Chapter7-He Met His Ex-Wife!
Aiden’s POV
Haven’s shriek tore through the room like claws across glass, high-pitched and relentless. “We finally have the date set!” she squealed, spinning in front of the mirror like an overexcited pup. Her dress sparkled under the lights as she admired her reflection, completely absorbed in herself.
I leaned back in my chair, pressing my fingertips to my temple, breathing in slow, trying to summon the patience I knew I didn’t have. I’d learned long ago that trying to interrupt Haven when she was on one of her highs was like yelling into a storm. Futile.
The drive back from the pack’s headquarters was, mercifully, quiet. Haven rode beside me, thumbs tapping furiously on her phone, likely lost in a fantasy of color palettes and overpriced centerpieces.
Every now and then, she would grin at her screen like she’d just won a war. At a red light, I caught the smirk on her lips reflected in the passenger window. She noticed my glance.
“What?” she said sweetly, though her voice was anything but innocent.
“Excited about the dance?” I asked, my tone as neutral as I could manage.
She didn’t hesitate. “Of course. It’s for the elite. Not for strays and imposters.”
I clenched my jaw, eyes fixed on the road. She wasn’t being subtle. She never was, Rue. It was always Rue buried in the subtext, her name floating behind their every insult like a ghost they refused to exorcise. My family had always treated her like a charity case, never like one of us, never like she belonged.
I wasn’t her husband anymore, hadn’t been for years but that didn’t erase the fact that she was the mother of my child. That fact alone deserved some measure of respect. But in Haven’s world, empathy was a weakness.
When we reached the house, she trailed me inside, still buzzing, flipping through gown samples like she was selecting war paint.
“You know what this banquet means, right?” she said, flopping on the bed beside me as I loosened my tie. “It’s my chance to finally get close to the Blood Claw wolves. If I make the right impression tonight, they’ll realize I’m more than just your fiancée.”
I gave a faint nod, not looking at her. Her voice was background noise. My mind was on the real stakes of tonight. The Blood Claw Pack, the most powerful, secretive, and politically untouchable pack in the region, was finally opening its doors, and I was going to be on the inside. This could be the moment everything changed.
For years, I’d clawed my way through negotiations, politics, and rival alphas to try and secure even a sliver of an alliance. And tonight, I had a shot at finally earning it.
With the real estate proposal I’d crafted, I was banking on their interest. All I had to do was get through the door and pitch it to the right ears.
The banquet hall shimmered like a palace. The Blood Claw Pack never did anything without spectacle, and tonight was no exception.
Golden chandeliers dripped light over the sea of tuxedos and evening gowns. Heads turned as Haven and I entered, the crowd parting slightly. Cameras flashed, voices rose in a hum.
“Alpha Aiden! Over here!”
“Haven, smile for the press!”
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I kept my smile measured, nodding at the cameras while Haven basked in the glow, handing out her card to every breathing body with status. Her laugh was loud, just on the edge of shrill, and she clung to arms that didn’t belong to her, as if proximity equaled power.
She was trying so hard. Too hard. It made my skin crawl.
A sudden shift in the room’s energy rippled toward me like an electric current. Conversations dipped. Heads tilted.
“Alpha Cyrus has arrived.”
“He’s brought someone… a woman.”
“They say she’s special.”
My pulse kicked.
Alpha Cyrus, my target tonight. If I could get him to hear me out, to even consider a partnership, it would change the Half Moon Pack’s standing permanently. His alliance was the last piece in a puzzle I’d spent years constructing.
Haven’s hand slid into mine, her voice low. “Imagine if I became friends with her. That would seal everything. I’d be untouchable.”
I didn’t respond. My attention snapped to the ballroom entrance as the grand double doors swung open.
Alpha Cyrus entered like a storm front, dark, powerful, and impossible to ignore. Every step he took commanded silence. And beside him…
My breath stopped.
She walked in on his arm, tall and radiant, dressed in gold so luminous it seemed woven from firelight. Rue.
It was her.
Not a ghost, not a dream, definitely not a rumor, but Rue, in the flesh. Alive and thriving. Her posture was regal, her chin high, her every step calculated. She looked like she owned the room.
And for a moment, I hated her for it.
Gone was the broken woman I last saw, swallowed in hospital sheets and pain. She looked… untouchable and powerful. Like she belonged beside an Alpha of Cyrus’s stature. She was more than just doing okay, she had ascended.
She didn’t look at me. Didn’t acknowledge me. Didn’t falter. As if I never existed. As if the years we shared, the child we made, the pain we carved into each other, none of it mattered.
A storm surged through me, hot and corrosive.
I had imagined her in hiding, in suffering. I told myself she must be miserable, living in regret, missing the life she left behind. But she had done the opposite.
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She vanished, then returned as something more.
And she did it beside the one man who held everything I needed.
Anger burned through my chest, cold and fast, because it wasn’t just betrayal, it was humiliation. She had not only deceived me but also kept me in constant anxiety about her and her daughter’s lives-worried that they were leading a hard life, and even more afraid that something unexpected might happen to them.
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Chapter?-He Met His Ex-Wife!
My eyes were still locked on Rue.
Everything about tonight had shifted. It wasn’t about business anymore. Not about politics or alliances or property deals.
She was here.
And the game had changed.
P
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