Chapter 4: Leave me alone!

MARA

“What are you talking about?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat as I looked at Kael, the same person that I had practically grown up with. Even some pack members would not believe that we were not of the same parents, and now…

“I told you it doesn’t have to mean anything. It wouldn’t mean anything, Mara. It’s starting to bother me more than I can take, and you’re unfortunately the only person who can take it away.”

“No.” I shook my head. I walked to the door and opened it, a gesture that he was to understand immediately. “You need to leave. I’m not going to do this.”

“I don’t feel anything for you, Mara. This doesn’t have to be weird. Just this once to set my head straight, and I’ll be out of your way.”

With each word that he said, I only realized just how selfish Kael was. He hated me with all his guts, never hid it for once, and now he wanted me to be the one to help him out with whatever restlessness he had.

At least he was kind enough to let me know that it still wouldn’t mean a thing to him if I agreed to do it with him, but I wouldn’t.

“I want you to leave. I don’t know how you thought this was going to end up, but it’s not right. We’re siblings, Kael.”

He laughed at my reminder, chuckling as if I had told him an inside joke of some sort. “You seem to have forgotten that you were adopted into this family by my father after your parents died. Yes, we did grow up together, but we will never be siblings, no matter how much you try to believe it.”

He was trying to convince me that we were not siblings for his personal benefit, but he never hid that undertone of anger and contempt from his voice. He made it clear that he didn’t like me. But unfortunately for him, it didn’t change a thing.

“As much as I agree that we are different from one another and are not siblings, I take your father as mine, and he sees me as his daughter. I would never do such a thing to him, no matter what kind of bond you and I share.”

He started to accept it, slowly but surely. Finally, I saw his shoulders slump in defeat as he stepped out of the room and walked away.

I let out a loud sigh of relief that I was pretty sure he heard when he walked out. Placing a hand over my chest, I returned to the bed, every sign of sleep wiped away from my eyes now as I rolled around restlessly until the sun rose.

~

I had chosen to forget everything that had happened between me and Kael the night before. I decided that it would only haunt me since I was the only person in charge of my thoughts. Even at breakfast, Kael acted as if nothing had happened. I realized that he was probably trying to forget it as well, so I went with it.

What I didn’t expect was him following me out of my training practice later that evening like a lost pup.

“Have you thought about it?” he questioned. It made me stop in my tracks and turn to look at him in shock because not only did I think that we were over that conversation, I never thought there was anything to think about in the first place.

“Thought about what?” I asked, giving him the benefit of the doubt and hoping that he would not bring it up. But I knew that there was only one thing that we had talked about recently that would have him on my neck.

“You don’t want me talking about it out in the open like this, do you?” He looked around as he asked. “What I told you last night. In case you didn’t notice, I did a pretty horrible job at training today. I believe you know why that is.”

“I don’t want to talk about this ever again, Kael. I’m exhausted,” I said, turning around and walking away.

“You were supposed to think about it. I have no idea why it’s not affecting you the way it’s doing to me, but I’m sure if you were in my shoes right now, you would understand why your mortal enemy is walking behind you, asking you to think about it.”

I walked on in silence, my teeth grinding against each other in frustration as he kept following me up the stairs when we got to the house until I reached the door to my bedroom.

“There is nothing to think about. It’s never going to happen. I give you the permission to go out and indulge with other women if you please. Goodnight.” I slammed the door in his face, and I had to admit to myself just how good it felt, understanding why Kael liked to do it to me.

I figured that with the permission I had given to him to do whatever he liked because whether we liked it or not, we were not mates. We were raised in a way that made us believe the Moon Goddess could never make mistakes, but maybe this one time…

What I didn’t know was that my rejection seemed to be some kind of fuel that made Kael approach me more and more, trying his hardest to pressure me to give in.

“What exactly do you want from me, Mara? Is it to beg? You want me to go down on my knees and beg you because you think that’s the one way you’re going to have victory over me, is that it?”

I had the urge to laugh at how serious he sounded saying that, but that was also the reason I couldn’t laugh. He was starting to make me uncomfortable with his constant pestering, and I was starting to fear that if things kept on going the way they were, he could resort to his one sure method—violence.

“Kael, I don’t want you to go on your knees.” I sighed I looked up at the ceiling to rein my frustration in. “I don’t want you to anything. Just stop pressuring me to sleep with you.”

“Why exactly don’t you want to do it? Are you afraid you’ll get pregnant with my child? Is that your biggest nightmare? Maybe you’re afraid my father will find out, which he won’t because neither of us will say anything to him. You’re my mate, for the Moon Goddess’ sake!”

“Oh!” This time, I laughed. It was beyond funny to me now.

“Now you accept that I’m your mate because you’re desperate?” I chuckled. “I told you, you can go out there and find someone to help you with this. I really am not going to do this with you, ever. You’re wasting your time, Kael.”

“I have tried!” he snapped at me in frustration. “I have tried to go to other women, but they just… Each time I touched them, there was this feeling—this haunting feeling. You have no idea what’s going on with me, and I really think…”

“Do you want your father to find out about this?” I asked.

The immediate frown on his face made me believe that he didn’t want his father to find out about it. That was more than enough for me to turn around and grab the phone that I had hidden to stop recording.

I played the sound for him for him to hear everything that had transpired between us that evening since he stepped into my room and started to pressure me again. He had a dark look in his eyes that scared me, but I acted as though it was not there.

“Get out of my room, and never return here with the intention of pressuring me again. Keep yourself under control, and I’ll delete the recording. If you don’t, then I’ll just have to play this for your father and find out what he thinks about his son begging his daughter to mate with him.”

I saw his hands ball into fists, and I had half a mind to delete the recording instantly.

“Don’t make a foolish mistake,” he warned before turning around to walk away and slam the door shut.