“Karen,” she heard Aiden call her name for what felt like the umpteenth time when it was only the fourth, as he knocked on the door of the room she had been given.
Aiden was relentless, but she stubbornly and quite childishly ignored him… until he barged in, saying, “Ready or not, I’m coming in. You’re worrying me.”
She could only roll her eyes at his somewhat dramatic behavior.
“Typical alpha male, I suppose?” She taunted, as she observed him, no hint of a smile on her face.
“I am an alpha,” he told her in a detached tone, seemingly not liking her attitude.
Well, tough!
“Yeah, yeah,” she carried on taunting him, challenging him, in an attempt to get a rise out of him so she could blow out at him. “So you say, Aiden.”
“I was born to lead,” he said in a resolute tone, “and you were born to be mine.”
“Says who?” She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Fate. Fate brought us together…”
“Do you even love me?” She cut in as she glared at him, “or is it all fate?”
“Of course I do, Karen,” he went from a rigid and detached alpha male to putty in her hands. “What kind of question is this?”
“Well, fate was unfair to you because news flash! I don’t love you.”
She watched as his face fell at her words, saw his jaw tighten and the shine of his bright blue eyes dim.
He turned to leave the room. And she had the urge to ask him to stay for some unfathomable reason, to have him close for whatever comfort she might get from him… only she squashed down that urge and allowed him to leave in peace.
The following day, Karen did her best to avoid looking at Aiden who seemed lost in thought each time she did steal a glance.
He was closed off to her. He acted distant. He was obviously sulking, hurt from her words of the day prior.
Well, what was she to do? Surely not apologize… big bad alpha mate had yet to apologize properly for his wrongdoings, and they weren’t of the small type. Why should be the one to apologize for a few words said in obvious ire?
The wounds of the soul take longer to heal than the wounds of the flesh. Of that, she was sure. She remembered getting beatings every now and then from her abusive father figure. Thinking of whom, she wondered if he was worried about her.
Seeing as there was no police after her, she guessed he wasn’t. Well then, she ought not to think about him either. Even if she kept a few good loving memories from the time where her mom was still of this world, she no longer cared enough about the man. And that was that.
Jasmine was showing her around the humongous property when her eyes fell upon one particularly familiar wolf fighting viciously another slightly smaller one.
“He is really going at it,” Jasmine observed almost pensively.
“Is that Aiden?” Karen couldn’t help but ask, her voice dripping with curiosity.
“It is,” Jasmine said with a smug smile. “It is endearing to see how even a human girl can recognize her werewolf mate even among other wolves.”
Karen felt herself blush and kept her attention on Aiden’s wolf form. It seemed as if she could sense someone else’s deep-rooted anger.
“He’s going for the kill,” Jasmine gasped as she started running in the direction of the fighting wolves.
Karen followed suit, and arrived just in time to shout a powerful, “Aiden!” just as his jaw was about to close around the other wolf’s neck. He stopped, frozen, and then his eyes snapped into her direction.
“What were you thinking?” She cried out, exasperated by this ridiculous situation.
The whole ordeal was insanely maddening, and she wasn’t sure what was wrong with him per se.
He closed the distance between them in less time than it took to say wolf, startling her back. And then thanks to some swift movements, he made her sit on his back.
“You should grab on his fur,” Jasmine’s advice was Karen’s only warning before he started running in the direction opposite to which she and his mom came from.
What the hell is wrong with this guy? Karen thought angrily, even as she held onto him as if to never let go.
“I’ll take it we shouldn’t wait for you?” She heard Jasmine shout in an amused voice.
She wanted to say something witty in retort possibly hurtful to Aiden too but then chose not to utter a word. Pettiness would get her nowhere.
She needed to prepare herself for the upcoming fight. There would be no more running away from the facts. She and Aiden needed to face their actions, and the consequences of said actions, and take a decision once and for all.
What decision though? Now, that was a tough question.