Claudius' perspective
After spending the rest of the day searching for Eero outside the manor and in the nearby forest and sea, we still couldn't find her anywhere.
“Tillula has something to say to you, Alpha,” Cielo told me as she entered my room and behind her was another woman.
I stopped pacing on my balcony and still to accommodate my mage.
“You're a mage. Did you come up with a way to find my Luna?”
“No, Alpha… and I am afraid that my ability won't help you find her, but I want to come clean. I want the truth to come out from me.”
My forehead furrowed.
“Why? Did you help her escape from me?” She remained silent.
“You did?!”
“Not exactly like that, Alpha,” Cielo attempted to calm me down, but I threw a dagger look at her and she shut her mouth.
“Two weeks ago, the Luna asked me to wield an amulet for her, an amulet that would hide her scent from you and everyone from the Blood Moon Pack.”
“So, you're telling me that my Luna isn't missing, and that she actually doesn't want to be found by me?” I asked and Tillula answered by moving her head.
Cielo gestured the mage to leave my room, and now it's just the two of us.
“This is a strange place for Luna Eero. She knows no one here. She is just probably cooling herself, calming her anger, but she will come back to you,” Cielo comforted me.
“Leave me alone. I don't need you to say these sweet nothing to me. What I want is to have her back,” I said, and I watched the woman whom I treated like my mother leave.
Not even an hour after I was left alone in my room came Caspian, only that he had a glass and a bottle of rum to offer to me.
“I already asked them to stop looking for Eero.”
“What? I didn't ask you to do that, Caspian! Who the hell do you think you are to decide on behalf of me? Deploy them and start searching for my mate!” I growled at him, but he wasn't taking my anger seriously.
Caspian handed me the bottle of rum after he poured for himself.
“Eero's wolf is now as powerful as yours if she gets the proper training. The power of her wolf will surpass yours. She'll be fine, and a woman who does not wish to be found… we won't be able to find her even if you flip this world upside down.”
Hearing that calmed me a bit. “But I can't be too relax.”
“Take this as Eero punishing you for all the terrible things that you did to her ever since Perseus died.”
“I crossed the line, didn't I?” I drank straight from the bottle and smiled bitterly.
“You were grieving for your loss, but you were doing it selfishly. Claudius, you were pushing her away, almost like you no longer wished to have her by your side.”
“But I made it clear to her that she'll remain my Luna,” I countered.
“You might not have seen her crying as you spent all your night in here with Adeline, but that doesn't mean that Eero didn't shed tears.”
Caspian sighed, “Give her a few weeks. If she doesn't come back to you, then we will start looking for her again.”
“You'd help me find her?” Caspian lightly punched my arm.
“Of course. I am you and Eero's number one fan. Don't you know that? You're the best version of yourself whenever you are next to her.”
Caspian clicked his crystal glass with the bottle of my rum, and then he lifted his finger as if there were something that he had forgotten to remind me.
“If Eero comes back to you, you know that you'll have to reject Adeline, right? And you must apologize for all the things that you did to her in the last month. You were terrible to her,” he said, emphasizing how much of an asshole I had become to my chosen mate.
I drank and handed the bottle of rum to him again.
“And where are you going?”
“I'm not going to wait for her to come back to me before I do it. I'm going to reject Adeline as my mate now,” I said.
Adeline got up from her bed. Her face lighted in delight as she saw me heading towards her.
“I was right. You won't be able to resist me. You're just in denial, but it's me that you will choose.”
“Do you want to know why I didn't hesitate to mate myself with Eero, even when the Moon Goddess told me that if I chose her, I'd have to turn my back on you?”
“You're drunk, aren't you?” Adeline laughed nervously to shove the tension between the two of us.
“Alpha, I would rather not hear anything about Eero. You already know that I hate her, so I will no longer hide it from you—"
“Eero makes me feel like I am not a monster,” I said to her.
“She makes me want to do good, to be compassionate and kind. She brings out the good in me, and the world seems brighter whenever I am with her.” I stared dead-pan at her.
“I don't feel those with you. I chose to be with you because I was mad at her, and I wanted to hurt her, but not even once did you make my heart waver like she does.”
“Alpha, you're just worried about her, that's it. Let us talk about this in the morning. I am tired,” she said in an attempt to dismiss me.
“If in my second life that Moon Goddess made you my true mate again, and Eero exists in that lifetime as well, I'll choose her over you, for the second time around.”
“You don't mean that. If you get to know me first, things will be different. I am sure of that.”
I smiled bitterly. “I made a promise to her before and not even once did I break my promise, so I am fulfilling it that now.”
Adeline shook her head and bent her knees to me.
“Claudius, don't turn your back to me. I am your mate, please."
“I, Claudius Cormac, son of Luzeres Cormac and Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack and rightful heir of the realm and the Regulus rejects you, Adeline Morrell as my true mate.” Adeline sobbed harder as our bond had been severed and, unlike me, it deeply affected her.
“There is a boat that waiting for you at the port. A new life in Ivaine awaits you. I want you gone from our life.”