My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 186: Cracks

Violet

The gentleness I had grown accustomed to seeing was still there, but there was an unyielding seriousness in them that held me still.

I thought he had accepted our situation.

"I know you care about him." Each word measured, and almost strained. "I fully understand that. But I need to know." He leaned closer, and I felt the weight of his stare like a physical pressure. "Despite how long you have been together, has he marked you?"

I flinched, his words cutting through me to the extent that it almost physically hurt.

No... How could he ask me that?

I shook my head. "It wasn’t that simple. I didn’t want—and with what happened at the summit, I—"

"Before the summit." He didn’t let me finish. "Why didn’t he mark you before? He had the time. He had the opportunity. Why did he wait?"

"What is the purpose of these questions?!" I snapped, my voice rising with my irritation.

"Did he at least profess his love to you before you left?"

I went completely still.

My chest tightened. It also stung. And it was sharp, and far more painful than it should have been.

My heart twisted, and anger surged up to cover the immense hurt I felt.

"You don’t even understand what I went through in that place—"

He suddenly frowned. "Was life difficult for you in his territory despite being his mate?"

My eyes widened and so did he at the realisation.

"That... that wasn’t necessary," I whispered, suddenly unable to understand why my voice was shaky. "You don’t understand..."

My heart stuttered.

I tried very hard not to think about it.

Kael hadn’t said any of that, but he had held me, kissed me, he had shown... he made me feel wanted and needed and—

’He could have prevented some things in his own territory. He still put his people before you...’

"No!" I glared at Rowan. "You don’t understand. And things got better, he was trying!"

He really was.

I didn’t understand why I was getting even angrier. My body trembled and my hands shook. "You have no right—"

"I am not here to put a wedge between you two." His voice had softened, but only slightly. His eyes were still intense, still burning with that strange, fierce resolve. "But if you are bothered. If you are disturbed about being mated to me, to the extent that it makes you uncomfortable due to some odd guilt, you have nothing to feel guilty for."

He leaned closer, and I could feel the heat of his breath against my face. "Not if he hadn’t claimed you in some way, or even tried to bring it up with you. Especially when he knew there was another mate present."

I was unable to move.

This was a side of him I had never seen before.

The gentleness was now completely gone. His eyes were hard, almost angry.

"You shouldn’t... have come," I whispered. "If you hadn’t followed—"

"I promise you. If the roles were reversed, and for some odd, unforeseeable reason, I let things get to this point the way he did, he would also have come after you."

Heat simmered beneath my skin from how close we were, from the press of his body against mine, from the way his eyes held me captive.

"He didn’t even let me help. Do you know how that felt? Watching you leave, knowing what was waiting for you out here, and not being able to do a single thing about it?

"I promise you some of those other rulers intend to come search for you in person, along with their wolves. If I could deal with them so easily, think of how the worst could have happened. And there are other monsters out in the wild to worry about, not even just the rogue wolves. He could have planned this better and I am sure out there, he must be worried sick to his stomach about your situation."

His expression hardened further, and he looked away sharply, as if he had seen the hurt in my face he didn’t want to acknowledge.

He pushed himself off me abruptly and got to his feet, his movements stiff and controlled.

When he turned his back to me, I could sense the anger in the air.

He was angry.

Actually angry.

He took a deep breath.

Then another.

When he spoke again, his voice was calm.

"I am sorry for pouncing on you like that. That was rude of me."

I pushed myself up slowly, my body slightly shaking as I sat up, my own anger simmering just beneath the surface now. I didn’t trust myself to speak for a moment. I reached for my abandoned food and stopped, pressing it flat against the ground as I tried to stifle the tremors coursing through my hands.

Stop.

Stop...

"Don’t... touch me," I whispered firmly, shaking my head as I stared at his back. "Never touch me again..."

He nodded once, stiffly, and sat back down. I looked away, my throat tight. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

The distance between us felt both too far and not far enough. But I wanted it to be even farther. I wanted him gone.

I should reject him. End things now.

But I couldn’t open my mouth to say anything else.

The tremors had greatly reduced by the time I summoned the will to eat, but I still felt it even as I forced the food down my throat.

I still ate even as my appetite vanished.

I needed something to keep me occupied. And I didn’t want to look at him.

He had been mean. So mean.

I especially did not want to even think about those horrible words.

About Kael not marking me. About him not even saying he loved me. I didn’t either, so what did it matter? Rowan had no right. He wasn’t supposed to have been here. We should never have even met.

But his words still remained stuck in my head, picking at wounds I was trying so hard to ignore.