I Rejected You, Alpha

FLASHBACK

ELEIA’S POV

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“Happy anniversary my beautiful mate.” Aiden’s voice drags me out of my slumber, his hot breath fanning against my ear as his arm is draped over my waist from behind. “Hmmm.” I smile, turning in his grasp to face him. His hold on me suddenly gets tighter and he pulls me against his chest lovingly. I giggle as his hand finds my behind and he gives a tight squeeze as he nips at my l*p before kissing me.

“Ten years.” he breathes against my lips with a warm smile, “Ten years.” I snuggle closer, kissing him.

Today is our tenth year of ruling the kingdom, we’ve progressed so much since starting and I’ve never been happier.

“You have an hour.” his nose brushes against mine and I pull back, frowning at him, “What do you mean?” I ask confused, “The guests arrive in an hour.” he grins, his eyes focused on my mouth as if he wants to start kissing me and I push my hands against his chest, shoving him back before I sit upright and frown at him. “What do you mean Aiden?” I ask and he shrugs, flopping over and he lays on his back, the duvet covering his h**s, exposing his big bare chest.

“Rosie and I planned today, it’s a party so get your cute little butt…” he props himself onto his elbow, leaning closer, “…in the shower and get dressed.” his eyebrows hop, his eyes filled with excitement and secrecy. “What am I supposed to even wear?” I sigh as I toss the duvet to the side and scurry out of bed.

A big part of me is very angry right now, I can’t believe that they planned a party without me, I can’t believe that I didn’t notice and now my mind is spiraling about what could go wrong. What if they messed something up? What if they forgot something? Did they ask for allergies? Did they get something of everything, especially for the kids?

I throw my hair into a bun as I roll my eyes, I don’t even have time to wash and do my hair.

I strip as I walk into the bathroom, “Something that screams summer queen.” I don’t appreciate Aiden’s teasing tone, he acts like this is a joke, like it’s just something fun, but even though it is for fun, it isn’t for me.

I have to dress accordingly to what they need, to what they expect…I can’t just show up in a pair of shorts with no make up on…not like the rest of them can, but they probably won’t.

I turn on the faucet of the shower and quickly take off my jewellery, placing it on the sink’s counter before getting into the hot steaming shower. Aiden joins a minute later and I feel like denying him access just because he told me an hour before the time that we, as the royals, were having guests.

He opens the shower door and gets in, he slides in behind me, pressing his front to my back, his hands resting on my waist.

“Are you mad?” he asks, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. I shrug him off and I could feel his body tense as his fingers does. “No, I’m just…annoyed.” I grit out as I pour shower gel onto the sponge and start to scrub myself. “Why? I thought we were doing a nice thing.” I could hear his pout.

It’s just something about knowing someone for so long and loving them…I know everything about him, I know what his voice sounds like when he’s mad, happy, curious or a tease. It’s all different, every emotion having their unique sound that only I could hear.

“You were.” I tell him, I try to force a smile, but I just can’t. I can’t force a smile because all of the stress is now on me.

If I arrive at this party, every little problem will be then mine, not Aiden’s, not Rosie’s, mine and mine alone.

“Then why are you unhappy?” his hands fall away from my body and I somehow just because more angrier. “I am not unhappy, I am stressing.” I rinse my sponge and then my body before getting out. He didn’t even wash himself, but he closes the faucet and follows me out.

I don’t pay him any attention as I dry myself before wrapping the towel around me, “Why are you stressing?” he snorts, standing right behind me with water dripping from him onto the tiled floor. I snort back, shaking my head.

Of course he wouldn’t understand it, he never does. A party takes weeks of planning, invites and food should be spot on for everyone coming and my worst fear is that they have done this all in one week, pissing off my planners and caterers.

I whip around, “When did you plan this?” I ask, “About a month ago.” he shrugs and I chuckle it off, raising my hand, “No, let me rephrase that. When did you actually do the planning…When did you call the people? When did you send out the invites? When did you order the food and the cake and the decorations? When did you do all that?” I ask as my hand goes in a circle.

His eyes never leave mine and he stares at me very calmly, “A month ago. I’m not stupid Eleia, I notice the work and time you put into everything, including make up and getting dressed.” he smiles, stepping closer and I put my hands in between us, stopping him before he drips on me, “You forgot my hair, otherwise you would have known it takes me two hours to get ready.” I snap and I instantly feel guilt about snapping at him.

“I did kind of forget that.” he scratches his nape, “I was just afraid that you would try and cancel if you knew earlier.” he shrugs as he leans to the railing, grabbing his towel and dries himself before wrapping the towel around his waist.

“I would never.” I grit out.

I am highly offended that he’d think that, “Look.” he sighs, “I was just trying to give you a party you could actually enjoy. Rosie is taking care of everything and even she says that you deserve it.” he starts arguing with me, except that he isn’t arguing, he is explaining and I’m feeling it the wrong way.

“I can’t just let her take over, she’s never done this.”, “And she never will unless you give her a chance.”

I sigh, tossing my towel as I let my hair fall down my back and walk to my closet, standing with my hands on my h**s as my eyes trail the dresses hanging.

I have nothing to wear.

I begin to dress in nude underwear, just because it would fit with any other color and not show. When I still don’t know what the hell I’m going to wear, I start with my hair and dutch braid it on either side of my head before tying it and letting it fall down my back. I put the curling iron on and go back to my closet and pull out a white summer dress that comes to the knees. It has baby blue flowers on it and I put it on, staring at myself in the mirror.

The dress fits the top of my body like a glove, the bottom half flows freely and I just shrug it off.

This was not my plan and I don’t care if I don’t dress appropriately for it. I did not choose this party, so it’s not my problem.

I try to be more relaxed like Aiden thinks I should be and put on white short heels and sit down at my dresser, doing light make up and curling the loose strands of my hair before brushing through it to make it wavy and by the time I’m done, Rosie comes in a minute or two after, smiling at me, but I just blankly stare at her and she turns to Aiden with a scowl on her face, “You told her?” she snaps at him and I scoff, brushing past them both, “Let’s just get this over with.” I mutter, not caring what they think as we head downstairs. They bicker about my mate telling me and he just says he has too, all the while I walk out front, hearing the busy bodies roaming from afar.

I walk into the foyer, waiters walk up and down and there are only a few decorations inside. I stop, turning to look back at Aiden with a questionable look, “Can you just trust us?” he asks, his eyes narrowed and I could tell he was pleading from the bottom of his heart, “He’s right, I did learn from the best.” Rosie beams, her heels clicking against the floor and she’s wearing a beautiful pastel violet dress and here I stand in something from five years ago.

Wonderful.

“Please…”Rosie strides forward, smiling big and I sigh, nodding as she links her arm with mine and we walk out.

I almost stop, but with Rosie dragging me along, I don’t and my eyes roam as I look around.

There is a few jumping castles up next to the jungle gym, there are tables in a u-shape, the decorations are yellow and pink tulips in beautiful beige vases. There are lights in the trees, there are balloons and music, tables and chairs that are decorated in mostly white and nothing looks too bad.

“Sorry.” a lady mutters as she passes us, holding trays of finger foods from fried chicken to sandwiches and sushi.

There were variants of everything and the music started to lightly play as more people joined. I was too busy looking around, admiring the great job Rosie and Aiden did to notice people saying hello and congratulating us. Aiden takes my hand, snapping me out of my trance and Rosie runs off to Stefan, “It all turned out really well.” he tries to convince me, but I was already won over when we walked out.

I shouldn’t have doubted them, not either of them. Aiden knows the people and Rosie has always had the style to do this.

“Now we just wait for the guests and you’ll see, you will not have to do anything.” he grins, lifting our hands and he places a chaste k**s on my knuckles.

I sigh, nodding as I look around and Aiden snatches a glass of orange juice from the waiter’s tray as they pass and hands it to me, “Have a drink and relax.” he winks and I don’t question him and take a sip and to my surprise, I taste the vodka in them.

A cough erupts from my throat, “It’s a little strong, don’t you think?” I mutter, smiling, “Like it should be.” he twirls me and I gasp and then it turns into a giggle as I just try to focus on not spilling my drink.

Guests soon arrive and we are congratulated way to many times that I could count by the time of my fifth drink.

The entire day is amazing and whenever I wonder about the kids, I just glance to the play area that is set up and there they are, with the nanny, safe and sound.