My Fated Mate Can Have Her Chapter 186: Cracks

Violet

The gentleness I had grown accustod to seeing was still there, but there was an unyielding seriousness in them that held still.

I thought he had accepted our situation.

"I know you care about him." Each word asured, and almost strained. "I fully understand that. But I need to know." He leaned closer, and I felt the weight of his stare like a physical pressure. "Despite how long you have been together, has he marked you?"

I flinched, his words cutting through to the extent that it almost physically hurt.

No... How could he ask that?

I shook my head. "It wasn’t that simple. I didn’t want—and with what happened at the summit, I—"

"Before the summit." He didn’t let finish. "Why didn’t he mark you before? He had the ti. He had the opportunity. Why did he wait?"

"What is the purpose of these questions?!" I snapped, my voice rising with my irritation.

"Did he at least profess his love to you before you left?"

I went completely still.

My chest tightened. It also stung. And it was sharp, and far more painful than it should have been.

My heart twisted, and anger surged up to cover the imnse hurt I felt.

"You don’t even understand what I went through in that place—"

He suddenly frowned. "Was life difficult for you in his territory despite being his mate?"

My eyes widened and so did he at the realisation.

"That... that wasn’t necessary," I whispered, suddenly unable to understand why my voice was shaky. "You don’t understand..."

My heart stuttered.

I tried very hard not to think about it.

Kael hadn’t said any of that, but he had held , kissed , he had shown... he made feel wanted and needed and—

’He could have prevented so things in his own territory. He still put his people before you...’

"No!" I glared at Rowan. "You don’t understand. And things got better, he was trying!"

He really was.

I didn’t understand why I was getting even angrier. My body trembled and my hands shook. "You have no right—"

"I am not here to put a wedge between you two." His voice had softened, but only slightly. His eyes were still intense, still burning with that strange, fierce resolve. "But if you are bothered. If you are disturbed about being mated to , to the extent that it makes you uncomfortable due to so odd guilt, you have nothing to feel guilty for."

He leaned closer, and I could feel the heat of his breath against my face. "Not if he hadn’t claid you in so way, or even tried to bring it up with you. Especially when he knew there was another mate present."

I was unable to move.

This was a side of him I had never seen before.

The gentleness was now completely gone. His eyes were hard, almost angry.

"You shouldn’t... have co," I whispered. "If you hadn’t followed—"

"I promise you. If the roles were reversed, and for so odd, unforeseeable reason, I let things get to this point the way he did, he would also have co after you."

Heat simred beneath my skin from how close we were, from the press of his body against mine, from the way his eyes held captive.

"He didn’t even let help. Do you know how that felt? Watching you leave, knowing what was waiting for you out here, and not being able to do a single thing about it?

"I promise you so of those other rulers intend to co search for you in person, along with their wolves. If I could deal with them so easily, think of how the worst could have happened. And there are other monsters out in the wild to worry about, not even just the rogue wolves. He could have planned this better and I am sure out there, he must be worried sick to his stomach about your situation."

His expression hardened further, and he looked away sharply, as if he had seen the hurt in my face he didn’t want to acknowledge.

He pushed himself off abruptly and got to his feet, his movents stiff and controlled.

When he turned his back to , I could sense the anger in the air.

He was angry.

Actually angry.

He took a deep breath.

Then another.

When he spoke again, his voice was calm.

"I am sorry for pouncing on you like that. That was rude of ."

I pushed myself up slowly, my body slightly shaking as I sat up, my own anger simring just beneath the surface now. I didn’t trust myself to speak for a mont. I reached for my abandoned food and stopped, pressing it flat against the ground as I tried to stifle the tremors coursing through my hands.

Stop.

Stop...

"Don’t... touch ," I whispered firmly, shaking my head as I stared at his back. "Never touch again..."

He nodded once, stiffly, and sat back down. I looked away, my throat tight.

The distance between us felt both too far and not far enough. But I wanted it to be even farther. I wanted him gone.

I should reject him. End things now.

But I couldn’t open my mouth to say anything else.

The tremors had greatly reduced by the ti I summoned the will to eat, but I still felt it even as I forced the food down my throat.

I still ate even as my appetite vanished.

I needed sothing to keep occupied. And I didn’t want to look at him.

He had been an. So an.

I especially did not want to even think about those horrible words.

About Kael not marking . About him not even saying he loved . I didn’t either, so what did it matter? Rowan had no right. He wasn’t supposed to have been here. We should never have even t.

But his words still remained stuck in my head, picking at wounds I was trying so hard to ignore.