroth me to Jeremy, Jace’s elder and fraternal twin brother, but I had begged my father to promise me to Jace because of the undying crush I had on him since I was a little girl, a crush that has morphed into love since we got married.
• My heart rate slowly drops as I stare at Jeremy, replaying his story in my mind. The age of the boy I saw adds up with Alina getting pregnant from that one night they spent together, but why is she here now?
• Where has she been all these years?
• Has Jace been searching for her?
• I slowly get to my feet and walk close to him, my heart pounding slowly, but the pain is still there with every thud. I hold the side of his arms and looks into his eyes.
• “You may not have been able to reject her then, but tell me you will do it now, tell me you will reject her, Jace, and that she won’t come between us,” I say in a calm voice filled with hope and desperation.
• Jace looks away from my peering eyes and when he looks back at me, my heart already sinks from his cold gaze even before he pulls his hand away from mine and replies.
• “I will not reject her. She gave me an heir, something you haven’t been able to do.”