My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 48: Flustered

Violet

"Oh, no. What is even his problem?"

He flinched, staring at me with a dazed shocked look.

"I didn’t even do anything," he whispered, incredulous.

Horror sank into me the moment the sentence left his lips.

I had said that out loud?!

My hands flew to cover my mouth, as if I could shove the words back inside. Heat exploded across my face so violently I nearly felt dizzy. My pulse thrashed in my chest and my neck burned.

No, no.

Why was I reacting like this?

And even worse, he had heard me!

’Say something, Violet.’

’Say something!’

But my throat had closed up. All that came out was a tiny, mortified squeak.

I shot upright and bent, giving him a stiff bow before racing across the clearing and into the tent.

I dove into the bedroll and pressed my hands harder over my mouth, wishing the ground would swallow me whole.

I wanted to disappear and never come out again.

I had never, not once in my entire life, been called amazing. Had I ever even been praised?

I wasn’t sure my grandmother ever did that, as nice as she was.

No one.

Not her. Not my parents. No one in the whole pack.

Even Tow acknowledging me had only been in regards to my abilities, not me myself.

Amazing was a word reserved for warriors, for Lunas, for people actually respected, for wolves who weren’t born broken.

And he had looked straight at me and said it like it was a fact.

Why?!

’No, he’s lying. He has to be.’

Or he was most likely referring to me being a Lycan. Yes, that had to be it. He could have worded it properly rather than... that.

I sat up and brought my knees to my chest, cradling it as my rushed panic subsided.

He had looked so genuine. Like he actually meant what he said. Even if he saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself, it would likely be my bloodline.

To call me amazing was far-fetched.

The warm faint burning in my cheeks began to fade and I leaned my head against my kneecaps, the bone digging into my jaw as a sinking feeling filled my chest, making me recall a sadness I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

It had been cruel for him to word it that way.

[ - ]

I couldn’t hide in the tent forever even though I desperately wanted to. When I eventually came out, he was kneeling at the edge of the stream, his back to me. He seemed to be washing his hands.

"We’re continuing," he said, rising to his feet without looking at me. He waved his hands, drying the lingering water droplets on his arms. "I want you to practice your ability. Repeatedly. I especially want to see what your limits are."

And discover my limits he did.

I was already used to moving things around and lifting them, but he had decided I uproot some of the embedded rocks in the ground, thankfully some near the trees and not the ones beside the stream.

There had been no heavier objects to lift in the vicinity and undoing the tent would not be an option, so this was the next best thing. Upheaving the rocks from the ground had been far difficult than I expected and it involved an extra level of straining I found very difficult to do.

I had to involve more energy. More focus, and especially, more force.

My syzygy drained noticeably with each attempt, a sensation I hadn’t experienced in a while, and it didn’t help that he still didn’t want me drawing power from the sun. However, I could feel my body involuntary drawing from it the way it had done when I had first left Shadowpine. If Kael had noticed that, he didn’t say anything about it.

While my draining energy didn’t leave me feeling weak immediately, I could absolutely feel it diminishing.

"It’s... It’s not moving," I groaned, panting as I sank to the floor as frustration ripped through me. "They’re fixed. And I think those rocks are deeply rooted..."

"Good." Kael’s voice came from behind me now, though still distant. "That’s the difference between loose, moving, and fixed objects."

I went still at his words.

That night I had ran away, I had been able to lock those wolves in place.

I could hear him draw closer. "Yes, I learned you successfully stalled three patrol members for a while."

Within seconds, I could see his legs from the corner of my eye as he came to stand beside me.

My mouth was clamped shut. I didn’t know what to say.

"I understand you might have been so desperate to leave, that it gave you the strength to pull off that feat," he continued, "And you must have likely drawn energy from the moon too... That requires more difficulty than this. I trust you should be able to.

"A loose object only requires you to overcome its weight. A fixed object requires you to overcome both its weight and whatever is holding it in place. Get up. Try again."

He stepped back and I grudgingly got to my feet and tried again. My syzygy flared as I struggled, pulling...

The big rock barely shifted.

I gritted my teeth and pulled harder, feeling the drain intensify. It was like trying to lift something extremely heavy. I closed my eyes and tried to focus more. I could feel and sense the whole length of the rock. More or its body was underground and the thought made me shudder. I would have to pull up a portion of the earth too, but those were tiny grains of sand and soil clumped together.

Hold on... could I only pull solid objects?

"What is it?"

"No—nothing." I snapped out of my thoughts and returned my focus to the rock.

My eyes snapped open and I stumbled back when as the rock finally tore free from the earth. A spray of dirt, roots, and the rock itself came hurtling towards me faster than I expected.

’No.’

I shot out my hand.