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Caelan POV

2 years ago

I bang on the door yelling out her name with no response.

My heart is breaking into a million pieces and I have no idea how to process any of this, I am losing my fucking mind and she won't answer the fucking door. I shouldn't have left, when she said those words to me 'I Acela Shaw reject you, Caelan Black'... I was completely and utterly out of it that I don't even remember moving, my wolf took over my body and I blacked out.

As soon as I woke up to a trashed bedroom and a scar on my chest from Rion, my wolf. I ran here as fast as I could to explain myself to Acela, I had to, I couldn't let her go- not when I just found her.

What have you done Caelan, what have you done!

"ACELA!" I knock again, this time a little harder.

Why isn't she answering me? God fucking dammit. What if she's hurt?

Feeling my anger and paranoia get the best of me I kick in her front door to her apartment. "ACELA?" I yell out as I shove the broken door out of my way and step into the room.

I sniff the air and it's faint but I smell her, fuck. Her smell.. it's faint but gone.

Everything of hers that was once here is gone.

No no no no, this is not fucking happening.

I do not remember what happened next other than seeing my dad Kane snap me out of my destructive meltdown and drag me out of the room forcefully.

When I came about to my senses and was dragged away I had seen what I had done, the room was trashed and I destroyed every single thing in the room that belonged to her, the wallpaper had claw marks so deep it went through the wall of the next room, I ripped everything off the walls, anything and everything I could see I completely destroyed.

I destroyed everything, I did this... I ruined this and it's all my fault..

*****

It's been a month since the rejection from my mate, Acela Shaw.

In that time I took a good look at my life and got rid of everything and anyone I did not need.

Starting with my first mistake, Arabella Grinmorte.

My family found out everything after I destroyed Acela's room.. I told them everything that I had done and what had happened, that I had been seeing Arabella out of loneliness and stupidity and keeping my mate in the dark of my wrongdoings.

Since then my wolf Rion has disappeared and refuses to speak to me and doesn't let me shift and my father refuses to look at me, we do not even try to speak to each other anymore.

I replay the scene over and over in my head every day, her smiling, laughing, looking at me.. I savor every moment we shared and then like a nightmare it hits me hard.. I think about every single time I hid things from her and lied to her, the look on her face telling me to leave, her crying face has haunted me every single day and night since that day.

I know I do not deserve her after what I have done to her.

I knew it as soon as I first met her. I knew when I landed in The Vale the very first day I met her that she was here, I knew it.. and like I was on autopilot I somehow ended up in the staff side of the palace, and there I was, in the laundry room staring at the most beautiful girl I have ever laid my eyes on. Her long wavy chocolate brown hair, her slender body, and curvy hips, those big beautiful blue eyes, I was lost in the moment, I couldn't believe my eyes that she was there and that she was feet away from me.

I should have told her there and then and be over it, beg for forgiveness and pray to the moon goddess to spare my soul and hope she will still want me. But I was terrified of losing her. I thought that if I could go at her pace I would have the right moment to end things with Arabella.

Arabella and I had been friends for many years but only recently we started to see each other, it wasn't planned and I definitely did not have any attraction for her, it was always my mate I longed for and she knew this. She had also spent her time with me for the same reason, we were mate-less and giving each other attention because of how alone we felt, she was the only one who could relate with me and I found deep comfort in that fact.

When I told her it was over, that was it, we had never felt attracted to each other anyway so it was no big deal, we knew whatever we created was bound to end with no strings attached, but to me, I lost my mate and the respect of my family that day, being alone ruined my fucking life and I lost Acela, my mate.

I told Arabella I was done and we went our separate ways.

It was half a year later I finally found out where Acela was. She was still in The Vale, no longer than 20 minutes away from me in wolf form. I haven't shifted since Rion stopped speaking to me, we both felt the bond break, it tore us apart for months and it still is breaking me apart.

I open the envelope in my hands, inside is proof that Acela is in The Vale, I was told photos, location, timestamps, and her schedule is all inside.

I take a deep breath as my heartbeat quickens and I take the contents from inside out and the first thing I see is my beautiful mate.

She stands next to another man as they happily smile towards the camera outside of a shop called 'Coffee Heaven' and my insides flip at the thought of her with another male other than me. I can't move my eyes away from how good she looks, she's healthy and smiling, she looks really happy in this photo.

The other photos are obviously taken from a distance as there are some of her next to an old couple I recognize instantly as Aldines, they are a well-known family in The Vale. It states in the file that she has been living with them for over a year and I can't believe what I am reading.

She never left, she stayed in The Vale.

She's still here..

I look at the times of her shop's opening hours and it's currently only 11:am, she will be there and I can see her.

I scribble down the location quickly of the shop then my feet move before I can process what is happening, I'm out the door as fast as I can run. The only thing I am thinking about is seeing her again, I need to know if those photos are real, I need to see for my own eyes that she is ok and safe, every bone in my bone just needs to know she's there.

After dodging people in the halls and running down the steps of the palace, I call my driver Tumas and instruct him to take me to the café as fast as he can. The drive wasn't long, roughly it took me 30 minutes with Tumas breaking many speeding limits that my father placed in The Vale, but I couldn't give a fucking care in the world right now, nothing and no one is stopping me right now.

I feel the car slow down as I see 'Coffee Heaven' feet away from me. "Pull over right there." I instruct to the opposite side of the shop.

My heart is beating out of my chest. I don't see her yet but I see people coming and going from her shop smiling happily holding a cup full of human coffee.