Chapter 116 CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN

Chapter 116 CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN
CLAYTON
My legs carry me there despite the screaming in my mind not to go. I can’t keep torturing myself like this. I’m sick and tired of everybody asking if I’m sick or looking at me with pity without knowing what is wrong with me. We have to sort this thing out now.
I knock on the door and wait. I hear growling from inside the house, then grumbling before a door is slammed shut. He knows it’s me. He walks to the door and opens the door with a frown.
“Clayton. Do I need to bring one of my sons to beat you up?” he asks.
“If that’s what you want to do, do it. I’m not leaving until we talk.”
He huffs before he steps aside and allows me pass through. I enter the house and sit down. He closes the door and sits down across from me. We stare at each other in silence before he sighs.
“I don’t have the energy for this, Clayton. Say what you want to say and leave.”
“I don’t care what happened to her. She’s mine and you can’t keep her away from me.”
He starts laughing and I clench my jaw. “Do you know how long I’ve protected her? Do you know the amount of round the clock care she needs? Do you think that I’ve come this far to release her to some wolf in a pack miles away from my pack because you’re mates?”
“No, I don’t think you’ll release her to me. I’m just here tell you to make peace with it. I’ll be back in a week for her and I’ll leave with her.”
He scoffs. “I know you’re hurting. Everything inside you is telling you to claim her, be with her but that’s just the chemistry of the bond. Reject her and in a year, you’d have forgotten any of this happened. I will not take the chance of my daughter being neglected, abused, and treated horribly.”
“She’s my mate! I would never treat her like that?” I say, getting up.
He leans back on his chair. “The fact that you don’t know that they’re are mates who treat their mates with disdain makes me know that I’m right about you. She-wolves that are able to clearly tell you what is wrong with them, she-wolves who know when something is dangerous and stay away from it without you having to drag them away from danger over and over again still get beaten up by their fated mates for not being enough.”
He shakes his head and his voice breaks for the first time. “She will frustrate you. I don’t know the cruel joke the goddess is playing, but she can never be your mate. If you insist then we’ll leave. If you try to come after her, we will go to war.”
“At least let me see her. I don’t even know what she looks like!”
I’m close to tears now but I hold it back. He can’t see me cry. He stands up and walks to the door.
“It’s time for you to leave. Except you want to be the reason our two packs go to war on top of everything going on, I suggest you reject her and forget about her.”
He holds the door open and watches me with unconcealed rage. I stand up and walk out of the house. From the house, I walk into the forest and sit on a log. Then I allow myself to cry. It feels like I found my own only for it to be snatched before I can fully know her. What lesson is this trying to teach me? Why am I suffering like this?
“Do you finally want to tell me what is wrong with you?” Caius says from behind me, a few minutes later.
“I’ve been standing here for a few minutes watching you cry and you didn’t notice. You’re not fine Clayton. Why won’t you talk to me about it?”
I wipe my eyes and turn to him. “I wanted to handle it by myself. I didn’t want to bother you with my problems.”
He scoffs and comes to sit next to me. “Why do you think it’s a bother? What’s bothering me is watching you die a little each day and not knowing why because you don’t want to talk to me about it.”
I take a deep breath and think over what I want to do. I’m not letting her go. I don’t care about anything Alpha Magnus said. I know myself. I’d never be cruel to her.
“I found my mate but her father says I can’t be with her.”
Caius’s brows raise but he doesn’t say anything.
“Alpha Magnus has a daughter. He snuck her into the pack and she lives with him. Somehow, she got out of the house and I followed her back. I chased after her actually. Got there and she was on the floor shaking, scared. Before I could do anything to calm her down, Alpha Magnus came in and almost beat me stupid. She was sick as a child and it affected her mind. He says I should reject her and forget about her.”
“Do you want to?” he asks and I shake my head.
“Of course not. He thinks I don’t understand what I’m going to be dealing with, but I do. I want this more than I want my next breath.”
“So why aren’t you going to get her?”
“He’s threatening to leave if I insist. It’s dangerous out there right now. He’s also threatening war.”
“He won’t leave. He won’t risk his pack like that. If war is what he wants, you’ve never been afraid of war.”
“Yes, but we’ve never been to war because of me. It’s always some stupid pack thinking they can poach.”
“This is a stupid Alpha, who although he cares about his daughter, wants to keep you from your mate. You’re not angry enough. Are you sure you want her?”
I growl at him. “Of course I do. I’m just confused on what to do.”
He stands up and gives me a hand. “Let’s go talk to him together.”
“You’d go to war with an ally pack because of me?” I ask.
He looks surprised by my surprise. “I’d go to war with the council if they were keeping you from your mate.”
I smile and take his hand. We walk back to Alpha Magnus’s house and Caius knocks. Alpha Magnus opens the door with his usual frown. He looks at me with disgust and snarls.
“You brought your Alpha?”
Caius stands straighter, steps forward and Alpha Magnus walks back inside the house. “Let’s talk Alpha to Alpha.”
“I don’t care what you say, Alpha Caius, I’m not giving my daughter to him. You’d have to kill me and my sons before you take her.”
“Why spill all that blood when we can discuss and at the end, my beta will have his mate and she will have her father and brothers.”
“Is that a threat Alpha Caius?” Alpha Magnus asks, puffing out his chest.
“We’re not leaving here without her.” Caius says