The sickened luna’s last chance

Alexander & Ella

Alexander

The soda can fell to the bottom of the vending machine with a clatter. I grabbed it, along with a bag of pretzels to help settle Ella’s stomach, then made my way back toward her room. The door was slightly ajar as I approached, and I could hear voices coming from inside.

“I don’t want him to mark me anymore.”

Ella’s words stopped me dead in my tracks, my hand frozen midair as I reached for the door handle. I didn’t catch what she said before that, but it didn’t matter. Those seven words were enough.

I don’t want him to mark me anymore.

For a moment, I just stood there, processing what I’d heard. Ella didn’t want my mark. Didn’t want me.

Not that it should have been a surprise. She’d already asked for a divorce. Hell, we’d even signed a contract promising to divorce after my campaign.

Besides, I never had any intention of marking her.

And yet something about hearing her say those words made my chest hurt more than I thought it would.

“Alexander.”

I turned to find Liam approaching from down the hall. He was slipping his phone back into his pocket and his face was pale.

“I just spoke to Molly,” he said. “And I wanted to apologize for what happened.”

I blinked, momentarily confused before remembering the blue–haired woman from the bar. The one who had kissed my mate. With everything that had happened afterward, it seemed like a lifetime ago.

“I had no idea she had feelings for Ella,” Liam went on. “If I’d known, I never would have reintroduced them. I’m sure the incident was the catalyst behind Ella’s fainting spell.”

I shrugged, trying to appear unbothered even as my wolf snarled at the memory of another person’s lips on Ella’s. “It’s fine,” lied.

Liam’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re… fine? Another woman kissed your mate.”

No. I wasn’t fine. Of course I fucking wasn’t. Ella and I had a contract, but she was still my wife for now. And lately

Maybe Gabriel was right. Maybe I had gotten in over my head. The show Ella and I had been on, pretending to be a loving couple, had become all too real.

the alley. I’d come so close–so fucking close–to having sex with her. At the time, it didn’t matter to me whether we were in public or not.

Five years.

marriage and

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16:33 Fri, 22 Aug

Chapter 49

aware

was fust, pure and simple, Ella didn’t want me to mark her, she hated me. And I would never mark her, not when

death.

it hurt

snapping myself out of my thoughts, I nodded. “Yes. I’m

for a moment.

when she wakes up. I’m heading home. I have

“She just collapsed a few hours

she’s stable, and you and Lilith are here. I have a meeting in the morning that I need to prepare

took the soda with a skeptical look. “If that’s what

go back into that room, to sit beside Ella’s bed and make sure she was okay. Every fiber of my

rest tonight instead of making her look at my

her I hope she feels better,” I said. “I’ll check in

that, I turned away, striding

Ella

monitors and scratchy hospital sheets against my skin. For a moment, I was

And then I remembered.

the blinds, Last night had started off so perfectly, only for everything to go to shit.

made Lilith

a meeting, which only solidified my belief that what had happened between us in

I noticed something on the bedside table that had been there

filled with cherry

dhe vid has brought them!ith

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16:33 Fri, 22 Aug

Chapter 49

and she wasn’t back yet. Maybe