CHAPTER 2
1313 Words
Odelia
“Vardi?”
My legs start to move again. People clear out of my way as I step forward. All the sounds and people going out of the world, as if I'm sleepwalking. All I can see is him standing before me, just the way he was the last time I saw him. His shiny dark hair is parted on the left side, his blue eyes swimming with kindness and quiet strength. And those lips—oh those lips, same ones I would kiss till I'm breathless.
“It's . . . it's you,” I blubber, shaking all over with gratitude. “I would pick you out in a sea of other Vardis. I would.”
“Er . . . ahem.”
“Is that all? Say something Vardi, say something else, let me hear your voice,” I plead. “Let me know I'm not dreaming, that I'm not losing my mind. I'm not insane, yes?”
He sighs, looks at the passing faces around us. His forehead is now shiny with sweat, and a forced smile crosses his lips. He clears his throat again, glancing at the woman with him. She's sidling to him now, her arm around him, guarding him.
Vardi takes the woman's hand, gently shoves her out of the way. A look of confusion hangs on her face, she's looking from me to Vardi, as startled as I feel. Marie catches up with me. She takes my hand, her eyes on Vardi's face. She sees it too.
“Alpha Vardi?” Marie says in a small voice. “Is that you?”
The woman with Vardi clears her throat, looks at him. “Alpha? She called you Alpha. Do you know these people?”
“Yes, he does,” I reply before Vardi can open his mouth. Gladness is turning to fury inside me. “And who are you?”
“Who’re you?” the woman asks in return with a note of annoyance.
Vardi blows an exasperated breath through his lips. “Not here,” he says and his voice is clear. That booming voice that sends my legs shaking as he makes love to me. Has he been making love to this woman? Has he for the past two years been making love to this woman, moaning into her ears, biting it as he rocks her body?
The fury inside me kindles at first, now it roils with thick fire as I follow him on legs that weigh tons. Marie tags after me. I'm not breathing as I walk because I'm afraid if I do, I might blow up in this market, causing a scene.
The woman clings to him with both hands. She's saying something to him, or asking him questions. Vardi doesn't seem keen on saying anything as he walks fast, past the haberdashery stores, down another lane into the square. We walk past the fountain, its waters sprinkling happily into the pool below where doves congregate.
This part of the market is less rowdy. He stops under the awning of an unopened shop, the sign at the top says Rhonda's Seamstresses. I don't approach him, standing in the sun. He says something to the woman who bobs her head, a small frown on her face, her suspicious eyes on me and Marie.
“Ladies,” Vardi says, looking at Marie from me.
“Ladies? Vardi, it's me, Odelia, your—”
“Stop,” he says, his eyes squinting and his shoulders jerking, “Don't say that . . . here. Don't say that here.”
Marie squirms beside me. My hands are hanging from my shoulders like weighted appendages. I can't feel anything in them even though at this moment I want to swing at Vardi's ridiculously good looking face.
“The woman—who’s she?” I ask.
“It doesn't matter—”
“Why did you leave, Vardi? Come back with me now. Let's . . . we can go back together now.” I'm blubbering again, my heart speeding. “It would just be like before, like always, you and me, Vardi. You said you'll never leave me, Vardi.”
His lips press together into a nasty line of contempt or of pain. I'm not sure which. But it doesn't matter if the world is floundering on stilts, I just want him back. I reach for his hand, those thick yet soft muscles, I want to caress them. I want him to hold me again.
“I don't care that it's been two years, Vardi.” The tears are raining now, flowing like runners from a broken drain. “Just come home with me, Vardi. I'm sorry if I hurt you, whatever it is you want, I'll do.”
The tips of my fingers touch his chest, his arm. I try to grab him but he backs away from me, his eyes wary and searching our surroundings, as if I am an infected zombie and it is embarrassing to be touched by me.
“Vardi—”
“Stop, Odelia!”
“Oh, you remember my name.” I glance at Marie who looks back with damp eyes, I'm chuckling now like a crazy woman. “Marie, see, he remembers, he knows my name. It's Vardi. It's him, I told you.”
I try to hold him again. “You know me, Vardi. I'm your Odelia, yours truly, and I love you. I'm your Luna, you're my alpha. My mate. Look—” I bend my neck to the side to expose the flesh under my right ear. “Look, here's where you marked me. Remember? My love . . .”
“You can get anyone you want, Odelia.”
I freeze, shaking my head. “What are you talking about?”
He glances at the woman waiting for him under the awning. She has a mocking look on her face as if she knows there's nothing I do that could take Vardi away from her.
“Vardi, what're you talking about? I don't understand—”
“Look, Odelia. You're beautiful. You can get any man you want. Alphas were falling over themselves for you. You're free now.”
“Huh?”
“I can't believe you're still . . .” he gave me an embarrassed stare, shaking his head. “I can't believe you're still not, you know, not married.”
A blast of pain erupts in my head and I waver on my feet. The world swims. I feel Marie's hand on arm, steadying me. He left me so he can be rid of me? So some other man can have me?
“Vardi, why would I want someone else but you?”
“You should.”
“But I don't . . . I don't want anyone but you,” I cry, seeking him again, “I’ve never wanted anyone, Vardi. Please, don't leave me again.”
He takes a step back from me again, towards the woman waiting under the awning. Marie is crying behind me too, trying to hold my hands. Vardi joins the woman, takes her hand and starts walking away.
“Vardi!” I scream.
He stops. His back is stiff. Then he turns and comes back to me where I'm floating between madness and death.
“Odelia, that's my fiancee. We're getting married,” he says. “Stop crying, okay. Meet me here and let's talk.”
He dips his hand in his pocket and comes out with a piece of paper with words on it. I take the paper with shaking hands as he walks away. I stare at the address on the paper with eyes blurred with hot tears. A few drops fall on the paper, blotting it a shade darker.
When I look up from the paper again, Vardi is gone.
- Writer
