Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate Chapter 22 - 23

Elodie’s POV

The mont Mila’s arms wrapped around , I almost broke. It had been a month since I’d seen her, but the second she pulled into her hug, sothing inside caved.

“Elodie!” she whispered like she’d been holding my na on her tongue for weeks.

I managed a faint smile, hugging her back tighter than I ant to. “Took you long enough.”

But my voice cracked on the words.

We sank onto the couch, trying to fall back into that easy rhythm we’d always had, but nothing about was easy anymore. My chest felt like it had been carved open, and no matter how much I tried to keep it together, grief had a way of leaking through the cracks.

She reached for my hand, her eyes clouded with guilt. “God, El... I’m so sorry about this ss. I should never have told him where you were. What the hell was I thinking?”

I squeezed her fingers gently. “Don’t. Don’t do that to yourself.” I forced a shrug. “If you hadn’t told him, Calhoun would’ve just sent soone to track anyway. Better it happened the way it did. A clean break hurts less than being dragged through it slowly.”

The lie tasted like ash on my tongue. There was nothing clean about the way it ended. Nothing clean about the way he had ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it, then dared to look at like he owned the pieces.

Mila didn’t look convinced. Her jaw clenched like she wanted to argue, but instead her gaze flicked past . My stomach twisted before I even turned. I didn’t need to. I could feel it, the heavy pull of his stare.

Calhoun. He was across the room, pretending not to look, but I knew better.

His wolf was restless, I could sense it. Every line of his body scread that he was morizing , hoarding every detail, like he had any right left to.

I hated him for it. I hated myself more for the way my heart still stuttered under his gaze.

Mila’s voice cut through, not caring if Calhoun overheard or not. “Real talk, El... if Carla had never co back, would you and my brother have ended up together?”

The air froze.

I looked at Mila, then at him. His attention snapped toward like the words were life or death. His jaw tightened, his hands fisted at his sides, his eyes desperate, hungry for an answer that could rewrite history.

If Carla hadn’t shown up, would I still be his?

The truth hit so hard that my heart slightly caved in. I had asked myself that question a thousand tis in the silence of my apartnt, in the monts when my chest ached so bad I couldn’t breathe. But now, standing here, with him watching like I was the last breath of air in a burning room, I knew.

No.

Because if it hadn’t been Carla, it would have been soone else. Another distraction. Another storm he let sweep aside. His sudden desperation now wasn’t love, it was panic. Panic that he’d lost control of .

I pushed my hair back, steadying my voice even as my heart bled. “Not a chance.”

The words ca out flat, and final.

His face faltered, a crack splitting through the mask he always wore. For once, Calhoun Damaris, Alpha, billionaire, untouchable, looked human. Broken.

And it wrecked .

But I didn’t take the words back. I couldn’t. If I let even an inch of softness slip through, I’d crumble right back into him. And I wouldn’t survive that a second ti.

Nobody asked why. They didn’t need to. The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on. Mila’s hand was still in mine, and Calhoun’s stare burned into my skin like a brand I’d never escape.

But I held my ground.

Because loving him had already cost everything.

Mila dragged back to our Pack in New York like I was half-dead, and maybe I was. I didn’t fight her. I didn’t fight anything. My body moved, but my wolf had gone silent, buried beneath the wreckage of what I’d done.

The empire was bleeding. The Damaris na, once untouchable, was now hanging by threads, contracts collapsing, stock falling. I sat in my office like a ghost while my sister stepped into the fire to salvage what she could. She should’ve hated . Maybe she did. But she stayed.

A folder landed in front of with a dull thud.

“Found sothing,” Mila said, her voice flat. “Figured you should know before you drown yourself any further.”

My hands shook as I pulled it open. Photographs. Docunts. Receipts. Carla’s whole European history laid out in black and white. Not studying. Not building a future. No... but just n. Parties. Yachts. Several erased pregnancies.

The girl I thought I once loved was totally unrecognizable. Or maybe she’d always been this and I was the blind fool who painted her as pure.

I stared at the pictures until my vision blurred, waiting for rage, for jealousy, for so shred of love to stir. Nothing. Just emptiness. A flatline in my chest.

When I closed my eyes, it wasn’t Carla I saw. It was Elodie. Always Elodie. Her laugh. Her tears. The way she’d stayed late at the office, coffee in hand, looking at like I was worth saving. Every mory of her carved deeper into until I couldn’t breathe.

And the cruelest thought of all, ten years from now, would she fade too? Would even her face blur into nothing if I let ti keep dragging forward? My stomach twisted at the idea. I couldn’t lose her twice.

“I’ll get myself together,” I rasped, though my voice was nothing but broken gravel. I forced my eyes to Mila, forced a smile that wasn’t a smile at all. “But first, I owe you sothing.”

Before she could ask, I raised my hand and slamd it across my face with every ounce of strength I had left. The crack echoed through the office, so loud as a gunshot. Pain exploded, my skin stinging hot, blood flooding my mouth.

“Calhoun!” Mila’s eyes widened in horror.

I spat blood onto the floor and t her stare, unflinching. “For hitting you over Carla. That was my sin. We’re even now.”

She looked at like I was a stranger. Her eyes softened, but she didn’t know whether to hold or hate . In the end, she just sighed, her voice trembling. “Don’t do this to yourself again. Maybe one day you’ll et soone else. Just... try not to burn yourself alive next ti.”

Her hope stabbed deeper than her disappointnt. I didn’t correct her. Let her cling to illusions. I already knew the truth. There would never be anyone else. Elodie was the beginning and the end. And I’d destroyed her.

When she left, silence pressed down in the office like a coffin lid. My hands moved slowly, thodically, gathering the photos of Carla like I was gathering evidence at a trial. My wolf inside stirred then, restless, teeth bared. Not for grief this ti, but vengeance.

I stood. The air in the office suddenly felt suffocating, stale. My steps carried not upward, but down the stairs. Always down.