CH 3

Jace Tomorrow was the day of his and Nora’s rejection, and although the years had passed by, he still recalled everything about it with full clarity. He still hated that no one would tell him anything about where Nora was; not even now, almost two decades later. He lay in his bed in that hotel room and stared up at the ceiling. From now to tomorrow night he’d be a grumpy man and even his own unit would leave him alone. It was the one moment in his life he nor Hydro could forget; as much as they wanted to forget everything about that night, they could not, it seemed. Along with the lead up to it, and the weeks after it. It all still plagued him and his beast, as was the way of those that were rejected, who hadn’t wanted the rejection to happen. He and Hydro couldn’t let it go, they’d vowed to find her, make it up to her, prove they loved her and would never love another. He’d lost many allies after the mess that had been created on the night of Nora’s Luna Ceremony, where several allied Alphas and their Lunas had come to watch her Ceremony. Something he’d organized himself, because he needed them to bear witness to his promise to love and cherish her. So, that Nora would see he truly meant it. Only it had not gone as he’d planned at all, but he was dead certain it had gone to Nora’s way of planning. He’d thought he was getting Nora back that fateful night. Only to have her reject him and go out of her way to out everything he’d done over the course of their mate bond. She'd also set Gloria up in full, not only to be seen as the selfish she-wolf she was, but also as stealing everything Nora was supposed to have gotten from him; including himself, her Mate, the Alpha to the pack. She’d shown that Gloria had also gotten the Luna’s dress, the Luna's jewelry and even that the Luna Ceremony had been tailored for Gloria too. Nora had told everyone in that ballroom of his plan to give their child to Gloria as well. So they could raise it together and get rid of her afterward. It saw him in a whole new light to his allies; as not only uncaring, but cruel to his own Goddess-Gifted Mate. It saw him behaving as one from the wolfen realm would, which was where he was actually born and raised. It saw his allies see him as he’d never changed and just pretending to be civilized. Showed them that from the moment he claimed her and brought her to his pack, he had betrayed her from the very beginning. He’d not even been able to defend himself, because it was all true. He’d spoken those words and, even though he’d come to see the light and realized he was wrong, that he knew he would never do that again. It was too late. He had, in fact, spoken those very words to Gloria, and Gloria had told Nora. It was her and Gloria’s words against his, and he knew anyone could order him to tell the truth, and he’d have to admit he’d said it. It wouldn’t matter that he didn’t mean it now, he had meant it back then. Nora had not spoken a single word of a lie at that ceremony. She’d had him dead to rights on everything, and there was no way he could deny it. Because Gloria had shown up in the Luna dress he himself had described for all to hear, wearing the jewelry he had bought for Nora, who had told everyone that the ceremony was tailored to Gloria, and her love of red roses with green foliage around them. Everything lined up as if Gloria was his Luna, even for Nora's Luna Ceremony; it showed everyone she was still getting everything tailored to herself from him, just like she had always been. He’d been so blind to everything that had gone on inside his own pack, he'd not thought that even with getting Gloria to step down she’d still be whispering in Nora’s ear. All just so Gloria could have him to herself. Just like she had done before he’d scented Nora out. None of his allied Alphas or their Lunas had seen anything other than what Nora had shown them; as the complete truth, because they all also knew, just how long he’d been mated to Nora, and that he'd still had Gloria seated in the Luna’s office the entire time. Her own former Alpha was there to back her up and retrieve her from his pack; that also spoke volumes to those in their world. It told his allies she’d called for help to get away from him, told her former Alpha and her parents all that he’d done, and they were there to force a rejection from him, if he didn’t accept hers. Again, something that showed he was the one in the wrong. It was too late in not only Nora’s eyes, but his allies to say he’d changed for the better. The damage was too great to be swept under the rug. Not when he’d accused her right there on that stage of setting him up, setting Gloria up, which, of course, she had done; but it didn’t matter. He’d defended Gloria in a room full of his allies, against his own Mate. And that was the real clincher that saw his own downfall. He suspected she’d likely known that he would defend Gloria, because it was always what he’d done. It was also a no-no, defending the one accused of being the mistress, accused by the Goddess-Gifted no less. Who in their world knew that the Mate would feel every damned touch to the mistress. Not even killing Gloria for all she’d done; taking everything that was Nora’s and wearing it to the Luna Ceremony, had worked. She set that up; for him to kill the she-wolf that had caused her unknown amounts of pains of betrayal. Nora had warned him once that he’d not have her or Gloria, if he ever defended Gloria again; and now he had neither, because she’d followed through, it hadn’t been a threat he now understood, like he’d thought it was when she’d said it; but a promise. It had been her plan all along, he thought, for her to have him take Gloria’s head. He’d made mention of it when he’d produced that Luna’s jewelry, told her he’d kill anyone that dared to take what he’d bought her. Gloria had taken it, and Nora had made sure to mention it to those in the ballroom; his own words. She’d set him up to lose the woman she believed he loved, had once loved, until he’d realized just how vicious and detrimental she was to his mate bond. As well as set him up to lose herself, because her intent that night was to reject and leave; that he'd have neither of them. She’d left him with nothing of herself either, everything had been removed, there wasn’t even a bottle of her skin care for him to be reminded of her. That suite had been completely empty, and she’d left it open to the elements, all the window and doors open to air the room and rid her scent from it. He’d not found out until several days post that disaster, that Gloria knew Nora was going to leave him and on the full moon. That had come from him seeing there had been a single text in Gloria’s phone, about a move in date for university accommodation for Nora. It had been sent from a private number that hadn’t been registered to Gloria’s phone, so he couldn’t even use that to call Nora afterwards. That message he’d seen had been sent to Gloria weeks before the Ceremony. Proof that Nora had never ever intended to forgive him or accept his pledge of loyalty. It had a dorm room name and number, but no university details, not even a logo for him to go off. She was smart enough to get rid of all that. Likely hadn’t trusted Gloria not to send someone to harm her even after she was gone. She knew Gloria would always see her as a full threat even after she’d left, because it wasn’t just Nora that knew Jace was going to have regrets. Gloria wasn’t so stupid as to think about what was going to go down, that he wouldn’t hunt for her. Even if he’d not found out all she did, he didn’t want the rejection and Gloria knew that. Was just counting on being his second choice and him going back to her in the end. So Nora had cleverly redacted all that information from the screenshot she’d sent Gloria, as what could only be determined as proof for Gloria that she was, in fact, leaving him and never coming back. Gloria knew the truth of that ceremony and had said absolutely nothing to him about it, because she had thought Nora was handing him to her on a platter. That, with Nora gone, he’d just go back to her; likely it had been discussed between them, that he could claim Gloria at the Luna Ceremony, right after Nora had rejected him; that had been the unit’s consensus. It certainly did appear that way to all of them, considering how Gloria had been dressed that night. He had no idea when that had come about between Nora and Gloria, though he had a feeling it was after she’d nearly died and wound up in the pack hospital. Losing their pup. He could now see that his actions the day before, and her words about that event where he’d harmed her with his aura. That one moment had been it for her, so likely the following day, when she’d woken up in the pack hospital, whatever Gloria had said to her had seen Nora tell Gloria she could have him, because she was done. Everything from that moment onwards had been nothing but lies and deception on Nora’s part, as she tried to remove herself from the pack and ended their mate bond, her way. Given him just enough hope to see that she was willing to work on them coming back together. When, in fact, all she’d been doing was carefully crafting a full exit strategy. To find a way to hurt him, to pay him and Gloria back, for everything they’d done to her and nothing more. She'd let him and Gloria hang themselves basically. Now, 19 years later, he had no idea where she was, not even where her family was, they’d all managed to vanish away in the middle of a rogue attack upon the Silken Moon. Something he now knew was also a full set up just to throw him off track, so he couldn’t use them to find Nora. He’d thought he had a perfect in on that pack, a loyal wolf that fed him information on Nora’s family over many years. They’d kept track of Nora’s parents and her sister for him. So, he could just bide his time and wait for Nora to turn up inside that pack and visit them, or for them to go and see her, so he could find out where she was. Little did he know that loyal wolf was more loyal to her new Alpha, Clayton. She’d taken his money and reported things to him on a regular basis. Then the day after she’d told him there’d been a rogue attack, she’d told him she couldn’t find Nora’s family anywhere. She’d called him and told him the house was cleaned out, that she believed they’d left under the cover of the rogue attack to leave the pack. He’d been frustrated by this knowledge and told her to look into it. She’d said she would and then a few days later, he’d found she had blocked him, and was uncontactable. Clayton had called him personally and informed him that he’d simply given that she-wolf permission to tell Jace seemingly what he wanted to know. That it was nothing more but useless information that had been fed to him. Clayton had used that she-wolf to Nora’s benefit, and gotten her family out of the pack and completely out from under any prying eyes Jace might still have within the pack itself. He just wanted to win her back, nothing bad at all. There was even now a large portrait of him and Nora in the packhouse foyer, of her wearing that blue dress she’d worn to the family dinner the night before he’d lost her; a picture Mark had taken of the two of them smiling. It was the only picture he had of her and him together, and it was there for all the allied packs to see that he still loved her.