Chapter 24

Nadia's POV

Kael holds my head, but is still. He does not make any more movements. 

My eyes which were close from the sensuality of the contact between up snapped open one after the other. 

I open my eyes to see Kael just staring at me, his face making it look like he is holding something back. 

 "What is wrong with me?" I asked him. 

 "You see, that is the problem." He says, taking his hands off me and wrapping them around his bare legs. 

 "What is?" I query him. 

 "It's not you who is the problem." He says finally, after a little pause. "It's me." He continued. Heaving a sight after blaming himself. 

I kinda want to absolve him from the blame and tell him it's me. I'm the one who is quite unlovable. My mate is currently having sex with an omega to spite me. He prefers an omega to me!

My lids could barely hold the hot tears back. 

 "I keep comparing everyone else to her. I can't seem to get over her." Kael says. 

I turned my head to look at him. I can see him biting his inner cheek, probably trying so hard to hold back some serious emotion. 

His legs start shaking more violently, clapping against each other making 'tap tap' sounds. 

I want to put my hand on his back and tell him it would be okay, but I don't think he is that guy. 

He is swinging his head back and forth now in uniform motion. I'm sure right now, he has blanked me out of his head, he is the only one there. 

The display continues for quite a while. I'm lonely and he is too, even though we are both in each other's company. 

Landon and the prostitute omega must be done. My bones and flesh slowly recovered from the wrought of their nasty escapade. I want to ask why things are like this, but it's a stupid question. 

It was probably designed so mates could stay faithful to each other and not neglect their bond. That would have worked on me who had more regard for their wolves. 

On the other hand, maybe this is payback for what Vance and I kept doing to naive Talia. I want to shut it out of my head. 

She's living a life I could only dream of, and here I am in the middle of nowhere with a stranger I met who wanted to kidnap me but had a larger portion of his good side active tonight. Here we are, both of us, sitting and thinking about each other's miserable existence. 

If we were caught, he would be killed by Alpha Vance, and I would only be spared if Landon actively intervenes, which I'm sure he wouldn't. 

He has made it clear on several occasions that he would ruin me, and that he would be better off without me, so much so I really do believe it. 

 "I'm sorry." Kael says. Apparently, he had been looking for a while, while I was lost in my own world. 

 "For what?" I asked him. 

 "For blanking out on you. I just couldn't…" He looks really remorseful, and more hurt than I think I looked when he took his hands off. 

 "Don't bother." I cut in, a little kindly. Hearing him say the reason would just evoke fresh new tears, I don't want my sore wounds to be pricked just yet. 

 "Can we start over?" He asks. His tone conveys more of pity than the fact that he actually does want to start over. And I don't want pity either. 

 "It's fine." I say, hoping he deads all thoughts of us swinging that way, at least not anytime soon. "Do you mind saying what happened?" I have always been direct and a little too blunt. 

For him to have reacted that way, whatever happened must have been a big deal. And my ears seriously itch for a bad story that is not mine. 

 "It's not fresh, but it's still a little raw." He starts. "Does that even make sense?" He flashed his teeth at me in a weary smile. 

 "It does. It really does. My past isn't fresh, but it will always be raw." I said to him reassuringly. "Let's do this. You go first, I go next, deal?" I stretch my hand out to him, smiling. 

He looks at me with a pinch of skepticism, before shaking me and bursting out in laughter too. 

 "How long do you think we have?" I hate that he has to be the voice of reason, which I do not want to hear at all. This is literally the happiest hour of my week, and the stars couldn't align in my favor and let me indulge?

 "How soon do you have to go back?" I asked him back. 

 "Oh, I could take all the time in the world, no one would notice." He replies to me with a proud shrug. 

 "Isn't that sad?" I asked him, looking at his proud countenance, worried at how that would be a bragging right. 

 "Well you are kinda in my shoes too, aren't you?" His comeback is painful. I wished I hadn't said what I said. 

He sensed that I'm repulsed and apologized immediately. 

 "I'm sorry." He places a hand on my upper shoulder. 

I don't reply to him. 

 "We were both young and drunk in love, fated to be mates too, what would have been your typical fairytale... and they lived happily ever after'."He starts his story without further ado. 

 "She was my all, and I was hers too." I could see him reliving the whole thing as he is narrating it. 

 "We lacked ambition and we were happy with it. We hurt no one, no one hurt us, just us in our little bubble through which we looked at real life through rose coloured lenses."

 "I am the second son of the late Alpha of Moonlit. I have Alpha blood running through me." Just wow! What a surprise!

 "A stranger kept proposing certain things to my father, the then Alpha. They kept discussing and debating matters till he passed away prematurely, leaving the position to my people pleaser elder brother." He lets out a deep breath, and I know the drama is probably about to commence. 

 "He came once after the death of my father and continued with my elder brother. In no time, we heard that we would be helping a certain person from a not so faraway park fight for his birthright which had been unlawfully snatched from him.

 "Everyone was shocked, as to what we stood to gain." He continued. "The stranger who happens to be your mate, Landon." My eyes open wider than I ever thought they could.