The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 169: A million tiny pieces.

~Dahlia’s POV~

"What’s your relationship with Orion? My Orion?!" She seethed, causing me to let out a long sigh before turning to the male in question.

His eyebrows instantly shot into his hairline as he turned to look at me. "Nothing." I muttered, turning away.

My response seemed to not sit well with Elodie because she then rolled her eyes, fixing me with a glare cold enough to freeze water. "It didn’t look like ’nothing’ some moments ago!"

"Then he’s here!" I seethed, now infuriated, "... right beside you! So maybe you should ask him yourself. But from where I see things, there’s nothing going on between us besides the fact that he used to want me to ma—"

"Dahlia, enough!" Orion growled.

I rolled my eyes. Elodie balked, turning to him with her now cold glare. "Why? What are you trying to stop her from saying?"

The tension in the room rose by a hundred notches as soon as that question slipped out of her mouth and I couldn’t help but notice the way Orion glanced at me briefly before turning to Kai, as if asking the latter to help him out. Kai looked away.

"Orion?" Elodie gasped, her eyes glistening as tears sprang into them. "You were with her? Didn’t you just say she was Zarek’s mate or was she two-timing you both?"

The implication of what her statement meant hit me like a freight train, and rage like no other sizzled through my veins as I angrily rose to my feet, ignoring the way my knees protested when I did. "Excuse you?!"

"No, excuse you!" She spat so coldly it was a wonder that the entire room wasn’t freezing cold at the moment. "I’m not surprised that she’d do that, seeing as she’s already stringing my brother along too."

Wait, what?

Now that was the extent to which I could take it. My anger flared. I stormed over to Orion, my eyes wild with rage and goddess, I had only wanted to shove him hard. I wanted to push him, to snap him back to the present. Maybe I had hoped that he would clear my name.

But who was I kidding?

This was Orion.

The same man who watched me get bullied for several months without doing anything. The same one who stood behind Jennifer when she and those stupid elders made my life a living hell.

Maybe the pent up rage from all those memories was what pushed me, but when I shoved his shoulders, it wasn’t just hard like I had expected. My eyes widened as he fell several feet away from me, his back hitting the wall across from us with a crunch before he crashed to the floor.

A series of gasps rippled through the room, but I paid no heed. I was furious.

"Dahlia?!" This time, it was Elodie who yelled out loud, cursing explosively under her breath as she rushed to go check on Orion. When she saw that he was fine, choking for air but fine all the same, she rushed over and shoved me hard.

Goddess, I felt her hands on my shoulders, I felt her hit me. But for some reason, I didn’t budge, instead, my eyes widened as she shakily staggered backwards before crashing to the floor herself.

And now, that stunned me.

But not just me but everyone else in the room.

"You—?"

"Dahlia?"

"What the heck?"

They all rushed out simultaneously but I wasn’t focused enough to notice the strange looks they were throwing at me, or how Elodie scurried to her feet, her eyes now wide with panic, and something else. Something that if I was in the right frame of mind, I would’ve called it... recognition.

But I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. My attention was on Orion, and Orion alone. I growled; "You know, for a moment there, I thought that things would be different. That this time, you would help me out. I thought you would tell Elodie the truth— that I was never two-timing you and Alpha Zarek, and that all the times you came at me, I turned you down..."

"Dahlia..." 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"But who was I kidding?" I growled, interrupting him. "It’s you of course! You who would always lie about how you care about my daughter and I while you watched us suffer. You who would side with Jennifer and the rest to bully me. You would watch them beat me up even when you knew that I wasn’t wrong..."

"You know that’s a lie." He spat, rising to his feet. When he took some steps toward me, I responded by taking some back. "You know I cared about you. I cared about Amara too."

At the sound of his words, I scoffed just as something akin to nausea settled at the base of my stomach. My rage was palpable and it was coursing through my veins, threatening to burn everything in its wake.

I dragged my eyes along his body as I spat; "Care?" You call that thing you used to do care? Beta Orion, you only cared enough to remind me to marry you, promising to make my life better if I agreed. You wanted me to be your wife, and my daughter your daughter’s sister. But since I never agreed, my life didn’t get any better. Or did it?"

Orion gulped. Elodie gasped. "You—" but she wasn’t pointing at me. Orion was the one at the other end of her wrath.

"Was it better when I was paraded for stealing when I didn’t even steal anything? Was it better when I was beaten for no reason? Tortured? Locked in the dungeons because you all felt like? Was it better when I was continuously being attacked? Poisoned? Or even that one time when I fell from the top of the fortress and almost lost my life, yet everyone tried to convince me that I had tried to take my life?"

"Oh my goodness!"

"That was beyond m—" Orion began to say but I quickly cut him off.

"Yet, here you stand, feigning righteousness, pretending to be mad at me because I’d tried to save myself and my daughter by fleeing from the pack. Tell me, wouldn’t you do the same if you were in my shoes?!"

The silence that weighed between us was so heavy, it felt like a large boulder sat over my shoulders. However, it was soon broken by Elodie’s sharp intake of breath and I felt when she turned to me even before I saw her.

She muttered; "Dahlia, I didn’t—" but I was done listening to her. Done looking at her. She was just like everyone else. They all were like everyone else.

"Save it!" I snapped, raising my hands in a gesture that silenced her. "I now know what you think of me and frankly, I’m glad. You don’t have to pretend anymore. And yes, sorry for ’stringing your brother along’." I snapped, ignoring the shocked look on her face as I turned to face Kai who was still seated on his chair, his face a mask of utter confusion.

"Alpha Kai," I drawled, noticing the way he flinched as soon as the words rang in the air between us.

"Kai."

"Alpha Kai. I want to leave... with my daughter. Tonight. So please, if you have found any new leads about my father, let me know. He’s the only reason I’m still here in the first place."

My words hurt him. I could feel it. I could see it in the way he flinched ever so slightly, his gaze hardening with each passing second. Slowly, he rose to his feet, dragged his gaze between Elodie and Orion before he dropped it to meet my eyes.

"I’ve not found anything new."

"Then there’s no need for me to remain here." I spat, turning to leave but halted when his voice stopped me.

"And where will you go?" He asked, his voice low but deep, hinting at something that felt like worry.

I shrugged. "Nowhere, anywhere. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t waste my time telling you, seeing as I want to be as far from y’all as possible."

Elodie shuffled forward. I noticed the moment Orion tried to touch her and how she recoiled from him as if he stank. And yes, that made something deep inside of me happy— maybe not exactly happy, but glad that they were getting a taste of their own medicine.

She cried; "I’m sorry I spoke to you the way I did earlier, I was only angry. I was mad because I thought you had something to do with Orion..."

"Have you ever heard of the saying that goes: hold onto whatever a man tells you when mad, because that’s exactly how they feel about you?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind." I spat, and with that, I turned and left, ignoring their mumbled cries of disagreement... and the way my heart felt like it was shattering into a million tiny pieces.

Well, fuck them!