21

Devon was the first to regain control of his wolf, and against his desires, he pulled away from the kiss. Hurt flashed through Kiara’s eyes and she took a step away from him.

“Kiara…” he whispered, careful not to touch her, “you know that we can’t do this.”

The grayish hue in her eyes disappeared, signaling that she was back in control instead of her wolf, and a relieved sigh left Devon’s lips. 

“I’m sorry,” her cheeks turned a bright shade of red, and she put as much distance as she could between herself and Devon. He was right, they couldn’t do this, she did not want this, but… she met eyes with him. “What is your reason for not wanting to do this?” 

She swallowed a lump that formed in her throat as she patiently waited for his response.

“You don’t know why we can’t do this?” Kiara pulled her brows together and slowly shook her head. “Kiara, we can’t do this because you’ve made it clear that you don’t want to be my mate… wait, did you change your mind?”

“No!” Her answer was sharp and biting. Devon felt like his heart was slashed by a claw the second he heard it, but he kept a passive look on his face. “I umm…” she cleared her throat, trying to ignore the warmth that seeped through her body at his admission. “Thank you,” she finally managed to whisper and walked to the bed, where she immediately draped the duvet over herself. 

“Are you okay?” He knew better than to approach her so he stood right where he was, hands curled into fists to restrain himself from reaching out and holding her like he so badly wanted to.

“The darker it gets, the harder it will be for the both of us to control ourselves and restrain our wolves, so I think it’s best if we don’t see each other again till tomorrow.”

He wanted to nod in agreement, but instead he said “that is definitely the best option, but we need to talk Kiara.”

Her body shivered at the way her name rolled off gently from his tongue and an involuntary moan escaped her lips, sending shock waves down Devon’s body. “We can’t talk right now.”

He knew that, but he also knew he couldn’t bring himself to leave her alone right now. Beads of sweat had formed on her forehead again, this was hard on them, but most especially on her, but yet he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Instead, he walked into the bathroom and ran a cold bathe for her, he added the calming oils he gave to Amira earlier and once he was satisfied with it, he walked back to the room.

“I am going to hold you,” Kiara’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he said that, and she found herself scooting away from him. His hands on her was only going to set the both of them off, but Devon ignored the warning look she was shooting his way and pried the duvet off her body. She wanted to resist him, but the growing urge to feel his touch left her trembling and too weak to resist him.

Scooping her up into his arms, Devon threw his head back and released a very deep breath. He didn’t know it would be this hard. Kaiser fought him again to gain control, he was feral about marking their mate especially after the whole ordeal with Marcos. Once she was marked, nobody else would claim her, but her wish to not mate was more important to Devon than his raging hormones.

A pleased sigh passed through Kiara’s lips once he carefully placed her in the tub of cold water. Both the water and the oils he laced it with penetrated her skin and calmed the hot tingles. It did nothing to the ache in between her legs but it cooled her down at least and she was grateful for that. “Thank you.”

Smiling at her, Devon took a seat at the floor of the bathroom, facing her. He did his very best to make sure his gaze remained on her face and not any lower than that.

“Do you think we can talk now?”

Kiara looked down at herself then held his gaze before she slowly nodded her head. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Everything,” he breathed out and Kiara narrowed her eyes. “I want to talk about everything, your pack, your former mate, your… parents,” his eyes studied her face after he said that, once he confirmed she was okay, he continued, “your scent, and most importantly, us. I have been swept off in a swirl of events since you came and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so now is the best time to talk about that.”

She remained silent for a while after he was done talking, suppressing the sour memories that came rushing back at his question, but then she took a deep breath and forced a smile on her face. “That’s a lot of things to talk about in one night, and I know that you have run my name through your database, you don’t need me to tell you what you already know.”

“I need you to” he answered almost immediately and her breath hitched, “my database comes from people’s speculations. It can be false, I want to know your story. I will only believe what you say.”

Tears stung the corners of her eyes, but Kiara immediately wiped them away while chanting to herself that they were just words. Kristen was also good at speaking.

Clearing her throat, she shrugged. “The story is not any different from what your database said, my parents were killed and I was sent out of my pack for killing them.” She tried to say it as nonchalantly as she could, but her voice cracked at the end and she found herself clutching the locket on her neck.

Devon’s eyes zeroed on them, and for a while that was all he looked at, then his gaze travelled up to Kiara’s eyes and his hands clenched into fists at the tears that had pooled in them. “He was the brain behind this, wasn’t he?”

Kiara’s brows scrunched together, and the motion caused a tear to roll down her cheek. “Who?”

“Your first mate, Kristen, he was the culprit, wasn’t he?”