Chapter 44 Chapter 44
ALPHA XANDER'S POV
I didn't understand why everyone was interested in where I was. I knew Daciana must have been worried but after seeing I was obviously fine, I never expected her to bring it up, and she has been busy with Adriana. I guess, I was kind of hoping she would let it go because I didn't want to talk about it.
"Just because I didn't ask then didn't mean it wasn't on my mind." Daciana rolled her eyes, looking like she had just read my thoughts. Wolves didn't read minds and it was rare but a few lycans can. Daciana sometimes does, only when you let her in though and since we are related, she feels it is okay to just get into my head when she feels like it.
"Stop getting into my head." she hissed when I pushed her out forcefully. I've been keeping the mental barriers up so she won't get the access to do it. It must have slipped my mind.
"You're no fun." she said, shooting me the stink eye. I ignore her and look away, gathering the things I am supposed to be looking through and storing them in the drawers they were usually kept in. Work is obviously not going to happen and since I doubt I would get any sleep tonight, I'll just use that time and finish what I was doing.
"And you're not about to change the topic." She wiggles a finger in my face. "Where were you Xander? For more than half a day when you knew Adriana was in the hospital, and you promised to be back." He exhaled a heavy breath when she reached the last word.
I run a hand through my hair, messing up the dark strands more than they already are. Daciana was still watching me with an expectant look on her face. I didn't know where to start from. I told her almost everything in my life, ones she would be interested in anyways. We've never spoken about my harem directly or what happened there.
She just knew of it, and I am aware of it but we didn't talk about that. She makes references to it and voices her distaste for it a lot, but never a direct topic about that.
"It's nothing important. I just went to meet up with the pack warriors and check out the rogues, then I got lost," I muttered the last part fast. Trying to breeze through it. I should have known she wouldn't fall for that.
She gave me a look that suggested I thought she was stupid and for that, I was stupid but that was all the reaction I got. Thinking she wouldn't even reply, I opened my mouth to start asking her about Adriana and where they went. It is the one thing that has been on my mind since she walked in. Adriana's scent, although faint, was on her. Even if I didn't know they were together, that would have been a dead giveaway.
"You've lived here for over three hundred years, I'm not stupid enough to just believe you got lost." She made air quotes around the word, lost. She leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms over her chest, then she mustered up the scariest look or most serious look she could probably and added a glare to the mix. "Now tell me the truth." She sighed tiredly.
"I just want to know the truth. Even though I might not like it." I considered her for a few moments. I studied her body language, her shoulders were a bit down and her eyes, though they looked brighter than I have seen in the past few days, still looked a little bleak. She was exhausted and I knew she wouldn't agree or even rest for a bit. Not with Adriana in a wheelchair.
Guilt made something acidic gather on my tongue. She wouldn't look like this and we wouldn't be having this conversation if I'd treated Adriana like I was supposed to from the beginning. I listened to the voices and what people would say and ended up doing the dumbest thing possible and almost killed my mate.
"Daciana, I think it's best if you don't know. It would be better for us all." Her expression turned more somber if that was even possible and she rolled her shoulder before nodding in acceptance. I felt glad she wasn't going to fight me on it.
"Just answer this," she started and I groaned in frustration. She ignored me of course and kept talking. "Were you in the harem?" I shook my head. She looked satisfied with that response because she got up and walked out, without saying anything more.
'Wait' I mind linked her so she would come back before she went far. She groaned. 'I don't want to come back. What do you want?' she grumbled, sounding annoyed. I could feel her irritation through the link. She wanted to sleep, or more accurately, needed the sleep. She has always been cranky when she is sleep deprived.
'How is she doing?' I realized, I've not asked her directly. Only from the report and what I've seen myself. It had been hard to physically remove myself from her room after I helped her out of the bathroom. The mate bond was almost unbearable, pushing me to just complete the mating then.
Most lycans mate the first day they meet, and then the mating ceremony would come after. It was rare to even wait a few days, usually when you meet your mate, she goes into heat if you don't mate and that isn't something anyone would want their mate to experience. I guess Adriana not going into heat is because she didn't have a wolf yet. We might just have to wait a few more weeks at most, or maybe till the next full moon. She just turned eighteen. It was normal.
'She is fine.' Is the only reply I get before she blocks me out of her head, I shake my head and follow her up the stairs. She was already in her room and I didn't bother meeting her again, she wouldn't be so much nicer if I kept disturbing her.
I went straight up to the last floor and to Adriana's door. I was surprised to find the door open and curiosity made me move further toward the room. I ignored the voice in my head that was telling me it wasn't the best idea for me to enter the room. My heart almost skipped a beat when I caught sight of her in a sheer night ensemble.
My first thought was to cover her up and get something that would cover her entirely, her door was open and anyone could see her that way. That made my blood boil, my eyes only seeing red. The other part of me, the part that was being driven crazy by the mate bond, wanted to tear it off and claim her, and mark her finally. If I let that part out, I would complete the mating ceremony right then.
Adriana looked frightened and her eyes widened, almost bulging when she saw my figure standing by the door. She staggered on her feet and words can't describe the way my heart tugged when she did that. I've always wanted people to fear me, all my life, it was the one thing I would say I always wanted, now though, I've never hated being feared as much as I did.
I didn't want her to be scared of me, I stopped by the door hoping that would make her ease up and see that I wasn't going to hurt her. I wouldn't ever hurt her deliberately. It sounded dumb but I didn't mean for what happened to happen the way it did. I could have done everything differently, I didn't see it that way at first.
I was so used to people falling at my feet, that her not easily falling at my feet and doing all I wanted made me react negatively. I didn't know how to deal with that, someone resisting me. I never had to try hard to get people to like me, and worse of all, do as I say. She was the first to show resistance. Even Donovan for all his disrespect knew not to push me.
"Are you okay?" I finally asked when I got tired of the tension filled silence. Adariana's eyes skidded between me and the door, then back to me again. The fear so clearly written in her eyes. I didn't want to see it there.
She swallowed visibly and nodded her head, then she averted her gaze. I realized just after she looked away that I've never taken how beautiful her eyes were. Not that I've stayed long enough to look at her since she got here. Even the day she was first introduced to me, my head was too far up my ass to think of things like how beautiful her eyes were. I've heard of her beauty, witnessing it was an entirely different thing.
But her body, that was where it ended and seeing it through the gown now, it made sense how I hadn't stopped at her eyes at first. "I, uh," I cleared my throat, it felt dry all of sudden. "I had Aiden moved to a different wing." I said, making a mental note to give that order the moment I get out of here. How I was trying to look good in her eyes desperately was a little pathetic, and my hate for the damned warrior multiplied tenfold after her shoulders eased at hearing those words.
"Oh, thank you." I felt angrier when she replied, her voice meek. Her hands were by her side, gathering the sides of the gown like that would somehow make them decent, or, I didn't know what she was hoping to achieve. I averted my gaze from her body, my cock was hard as a rock by this point.
"What are you doing?" I motioned to the stack of books on the bed. It definitely wasn't there at first and I was just trying to distract myself.
"Erm, nothing." She said quickly. My curiosity was piqued and I walked further into the room, stopping myself from snapping when I saw how she moved further back, almost hitting the table that was kept there. I read the titles of the book, the words barely registering in my head. The only thing I could focus on was the heat of her body from here.
Shit, I needed to get out of here before I did something stupid. I could feel my claws elongating, the animal in me fighting for control as much as I was fighting to stay in control. I didn't need a mirror to tell me my eyes were glowing bright golden now. I fisted my hands feeling my claws dig into the palm of my hand, drawing blood in the process.
I growled low in my throat when I felt my control snap and my body trembled with the force of it.