(Ethan’s POV)

I knew my temperature was still high, so I slammed myself back into the bathroom of this unfamiliar place. I blocked off the holes and went back into the shower.

With cold water continuously running over my body, I lowered my head in depression.

I didn’t know what to think…I was always sure that destined mates were a lot easier to get along with. They were your everything…

How could he bring Chance up with such disdain!? I didn’t mind he didn’t care to much for the Queen, but Chance…He’s my life! I can’t let him speak of him like that!

I couldn’t believe my destined mate was like this…So…So…

Feeling like crying, I breathed out and sighed…

Putting my head against the tiles, I looked down and finally saw the needle that Owen gave me, before we had left the palace to go on this trip.

Actually, I wasn’t due to use it…

Why had I got my heat?

…I again wanted to cry…

He blamed me for the heat yet isn’t his fault I even got it!? Just like last time, I got my heat early and it was noticeably different…Was it because of him then too?

And now…I wasn’t due to get it again for another couple of weeks! Yet look at me! I’m a mess!

…And he can still overcome it…

Fine, if he doesn’t want me, then I can’t have him near me either…

…Besides…He is probably safer being away from me…

Pulling out the needle, I injected myself with it and turned off the tap. Taking away the towels, I opened the door and saw him there, “Get out!”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want to hear it! Now, get out!”

“I got carried away!”

“Well, let’s put this another way, I want you gone before this happens again. You brought it on, so leave, I don’t want to do that again!”

“…What?”

I felt the surroundings and knew that people were close by, I wasn’t going to speak of what just happened out loud, as it was, now that I thought about it, his whispers about my heat…Where they heard or smelt?

Getting my clothes, I ignored him and felt myself nearly back to normal.

I was already worried that my heat might return, so I left the whole room and heard him chasing after me.

I was ‘King’ now and ignored him happily. No ‘King’ answers someone who doesn’t addressed them properly!

Having walked a distance, I then talked to a guard and asked, “Where is your Alpha?”

I know it was rude, but at the moment I hardly knew where I was, yet alone know the Alpha’s name!

“This way, Your Majesty.”

I follow him, feeling that man still close by.

With the way he treated me before and with my secret, I am now choosing something that he will only hate me more for, but I can’t handle it right now…Especially when I was being targeted…If he was next to me and something happens, we could both be buried alive!

Just the thought of my mate dying, made me furrow my eyebrows, even though I was in a state of not showing any emotions…

“What can I do for you, Your Majesty?” The Alpha was putting on a top and walking towards me.

I suppose I can’t blame him, I quickly noticed that it must be in the dead of night time…Many would be asleep…

“Get this man away from me, out of your boundary. I need to have a good sleep as I will need to make my way back to the palace tomorrow for some urgent business.”

That man had tried to interrupt me, but I spoke louder and firmer, continuing to ignore him.

“You want Alpha Rendall out of the boundary, Your Majesty?”

I nodded my head, “Yes.”

“Fine! I’m gone!”

Hearing him stomp off, after he yelled this out at me, I sighed silently in relief.

I’m sorry…

Since I had gotten what I asked for, I toughened up, even though a wave of nausea threatened me, “Then I will be leaving.”

“Yes…Yes, of course, Your Majesty…To…Your room?”

I glared at him, “Where else am I to sleep?”

“Haha, then I wish Your Majesty a good rest!”

I turned around and walked away.

I’m sorry Damien…

I was just too tired right now…So tired…I was also starving, and I just felt so utterly weak…

I wanted to tell him everything, but I just didn’t have the power, or the strength. Right now, I really needed fight this threat! As it is…I was losing the battle…

My job right now, was mostly to survive, but secondly…I was also watching this ‘rock’…Watching it and trying to find any kind of weakness.

It wasn’t easy, as I hadn’t gotten anything much in the way of information, but, now that I was getting used to this…Perhaps soon I won’t be too scared to notice. One thing was for sure, and that was this ‘rock’ or ‘Elementalist’, I was certain now that it was the reason why the entirety of the royal family had died!

Not only that, but it is now also certain that an Elementalist was here on Sollace continent and…I dazedly remember seeing it always connected to the earth, even when it was chasing after me. But, what I had another idea about, was that it’s ‘power’, wherever it was coming from, starts to diminish after some time, as I remembered the three dirt holes, that it had tried to capture me in, getting smaller and smaller…

It was indeed a really scary type of enemy, but…I was starting to find weaknesses!

And, I knew that if I put my mate in danger, just because of selfish reasons, I would hate myself more then I already do…

…I wanted him to understand…

It was the worst time, I knew it…And I was sure that I wrecked things between us…

Thinking of what he said about Chance, I tried to have more faith in my decision, but it was hard…

Taking off my outer clothes and finally laying on the bed, I fell asleep pretty quick, even though I had so many troubles…Including that of a sore bum…

I needed to do so much…Yet, all I could do right now is shut my eyes and fall into a dreamless sleep…

Sadly, I wasn’t asleep for long before the window glass shattered, and a rock was looking at me.

I was still half asleep, so when the floor caved beneath me, I wasn’t ready to support myself and fell down with the bed!

…Hitting my head on one of the beams, I moved my hand to my head, to see blood…Then dirt started to go over my feet and I became completely awake, looking above me…

The hole was deep…So deep…

Looking around, I then shifted into my wolf form and decided to make another hole, whether it was to help me get to the top or to go through to the other side, I didn’t know, I just knew I had to do something!

Digging, I found my back feet start to get stuck, so I kicked them and kicked them.

This was…Not working!

After my hind legs got stuck, I wasn’t able to do anything and shifted back to my human form, hoping I could climb better that way…

Nothing worked, I had nothing to grab onto, I had nothing to jump off…

Panic started to overcome me, and I looked around, feeling myself start to breath harder and harder.

Just as I thought that the rock was going to win, I saw the small oxygen tank falling from the outside dirt wall and I grabbed it, putting into my mouth, turning it on quickly before…The dirt completely covered me…

The hole was so deep, even if someone came right now, they would have to dig for ages…

The ‘rocks’…

I feared for my son’s safety…

Even if I’m dead, I was sure…Sure that they…Would go after…Him…

Black…That was all I saw…

Taking a breath from the small oxygen tank, I still couldn’t move, and I was glad that the oxygen tank had appeared right in front of me like it had. If it had been on my wrist, I wasn’t sure if I would have thought about using it…

Thinking of why it might have come off my wrist, I could assume that it must have been Damien.

Not only did I feel lucky that he had been here earlier, having saved my life because of the small oxygen tank and hiding my heat, but now I felt even more grateful that we weren’t together.

…So grateful…

If he had been here…

Best not to think about it…He was safe…

Taking another breath, trying to be resourceful, I could only wait…Wait for either death, or someone to quickly save me…I was stuck and tired, but I couldn’t sleep…I could only wait…

It was the longest moments of my life!

(Damien’s POV)

I was mad as hell!

Before I even left the boundary, I punched a tree so hard that I think I fractured my hand!

It had taken so much effort to control myself, yet, I still had taken him to the bed like that! I was ready to make him mine, marking him and all!

Questioning him was all I had left, that’s why I did it! I needed another reason to get away from him because I knew that he was another’s mate…I used that to stop myself from taking him!

I was sure that when someone is marked, you are loyal to them and how could he not have marked the Queen!? How could he not even think of her at all!? I just don’t believe it! Not only that, it wasn’t something forced upon…

Goddammit I was mad!

As soon as I brought up his kid, he was the one that seemed to have enough guts to get away from me and I couldn’t handle that!

I had earlier felt second to his Queen, but now, I see I might not even be third!

Me, his destined mate, wasn’t important to him at all!

I was so jealous that I had the urge to kill them, because I wanted to be his number one!

And that had given me enough courage to leave and calm down.

…Not long after leaving his embrace and presence, I realized that I can’t act and think this way, as he…He obviously loves them very much. It would make him sad if something happened to them and just the thought of me being the person to make my own mate sad, made me feel worse…

I was stuck. Rejected by an Omega…My god, I’m glad I never told anyone that he was my mate!

…How embarrassing.

Falling down against the tree, I hated myself for thinking that we might have had a small chance. He was so compliant, and I swear he wanted me, and not just sexually…

What did he say, he wrote a letter?

Automatically, I was eager to know what he had written. Was it that he was sorry? Was it that he agreed to what I had said to him back then, that we can’t be together?

I hated this! I hated being so negative!

Before I had met him, I thought anyone would be proud to have me as a mate…Now…I felt inadequate…

But…I saw it earlier…He was determined to get rid of me, just because he wanted to sleep!

I laughed at the thought.

Here I was anxious and nervous…What a waste!

What the hell was I waiting for all these years?

Lifting my legs up, I put my arms on them and put my head on my arms. The pain from moving my hand and arm, actually made me feel a little better…

It really hurts…

Before he wasn’t able to help from getting a chosen mate, as he hadn’t met me and so he had moved on. Having thought about this prior to his supposed visit, after I had met him, I found out that he was well into his thirties, so I can understand why had had chosen a mate, I do…Now…Now we had been together, and he was…

Did I…Did I want him to leave them for me, leave his chosen mate and kid…Was that why I was acting strange?

What a stupid question, of course I want my mate, he was undeniably mine already!

But, even though I feel this way, I just felt like he would choose her over me…Like he has already chosen her over me…

…It really did look like that I will have to find a chosen mate and start living a life without my destined mate.

I knew of this before, but…It’s like I’ve finally accepted it. Well, at least the thought of it. My wolf didn’t like the idea at all though…

Hearing noises come from the distance of The History Pack, I looked up and found that an alarm had gone off. People raced from different directions and I wondered what had happened.

Being really close to the edge of the boundary, I could only just hear and see this in the distance and…

My heart was already breaking, so the pain of my mate’s rejection didn’t help me to concentrate.

“Alpha?”

I turned to Simon and then nodded towards the commotion ahead, “Go and see what’s going on.”

“Yes, Alpha!”

I watched my man run in and stayed there, not able to find any kind of strength or enthusiasm to do anything else.

I couldn’t run back to him, yet…

It would be easier if I hated him…If I hated him, I could potentially move on…

Maybe, after a few years…Or decades, I’d be able to forget that we had been destined mates in the past and we’d be just like how others are together, just a King and an Alpha of one of his packs…