Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by his Brother
Chapter 164: _ You Did This To Me

Chapter 164: _ You Did This To Me

I could hear Rosa sputtering behind us, frantically trying to salvage the moment. "Axel, baby, I...I didn’t mean to! You know how I get when I’m emotional! I was just... I was just trying to protect you!"

He didn’t look back. Neither did I.

I followed him without hesitation, my body still aching, but I barely noticed. He was taking me to my room. To talk. To finally give me the chance I had been praying for.

Rosa’s footsteps pounded against the floor as she ran after us. "Axel, mi amor, wait! Please, I didn’t mean it! You know I love you."

We reached my door. I stepped inside first.

Axel hesitated at the threshold. He looked guilty. So, so guilty. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

Rosa tried to follow us in, her hands reaching for him. "Axel, let’s just talk about this..."

I turned.

Met her wide, desperate eyes. And then I grabbed the door.

For the first time in a long time, I smiled. It was a slow victorious smirk.

And I slammed the door right in her face.

The sound of it slamming shut was like a gunshot echoing in the silence that followed. I stood there for a moment, my hand still resting on the knob.

Rosa was on the other side of that door, likely fuming. If I had any energy left, I might have laughed. But I didn’t.

I was too tired.

I exhaled slowly and turned to Axel.

He stood stiffly near the door, his hands dipped in his pockets. He looked guilty—so guilty. His jaw was tight and his eyes were downcast, refusing to meet mine.

Coward.

"Axel," I said quietly.

There was no reaction. He just stood there, blowing out air from his mouth. As if he was bracing himself.

I stepped closer, searching his face, trying to find the Axel I once knew in the man standing before but I almost couldn’t.

Where was MY Axel?

"Look at me," I said, firmer this time.

He didn’t. The rejection stung sharper than Rosa’s kick to my ribs.

"Look at me, Axel."

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. His fingers twitched, but he finally lifted his gaze to meet mine. His eyes were full of things he wasn’t saying, things I wasn’t sure I even wanted to hear.

I clenched my fists. I had to ask. I had to hear it from his lips.

"Please."

For another briefest second, his gaze darted toward me before quickly shifting away.

I swallowed hard, forcing down the lump in my throat.

"Is it true? Are you marrying Rosa?" I asked, wondering when I’d grow up so fast to stand up for what I wanted like this.

However, Axel didn’t answer.

He closed his eyes briefly before exhaling through his nose. And then, finally—he nodded.

"Yes."

It shouldn’t have hurt.

I already knew. I had seen the way Rosa draped herself over him, the way she declared him hers without hesitation, the way he had initiated it first today.

The fact that he knelt before my Father just because he wanted his approval after everything, the fact that Axel, who was literally a platter of ego did that already said enough.

I had already known.

But hearing it?

Hearing him say it so bluntly, so easily like it was just a fact, like it was as natural as breathing—felt like being sliced open with a dull blade.

Slowly and painfully.

I let out a shaky breath and forced myself to stay strong. I could crumble later. When I was alone. When he wasn’t looking.

Stay strong, María José. Don’t break.

I licked my lips, blinking back the tears that were threatening to rise in my eyes. "And what about me?"

Axel flinched.

"What about me?" I repeated. "Why did you come to my room that night, Axel? Why did you kiss me? What was I?"

There was a pause. Then, quietly... too quietly—he said, "A mistake."

A sharp pain shot through my chest, spreading like wildfire all over. It hurt so badly, I’d give anything to make it stop.

"A mistake," I repeated, letting the words settle and feeling them pierce through me. "Is that what you’re telling yourself? That I was nothing more than a mistake?"

Axel clenched his jaw. His whole body was rigid, like a man holding back something highly secretive. Was there more to this?

"That night... was the biggest mistake of my life," he ground out. "And if I could take it back, I would."

I felt like he had just kicked me in the ribs again.

Everything around me blurred; the walls, the floor, the fuzzy light of the room. All I could see was him—and the way he was tearing me apart piece by piece.

I couldn’t stop a hiccup, blinking against the burning in my eyes. "Then what about this?"

My hands trembled as I reached for the scarf wrapped tightly around my neck. The scarf I had worn every single day since that night. The scarf that protected me. That protected him.

Slowly, I untied it, letting the fabric slip through my fingers and pool onto the floor.

Axel’s eyes snapped to it immediately. I turned my head, exposing my skin to him. Exposing his mark.

His face paled. Yes, it better do.

The mark he had left. The mark that branded me, that tied me to him in a way that could never be undone.

I watched his expression carefully, looking for anything like guilt, regret, or anger. But all I saw was bleakness in his features.

Since when had Axel changed so much? Has he been playing me all along?

"You did this to me," I said, my voice breaking. "Do you have any idea what happens to an Omega who has been marked outside of the mate bond?"

Axel remained frozen, his throat bobbing as he swallowed hard.

"Do you know the consequences I will face? Do you know what they will call me? A desperate Omega who tried to seduce a high-ranking wolf. A disgrace. A liar. Some might even say I forced you. And do you know what happens to women like that in our pack, Axel?" My voice cracked. "They get banished. And with my Father, he’ll marry me off to an old, ugly, and devious rogue, claiming I have sullied the family’s name because I HAVE, Axel."

I took a moment to breathe, my chest rising and falling. "First, I am an Omega, and now, I got marked by my sister’s soon-to-be fiance outside of the mate bond?!"

Surely, there must be even an ounce of remorse and conscious left in him, right?

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