Chapter 54
ELARA’S POV
“Kael- I can’t,” I murmured, my tone scarcely perceptible, my fingers withdrawing from his. The phrases weighed heavily, burdened with a remorse that bore down on me, choking me. “I can’t do that to Ronan-”
His palm rested on my shoulder, a reassuring pressure that offered scant relief to the chaos swirling inside me.
“Elara, But-”
“Please, don’t,” I gently shook my head, lifting his hand off my shoulder. The basic gesture seemed enormous, a dismissal that mirrored the profound dismissal I harbored for his proposal.
“I can’t! Not at all.” The phrases emerged as a strangled cry, evidence of the internal conflict storming within me. How could he propose I depart with him? Abandon Ronan? Forsake it all? The notion of deserting him, of turning from the suffering I’d inflicted on him was intolerable. Could I truly manage that? Could I endure with myself if I did?
I pivoted, making for the exit in spite of his objections. The heaviness of his phrases bore down on me intensely and profoundly, but I declined to reveal it. As I extended for the handle, aiming to flee this oppressive dialogue. The entrance flew open, unveiling a vision that robbed the air from my chest, a vision that plunged my already fractured existence into utter disorder.
Ronan.
He lingered there.
His respiration uneven, eyes reddened and frantic, the vessels in his throat pulsed noticeably.
My gaze expanded as the awareness struck me. No…he couldn’t have overheard us…it wasn’t feasible. He couldn’t have!
“Ronan, I-” I began, my tone choked severely. I had anticipated him to utter something, but his abrupt chuckle interrupted me, a severe acrid noise that cut into me like fragments of crystal.
“That damned Marceline,” he persisted in chuckling, a noise lacking any kindness, a noise distorted by anguish and disloyalty…triggered by me. “I actually wished she was mistaken,” his expression dropped as he ceased chuckling, now supplanted by a fury I’d never witnessed prior. “You’re pathetic.” The phrases were vicious, icy and unyielding.
It struck me like the impact of a bodily strike. He spun to depart, I hurried and swiftly seized his limb.
“Ronan…wait!” I wept, “I can explain,” I stated, shaking my head in a frantic appeal. “It’s not what it appears like…”
Rather than responding, he hurled my limb aside and began striding away even swifter.
I attempted to pursue him, to clarify, to beg and reveal the entire facts. But a palm gripped my limb, tugging me rearward. I spun and glanced, it was Kael.
“It’s better this way,” he stated, his tone grave, stare unyielding. “It was destined to occur.”
I yanked my limb loose from his hold, the fury within me burst into a cutting comeback. “No, it’s not. You’re just self-absorbed!” I hurled, the phrases savoring like acrid residue, driven by a wave of bitterness.
Is this why he arrived? To worsen my existence? To harass me even more?
I didn’t even pause for him to utter another phrase before I dashed directly toward Ronan’s rooms, my limbs churning, driven by a frantic urge to get to him, to help him comprehend, to express regret for deceiving and ideally he’d grasp.
“Ronan!” I shouted as his sentries halted me from accessing his rooms, “Let me through!”
They remained mute, and yet persisted in obstructing my route with their lances.
“Ronan!” I shrieked even more intensely, my tone hoarse with torment, “Just let me clarify! I vow to reveal the entire truth! The entire damn truth!” This time I shrieked even more intensely, wishing he would at minimum permit me entry, but all of my appeals were greeted with quiet.
The sentries still stood steadfast, and in urgency, I shoved myself into his rooms. The instant I was inside, the sentries trailed but halted when I dashed toward Ronan.
He positioned by the pane, his rear to all, his outline, a severe emblem of dismissal.
“Ronan,“I kneeled, grasping his hand in mine.
I had inflicted so much suffering on him and I was still inflicting additional.
“Ronan,” I murmured, tears flowing down my cheeks, obscuring my sight. “It’s not what it appears like-”
“Oh, yeah?” He growled, his tone infused with a dense poison I had never encountered before. He yanked his hand loose from mine, as if my contact were like a blaze to his flesh. “Then clarify why you deceived me initially! Why did you never disclose the facts or even attempt to!”
I parted my mouth to talk, to provide some justification, but the phrases snagged in my gullet.
He huffed, dragging his hand through his locks as he moved distant from me. “You didn’t because you never planned to,” he stated, the acrimony in his tone slicing me more profoundly than any edge. Even when I initially came, he’d been severe and vicious, but this….this was distinct. The frigid wrath in his gaze rattled me to the essence, the restrained anger that emanated from him wasn’t merely from him solely but also from his wolf. I could sense it and it frightened me.
My wolf wailed from inside, flinching in agony as her core was being fractured once more….but regrettably, this time it was my responsibility. This was the outcome of my foolishness.
“You just exploited me to move past him, didn’t you?” He persisted, the charge lingered in the atmosphere, asphyxiating me, a fact so agonizingly near to actuality that it menaced to rip me asunder. I never planned on exploiting Ronan to erase Kael… Never once had I pondered it.
What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?! The inquiry resounded in my thoughts like a thunderous bellow that overwhelmed all other ideas.
I-”
“What’s occurring?” A keen, known female tone sliced through the unprocessed feeling, cutting through the strained environment. I gulped, snapping my head upward, and there she was….Marceline. She positioned in the midst of the space, her brows knitted in pretended bewilderment, a vicious facade hiding her victory.
The instant her gaze settled on me, a huff escaped her mouth, she crossed her limbs over her torso.
“Oh? It’s occurred already?” She snapped her tongue against the top of her mouth, her look a blend of contempt and contentment. “What a pity.”
I gulped deeply, tears yet flowing down my cheeks, incapable of speaking. I glanced upward to Ronan, but he pivoted aside swiftly, the suffering in his diverted stare was like a harsh opposition to the frigidity of his phrases. From the edge of my vision I observed as Marceline neared him, encircling her limbs around his midsection, placing her head on his rear.
Ronan didn’t respond, he simply remained motionless.
My core sensed as if it were fragmenting into a million shards.
“Ronan…please,” I gasped out, “Let me clarify..”
I frantically wished that he would glance at me, to perceive the facts mirrored in my tear-brimmed eyes, but he didn’t. Instead his subsequent phrases administered the ultimate strike, fragmenting what lingered of my optimism.
“Leave. Get out of my sight and my Pack. Leave with Kael and never return.”