CHAPTER 170: CHAPTER 170 TOO LATE TO SAY SORRY

Silvano

I stood in the hallway outside the conference room,feeling my wolf prowling restlessly beneath my skin. The merger agreement with the Eastern territories had consumed most of my morning,but my thoughts kept drifting to what Adrian had told me last night about seeing Freya at the hotel.

"She was helping Elena into the elevator," Levi had confirmed when I questioned him. "She looked... different somehow. More distant."

Even now,hours later,my wolf was still unsettled by this information. Freya had been avoiding me for weeks,ever since she’d moved out of the pack house. The bond between us had grown dangerously thin,stretched almost to breaking point.

"Alpha Silvano,the documents are ready for your signature," my assistant announced,pulling me from my thoughts.

I nodded,my face maintaining the cold,composed expression that had become my signature in these business dealings. Every wolf in our territory knew better than to mention my mate around me these days. The subject had become a minefield that even my closest allies avoided.

As I walked back to my office,my phone buzzed with a message from Aurora.

*"Isabella asked if she could stay with me again tonight. I told her to check with you first."*

My wolf growled at the presumption. Aurora had been spending far too much time with my daughter lately,creating a bond I found increasingly concerning. While Isabella adored her,I couldn’t ignore how Aurora subtly encouraged my pup’s distance from her mother.

*"Tell her no. She needs to focus on her studies tonight,"* I replied tersely.

I paused before entering my office,sensing a familiar scent lingering in the hallway. Freya had been here,probably just minutes ago. My wolf surged forward,desperate to catch even that faint trace of her. Without thinking,I followed the scent trail toward the development department where she’d been working since moving out of our home.

Through the glass walls,I could see her at her desk,head bent over her computer,fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard. Even from this distance,I could see the tension in her shoulders,the slight furrow between her brows as she concentrated. My wolf whined,urging me to go to her,to bridge this growing chasm between us.

"Alpha Silvano?" Chad,one of my senior assistants,approached with a stack of documents. "These need your immediate attention."

I tore my gaze from Freya and nodded. "I’ll be in my office."

Hours later,as I was reviewing quarterly projections,Chad entered my office looking unusually flustered.

"Sir,there’s a... situation with Secretary Freya."

My head snapped up,wolf instantly alert. "What happened?"

"She refused to complete an urgent task I assigned her and left early," he explained,a hint of accusation in his tone. "She seems to believe her connection to your family grants her special privileges."

My wolf bristled at his words. Freya had never once leveraged our relationship for special treatment – in fact,she’d always worked twice as hard as anyone else to prove her worth independent of being my Luna.

"What exactly was this ’urgent’ task?" I asked,my voice dropping to a dangerous register that made Chad take an involuntary step back.

"The Eastern territories resource allocation report," he admitted. "It needs to be processed before tomorrow’s meeting."

I narrowed my eyes. "That report isn’t due until next week,and it certainly doesn’t fall under Freya’s current responsibilities."

Chad’s face paled. "I thought with her expertise—"

"You deliberately targeted her," I cut him off,my wolf’s anger bleeding into my voice. "Was this your idea,or did Aurora put you up to it?"

His silence was answer enough.

"If you’re dissatisfied with my mate’s work,you can follow proper termination procedures," I said coldly,watching him flinch at the word ’mate.’ "Though I doubt you’ll find legitimate grounds."

Just then,my phone rang. Aurora’s name flashed on the screen.

I dismissed Chad with a wave,answering the call as he scurried away. "I’m leaving work now. I’ll be there soon."

"Perfect timing," Aurora’s voice came through,honeyed and familiar. "Isabella’s been asking for you all afternoon. She says she wants to show you her new drawings."

I sighed,feeling the weight of my divided attention. "I’ll be there in twenty minutes. And Aurora?"

"Yes?"

"Stop using my staff to antagonize Freya," I said flatly. "It’s beneath you."

There was a pause before she replied,her tone carefully controlled. "I don’t know what you mean,cousin."

"You know exactly what I mean. It stops now."

I ended the call and gathered my things,my wolf still agitated. As I headed to the elevator,I caught another trace of Freya’s scent and followed it instinctively to the parking garage.

Through the window,I watched as she climbed into her car – not the luxury SUV I’d bought her,but the modest sedan she’d owned before we met. Another symbol of her determination to separate herself from me.

My wolf howled in frustration inside me. How had we reached this point? When had the distance between us grown so vast? I remembered the early days of our mating,when she’d look at me with those intelligent eyes filled with love and trust. Now she could barely stand to be in the same room with me.

As her car pulled away,I felt the mating bond between us stretch painfully. My mother had warned me this might happen if I continued to neglect my Luna. "The bond between mates is sacred," she’d told me. "If you don’t nurture it,it will wither like a flower without water."

I hadn’t listened. I’d been too focused on securing our territory,on preparing Isabella for her future role,on maintaining the delicate balance of power in the North American packs.

And now my mate was slipping away from me,taking pieces of my soul with her.

My phone buzzed again – this time a message from my father,Alpha Leo.

*"Council meeting tomorrow. Victoria wants to discuss the Howlthorne situation. Be prepared."*

I closed my eyes briefly,dreading another confrontation about Aurora’s growing influence in our territory. My mother had never trusted Aurora,convinced she carried the same manipulative nature as her grandmother and namesake.

And perhaps she wasn’t entirely wrong.

As I drove toward Aurora’s residence where Isabella was waiting,I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was moving in the wrong direction – away from the one person my wolf recognized as home.

The bond mark on my shoulder throbbed painfully,a physical manifestation of the distance between Freya and me. I pressed my hand against it,feeling the echo of her heartbeat through our weakening connection.

My wolf growled a single word in my mind: *Mate*.

And for the first time in years,I allowed myself to wonder if I had made a terrible mistake in letting her walk away.