chapter 27

ORION’S P.O.V

“open the fucking door!!!” Karin” said, banging the door.

“I am not in the mood right now” I said, sighing as she continued to bang the door.

“fucking open this door or I would pull it down!!!!” she yelled. “I am not bluffing” I scoffed, she was definitely joking.

Few seconds later and my eyes flew open to the sound of the door being ripped off. “are you out of your fucking mind!!!” I looked at her, at loss for proper words.

“I told you I was going to rip out the door” she said, holding the in her mechanical and as she had partially transformed, while she smirked.

I sighed, it was pointless to shout, since she did exactly as she pleased. “what do you want?” I looked at her look at the room in disdain.

“ugh!” she groaned. “i refuse to enter this room in this state.!!”

“thank Fuck for that” i said, rolling my eyes at her.

“you will get up from that bed this instant and clean this damned room. And i definitely have to recruit some people from the castle to handle things, because this place is repulsive.”

“no, i am not going to clean the room, i can do as i please, and also, you don’t tell me what to do, now get out of the room and you better have that door fixed while you are at it” i threatened, showing my equally partly shifted side briefly to show her that i was indeed very serious.

“no, i am not going” she growled. “and you better clean up this room, i don’t have time for this” she threatened daring to find out what she was actually going to do.

“or what?” i smirked, knowing that she had nothing to use to threaten me.

“or….” she said dragging the word as she leaned against the door frame. “or i could bring Astrid here to see for herself why you are not really worth the catch” she taunted, but i stopped listening at Astrid.

“i told you i don’t want to see her!” or rather, i could not, not when i was not sure of myself around her, not when every time she saw me, it brought tears to her eyes.

“well she wants to see you, who am i to say otherwise? Especially when i promised to get you together, or did i not dear brother” she said looking at me with a smirk on her face. “well then, i would leave you to decide whether or not you want her to see you for who you truly are, a pig” she left, not even looking back.

I found myself jumping out of bed, picking up the clothes i had thrown around and the litter of paper here and there. ‘i really did need to get a maid’ i thought to myself as i picked up the trash from the floor, not like i was going to let Karin know though, i would rather loose my powers than do that.

I sighed, i did not realise that the cleaning was actually going to be a full blown job. “hey” i felt my body freeze on hearing the one voice i had avoided for weeks

I did not know how to react. ‘should i respond? Should i pretend as though i did not hear?’ the thought ran through my mind, preventing me from answering her on time.

“hey” she said again, this time sounding closer than before. I turned to find her close to me, almost too close.

“hey” i said back, almost out of breath. “you are here, i was not expecting you” i said, trying to sound unbothered but that was in fact the farthest from what i sounded like.

“yeah, i… i did not… i felt…” she shook her head, “i am sorry to bother you” she said, turning to leave, almost about to run out.

“hey!” i said a little sharply, grabbing her by her arm before she was able to run out. I did not miss the way she froze, as though to tell me that she was uncomfortable. “i am sorry” said, backing away from her to give her that space she required and i saw immediately how she eased up.

“i..it’s okay, i just.. i felt like i should give this back to you” she said, stretching forth a book i did not even notice before.

“oh… it is fine, i gave it to you as a gift”

“oh, i thought you might it back. I read it and it was actually lovely.” she said, looking at the floor like there was something interesting on it.

“you learnt to read?” i asked, unable to keep the shock out of my voice.

“yeah, i had a lot of free time, plus it was kind of easy since i knew a few words already.” she looked proud.

“i am glad you got to read it, i was kind of scared that you were going to throw it away or something” i said, i wish i saw how her face was in that moment but i could not since she was facing downwards.

““you can have it back, i am done with it.” she said, stretching it further into my hands.

“you know…” i started, unable to take the book from her, i did not want to. “that book is special to me”

“hmm” she said, looking like she did not even mind.

“it was given to my by mum as an early birthday gift, she promised to read it to me that night, but it never happened.” my mind went back to the day she died, and how everyone thought i was a beast because i did not cry, i was too shocked to, i just stood there, looking at her body hoping she would wake up on time to read me the bed time story. I as seven at the time.

That was when the rumor of me being a beast without a heart started, some even swore that i was the one that stabbed her that was why i was unmoved by her body. But they were all wrong.

Because for four straight nights, i would cry myself to sleep when she did not come read me to bed. But i had to pretend that i was okay or father would have my head if he saw a tear ‘male warrior can show no weakness, they show no emotion.’ it was drilled into my very being…

“orion?” she called, snapping me out of that bitter memory. “if you don’t mind, i would love to read you the book” they were simple words but for some reason, the words made my heart skip a beat. I nodded, making my way to the bed and she to the chair at my bedside and began reading it to me.

I had read the book over and over, analyzing every line but for some reason, the way she read it felt like was hearing the story for the first time.

“the end” she said, closing the book.

It was silent for a while, with me not really knowing what to say

“i missed you these past weeks Orion” she said, shocking me. I thought she of all people would have been happy that i had given her space, especially because of the pain i caused her.

Was my absence also causing her distress?’ I thought feeling like my guts were twisting from the inside out