Her Chosen Mate

Part 55

(POV - Aria)

For a long while, Aria couldn't find the words to respond.

There was just too much for her to think about, too many emotions waiting for their turn to be felt. Aiden had become a different person in the last few minutes and she had no idea how she was supposed to move on and act like everything was okay.

She just couldn't do it.

"Maybe that would have mattered three days ago," she ground out, anger hot in her cheeks. "Maybe I would have been ecstatic to hear that before you ruined my life. But none of that fucking matters now, Aiden."

"Aria," he pleaded, his eyes shining. "Please, just listen-"

"No," she snarled. "You made your choice when you picked Meredith. If you cared about me at all, you would have at least done me the courtesy of telling me that you were in love with someone else! But you didn't, you just walked right past me like I wasn't even there! And then-"

She broke off, her voice cracking with all the sorrow she'd carried with her for the last few months. She needed to get it out, she needed to say the words or else they'd live inside her forever, festering and poisoning everything else in her life.

"And then you kissed her in front of everyone else,” she whispered, the pain of saying it out loud carving deep. "And I was forced to watch my true mate flaunt his chosen mate for months while I tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do with my life. And like that wasn't bad enough, you used me, Aiden."

"I know," he said, his voice and words heavy with regret, and Aria didn't want to hear it.

"No, I don't think you have the faintest idea of what that did to me," she deadpanned. "You came to find me in the middle of the night, fucked me out in the open where anyone could have found us, and then you basically told me that I was nothing but a cocksleeve."

He growled then, his frustration becoming obvious. "I never said that."

"I used fewer words," she spat coldly. "You had an itch that needed scratching and even though I was the only one your wolf wanted, you made me feel worthless, like a quick fuck was all I was good for, and even then you'd never be back."

"I didn't mean it that way."

"Who the fuck cares how you meant it, Aiden?" she said through a colorless laugh. "That wasn't even the worst thing you did! No, you marked Meredith and yet almost sparked a war the same night because you couldn't stand the sight of me being happy. And the funny thing is that still wasn't the worst thing. Or did you forget the last few days when you all but chained me to your bed and marked me against my will?"

He was stunned into silence, and Aria took the brief moment of silence to revel in the catharsis of finally being able to speak the hurt aloud, of being able to finally tell him how much he had hurt her.

It didn't take away the pain. In fact, she would argue that bringing those emotions to the surface had reopened wounds that she had worked hard to close up. Perhaps this time she might be able to heal properly.

"So I'll ask you again, Aiden," she said, emotionally and mentally drained by everything that had transpired in the last week. "What is it that you want from me? And why are you here when Meredith is the one you chose over me?"

Aiden chewed on the inside of his cheek, and obviously had something to say. So Aria waited until he spoke, and she would have waited all day, much to her own displeasure, because an unfamiliar sense of longing stretched out between them, using the bond as a pathway.

"I ended things with Meredith," he admitted quietly. "The night you left with him."

Shock jolted through her sore body at his admission. "Why?"