Chapter 7a - Snippets of our Past

ACE

Five years have passed, but nothing on earth can erase the pain she caused me.

My eyes settled on the girl in front of me.

Vine.

She might think I have forgotten, but her actions years ago wasn't something I could let slip through my fingers.

Her eyes are fixed on mine, arms still around my neck and I could swear that the little hairs on my neck didn't just stand on end. Her contact just warmed my skin.

Yet I wanted nothing but to snuff the little shine in her eyes.

My fingers curled at my sides as my gaze pierced into hers. I wanted that little light of excitement, whatever it was to get snuffed out of her eyes.

She doesn't deserve my protection because of what happened that night.

That night, five years ago, this same girl walked into my room, unclad, and by morning, my ex-mate was dead. Later, there was a rumor that something or someone compelled her to be there at such ungodly hour but I don't believe it. I'm sure she did it all herself.

Wherever her feet stepped, disaster happened.

My stare hardened into a scowl since all I see is motive, and an ambition I can't help but want to crush under my fingertips.

Suddenly, she drew backwards, her arms falling to her sides as she took a glance back at the crowd staring at her before giving me the pitiable look like that of a little puppy begging for meat.

And although that was the last reaction I expected from my body, my heart skipped.

"Please help me," she whispered, "they..." she glanced over her shoulder, eyes watery, "pretend you're my boyfriend."

"Help her, Ace! Help our mate!" my wolf thrashed its body against the walls of my mind threatening to take over if I did not do it's bidding.

"You've forgotten Laila so soon you traitor!" I lashed back against him in my mind and I could feel him retreating even if he was still very much excited about our new mate.

A mate I was never going to claim as mine.

Not until she paid for her sins and shed every bit of blood Laila shed on the day that she died.

I reached out and held her hand.

Sparks traveled through my skin at the contact and I knew it was the mate bond, unmistakably. But underneath it was something else, something older, like I'd felt this exact warmth before. I pulled back before I could untangle why.

I held her gaze as I said the words,

"I will never help you."

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, circling her as my fingers grazed the edge of her shoulder blade.

“And if there's nothing else in your thick skull. I need you to have it upstairs that I…” I exhaled and the moment the air touched her skin, she tensed, clutching the hem of her jacket.

But I couldn't care less about the effects that my words have on her, so I completed my sentence, “HATE. YOU.”

I completely turned my back on her.

And in that instant, it felt as if the spell had been cast from on everyone's eyes.

They began throwing things at her. I could smell it. Wine. Soup. Unfinished cakes.

Fuck!

How had I forgotten that these were wolves? Their sense of hearing was heightened more than any being on earth and they were basically included in our conversation back there.

My body tensed as I went to her with lightening speed, shielding her body with my back and jacket.

After a while the whole mansion seemed to quieten down as they seemed to realize that it wasn't Vine who they were throwing things at.

It was me.

Ace Callahan, the god of the Vipers hockey team! Albeit in my former school.

The host of the party.

I shrugged off my coat and hugged Vine so tight I could feel the warmth of her skin seeping into mine.

Her body shook slightly as she squirmed from fear but apart from that, there was nothing else.

She didn't seem to be having an excited wolf like mine or else she would have been burying her face in the crook of my neck or jamming up her skin against mine as every wolf does.

But she didn't and it makes me wonder if she was holding back just like I did minutes ago?

I looked down to see that she was clutching at the edges of my coat, then I let my arms fall to my side, my gaze returning to the crowd. Icy and sharp.

“I Ace Callahan declare to everyone in this room that she is mine. I alone can hurt her. Nobody else."

The crowd gasped, murmurs in every corner of the room. Eyes avoided my gaze for fear of being recognized and later punished by me.

In that moment I spotted Miriam and Drew trying to mix into the crowd and escape, when I asked two of my men to stop them and bring them to me.

The moment they were brought forward, their gazes settled on every object in the room except me.

Drew barely met my eyes before his gaze dropped.

He was trying to hold it together... and I could smell his fear and see it through the twitch in his jaw, his uneven breath,

"You... you asked to see us?"

I tilted my head, just slightly, letting the silence stretch between us like a blade.

Instantly, Miriam panicked, and came closer to me, stretching out her arm, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Callahan, I am Miriam."

I stretched out my arm to her as well, but before I could reach her, I drew back, then pulled out a pocket size sanitiser and poured it on my palm.

"There are two things I can't bear, one is germs and the other, people who disrupt my parties."

I capped the sanitiser, slid it back into my pocket.