Chapter 54
Iris
My knees knocked against each other as I scurried out of the hall with shame enveloping me. I could hear heavy footsteps behind me and at that point, I wished that the ground could open so I’d fall right in and avoid confronting him.
I could hardly breathe as my chest tightened painfully. How would I explain the truth to him without sounding like a traitor?
“Why did you run away?” His voice was light but I could tell that he was trying to hold back his emotions. “Was my father saying the truth?”
A stabbing pain seared through my stomach as I slid down to the ground, not minding that my beautiful dress could get dirty.
His question remained in the air as I suddenly lost my voice or the will to speak.
“Talk to me, Iris!” He commanded, causing me to shudder.
Seeing how angry he was, I knew that I had to do something, no- say something “I… He… Your father is telling the truth,” My body quaked with sobs. “I’m so sorry…”
He gasped and moved backward, unbuttoning his jacket. The atmosphere which was formerly cold became warm. Even I could feel the hotness.
“You’re sorry?” He asked in disbelief as if I wasn’t capable of apologizing. “You knew the truth all along and kept it to yourself until my father decided to mock me with it. This has to be a sick joke because I don’t want to believe it,” His voice cracked.
I got to my feet in fear. Several things could go wrong now and the blame would be on me. I shouldn’t have hid the truth from him, but there was no use in crying over spilled milk.
“Your father told me about it himself. He told me how she was his mate, but he was already married to your mom and didn’t want to break her heart so they…” It was hard for me to say it but with his murderous glare pinned on me, I had to continue. “They started an affair until your mom found out and…”
He ran his fingers through his hair aggressively and let out a roar that caused the noise emanating from the hall to stop, but no one dared move not even me.
His shoulders slumped as he gazed at me in resignation.
“Is that what you’ve been trying to tell me all this while?” He probed quietly.
I peered at his eyes and swallowed. His eyes glistened with tears that he fought hard to restrain from pouring down. My heart ached because I brought pain to my mate.
“Yes, but you didn’t want to listen or didn’t have the chance to. I should have tried harder but I was just scared of losing you,” I pleaded.
He shook his head and forced out a smug smile. “And now, do you think you still have a chance of being my mate?”
My soul sang with pain at his words but I suppressed it. I deserved whatever happened today, but I was very sure that I’d live in agony for the rest of my life.
“Grade… Please don’t,” I begged softly. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do just don’t do it.”
Getting a rejection from his twin didn’t get to me because I had other plans of running away, but this situation was different. Our friendship had blossomed into more and I wanted it to stay that way.
I wasn’t sure that my poor heart endure the torment that accompanied loneliness. Sadly, we hadn’t been officially mated so he could sever the mate bond between us and carry on with his life.
“My mother died prematurely, shamefully, even, because of your mother and you expect me to dance around the pack. Do you know what her death did to me? My father was never there for us. He wanted us to prove ourselves to him and I did that continuously because of my mother who encouraged us. We might have had a happy family if my father didn’t have to meet with your mother.” He fumed.
“Gradel, I know that my mother did wrong, but I had no hands in it. I apologize for her wrong even though it won’t be able to do anything but let’s not forget that we can’t keep living in the past.” I urged him.
He scoffed. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Your mother committed a heinous crime against my family that she won’t be able to pay for and you made it worse by not telling me as soon as you found out.”
I hated how he judged me. I only blamed myself for not telling him sooner, but it wasn’t my fault that the moon goddess decided to play a wicked prank on us.
“And I apologize. I also lost a mother and never knew my father. At least you had the chance to experience the love of a mother but I wasn’t that privileged.” I lashed out, getting frustrated by his illogical reasoning.
“Meeting you was a mistake and becoming your mate was a greater one. It’s time to right my wrong and I’ll do it now.”
My heart thumped hard against my chest in trepidation. I couldn’t allow him to do this to me, but my brain was clueless about ways to prevent him from taking any action against our relationship.
“I’m sorry, Grade…”
“Having seen that our relationship has brought nothing but pain to me, I Prince Gradel Dai, hereby reject-”
A scream tore out from the hall and roars followed. We exchanged worried glances and he grabbed my wrist as we ran toward the direction of noise.
My eyes almost fell out of their sockets when I saw the rampage that had taken place in the hall. Arrows from different directions were fired and sounds of gunshots resonated in the air.
“What is going on?” My voice was shaky.
“We are being attacked, Iris.” He explained and peeled off his jacket. “I warned my father that we had to be on alert but he didn’t listen, now our enemies are upon us.” He complained bitterly.
“What should I do-” A gunshot fired toward us overshadowed my voice and my back hit the floor with Gradel’s body covering me.
I trembled in dread and my heartbeat raced, nearly exploding.
He looked around briefly and stoked his gaze on me. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll protect you. Just listen to me.” He spoke firmly.