Chapter 127
My chosen mate.
Clara's POV.
"What did you want to ask?" The question echoed in my mind and I almost thought I had imagined it. Was he really asking me this? It was a good thing he couldn't read minds because he would have heard mine screaming from the top of its lungs in excitement. For years, this was all I had been hoping for, to be given the opportunity to have Derek all to myself. My heart stilled. There was no way I would allow another pointless Omega anywhere near Derek. That luck started and ended with Scarlett and I would make sure it remained that way.
"Lost in your head?" He asked, and I opened my mouth to reply but any form of words died in my throat after I heard what he mumbled.
"Just like Scarlett used to." He wasn't looking at me, and his lips had barely moved when he said it so he probably thought I hadn't heard him. It were as if a cold shower had been poured on me and my mood immediately dampened with those words. Over my dead body would I allow myself to be associated with that lowlife of an Omega.
Derek's shoulders stilled and he turned to me slowly. His face was expressionless, but his eyes were a storm.
"So, still lost in your head?" He asked like nothing had happened. He looked at me intently while he waited for my reply. Warning bells went off in my head and my head told me that I needed to tread carefully.
"I'm over it now," I replied, my tone cool.
"Good." His dazzling stare made me forget what I wanted to say and I started scrambling my brain to try to put coherent thoughts together.
"I was wondering when you were going to pick another mate." I let it all out in a single breath, and I was met with silence. I held my breath and waited, while also hoping I hadn't spoken too soon. His face gave nothing away so I couldn't begin to imagine what he was thinking and that worried me.
"Derek." He barely reacted to my voice and I wondered if I had ruined everything. My gaze hardened and I let out harsh breaths through my nostrils. No! There was no way I would let all my hard work end like this. After everything I had done so far to get here, he had better give me a damned answer.
He must have the anger rolling off of me, and for the first time he reacted to me, slowly turning his body towards me until I could peer freely into his eyes.
"If you don't want to answer me, then you don't have to," I said, baiting him. I most definitely wanted him to answer because suspense really wasn't my thing. I had known my answer for years and I would work to make sure we were on the same page.
"It's not like that Clara, it's just too soon for me," he said, completely devastated. He still hadn't gotten over that Omega and I was more than pissed off at this point.
"Too soon?"
"Yes. And besides, what she wolf would want to mate with a wolf who just lost his mate?" He asked, and I almost screamed "me". I don't know why he couldn't get it into his head that he was a hot commodity, and apart from me, there were a multitude of she wolves who would take the chance and be by his side in a heartbeat.
"Lots of she wolves would be happy to be with you Derek, you just have to open your eyes and see them."
He sighed. I knew that sigh very well, it was the sigh he gave when his mind was already set on something else. He would take a while to swat him but I could be patient a little longer. This was something small compared to how long I had waited.
"You aren't getting any younger and we need an Alpha heir. It could help to secure the pack and get them in high spirits again," I coaxed him further. I wanted to firmly plant the idea in his head of taken in a chosen mate.
"And don't I know that. All those things already weigh heavily on my mind and I don't need to be reminded of it," he said, his voice and octave higher than before.
"I didn't mean to offend you," I told him. Treading more carefully was the way to go because his patience was at the end of the line. I only needed to say one wrong thing for him to snap and push me away.
"It's fine. I shouldn't have spoken to you that way either, I'm just in edge," he apologized and I hid my smile. I still had him.
I shuffled closer to him, my hand rested on his shoulder in a silent act of comfort because I knew he needed it now. I didn't quite understand why though because as far as I knew that Omega was dead and there was no hope of her coming back. Being hung up on her was useless.
"I'm here for you," I whispered when I got no reaction from him the first time, but this time I did. His head whipped to mine, and I found myself drowning in his emotion filled depths. I must have struck a nerve because the most emotion he had showed since I got here. I squeezed his shoulder harder but not too hard for food measure and hoped it would do something.
"Thank you Clara," he choked out. If I had thought his eyes were filled with emotions, then his voice took the top. It was thick and laden with mixture of emotions and he didn't try to hide his flushed face, or his now moist eyes.
"You don't need to thank me, I want to be here for you."
Then and there, I made up my mind to get him to always be like this with me, and only with me. It would be sooner or later before I could work my way into his heart and eventually be the Luna of our pack.