Chapter 21 21

Chapter 21 21
Alpha Kael

Her lifeless apology made me ten times angrier. "Do not use that tone with me, Odette," I snapped.

She just turned her head back to the window and closed her eyes.

When the car finally pulled up to the penthouse building, I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the private elevator. The moment the doors opened to our suite, I pushed her inside.

"Go to the bathroom and dry off," I ordered, turning away to pour myself a stiff glass of whiskey. "I am not dealing with you getting sick."

I heard her bare feet walk into the master bedroom. I drank the whiskey in one gulp, trying to calm the frantic, panicked pacing of my inner wolf. My beast hated that I was yelling at her. My beast wanted me to wrap her in blankets and hold her until she stopped shivering. But I couldn't let my guard down. She was a manipulator. This broken act had to be another one of her games.

A few minutes later, I walked into the bedroom.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Odette had not gone to the bathroom to dry off. She was standing right beside the massive king-sized bed. She had peeled off her soaking wet cotton dress and dropped it onto the floor. She was standing there in nothing but a simple and plain pair of white underwear. Her skin was covered in goosebumps, her damp hair clinging to her pale shoulders.

"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice suddenly thick.

"Beatrice told me," Odette said, her voice still holding that robotic tone. She did not look at my face; she stared blankly at the wall behind my head. "I know that today is day fourteen of my cycle. I know you are here for an heir."

She reached back and unclasped her wet bra, letting it fall to the floor. She stood completely bare before me, but there was no seduction in her movements. There was no passion, no jealousy, no fire.

She slowly climbed onto the edge of the bed and lay back against the pillows. She spread her arms out and stared up at the ceiling, looking completely detached from her own body.

"I am ready for my Luna duties, Alpha," she whispered.

A wave of horror washed over me.

She looked like a sacrifice on an altar. She looked like a victim preparing to be abused. She wasn't yielding to her mate; she was simply surrendering her body because she believed she had no other choice. She was letting me use her like a breeder, just like the cruel elders and I had demanded.

I stared at her pale, shivering body, and a sickening feeling of disgust rose in my throat. But the disgust was not aimed at her. It was aimed entirely at me.

I had pushed her to this. I had yelled at her, abandoned her, and called her a monster. I had made her feel so worthless that she was willing to just lie there and let me take her body while her soul was completely shattered.

If I touched her right now, if I climbed into that bed and used her while she was in this lifeless state, I truly would be the monster everyone said I was.

"Put your clothes on," I snarled, my voice shaking with a mix of self-hatred and raw panic.

Odette blinked, her empty eyes finally looking at my face. "But... the ovulation..."

"I said put your damn clothes on!" I roared, taking a step back from the bed as if her skin burned me.

I needed an excuse to leave. I needed to get out of this room before my guilt destroyed me. I grabbed the cruelest words I could find and hurled them at her, trying to build a wall between us.

"Look at you," I spat, my voice dripping with fake venom. "You are shivering, soaking wet, and pathetic. Do you really think I want to bed a woman who looks like a corpse? You are acting like a lifeless doll. I find you completely repulsive like this, Odette."

Odette flinched. For a split second, the blank mask cracked, and a look of deep, agonizing hurt flashed across her beautiful face.

"I cannot bear to touch you," I lied through my teeth, my heart shattering as I watched a fresh tear well up in her eye.

I didn't wait for her to speak. I couldn't. I turned my back on my naked and shivering mate and stormed out of the bedroom while slamming the door behind me.

I walked out of the penthouse, my chest heaving, knowing that I had just done irreversible damage. 

My wolf howled in the back of my mind as it yelled. Mate is crying. Console mate.