My Fated Mate Can Have Her-Chapter 85: You Should Have Told Me

Violet

My pulse slowed. "Tell you what?"

I stared at him, confused, but with the growing unease in my chest, I couldn’t help but feel I knew just what he was about to say.

"Tow told me. About what you said to her. About wanting to—" He stopped, a frown returning to his face as if saying it out loud would make it too real.

My stomach dropped and I felt a sudden spike of fear even though Ila had already told me Kael knew regardless. "She told you that?"

"Of course she did." His voice was tinged with frustration. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

I looked away, my voice low. "I was in a bad place..."

His eyes flashed and he stepped closer. "You told her you wanted to die, Violet. That’s not—"

"I am better now." Shame flooded through me, and irritation started to follow.

I didn’t want to talk about this.

As if just realising, I added, "I said I still wanted to train with the others and you pulled me from it."

"The training I already told Ila to stop." His voice was flat now. "I will ignore her disobeying an order, but I did that because I put you in that environment with wolves who would test you constantly, not knowing you were already..." He trailed off and closed his eyes, raising his hand rising to rub at his face. "I thought I was making it worse."

I frowned, my body tensing. "You knew you were putting me in a troubling environment..."

I knew he knew, but to hear him just say it like this.

"I did not think—" His frown deepened and it was his turn to look away from me, his jaw clenching. "I wanted you to be stronger—"

My chest stung. "You’re no different from—"

"For your sake!" he clipped, his eyes snapping to mine. "Nothing else. I do not like that assumption at all and you know it is not true!"

I fisted the skirt of my dress and clutched it in a tight grip at my stomach, clasping my mouth shut.

His expression suddenly became a complicated mixture of hurt, frustration, and exhaustion all at once. He sighed.

"I sent you there to get stronger. Not to break you further." He stopped and clasped his hand over his jaw, tilting his head to the side. He seemed like he was trying to gather himself.

"If you think I am angry with you, I am not. I am mad at myself. If I had known about this, I would have been more rigorous with Astrid then, rather than now."

I stilled.

Was that why Astrid had been so accommodating?

Still...

"It wasn’t just your sister. It’s the very pack you rule." My grip tightened. "And could you even blame me? I know you are busy, but if you actually looked closely at my situation or even at anything from my view, you wouldn’t be surprised as to why I would feel that way."

He flinched, but I still continued, my chest aching with each admission, "I know I may not be important, and I have no standing—"

"Stop."

The command in his voice made me fall silent.

"You are—" He stopped right in front of me, visibly struggling with his words. When he spoke again, his voice was strained. "Don’t say you’re not important."

"You say this but you make decisions without knowing how I feel. Without even asking what I actually want. Even when you dragged me here, prevented me from leaving, and now while things were tough in the settlement, I still wanted to be stronger. I wanted to be outside. Not stuck in that room like I was in some prison." I stepped back from him. "And now you brought me here, and I am guessing I won’t be able to leave this room until further notice."

"No..." Guilt flashed across his face. "That wasn’t my intention. At all. I—" He ran his hand through his hair, the gesture almost helpless. "I am so sorry..."

I stiffened. I wasn’t sure why I was surprised he apologised.

He looked at me then, really looked at me, and I could see exhaustion carved into every line of his face.

An apology wouldn’t change the way his other wolves behaved, but bringing that up now would just make me feel bad when I shouldn’t.

"You look tired," I said softly, the observation slipping out before I could stop it.

Something flickered in his eyes. Likely surprised that I had noticed or even cared enough to comment at the moment.

But then his gaze shifted slightly, dropping from my face to... lower.

I followed his gaze down and my heart stopped.

The dress.

The beautiful, traitorous blue dress that I had tried so hard to make less form-fitting had settled again while I slept, the fabric clinging faithfully to the shape of my breasts, where the neckline of the slip let the dress drape over my chest in a way that drew attention exactly where I didn’t want it drawn.

My hands flew up to cover my chest. "I tried adjusting it and—"

"It fits you," he mumbled. "It’s a pretty dress."

I stood still, my palms still glued to my chest. I looked up at him in awkward silence.

Kael closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, his expression had smoothed into something more carefully neutral. More controlled.

He rubbed the back of his neck and drags his tired eyes to the entrance of the room, staring for a bit.

"Would you like to go out for a bit?"

His sudden question took me aback.

"If this is just because of what I said earlier—"

He shook his head and slowly turned to look back at me. "No, not that. When I even had you brought here in the first place, I did not mean to restrict your movement, you can still go out. I just want you to join me this evening."

"Join you?" I whispered.

He looked very tired, and he still wanted to go out?

’No, he was most likely doing this because of what I said.’

"I think you should—"

"I insist." A resolute stubbornness flickered in his eyes before softening. "Please."