Chapter 8

KIAN’S POV

One day, out of nowhere, Natalie became distant with me. The girl who would follow me everywhere even when she was exhausted, no longer seemed to see me. It was as if I was slowly fading away. I noticed these things but they were too impossible to be believed. There was no way Natalie, who fell in love with me at first sight, would grow tired of me so soon into our mating.

The woman who made my grandfather force me into a mating could not wake up one morning and decide she no longer wanted me. I was confident that I knew Natalie the best and I knew that she was not a fickle person. Once her mind was set on a thing, she never backed down.

It was an admirable trait that now scared me.

Divorce.

She had her mind set on leaving me and even though I knew there was no chance in hell of me letting her go, I still feared her slipping through my grasp.

“We’re here.” I pulled the car into the parking lot of the pack’s main office.

Throughout the car ride here, she had not spoken a word to me. She hadn’t even looked at me. Her eyes had been slowly turning away from me for months now but I thought there was no one else for her eyes to turn to. There was no man better than me. She would not find a man who came even half as close to me in terms of status, wealth, looks and intellect.

But what if she didn’t want a better man?

“Are you mute now?” I asked when she wouldn’t say anything, her chin jutted out and her lips pursed.

What if she just wanted a man that wasn’t me?

“Is it because of Aaron?” I asked.

“Don’t speak his name!” She hissed at me.

There was so much anger in her eyes, it was almost as if i didn’t know her.

Did Aaron really corrupt my sweet girl? Was all of this his fault? He had hovered around her even when we were children and at one point, it was painfully obvious that he had a crush on her but I had no reason to care. Natalie’s affections were mine and mine alone.

“Do you want him to rot in the dungeons?” I asked her.

“What do you mean? What do you mean, Kian?” She exploded, her eyes reddening at the corner.

“I know all this brouhaha has everything to do with him so don’t you think that if you act a bit more normal, I’ll let things go and take him out of the dungeons?”

“What even is normal?” She gripped her hair.

She always complained about how easily her hair shed but now she was pulling at them.

“Don’t pull your hair.” I leaned over to pry her hand out of her hair and she stiffened.

It made my wolf recoil. Did she think I was going to hurt her? Why was she freezing up like that?

“Natalie, I would never hurt you.” I found myself gritting my teeth.

“Maybe not physically.” She opened the door and got out of the car.

I chased after her in a hurry, an irrational fear of her slipping through my fingers coming over me.

“Natalie,” I caught up with her. “Don’t walk so fast. You could trip.”

“Stop insulting me and leave me alone!”

It was not an insult to say she was the most accident-prone person I ever came across. There were scars on her knees from how often she fell over. Her body now saw these scars as the norm and did not kick in to start healing them as soon as they happened which was why she could get scars as a wolf.

“We haven’t prepared your office yet so you will have to work from mine.” I called Matthew in advance to prepare a desk and chair.

“Do you really expect me to work?” She looked me up and down with twisted lips. “Aren’t you scared that I’ll ruin your pack?”

“I’m more concerned with how you would handle the workload.”

Natalie was fragile. Like an egg. She had to be protected even from herself. The workload of this pack would be much more than she could handle but it was better for her to be caught up with work that caught up with another man.

“Let’s see it then.” She plopped into her seat.

As Matthew laid out some of the work she would be handling for the day, I checked the time. It was already well past noon. I’d come in late so I had a mountain load of work to attend to but I couldn’t concentrate.

Thinking of the divorce papers she flung into my face yesterday made my mind continue to stray.

‘Don’t you have anything to say?’ I asked my wolf who had become uncharacteristically quiet since yesterday. ‘Are you not concerned that she may slip through our fingers?’

‘I trust you to never let that happen,’  he responded.

Yes, I would never let her go. But I knew Natalie.

I knew she could run.

‘Then block off her exits,’  my wolf said. ‘Make sure she never has any place to go.’

I watched her as her nose wrinkled in concentration. Fourteen years had passed since I first met Natalie. She was the only one I had;  the only friend and the only family. There was no one else for me and no one else for her. We were bound together by oath, by blood and by law. Our worlds were linked. We orbited around each other. She was everything to me and I had spent too long guarding this jewel to let her slip from my grasp. I had sacrificed blood and sweat to keep her safe by my side. I could not even possibly imagine what would happen – it was horrifying to think of what could happen if she left my side.

How would I protect her if she left this bubble that she now seemed hellbent, desperate – eager even – to leave? No, I wouldn’t – I couldn’t let her take a step away from my side.