Chapter 43 — Husk

"Say something! Anything, for fuck's sake. What is wrong with you? You saw that I was sitting and talking, yet you just left and you didn't even say a word!" Fagua screamed as she entered, then slamming the door behind her with her final word. "You're gone more than half the day, don't call, don't reply to my text, then you storm off like that?"

And I wanted to say something to her. I wanted to say everything I was feeling because I went from being on such a high after imprinting on her to a low after hearing her conversation.

I didn't know if this relationship was for me. I thought our spending time together alone and imprinting on her had brought out a new lease of life within me, something I didn't even know I possessed. Then in the space of six hours—or however long it had been since I left the hotel—this flame inside of me had turned to ashes.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she waited for me to respond to her question with a tilt of her head. I tried to say something, but the words just wouldn't leave my mouth.

I have so many emotions inside of me that, at times, I don't know how to control them, and the only way to handle them was with silence. If I don't say what's on my mind, then things would be okay and no one would get hurt in the process. I was scared that she would be the one running out the door just as quickly as she entered if I expressed how I felt. So the best thing to do would be to be silent for now.

I turned back and concentrated on packing, which I was doing before she walked through the door. She stood waiting for me, but I ignored her presence. I could feel the heat from her body, the cloud of rage and anger in which she entered the room was slowly subsiding, which was good. It meant that we could leave here with no more drama.

Maybe on the long ride home I would tell her; after we both had time to calm down. Then I could explain how I was feeling and we could go back to having the connection we did when we made love last night and within the early hours of the morning.

Made love.

I didn't know what it was, until I imprinted on her. If anyone had told me that this kind of thing would happen between us, I would have torn them down and said it was impossible.

But it happened, and just as quickly, it was over and we were back to where we were before—her feeling contempt for me and me feeling regret about the idea of us being more than we are right now.

"Ready?"

She looked up at me, as if she was expecting me to say something else. She shook her head and then suddenly started rushing around the room, furiously slamming things. I watched, wishing I could say something to her, but I couldn’t, so I shook my head once again and decided to leave the room.

I paced the hallway outside, where the scent of her perfume still lingered on my skin from when she kissed me tenderly on my lips last night… And then all those warm feelings evaporated with her words. One minute I would think I'd go and talk to her and we would just have it all out. We would row, like we'd done so many times before, but then the other part of me was thinking to wait. We had to both calm down and have a civilized conversation about it. The same way I'd heard her speak to Winter and vice-versa on occasion.

We could be like that too.

I just had to figure out a way to do it. No, I had to be positive about being with Fagua. I couldn't think of anything else but positivity.

It was the only way we were gonna get through this because it wasn't just our lives at stake but my brothers too.

I headed to the lobby. As soon as I reached the reception desk, the receptionist greeted me with a smile. She had her blond hair tied up in a bun, and she was human, that part I smelled, for sure. Her eyes lit up as they met mine.

For a second there, I remembered that Fagua greeted me with that same smile after we mated, and it just made me want to imprint on her once more.

When she smiled, it made me want to stay. It made me want to forget our past and only think about how good she felt in my arms.

"Finally, you've decided to come inside." The woman chuckled.

I turned around, thinking that maybe she was talking to someone else. I'd never met this woman before in my life. She couldn't be talking to me. I didn't remember speaking to her before. When I checked in, and when I left to go for a run in the early hours of the morning, no one was at the desk.

She nodded and laughed. "Yes, yes I'm talking to you. I know you don't know me, but my husband said he saw you in the woods in the early hours of the morning. He was out running and said that he's never seen a wolf run the way you do. It was with such pride and joy that he even followed you."

I pointed at her because now it was all making sense. Clearly, she was Darkness's mate, the wolf that I'd spent part of the morning with, and the reason why I'd stayed away from Fagua so long.

"Your husband is Darkness?"

"Yes, yes. He's my mate, husband, my soulmate, my everything," she purred, as if he were standing in front of her.

Part of me was jealous of the way she spoke about her husband. I wished that Fagua thought of me in that way, but she would only glow like the receptionist if she was talking about Winter, or perhaps Sky.

I was the brute. The cold one, and the one she felt forced to be here with. Not because she wanted to be with me, but because she had to be.

"Sorry, did I say something wrong?" the receptionist said, and I looked at her name tag and saw her name was Betty. It suited her.

For a moment, I thought about Betty Crocker, who is the icon for cooking from scratch. Or innocent, sweet Betty from Riverdale High who likes Archie in the comics.

She looked like a Betty to me.

The joy in her voice and the smile.

Yes, I could see why her parents named her Betty.

"Betty," I slurred, trying to find the words because my head was a mess. So much so, I couldn't even figure out simple words to say anymore. Maybe it was because everything had become complicated. Or maybe I just didn't know how else to form my thoughts into words.

"Yes, that’s my name." She chuckled, then the tone of her voice changed. "I saw your wife or is she your mate? Anyway, she was going up and down frantically looking for you. I think she became hungry while doing so because she went to get something to eat at the buffet and then she just kept piling her plate. She must have been really hungry. Did she meet up with you?"

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. And I turned around, even though I knew who was standing behind me. The scent let me know it was Fagua, and I wanted to see compassion in her eyes when she looked at me and hear apology in her voice when she spoke with me, but there was none of that. I wanted to know how much of the conversation she'd heard, but when I looked at her, her gaze was locked on Betty.

"What was that?" Fagua asked, her hand still resting on my shoulder.

"Oh, you're his mate. No. Oops." And then Betty put her hand on her mouth as if she said something wrong.

She corrected herself, as she said, "Wife?" Her eyes darted to Fagua's hand, which moved from my shoulder, and I hated the loss of it. The warmth of her touch had calmed me and reassured me that maybe things weren't as bad as I made them out to be.

Fagua's missing ring had confirmed what she'd said in the beginning.

"Mate, then. Anyway, how was breakfast?" she asked Fagua.

"Good. Nice," Fagua said in a tight voice.

I expected to come to the reception desk, drop my keys, and leave, getting in the car and as far away from here as possible.

There was no situation that Winter couldn't talk himself out of. And Sky had people bending over backward to help him.

I should take Fagua's hand and wrap my arms around her waist, showing her how much she meant to me.

Instead, I grumbled, ignoring what I could have done, sticking to the thing I knew best, and that was to leave.

"We had a lovely stay here and we're on our way out," Fagua said as she smiled at the receptionist.

I didn't wait for her to say anything else. I handed the key to Betty, grabbed Fagua's bag, and got the hell out of the hotel. I headed to the car, dropped her bag in the back, and jumped in.

I started the engine before she'd even gotten to the car, annoyed that she wasn't moving at the same pace. I could have been the gentleman and opened the car door and made sure she was all right. I smacked the steering wheel. Why did I never think about shit like that until it was too late?

The way I was feeling right now, I needed to be as far away from here as possible. My emotions were out of control. I was acting like an animal, just like she accused me of being.

As she got into the car, then put on her seatbelt, I was so damn agitated, that I knew I couldn't drive without a clear head.

I needed music.

Classical would do the trick. I never listened to it since that was more Winter's type of music. But he said that it calmed him down, something I needed right now. Metallica was my favorite group, but I couldn't listen to them right now. It wasn't the type of journey where I was trying to pass the time. No, I needed to put my thoughts together, so I flicked to the classical station and, thankfully, it started to work. With that, I headed out of the parking lot.

For a split second I even forgot Fagua was in the car. I was so focused on my thoughts, that it was only her scent that reminded me she was there. How was that even possible?

I didn't know how long I was driving for, or even care, as my mind was thinking about heading to the casino and getting to work and putting this whole episode behind me.

I stopped at the light and noticed that Fagua was tossing and turning in her seat.

Fuck!

It wasn't long until we reached the casino; just under twenty minutes. We just had to keep it cool until then, or so I thought until Fagua turned off the radio.

The one thing that was actually keeping me in check.

"Are you gonna fucking say something? Or are you just going to sit there and pretend none of this happened?"

A horn beeped behind us, but I froze, just staring at her for a minute. I was the one who used foul language. I hardly ever heard her curse.

The light had turned green. Shit. I took a deep breath and hit the gas, but the light had actually turned red again. I didn't have time to stop, but the car felt like it hit an invisible wall. The seatbelt jerked, pinning me in my seat.

I looked over to check if Fagua was okay. Her eyes were wide, as if she were struck by lightning. Her hair was up like a peacock's feathers and she was sweating so much. Her magic had returned, yet she hadn't bothered to tell me anything.

"Shit!"

"Whaaat…" she whispered before she sank into her seat. I was worried that she'd fainted because her heart rate slowed down so much.

"Fagua, talk to me. Say something."

I gently touched her thigh and repeated the words over and over again. Yet she said nothing. Her skin was so cold and I kicked on the heater to help. I was worried that if I didn't get to the hospital then, she would die. I changed direction, taking a right, heading to the hospital instead of the casino, but her heartbeat returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

This was really strange. Yet she hadn't woken up either.

I was so fucking confused, so I decided to just go to the casino. I was nearly ten minutes away.

When I stopped at the lights, it seemed to take everything out of her. It was something so minimal, but for sure, it was as if all her energy was taken out by keeping me from running over that guy. Five minutes later, she was back to normal.

No more was she was white as snow, as the blood had started to return to her face.

"We're not there yet?" she asked, shifting in her seat. "I mean it didn't take this long to get to the hotel."

I turned to face her, wondering how this was the same woman who, only a few minutes ago, had been as cold as ice.

We were still five minutes from the casino.

"Yeah, I thought you weren't well, so I decided to go to the hospital."

"Why? Cause you don't know how to drive? Don't you know that you should keep your eyes on the fucking road?"

What was with her and the f word lately? She spat it out as if it was the only vocabulary that she knew.

"No. I was distracted." I clenched my hands on the steering wheel. It was like I couldn't do anything right when it came to her.

I drove the car through the gates of the casino, waving off the valet.

"Yeah, yeah. Go blame someone else for your crap. I'm sick and tired of it." She unfastened her seatbelt. "Look, let me get out here. I need to go for a fucking walk."

"You weren't well only a few seconds ago."

"Well, I'm fine now," she barked, grabbing her purse. Then she opened the car door without hesitation. Everything was happening so fast that I couldn't even get my thoughts together because I was confused.

"I just need to get some air. It's just really stressful for me."

What was?

I couldn't even answer her because she disappeared from sight.

The only thing I could think as I sat frozen in the car, was what the fuck was going on, or rather what the hell just happened?