Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 329: Wreck it.

Leilani.

By the time I got home, all tired and drained from the events of the day, it was already late at night.

It wasn’t even until I had kicked off my shoes and dropped into my bed that I realized I hadn’t had any meals for the day. But at the moment, did I care?

Oh, I didn’t.

All I cared about was the fact that Jay’s question wouldn’t stop repeating itself over and over in my mind like it was on a fucking loop. All I cared about was the way he had looked at me when I couldn’t bring myself to respond.

When I couldn’t reassure him.

When I couldn’t bring myself to ease his very valid fears.

"Imagine what would happen now that you’ve finally accepted their marks?" He had said, and truth be told, I needed no soothsayer to know what that meant. I needed no one to explain anything to me before understanding that he fears the mate pull, and that he was scared that it would pull us closer to each other then we already were.

—And funny enough, it was already doing that!

My hands hovered over my lit up phone, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. Hell, I wasn’t even sure that I should be staring at Jay’s picture right now— which was coincidentally the thing currently on my screen. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

I sighed. "I don’t know what to do."

The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. My chest felt heavy too... but I couldn’t decipher if it was my shame getting the best of me or the fact that I knew now that I had lost.

That I had lost to the triplets, and that now, there was no way I could ever think about them without feeling my heart racing in my chest or feeling that weird swarm of butterflies taking flight in my guts.

Pushing off these thoughts, I made my way out of my comfortable sofa and began to paddle over to the kitchen with my jacket hanging low on my shoulders. I had no idea what I had available to eat; And right now, I wasn’t even sure that I had thought it through as I pulled the fridge’s door open and peeked in.

However, the cold air had just blasted against my face when a sudden chill ran down my spine.

But it had nothing to do with the refrigerator.

It had nothing to do with the cold bottle of wine in my hands and everything to do with my suddenly rubbery knees.

My nostrils stung as if burned by some invisible fire and my lungs heated up, filling up with air so hot, it made my breath extremely hot.

With effort, I slammed the door shut and placed the wine bottle on the counter, trembling slightly when the feeling intensified into something more dangerous. Something devastatingly darker.

My ears perked up, picking up every sound, including that of my hair pricking on my skin and my neighbors a few miles away making love in their bedroom.

I gasped. "What the hell...? What is happening to me?"

However, before the response to that question could come, I heard the sound of a car driving into my driveway. I heard the sound of the ignition going off and then that of boots as they stepped out of the car.

"I do not think she’s at home yet," I heard someone say, "...so let’s break in now and be ready before she returns."

"I do not have to break in..." a different voice chirped in. This one was louder, graver... harsher. The sound made goosebumps spread across my body and made my already racing heart pound so much, I feared I would pass out.

"I want her to know I am here... that I came here. And that there’s no way she could ever hide from me."

Darius. The cocky bastard.

My bottom lip curved downward into a snarl and I crept under a large table just as my front door creaked open.

"What do you intend to do to her?" The first voice— feminine and nasal— asked; and I didn’t need to see him before knowing that he must’ve rolled his eyes. Goddess, I could feel it.

"You will see." He drawled, and those words... those lightly said words scared me more than any threat possibly could.

—

Darius.

Leilani was like a drug— extremely hazardous to your health yet so intoxicating, you could barely function properly without having a taste. She was that thing I thought about a little too much, yet with each passing day, I couldn’t help but fear that she was getting further out of my grasp than anything I’ve ever wanted before.

This was the thought I had as Clara and I slipped into her house unnoticed, her sugary flowery scent filling every literal hole in my head, I felt like I was about to explode.

My hands balled into tight fists as I made my way through, my eyes scanning the entire length of the house as I went. We had however just spent a total of three seconds... four? when I realized that we were not alone.

There was someone in the house as well, and it was none other than Leilani herself.

"Shit!" I hissed under my breath, pissed that my plan was failing so miserably.

I mean, why was she back so early despite how I had ensured that she would be occupied by the files I’d asked my assistant to send over to her office late this evening?

How was she here despite my very frugal attempt to keep her away just to ensure that I have a moment to myself in her house before she comes around?

Discarding this thought, my eyes scanned the empty house for any trace of her but there was none. "Leilani, where are you?! I am here to talk to you!" I shouted at the top of my voice, and at my words, Clara turned to look at me with wide eyes. Her face twisted into a frown and her lips curved downward as if saying;

"What the fuck are you doing now?"

"Leilani is here!" I mouthed to her, "I can smell her," I added, ignoring the way her face fell. She quickly stood straight and turned around, but upon seeing nothing, turned back to me and mouthed;

"Are you sure?"

I didn’t respond. I simply continued to walk around the house, my focus on Leilani’s heady scent as I headed to her open kitchen.

And goddess, as soon as I stepped into that room, I nearly moaned. Because fuck me, her scent was more concentrated here... and there was her very pretty toe sticking out awkwardly from under one of the tables.

I smiled. "You should come out."

Her toe froze but besides that, I noticed no other movements.

"I came to see you."

"Without calling me first?" She snapped back, but still refused to leave her place from under the table.

"Yes," I answered coldly even though my entire insides were nothing but a pile of mashed potatoes at the sound of her voice.

My words made her snicker. She rasped; "Darius, only you are insane enough to come to my house without informing me first, yet you walk around like you own the place."

"Because—"

"Are you not scared of what I could do about that?" She continued, ignoring me. "Are you not worried about what I could do to you?"

And by the Gods, my first instinct was to laugh. I threw my head back and chuckled in amusement... and maybe a bit of sarcasm. I hissed; "What can you do?"

Just as I asked that, Clara stepped into the kitchen with a freshly worn pair of heels in hand. She waved these heels over her head as she muttered; "I think Leilani is indeed at home."

"This is what I can do!" Leilani hissed then, answering my question. And at first, I wondered what she was talking about until a loud cry from Clara’s lips had my head snapping backward.

I turned around to look and goddess, Clara was suspended mid-air, gasping for breath while her once pale smooth face now shone a bright red.

She clawed at her neck as if scratching at invisible hands, and instinctively, I turned back to Leilani, surprised to see that she had crawled out from under the table, and now, her entire attention was focused solely on Clara.

She hissed; "You brought a strange woman into my house."

"Yes, I did." I replied coolly, even though that was the last way I felt right now. And I could swear that I felt my body tingle strangely when her eyes left Clara’s face to watch me for a second. A second that felt like an eternity.

She hissed; "Well, you should know that I do not like that. And now, your lady dearest would have to pay."