The Alpha's Mistake

-Chapter 3-

CHAPTER 3: Breakdown

I woke up the next day, confused and disoriented and the only thought on my mind, was the fact that I MISSED DINNER! And no one even woke me up?! What a bunch of traitors.

I rolled out of bed, initially the plan was to go downstairs and shove food down my mouth, howeverrr- my stomach had different plans as it started gurgling and contributed to the strong feelings of nausea I was suddenly experience.

I ran to the bathroom and emptied my stomach. Weird. Must've been something I ate. Quickly flushing the toilet, I brushed my teeth and washed my face, not worrying myself too much regarding my sudden vomit.

Once I was downstairs, I took this chance to lash out at Knox for not waking me up for dinner.

"Ahem." I annoyingly cleared my throat infront of the TV, where Knox had hooked up his Xbox, and was animatedly playing.

"Oi! I'm playing! Move your fat ass out the way, sis", he had the audacity to get rude to me. How dare he.

"Ari! Breakfast is ready!", my mom called, and I tutted at Knox and left the room- not before slapping the back of Knox's head of course.

I walked over to the breakfast bar, and sat on one of the stools, looking up at my mother through my lashes. She was probably going to lecture me about my bastard of a mate. I won't lie, I'm painstakingly hurt by Dmitri's rejection, but I didn't want anyone to pity me. Most of all, I didn't need my own mother pitying me and giving me talks about how sometimes people can make wrong choices.

Dmitri didn't just make a 'wrong choice', he ruined my life. He isn't a breastleeching infant, he's a grown man for the Moon Goddess' sake! He knew what he was doing and he still went through with it, KNOWING he was tearing me apart with his cruel words of rejection.

"Mom, I know you feel bad for me, but please stop it. I really don't want anyones sympathy, especially not my own mothers. I'll get through it mom." I reassured my mom by giving her a fake smile, to act as if I was happy. I wasn't.

"I won't talk to you about what happened if you don't want me to, but just know that you'll always be my beautiful baby. I love you, hermosa." By the last line my mother had come forwards and pressed a short kiss to my temple to comfort me.

Luckily for me, who felt insanely awkward during emotional times, Knox walked in and demanded food, only to receive a smack on the back of his head from mom.

Dad came and sat down and we all began having breakfast. My plate consisted of a sky-high stack of pancakes, absolutely slathered in maple syrup with a tiny cube of melting butter on top. Oh, and some berries. Don't want to be eating unhealthy now, do we?

Mostly we all just chomped up our breakfast, silently connected in a comfortable silence, until my father cleared his throat.

He was visibly stressed, and I was worried about whatever he was going to say or do next.

"The Alpha...he.." he trailed on, not completing his sentence.

"What about the Alpha? How's Gretel by the way? I really need to catch up with her soon bec-", my mother's rambling was cut short by a sharp glare from dad. Gretel was Dmitri's mother, and the Luna alongside her Alpha mate- Dmitri's father who was called John.

"No..um, it's regarding Dmitri, actually. Dmitri is the future Alpha and tonight it will be officially announced. Everyone has to attend, otherwise they'll be kicked out of the pack. It's tradition that everyone attends." My father solemnly stated, not meeting my eyes as he probably knew I wouldn't take well to this news.

"Well Ari you can just stay at home, we won't go for long anyways." My mother reassured me.

"But Amelia, you know we can't do that! Ari and all of us will risk going rogue if she doesn't attend!" Dad argued, obviously not wanting his only daughter to have to become a rogue all due to her disgrace of a mate. Well, ex-mate.

"Nonsense, Gary ! That foolish boy rejected our daughter and you expect her to actually attend the celebration of him becoming the packs new Alpha?!!" My mother shrieked, she wasn't having any of this.

"Mom, dad, stop! I understand your point mom, and thank you so much for being so considerate about me, but I won't make you guys have to suffer because of me. I won't let our family reputation be tarnished because of the fact that my mate doesn't want me. I'll go." I said firmly, pressing my lips afterwards to stop any whimpers leaving them.

I shoved my chair back and left the room, running down the hallway into the patio, where I pulled on some sneakers and ran out of the house.

Near my house was a cute, little clearing, that I often visited whenever I was upset. It was a place that I had not shared with anyone- not even my closest friend Mia.

Mia was one of my most important friends, and we shared everything with each other. She had an older sister - Stella, who both of us disliked mutually. Even with all their differences, Mia and Stella looked strikingly similar, and the only difference I could pick out between them, was Mia's constant smiling face, and Stella's permanently etched scowl. Stella was always looking for trouble, lashing out at us with snarky remarks and what not.

But right now, the thought of meeting Mia scared me. How would I explain to her that I had found my mate, slept with him, and was rejected by him all within a mere span of about twelve or so hours?

I sat on top of the hollow, moss-encased, tree trunk and stared at the heart shaped pond of crystal clear water infront of me.

Not being able to contain the rising emotions in me, I picked up as many pebbles as I could and threw them one by one into the pond.

Each time I threw a pebble, I'd scream something along the lines of
"He rejected me"
"He hates me"
"No one wants me"
"I'm too ugly for him"

With a crack in my voice each time. I screamed. I screamed as loud as I possibly could have. I let my feelings tear out of my throat in guttural and shrieking sounds.  It felt nice to have a breakdown every now and then. The issue with our youth is that we don't breakdown enough.

We never gave our minds as much importance as anything else. So all we do is pile emotions on top of each other, continuing to do so until a tragedy so strongly upsetting, would eventually shake our Jenga tower of repressed emotions to its wooden core.

I relaxed myself back onto the tree trunk, and tried taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down.

Upon hearing a twig snap, I sharply turned around to see the cause of the noise and to my surprise, I was met with the brooding stare of.... Dmitri?