Leah's Fate

Leah's POV

The cart Amon had always used for his travels had just arrived, and I was waiting for him to step out of it.

My fingers were slightly shaky and sweaty, and I simply rubbed them on the gown I was wearing to avoid everyone's notice.

"Amon?" I called out, taking a step closer to the cart.

He had spent an unusual amount of time inside, and that was starting to raise concern. It was concerning what his mum, Raguel, had told me. It was piercing deep into me, blurring the good memories I had. But Amon whom I knew could not be involved in such, especially when it was against our relationship.

"Amon couldn't have cheated on me…" I muttered to myself.

I had become restless.

Finally, he stepped out of the cart, and the thoughts I had in mind dismissed like there was nothing for me to worry about.

"Amon!" I rushed to hug him.

I made our lips touch, grabbing him closer to myself, but his eyes simply stared at me, moving his head backward. I noticed he took a step backward, trying to pull my hands off him. That was unlike him.

"Amon." Raguel, who was standing at the entrance of the hall, called out.

He withdrew himself from me, gasping. "Leah… Things have changed between us."

My eyebrows arched at him, and holding him by his elbows, I scanned his face. "Is everything alright with you?"

His eyes gazed at Raguel, and then at me, still shaking his head. "Our little secret of you being my mate cannot continue…"

Cold shivers instantly came on me as though I was placed on ice, but I was sweating at the same time. The nauseous feeling I'd been having since the previous day had begun to stir up.

He sighed. "There's no use for us to pretend we're mates… There's really no use…"

Tears formed at the corners of my eyes, and I turned backwards to look at Raguel. Her hands were clasped at her sides, her eyes glaring daggers at me.

"You told her… Didn't you?" My voice was shaky.

He nodded. "I just had to."

Amon and I weren't mates, but we'd decided to turn our relationship into that of mates just so we could go through the marking process. That came with telling his parents that we were mates, which was against their pack's rule.

That was the lie we had to tell, and no one was supposed to get a clue about it.

"Raguel… She… told me you've got another girl pregnant…" I struggled to say each word that came out of me.

"It's not just that… There's something else…"

My wet eyes narrowed at him, gripping him by his shirt. "Something more than that?"

"I've found my mate."

A girl stepped out of the cart. Her belly was swollen, and she seemed to walk with some difficulty. Amon pulled my hands off him to hold her waist, offering her support.

"She is…" My finger pointed at her. "She's your mate?"

My forehead was sweating, and also my palms. Everyone was watching me. It was as though I was standing on a stage, trying to make a performance.

"Who's she?" The girl frowned at me.

His face hardened at me, and he kissed her jaw. "My ex-lover, Leah."

He called me an ex-lover? At first, I doubted my ears were working, but he said it a second time.

"Leah." He went on. "Meet Claudia, my mate."

"Hi." Claudia waved her hand at me with a smug expression on her face.

"Amon…" I opened my mouth to speak but the words couldn't form.

Together, they walked into the hall, and I froze on the spot where I was standing. I got the feeling that everything was spinning before my eyes, like I was going to fall.

Cristine, my friend who had come to this supposed marking ceremony with me, came to hold my hands.

"Sorry." Her fingers wiped the tears rolling down my jaws.

I took her hands off me, but she stuck with me, not intending to leave me for just a slight moment.

"I have to tell you all the truth." I heard Amon's voice.

He was standing at the stage of the hall where I was supposed to be standing with him for the marking process.

"It's concerning Leah and I…"

He kissed Claudia on her lips. She smiled.

I heard murmur from the crowd of people.

"Actually… Leah was never my mate. This ceremony was actually a way for me to mark her without the mating process…"

The hall turned quiet to the extent that the only thing I could hear was the sound of my heavy breathing.

"I've got my fated mate." He wrapped his hands around Claudia's waist. "And she has my child growing in her womb."

At that instance, I felt my chest tighten. I climbed the stage, held his hands, allowing fresh tears to pour out of my eyes.

"Amon… You could also make me your mate… Nothing should cause a tear in our relationship… Please…"

I had heard many instances of males having two mates, and the only thought that came to my mind was for him to also make me his mate alongside Claudia.

"Leave." He pulled my hands off him.

I did not move a step away, just looking at him, and allowing my tears to wet my cloth.

"Leave!" He shouted.

I went on to grab his wrists as though I hadn't heard a word he said.

He moved his hands forward against me. I lost my footing and felt myself fall down the stage.

I heard noises after that. Most of the crowd had left their seats to come around me. My vision had turned blurry, but I could see Amon and Claudia kissing. To them, nothing dire was happening.

"She's bleeding!" Cristine screamed.

Everything turned dark at that point.

Some time must have passed, probably some hours or more that I couldn't take actual note of it. I opened my eyes with a weak effort, staring at the roof of a room. My whole body felt numb.

"Where's this place?" I struggled to turn my head to each side.

Cristine was sitting on a chair beside the bed I was laid on.

"Cristine… Cristine…" My faint voice rang out.

She yawned, touching my shoulders. "You are awake?"

"Where is… This place?"

I could tell I had never been in it. I could see clearly, but even if I couldn't, the smell of the room could tell me.

"We are close to our pack," she said. "This place is a form of hospital."

My heart skipped a bit, and I forced my back off the bed. "Does anyone from home know I'm here?"

"No." She shook her head. "I reasoned you wouldn't like that."

I sighed. I wouldn't want my father and mum, the Alpha and Luna of our pack, to know I did a crazy act of trying to undergo the marking process without the mate bond.

"Amon…" I voiced out.

The thought of what transpired between us occurred to me, and I turned to face the other side of the bed, trying not to look at Cristine.

The room door opened, and a man who had a broad smile on his face walked inside.

"Have you told her that–"

I noticed Cristine raised her hand to cut him off.

My eyes narrowed at her. "What is it you're supposed to tell me?"

Her hands went to her back as she formed a fake smile on her face, but avoided looking at me. "It's nothing… I can tell you some other time."

"Tell me now." I pressed. My curiosity had risen.

But what was hard to say? Except it was too important, or too dreadful.

Slowly, she forced herself to look at me. "He told me you're…"

But she stopped, rubbing her palms together as though the words were too heavy for her to say.

"Just say it, what's hard to say?"

"You're pregnant…."