Semua Bab Fated to my Alpha nemesis : Bab 211 - Bab 220

AVELINE'S POVFor several seconds, Nereth said nothing.He shook his head again, but I kept my palm against his cheek, unwilling to let him look away from me.“Nereth...” I tried again when he didn't say anything.“I know,” he cut me off before I could say more.“You know what?”“I know you are willing to listen.”His voice was barely audible.“That is what makes this so much harder,” he said as he gently took my wrist and lowered my hand.I couldn't help the overwhelming wave of pain that coursed through me at the gesture, and I had to blink several times to stop my eyes from making the situation even more embarrassing than it already was.It was such a small thing.His hand around my wrist.The quiet removal of my palm from his cheek.The deliberate distance he created between us.Yet somehow, it hurt more than if he'd simply shouted at me.“I can't do this to you, Aveline.”For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.The silence around us seemed to grow heavier. Stephen remained quiet

AVELINE'S POVIt took me longer than it should have to register Sirus's next words.“Who is he?”I opened my mouth, but before I could answer, Stephen spoke from behind me.“Nereth.”Sirus's jaw tightened. “Nereth what?”Stephen didn't answer. He didn't know.Sirus's gaze returned to me, and I hesitated because only then did I realize something that made my stomach twist. I didn't know either. I didn't know his surname. I didn't know where he came from, what he truly was, or what secrets he had buried beneath that calm exterior. I only knew the name he had given me, the name I'd repeated so many times in my head that it felt strange to realize how little I actually knew about the man behind it.“Nereth,” I repeated quietly.The name sounded different now.Less like a name belonging to the man I'd spent the last two months falling for and more like a piece of evidence I had no idea how to explain.Sirus studied my face for a moment, and something in his expression changed. His eyes nar

AVELINE'S POV When I opened my eyes again, Ezra was beside me. Her expression was tense, and there was something frightened in her eyes that made me immediately realize this was worse than I had thought. “You fainted.” I tried to sit up, but pain shot through me, and I immediately sank back down. My entire body felt as though it had become a battlefield, every muscle aching while heat and cold chased each other beneath my skin. A gasp escaped me, and Ezra watched helplessly for a moment before moving to help. I could see how badly she wanted to do something, anything, even though she had no idea what would actually help me. “Where is Philip?” I asked, partly because I needed the distraction and partly because I knew that if Philip found out about this, he might tell Sirus. As Sirus's Beta, he had every reason to believe something this serious should reach his Alpha. I didn't agree with that. I bit down hard on my lower lip until I tasted copper. The pain gave me something else to

“You left the pack house in the middle of the night because you wanted some privacy?” There had been something painfully careful about the way she'd asked it. “Something like that.” “Alone?” “Yes.” “Without telling anyone?” I had hesitated. “Yes.” Another silence. I could picture her expression without even seeing it. Her brows would have drawn together, her lips pressed into that thin line she always made when she was trying not to accuse me of lying while knowing perfectly well that I was. When she finally accepted my explanation, or at least pretended to, there had been no relief in her voice. Only doubt. And underneath that doubt was something worse. Hurt. I could hear it in the way her voice became quieter after she'd decided not to question me anymore. Jenna had always been able to tell when I was hiding something from her, but what made it worse this time was that she knew I was choosing not to tell her. There was a difference between not knowing something and re

AVELINE'S POVThe look that crossed Jenna's face when those last words escaped her lips told me I wasn't going to like what she would say next. Within the silence that followed, I tried my best not to react, not to jump to conclusions before she had actually spoken, but it was incredibly difficult not to. Jenna had just told me that Sirus and a number of pack guards had gone on some unknown mission and that my sister's mate had returned bloodied and beaten. Even though I would have liked to believe that it had nothing to do with me, nothing to do with the Wilds, and certainly nothing to do with Nereth, I couldn't.I had spent the weeks since everything that happened in the Wilds trying desperately not to draw connections between things simply because I wanted them to mean something. I had learned that lesson the hard way. My tendency to make grand assumptions had always been one of my more troublesome flaws, and it had led me into more than a few highly unsavoury and, on occasion, dan