Ex-Mate Wants Me Back (Seraphina and Mortimer) novel Chapter 123

Chapter 123

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He took a deep breath, trying to shove down the urge to roar. He looked away, his voice tight. “Grandfather’s gone. Is that it? You’re done pretending I exist?”

Seraphina paused. She looked at him with a look that could only be described as are you serious right now?

Mortimer saw that look and felt even more pathetic.

He dropped his head, his voice softening into something that sounded dangerously like a pout. “Did you even notice I didn’t eat a single bite of that lunch?”

Seraphina looked genuinely confused. “You weren’t hungry?”

Mortimer was speechless.

He wondered for a split second if he could be arrested for domestic battery if he just shook her.

He was losing his mind. He set his jaw, staring her down. “Every single dish was packed with stuff I hate.”

“Seraphina, you used to know my dislikes by heart. Did you suddenly ‘forget’ today on purpose?” His voice was a low rasp, and for the first time, it carried a jagged edge of hurt.

Seraphina went quiet.

She hadn’t forgotten. Before, she remembered because she cared.

Now, she remembered because she had a good memory-but she’d been so focused on Edwin that Mortimer hadn’t even crossed her mind as a variable to account for.

Mortimer took her silence as a ‘yes.’

His eyes flashed with a hint of red, looking genuinely wounded. “You really don’t give a damn anymore, do you?”

Seraphina didn’t feel like explaining. “Then remember it yourself next time, Mortimer. You shouldn’t rely on people for things you can do yourself. It’s safer that way.”

Rational. Cold. True. Mortimer felt like he was being suffocated by his own pride.

“Go back to work,” she said, turning toward the subway again. “I have to get back to the clinic.”

This time he didn’t grab her. He just watched her for a long, agonizing beat before the words fell out of his mouth, “Do you want to end it? The contract. Do you want out?”

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Chapter123

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Chapter 173

Seraphina’s POV

Those words hit me like a sledgehammer, cracking the thick ice around my heart.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I looked up at him my eyes searching his for a sign of a trap. “You’re actually agreeing to it?”

Mortimer’s jaw was locked so tight I thought it might snap.

He looked down at me, his golden eyes flickering with a dark, predatory light-a sign that his wolf, Barton, was losing his grip

on reality.

“You realize,” he said, his voice a wrecked rasp, “that our little private agreement is one thing. But in the eyes of the law and the Pack Council, we are a Moon-blessed union. It’s a legal lock.”

The tiny spark of hope I’d felt was instantly doused by his clinical tone.

I let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh. What was I even expecting?

A sudden surge of conscience?

“Ending a contract isn’t that complicated, Mortimer.”

I kept my voice steady, though each word felt like it was being dragged through glass. “I’ll walk away from the money. All of it. We finish the waiting period, sign the papers, and it’s done. Don’t use ‘red tape’ as an excuse.”

Mortimer let out a laugh-the cold, arrogant sound of a man who owns the building you’re standing in.

“And if I don’t cooperate?”

He leaned in, his shadow swallowing me whole. “As long as I say no, this bond stays locked. You aren’t going anywhere. Not in this lifetime.”

A white-hot flash of rage ignited in my chest.

For the first time, I didn’t hide it. I stared into the face of the most powerful Alpha in the city and gave him pure venom. “I’ll sue. I’ll petition for a forced dissolution of a dead-end bond!”

“On what grounds?” he asked, dismissive, 1

“Irreconcilable differences.”

“Prove it.”

I froze. He had me.

す

The irony was sickening. Because I’d been so submissive, so ‘perfect’ for three years, we had no history of public fights. To an outside judge, we were a picture-perfect couple.

Silence isn’t proof of a broken soul-it looks like harmony.

“I have Vivian’s social media,” I said, my voice trembling with frustration. “Every video, every suggestive post. I have enough’ material’ to build an infidelity case that would bury you.”

Mortimer’s pupils contracted, then he sneered. “A bunch of thirst-trap videos where you can’t even see my face? Seraphina, for a daughter of the Silver Moon, you’re incredibly naive.”

I went silent.

He was right. Without a smoking gun-actual physical proof-tearing up an Alpha’s bond was like trying to punch a hole in a mountain.

Chapter 123

He could drag this out until my hair turned gray.

A deep, hollow sense of defeat washed over me

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I tried to sound calm, but the exhaustion was leaking through. “If you care about Vivian this much, why keep me in this chair? Give her the Luna title. You can protect her ‘legally’ then. I don’t have the energy to stay here and watch us turn into a bloodbath.

Those words hit a nerve.

His pine-scented pheromones spiked, thick and suffocating with a restless energy.

“There is nothing romantic between me and Vivian! I would never marry her! Why the hell can’t you believe that?” He barked the words so loud that people on the sidewalk actually stopped to stare.

“Does it matter if I believe you?” I was as cold as a glacier. “We’re talking about the contract. Regardless of Vivian, the term was three years. You set that deadline yourself, Alpha Mortimer. Remember?”.

I looked him in the eye, driving the stake home. “Those were your words. Did you forget?”

Mortimer was speechless.

It was a textbook case of being hoist by his own petard. He looked paralyzed by his own logic, the bitterness of the trap he’d set for me now closing around him.

“I changed my mind. Is that allowed?” he bit out, sounding like a desperate, petulant child.

I didn’t blink. I let the thorns in my soul strike him without mercy. “No. Not by a single minute. “Three years, not a second less’ -that’s what you used to shut me up. Well, it works both ways. Not a second more.”

I gave him the final verdict in a voice that didn’t shake. “I’m a woman who honors a contract. I’d expect the Great Mortimer Craig to keep at least a shred of his Alpha dignity.”

Mortimer let out a jagged laugh-a sound of pure, self-loathing defeat.

He finally buckled under my gaze, but he couldn’t help throwing one last, pathetic punch. “That ‘Dash’ guy… that little ‘mutt’ you’re keeping… what does he have that I don’t?”

I stared at him. “Is he serious? He’s actually competing with a dog now?”

“What does Dash have? He’s warm, he’s loyal, and he’s happy to see me. If we’re really keeping score, Mortimer isn’t even in the same league.”

But he didn’t give me a chance to answer. He stepped back, blocking me one last time. “Forget it. Don’t answer that.”

He gave a dry, hollow smile. “I already know. In your head, I don’t even come close to your precious Dash.”