Wiping old tears with the back of her hands only to feel new ones slide down her face, unable to stop it.
"In my life, everything else took a backseat. I-I loved you more than myself and you chose, being Alpha over me,"
"That was to save you. Can't you see that I had no--"
"THERE'S ALWAYS A CHOICE! You were stuck between a hard place and you chose to sacrifice me," Tahra yelled at the top of her lungs listening to the echoes of her voice in the silence around them.
The weather was good and the sun was gently poking out of the blue clouds but Tahra didn't care about any of it.
"Did you ever think to consider the pain I felt Or it was fine because it was temporary? What about my reputation can you fix that too?" Tahra continued speaking ignoring the tears that cascaded down her face.
"You came chasing after me because god forbid you lose on both sides?"
"That's not true! You're taking this the wrong way!"
"Your Pack or me, pick one!"
"Wha-what?"
"ZANE! YOUR PACK OR ME, PICK ONE!" Tahra aggressively yelled, increasing the pitch of her voice.
"Why would you even ask me such a thing?"
"The difference between us is, I would have chosen you in the blink of an eye," Tahra calmly told him turning back around to walk back to the car the very next second.
"Tahra, wait!" Zane called out to her grabbing hold of her elbow to stop her only to feel Tahra immediately jerk her arm away.
"I—"
"For your information, all those men slept with me. I don't remember it but I knew it the moment I woke up," Tahra said lying through her teeth, feeling some satisfaction to see the dark look that immediately appeared in his light blue eyes.
He didn't speak but she could tell that his wolf and pride as an Alpha were hurt.
Her first intention was to reject him only to settle for hurting him the second she realized that she couldn't bring herself to do so yet. Finding out that others touched his mate before he could was something that would piss him off.
Without looking back, Tahra walked back to the car and got in, ordering the driver to move the second she closed the car door behind her.
A moment of silence followed with Herret unable to bring herself to speak as she vaguely listened to the soft sounds of Tahra wiping her face and clearing her throat to remove all signs of crying.
It wasn't until there were only a few minutes left for Tahra to arrive at the border that Herret finally felt compelled to speak. Knowing that they would soon have to part ways.
"You spoke to him, right? What did he say?" Herret kindly asked to which Tahra turned and fixed her teary and puffy eyes on her.
"He had nothing to say Herret because there was nothing to say," Was Tahra's response as she shook her head with a sad expression on her, turning her head to the side and fixing her gaze at the trees around them as the car continued to zoom on.
There was nothing more Herret could say after Tahra spoke as the conversation completely died from there until they got right to the border, where Tahra had to be dropped.
"I-I can come with--"
"It'll be better if I go in alone!" Tahra said, the expression on her face softening the moment she heard Herret's voice break and saw the tears in her eyes.
"It's not like you won't see me again," Tahra pointed out even as Herret seemed to see nothing but the huge walls that lined the border.
"Why did it have to be Territory A? You know the past history between us and them," Herret pointed out, realizing that it wasn't too late for them to go to X' or any other territory.
"'A' is the closest. I figured I'd be able to see you guys more often that way," Tahra replied. She was aware of the old beef between Z and A territories considering how much land Z was able to acquire during the mini war but Tahra didn't care.
"Moreover, it has nothing to do with me!" Tahra said, hearing the driver signal that he had offloaded all of Tahra's things.
Tahra immediately moved closer and hugged Herret to say her final goodbyes, but she had just pulled away when Herret asked her an unexpected question that she seemed to have been holding in.
"Are--are you going to reject Zane?"
Tahra couldn't even pretend not to be stunned as her eyes immediately widened from the shock of hearing it.
For her to be assigned another divine mate, she indeed needed to reject Zane, but that would mean that they could never again become mates.
"I-I will." Tahra finally managed to stutter after a couple of seconds of staring speechlessly at Herret.
But even as Tahra waved at her and watched the driver drive off, Tahra knew that all she did was lie.
If she could bring herself to reject him, she would have done so already. Which only made her heart ache even more at how easily Zane had opened his mouth to do the same.
***************
Talon's eyes were fixed on his phone, slightly annoyed to not get a response from Zane even after sending more than four consecutive messages.
'He should be back by now. I'm sure once he explains to her, she'll forgive him,' Talon thought confident of how much Tahra loved Zane.
'She should be able to take this much if she's to ever become Luna,' Talon thought. He didn't dislike her especially since she was his girlfriend's (Herret) best friend but simply felt she should be fine with sacrificing more.
"Look who's here cleaning after my brother like always!" Talon heard jerking his head up to see Xion who he immediately scrowled and glared at.
"Don't give me that look! For a few seconds today you and I were on the same side," Xion whispered as he came to stand in front of him saying words that only pissed Talon off the more.
"Shut up Xion! We had a deal, nothing more. If you ever dare to bring it up again, I'll rip out your throat!" Talon swore with a hate-filled look in his eyes as he glared at Xion, who continued to smile with visible excitement on his face.
"Of course, a deal is a deal but think of what we could accomplish–"
"Zane is the Alpha and although you're his brother I can still accuse you of being a traitor. Don't test me!" Talon said, shooting a warning look at Xion before turning around to walk in the opposite direction.