Chapter 25 25

Chapter 25 25
"Is that how you mourn your ex marrying my ex?" Kael asked, his deep voice breaking the silence.

I stopped chewing. I swallowed the food hard, glaring up at him. So, he had seen the social media post. He thought I was having a breakdown because Josh had proposed Serena.

"Those two bitches can go to hell for all I care," I snapped, tossing the crust of my pizza back onto the pan.

Kael’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He clearly hadn't expected me to curse at Josh.

"Then why were you crying over them?" Kael demanded, his voice hardening. "I found you sitting in the mud last night in the freezing rain. You were sobbing so hard you could barely breathe. Do not lie to me, Odette."

"Cry over them, my ass," I grunted, picking up the glass jar and taking a long and defiant sip of the thick chocolate peanut butter shake. Gosh, this Jar was so heavy. I should have gotten a straw. Where do i get that long straw. 

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and looked him dead in the eye.

"People have bigger problems in this world than crying over pathetic assholes," I told him coldly.

Kael stared at me for a second. The tension in his broad shoulders suddenly relaxed and turned into a chuckle.

"What's the reason behind the pity party, then?" he asked, taking a step into the room. He pointed a large finger at the ridiculous amount of junk food scattered on the floor around me. "If you are not mourning the Beta, what is all this?"

"You," I said bluntly, not breaking eye contact.

Kael stopped walking. The amusement vanished from his face. He pointed to his own chest, looking genuinely confused. "Me?"

"Yes, you," I said, my voice rising with hot anger. I threw my hands up in the air. "You treated me like shit last night! You dragged me back here, called me repulsive, and told me you couldn't bear to touch me! You made me feel like garbage!"

Kael’s jaw clenched tightly. A flash of guilt passed through his icy eyes, but he quickly covered it up with his usual arrogant mask.

"You deserved it," Kael said coldly, "You were acting like a lifeless doll. You ran away and panicked my entire staff."

"I said nothing last night because I was exhausted," I fired back, my temper finally exploding. "But I am not exhausted today. You missed the ovulation date, Alpha. The clock ran out. You didn't get your precious political heir. So now, you can get the hell out of my room."

Kael didn't move. He stood tall, looking down at me sitting in the middle of my greasy feast. 

Then, to my shock, Kael suddenly chuckled again.

"It is good to see your spark back, little ballerina," Kael murmured, a tiny, ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "I prefer this angry version of you over the quiet ghost I saw last night."

"I hate you, monster," I spat, taking a bite of the cookie.

"I know you do," Kael said softly. He walked over and slowly sat down on the floor right across from me. He folded his long muscular legs on the fluffy rug, completely ignoring the fact that his clothes were touching the floor.

"I like it when you speak the truth, little ballerina," he added, his blue eyes watching my face intently.

I shifted uncomfortably under his intense gaze. "What do you want, Kael?"

His expression softened. 

"Tell me," Kael asked softly, his voice dropping to a gentle, probing whisper. "Why were you crying yesterday?"

I looked away from him, staring at the half-eaten pizza. I didn't want to tell him. I didn't want to expose my deepest wounds to a man who had called me a liar. But looking at the genuine care in his eyes, the walls I had built around my heart began to crack.

"I told you," I mumbled, tracing a line in the carpet with my finger. "Because of some personal reasons."

Kael leaned forward slightly. "Josh and your sister?" he guessed again, testing the waters.

"My mom," I said.

The words slipped out before I could stop them. My throat instantly tightened, and the familiar burn of tears stung the back of my eyes. I blinked hard, refusing to cry in front of him again.

"I am an orphan who misses her mother," I confessed, my voice barely above a whisper. "That is why I was sitting by the lake in the rain. I missed her."

Kael sat perfectly still. He didn't mock me or call me a liar. He just listened.

"How was your relationship with your mom?" he asked carefully, his deep voice gentle.

I hugged my knees to my chest, leaving the food untouched.

"As much as I know... I loved her badly," I said, a sad smile touching my lips as I remembered the faint warm memories of my early childhood. "She was beautiful. She smelled like flowers. She was a good mom... until one day, she was just gone from my life. I was five years old. My father came into my room, looked me in the eye, and told me she died."

Kael’s brow furrowed. "And what about your father?" he asked.

A dark, bitter laugh escaped my lips. "My father."

I looked up at Kael, letting him see the years of twisted trauma hiding behind my eyes.

"I looked exactly like my mom," I explained. "I have her eyes. I have her face. Because of that, my father found his obsession in me. He pushed me to be a ballerina because she was a dancer. He forced me to bleed in those shoes so he could feel his dead lover in me."

"He loved me," I continued, staring blankly at the floor. "Everyone in the Mist Rain pack thought he was a wonderful, devoted father to the tragic little orphan. But I think... I think he only loved my mom, and he just saw her in me. It was toxic. It was completely and suffocatingly toxic. But he was all I had. I loved him."

I took a deep breath, finally exposing the truth of what happened on the altar.

"He slapped me that day on the beach, Kael," I said, looking straight into my mate's eyes. "He didn't slap me because I took Serena’s place. He slapped me because I tried to leave that pack."

Kael froze.

"He wanted me to marry someone weak, like Josh," I revealed, the terrible truth pouring out of me like a broken dam. "He wanted me to marry a Beta who would live on the island, so I would stay in that pack, right in front of his eyes, forever. He never wanted me to go anywhere. When he saw me standing there in the wedding dress, ready to be taken away by a powerful rogue Alpha... he was mad."

I watched shock register on Kael’s scarred face. His blue eyes widened as the pieces of the puzzle finally began to click together in his mind.

"He thought he could stop you," I said softly. "He thought if he put on a show and ordered his guards to lock me in the dungeon for attacking my sister, you would just leave in disgust. He thought he could keep me locked away on the island forever. But you didn't allow it. You took me anyway."

Kael sat in stunned silence. "Your stepmother and sister?" he asked, his voice rough.

I rolled my eyes, a bitter smirk on my face. "They hate me."

"Why?"

"Because my father cheated on his wife to have me," I said bluntly. "I am younger than Serena, Kael. Think about it. Martha was already his Luna, raising Serena, when he had an affair with my mother and brought me home. What do you think? Why would they ever like the bastard daughter of the mistress he was obsessed with?"

Kael rubbed his hand over his jaw, his mind reeling. "So... you replaced Serena so you could leave that pack? To escape them?"

I let out a humorless laugh.

"Escape?" I shook my head, my brown eyes blazing with painful honesty. "Kael, I never wanted to marry you. I believed you were a monster, just like everyone in the plain lands says. I had no feelings for you. I didn't even know you existed until before the day of the wedding!"

Kael flinched at my harsh words, but he didn't interrupt.

"Serena played me," I confessed, laying all my cards on the table. "She didn't want to marry a scarred rogue. She wanted to rule Mist Rain with Josh. So, she wrote a fake letter claiming she was running away with her lover. She vanished on the morning of the wedding."

I pointed a shaking finger at Kael.

"Martha came into my room crying," I told him, the memory of that morning making my chest ache. "She put me in that dress. She told me that if I didn't marry you, pretending to be Serena, you would slaughter our entire pack. She said you would personally kill my dad. And as toxic and abusive as he was... I loved him. I loved all of them. I thought I was sacrificing myself to save my family from a monster."

Kael’s eyes turned completely dark. 

"Little did I know," I continued, tears finally spilling over my eyelashes and rolling down my cheeks. "Serena never wished to marry you. And for Josh? I was just a bet. A fun little game to pop the bastard's cherry before he claimed his true Luna. My dad's fear made him formally mark me and bind me to the pack... but they were planning to get together the whole time to be the pack’s royalty."

I swiped the tears off my cheeks aggressively. I had finally said it all. It was upto him to believe me or not. 

"They set the whole thing up," I whispered. "They got rid of the monster Alpha, Serena got the Beta she wanted, and they got to throw the bastard daughter away to take the fall for everything."

I felt empty. I had given him the truth, but I knew what would happen next.

"So that's the truth, Alpha," I said, my voice completely devoid of emotion. "I know you won't trust my words. I know you think I am just a manipulative opportunist."

"You are right," he said.

My heart broke right down the middle. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"I will not trust you," Kael continued, his voice cold and hard.

A fresh tear slipped down my cheek. I pulled my knees tighter to my chest, wishing the floor would just open up and swallow me whole. I shouldn't have told him. I shouldn't have exposed my broken heart just for him to step on it again.

"You have spoken only lies to me till now," Kael said.