Chapter 304 - 305 You actually married with Alpha King?

Chapter 304: Chapter 305 You actually married with Alpha King?

Ethan’s POV

Her lips were pressed against his.

Something inside me cracked.

I couldn’t look away. Every second I watched them together felt like another blade twisting through my chest.

My legs, heavy as if they’d been filled with lead, finally dragged forward. I needed her to look at me again. Just once. I reached out to grab her arm.

But Damian didn’t give me a single inch.

He shoved the shopping cart with a flick of his wrist.

The heavy thing swung sideways and slammed straight into my shins. Pain shot up through the bone and doubled me over.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek. Cold sweat broke out across my forehead. But I refused to make a sound. I still had my pride. My wolf snarled somewhere deep in my chest, humiliated, and I forced him quiet.

Then Damian pulled Aria fully into his arms, cradling her like she was something precious, turning his body to shield her from every stranger in the aisle. From me.

"Come on, baby. Nothing good on this shelf. Let’s head over there."

His voice wasn’t loud. But it carried perfectly, aimed straight at my ears.

He landed on that word, baby, and let it linger, all that sweetness wrapped around a blade of pure ice.

I was furious. I was drowning in it. And yet the second his dark eyes flicked toward me, something primal in me went still with fear.

He was Alpha king.His presence. His aura. It was crushing, the kind that made a wolf want to bare his throat and drop to the ground.

He could snap me in half without lifting a finger, and every instinct I had knew it.

I took half a step back. My lips trembled. I could feel my eyes going red at the rims, and I looked at Aria with something that had already crumbled into begging.

"You really... you actually married with Alpha King?"

My voice came out wrecked, hoarse beyond recognition. I had to swallow hard just to force the words out, like I was one breath away from breaking down completely.

But Aria didn’t even glance my way. She just answered him, her voice soft as anything.

"Sounds good. Whatever you want, honey."

Honey.

The word hit me like ice water straight down the spine. The two of them, trading those names back and forth like a language I’d never been allowed to learn.

I opened my mouth and nothing came out. I wanted to follow them. My legs wouldn’t move. I couldn’t even turn away.

All I could do was stand there while they walked past me, close enough that I caught the scent of him on her, cedar and lavender, an Alpha’s mark soaked into her skin.

"...Aria. I made a mistake."

I heard the words leave my mouth like they belonged to someone else. And then, with the last of whatever pride I had left, I dropped.

I went down onto my knees. Right there on the polished floor, in front of everyone.

The crowd swelled around me instantly, phones half-raised, whispers rippling through the aisle. I stared at their backs, and I saw it, saw her body sway, saw them slow.

They stopped.

Hope clawed up through my chest, ugly and desperate, and I threw the last of my dignity to the ground with my knees.

"Aria, I know I’m nothing to you now. I know that. But I finally understand my own heart. I can’t do this without you. I can’t breathe without you, do you hear me?"

My voice broke wide open.

"Please. Please don’t do this to me. Forgive me. Just once. I’m begging you."

And then I watched her turn her head.

But not toward me.

She wasn’t the one who’d stopped. He was. Damian had paused, and his eyes weren’t on me at all. They’d drifted to the shelf beside them, and Aria followed his gaze like I didn’t exist. Like I was a stranger making a scene, background noise she’d already tuned out.

"This pudding’s a new flavor too," he said.

"Oh, it is." She said it lightly. Interested. Warm.

I knelt there on the floor, tears streaking down my face, my whole ruined heart laid open for her, and she was looking at pudding.

He reached up and took a cup from the shelf, pressing it into her hands, his eyes never once leaving her face. There was something in the way he looked at her that gutted me worse than the shove had. Like she was the only thing in the entire building. Like the rest of us were furniture.

"Aria," he murmured. "What are we going to do?"

"About what?"

Her eyes flicked up, teasing, as though I didn’t even exist. As though there was no one else in the world but him.

"You love sweets this much, I’ll end up helping you finish every one of these." His brow actually furrowed, genuine concern in it. "And then I’ll go fat, and you won’t want me anymore. What happens then?"

She laughed.

Then, before she answered, she slid her hand around his waist. Let it rest there. And pressed down, slow, right against his stomach.

I saw him go still. Saw his eyes flash.

"Never," she said, pulling him closer. "With abs like these, you’ve earned dessert for the rest of your life."

"Behave." He cleared his throat, and I watched the tips of his ears go red. This man. This man who could have flattened a room full of wolves with a look, flushing pink because she’d touched him. "You keep that up in public and I’ll have to remind you what my wolf does when you tease him."

"Maybe I want to be reminded."

"Careful what you wish for, sweetheart. He doesn’t share, and he doesn’t forget."

They laughed together, low and private, heads bent close, and just like that they were gone down the aisle, and I was nothing.

I was less than nothing.

The room spun. I saw her really leave this time, saw her walk off on Damian’s arm without so much as a glance back, and I scrambled up to follow her.

My legs gave out the second I stood. I pitched forward and hit the floor.