Olive stood by the terrace and watched the castle’s premises from up there. A gentle breeze was blowing and her hair was being tossed around slowly. At certain intervals, she would take deep breaths and gulp down. She had no idea that Wayne had been watching her for up to ten minutes already. After deciphering what exactly was going on with his mate, he gently walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist then placed his chin on her shoulder. She flinched at his sudden contact with her.
“Wayne,” she called and breathed in.
“What’s going on with you?” he asked in a deep whisper. She exhaled and relaxed into his embrace.
“It’s nothing,” she lied and smiled as she held his hands that were wrapped around her. She felt secure in his arms.
“You know I know you’re lying, right?” Wayne asked rhetorically and Olive laughed. Yes, she knew he knew.
“I wanted to ask you something. How do you detect lies?”
“It’s a secret. One which I’m not going to tell you until you tell me what is going on with you,” he answered and rubbed his nose on her neck. She got tickled and tried to wriggle her neck away from him but he held her in place.
“Waynie, stop it. Haha,” she laughed as he rubbed his teeth next. He stopped and turned her around to look at him.
“Do you know how long I’ve been standing here? Watching you?”
Her eyes peered at him.
“You have been watching me?” she asked in return.
“Yes. And babe, do you know how long?”
She shook her head.
“Maybe thirty seconds? I can detect you if you surpassed thirty seconds. And that’s only because I’m in deep thought. If I wasn’t, I’d detect anybody in two seconds,” she declared proudly. Wayne wanted to laugh at her but he decided not to. At least, not yet. But he would definitely tease her for it.
“Ten minutes, Olive. I’ve been watching you for ten minutes,” he stated and her jaw dropped.
“What!?”
He scratched his eyebrow and moved two step backwards.
“Stop joking like that,” she added to her exclamation and glared at him, thinking he was just teasing her. But he furrowed his eyebrows at her, staring into her eyes with a stern expression. Wayne was not joking.
“Are you serious? You were… you were here watching me for… ten minutes? Straight?” she asked again, still not believing him.
“That was why I asked what was wrong with you. I know you must have gone through a lot of training to use and detect strange things around. And, babe you’re a werewolf. You would have sniffed me out in seconds. But this whole ten minutes, you were standing like a human. A depressed human.”
Olive hugged her arms and exhaled again. Wayne was right. She was well trained and should never let down her guard like that. What if Wayne wasn’t the one standing there but an enemy instead? She would have been brought down immediately.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled while looking down at her feet. He closed his eyes and placed his fingers on his forehead again, pressing his thumb over the throbbing vein at his temple and breathing in deeply. His fiery wolf was getting agitated already, and the blue eyed one was getting worried to death. These two emotions inside him were very new to his body and he had to calm down someway. After about a minute, he opened his eyes and dropped his hand.
“Mate,” he called her. His voice was a mixture of authority and care. She looked up at him gently and gulped nervously. His eyes were sharp and piercing. She felt like he was going to read her soul.
“Come here,” he demanded calmly but still with a tinge of authority. Olive took two steps and was feet to feet with him. He placed his index finger under her chin and lifted her face up gently to look at him.
“Tell me what’s bothering you,” he half pleaded, half ordered.
Olive stared at him for a few seconds then gulped down again.
“I… I’m just worried,” she started.
“About what?”
“About us. I feel like… I feel like what I desired in a mate would not be found with you,” she answered and Wayne’s heart fell down to his feet. What did she mean by that? What did she desire in a mate that was not in him?
“What-what do you mean?” he inquired.
“I used to envy people who were with their lovers or mates. They looked so happy and cheerful. Always depending on one another. I thought… I thought I would be having that life too as soon as I found my mate. That my life would be roses again. And that I could laugh like them. Go do things together with my mate like them. Have a normal life, have my own family with kids. All those romantic movies I watched made me have a fantasy about life with my mate.”
She smiled bitterly and looked over the terrace again, watching the far distance.
“But then I found my mate and… and it isn’t what I fantasized about. We haven’t even started life together yet and anytime we want to be alone for each other, something bad happens. And now the way it looks, we should be prepared for more. Lots of enemies. This prophecy that keeps talking about power and all that. This, isn’t want I want.”
Wayne’s countenance had darkened already but Olive didn’t notice as she was still staring out into the sky.
He always knew his life was messed up but he loved the mess. He loved that he wasn’t the perfect person and wanted to continue being rough and nonchalant. No one could make him want a normal life. He loved danger and wanted to always take life threatening risks.
But… with what Olive just said, he couldn’t believe that for the first time in his life-he wanted to have a normal person’s life. If only he wasn’t Alpha, he could give her that life. Or maybe if only he wasn’t as dark as he was, he could give her the life normal Alphas had. But Wayne had no control over what could happen in his life any longer. It was already too late to try to become normal.
So what should he do? It was obvious Olive really wanted a normal life.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked. She looked back at him.
“Huh?”
“What do you want to do now, Olive?” he asked again.
“I don’t understand,” she mumbled.
“You always wanted a normal life. But I can’t give you that, like you’ve rightly said. However, I can give you the freedom to do what you want.”
“I still don’t get you, Wayne.”
“I can let you go, Olive. As much as I hate what I just said, I still don’t want you to come in contact with my darkness. I… I care about you. I love you. And I don’t want to be the end of you. So go, live the life you want. If you’re free from me, you would not be their target anymore. And you would be fre-”
Wayne couldn’t even complete what he was saying when he received a very dangerous slap that thundered across his face with a force as mighty as a lightening bolt on a stormy night, causing him to stagger blindly several steps backwards. That was the most painful slap he had received in his entire life time.
When he regained his balance and managed to open his eyes, he saw Olive standing about a seven feet away from him. She was fuming, breathing very fast and her arm was hanging by her side but ready to strike again. Wayne looked at her face and saw that her eyes had turned greyish. Her wolf was surfacing.
“Next time… next time you say something like that? I swear, Wayne. I swear I’ll kill you!” she screamed and immediately her fangs lengthened. Wayne gasped in surprise. This was the second time seeing her like this, but it felt so strange still.
“How dare you! How dare you try to let me go!” she yelled at him and her claws drew out. Wayne’s eyes were still widened as he looked at her with disbelief mixed with amusement. So this was because he said he was letting her go? Wasn’t she the one saying she wanted a softer life he couldn’t offer? But that didn’t mean he should release her. In fact, what he said was a rejection ritual.