Her chosen mate (The change series 2)

Chapter 26: Hurt and Betrayals

Natasha

I wasn’t brave enough to say anything to Claire, wasn’t brave enough to ask why she would do that to me, instead I quickly rushed off and broke down into heaving sobs, tears streaming down my face. I had my hood pulled up and the heavy downpour of rain soaked my face, mingling with the tears.

How could Kai do this to me? If he didn’t want me he should have told me, had he just wanted my virginity this whole time? Had he felt too afraid to reject me for fear of my father’s wrath?

I ran to the car park and was so, so glad it wasn’t dad who had come to pick me up, he would have gone completely psycho if he’d seen me like this, it was Kai’s car that was parked up. He quickly got out of the car and ran over to me, getting soaked in the process because he wasn’t wearing a coat or jacket.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, pulling me into his arms and holding me.

For just a moment I let him hold me, wanted to feel his arms around me, feel the beat of his heart against my cheek, enjoy his familiar scent, I wanted him to hold me and never let me go, couldn’t we just stand like this, with me in his arms forever?

I couldn’t bear the thought of pulling away because I knew that when I did, I would have to face reality, of what he did, of never being able to hold him again, or lie in his arms, to feel his lips upon mine. My heart felt like it was tearing in two, like if he left me, I would die, I looked up at him and sobbed, “y-you d-don’t l-love me.”

“What? Why on earth would you say that?” He asked.

I calmed myself just enough to be able to talk and said, “I keep seeing Claire around here, I thought maybe she was stalking me, but now I know she was just working up to telling me about you two.”

He looked completely baffled and I more quietly said, “I get it, I mean why would you want someone as ugly and fat as me when you can have a beautiful blonde goddess like her, you’ve liked her for a long time, more than the other girls you’ve dated, I was the shiny new toy for you being not only a female werewolf but a virgin too, I’m not someone you could ever love.”

He grabbed my face between his hands and said, “don’t you ever, ever! Talk about yourself like that again, do you hear me? There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Claire, she means nothing to me, I don’t want her I want you! I love you! You are absolutely lovable to me Natasha, I love everything about you, I love your clumsiness, I love that you’re a trainer and t-shirt kind of girl who would break her ankle if she tried to wear heels, I love how kind and gentle you are, how fiercely loyal you are just like your father, I love how big your heart is and how hard you love.”

His words only made me more heartbroken, they were beautiful and sweet, but they were lies because I had seen with my own eyes the truth.

“I saw the video Kai!” I grew angry and embraced it because it was better than being sad.

“What video?” He asked.

“You were doing a strip dance for Claire, she showed you her b.reasts, practically shoved them in your face and you let her! And then you kissed her!”

Dawning lit his eyes and he took a breath and held his hands out to me, “woah, no, you have this all completely wrong, she injected with me with something, I was paralysed, I couldn’t move, and yes, I kissed her for like a second, but it was nothing more than a reflex, I’ve been kissing women all my life, it was only a second I swear to you.”

“Liar, I saw the video, and it was over two minutes!”

He shook his head confused, “that’s not possible, there’s no way.”

“Yes way Kai!”

“She’s done something to the video, edited it somehow because you would have seen me arguing with her, telling her to get off, you would have seen her run out after.”

“Nice try, the video doesn’t lie Kai, you’re a player, a f***k boy, I should have never fallen for someone like you, but like everyone else I fell for the pretty face and hot body, all looks but nothing else to offer other than what’s between your legs,” I growled, wiping angry tears from my face.

He looked hurt by my words and grew angry himself, “fine, believe whatever the f***k you want Natasha, you’re wrong, and I’ll prove it.” He went to walk back to his car but then stopped and said, “you know what, you’re right, I’m nothing but a f***k boy, much easier f.ucking different p*****. every night, I don’t have to worry about all this relationship s.hit, all the f.ucking drama and problems that come with it.”

“I’m not wrong, I saw the video with my own two eyes,” I mumbled, anger being replaced with sadness again.

He looked at me a moment and said, “so that’s it then? We’re over? You don’t even want to try and work this out?”

“Work what out? You cheated, I won’t ever be with a cheat, and you just said yourself you don’t do relationships, you prefer different hot women every night compared to the drama and difficulties of being in a relationship with me, right?”

I could see in his eyes he had regretted saying those words, that he hadn’t thought of me seeing it as not wanting a relationship in general but one with me, that our relationship was difficult and had too much drama for his liking.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I wasn’t talking about us,” he said.

“Yes you were! Why wouldn’t you mean it? You’re nothing but a man-s.lut!” It was my turn to regret the words that left my mouth, my anger, and feelings of betrayal made me lash out with cruel words, I saw how deep they cut him, but he hid it behind anger and snarled, “thanks for reminding me, get in the car.”

“I’ll get the bus,” I started walking off, but he grabbed my arm and dragged me to the car, “don’t be stupid, get in.” He shoved me in and slammed the door shut.

I watched him angrily come around and get into the driver’s seat. “I hate you,” I growled, rubbing my arm.

“Yeah, I’m sensing that,” he replied sarcastically and sped on the way home. When he parked up he turned the engine off and sat there quietly, his hands on the steering wheel with his head down.

“You don’t believe me?” He asked.

“Your reputation tells me that the chances of that being some sort of edited or staged video is slim to none.”

“Right, because I’m a man-s.lut in your eyes?”

“That’s all I’ve ever seen with my eyes,” I snapped, and then got out of the car and slammed the door. I knew I would regret those words when the anger wore off, but right now, I couldn’t think straight.

I ran inside and mum grabbed me into a hug. “Natasha, what’s wrong?” She asked, she started checking me over for any sign of injury.

“I broke up with Kai,” I cried.

“Oh, hon, what happened?” She held me close and stroked my hair softly.

Sniffling, I said, “where’s dad?”

“Don’t worry, he’s not here, he’s checking Amber in his office making sure the pregnancy is going well.”

When I finished telling her what had happened, she looked at me and brushed my curls from my tear stained face. “I know Kai had a, how can I put it? He’s not known for commitment or settling down with anyone, and—”

“He sleeps around with everything in sight, you mean,” I grumbled.

“True, but, here, sit down,” she pulled a chair for me at the table and grabbed me a can of Dr Pepper and carried on talking, “Kai has always been sensible—” she stopped when she saw my face and said, “for a werewolf he has been sensible Tasha, you know we can’t settle down with humans, we can date them for a little while, but we can never fall in love with them, it’s too dangerous, Kai has always made sure to never make that mistake, he has never gotten into a relationship with any of the women he has slept with, he has never allowed anyone to get close to him, I’m not saying I’m on his side or that he didn’t do what you saw, he very well could have, but if I’m honest? It just doesn’t sound like something Kai would do, he’s many things but a cheat? He doesn’t seem like the cheating type, if he says that video didn’t show everything, and it was edited somehow, then maybe you should believe him.”

“Believe him? Are you serious? How many men would come up with whatever lie they could think of to save being caught out.”

She nodded, “you’re right, but I really don’t think Kai would cheat on you, I don’t think he would be unfaithful to anyone, that’s not in his nature, I would say at least hear him out, let him prove to you this video was manipulated.”

I looked down at the can in my hands, it was cold enough from the fridge that my hands were now wet from the droplets of water. I thought about what mum had said, I felt that way about him too, he was as loyal as dad was, as a friend, as a pack mate, as family, and with me or so I had thought, maybe she was right, and I should let him prove to me he was telling the truth.

Dread filled my body, now I felt like the bad guy, I had said such horrible things to him, I had made the break-up sound so final, that nothing he said or did would make me believe him, what did that mean now? Was it too late to fix things with him? To at least be amicable with him?

I could hear dad talking with Amber and Leo as they made their way back here, I jumped up from the chair and sprinted towards the stairs so fast I tripped on one and went flying, landing sprawled across them.

Mum shook her head and dad walked in and saw me on the stairs. “What the f***k are you doing?” He said.

“Don’t talk so vulgar around her,” Amber hushed and elbowed him.

“Think your Mother Teresa now you’re pregnant don’t you,” he snorted.

Leo pushed him forward making him stumble, and he snarled back at him but didn’t say anything, like me, Leo was probably the only other person who could get away with pushing him around or driving him mad, anyone else would end up in a very painful place.

I got up onto my feet, but dad reached me before I could escape upstairs to my room.

“Why is your face a mess? you’ve been crying, why?”

“I’ve already spoken with her,” mum said, but he kept his eyes on me when he said, “good, now she can speak with me.”

Amber and Leo made themselves scarce, they knew better than to interfere with family drama.

“I don’t want you to hurt, Kai,” I pleaded.

He frowned at me, “Kai? Why would I hurt Kai? Has he hurt you?”

“No, not physically anyway.”

“What the f***k does that mean.”

“We broke up, I saw a video of him with a woman he used to really like, he kissed her, but he is insisting that it was somehow edited by her and that’s not the truth, he said she drugged him, and he couldn’t move.”

Dad wasn’t very technology savvy, he didn’t even use a phone unless he absolutely had to, like calling Leo or mum for example. He didn’t understand what editing a video meant, even with the videos he had posted for other werewolves to see Leo had helped him upload them, I didn’t know much except that he hurt some mutts.

“I’ll f.ucking kill him,” he snarled and turned to go find Kai, mum tried to stop him and so did I, but he shrugged us off and stormed over to Kai’s place.

“Get the f***k out here now!” He yelled.

Kai came outside, and I could see on his face that he already knew what was about to happen, but he didn’t block dads fist from connecting with his jaw, he didn’t fight back even though I knew he could fight damn near good as dad these days, he let dad beat him and in the end even dad stopped, as much as he had a hot temper and could kill someone without losing any sleep over it, he loved Kai like a brother.

Kai spat blood onto the floor, sitting up he snarled, “is that all you’ve got?”

Dad turned back to face him and coldly said, “I know what you’re trying to do, I’m not going to punish you or kill you Kai, but you stay the f***k away from Natasha.”

“You believe that s.hit too then? That I would be unfaithful for some meaningless quick f***k? Something I’ve done a hundred times over that it’s become boring?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” dad snarled, and then he stormed off back home. Kai looked at me, his eyes cold and angry, but under that, I could see the hurt, the pain in them, I wanted to run to him, tell him it was ok that we could work on it, I wanted to believe mum that he could be telling the truth, but when I walked towards him, he held his hand out and coldly growled, “don’t, I know what everyone thinks of me, so I may as well live up to that.” He got to his feet, wiped the blood dripping down his face with the back of his hand and went back inside, shutting the door.

I tried to follow him, but mum stopped me and whispered, “give him time to cool down.”

“I shouldn’t have told dad,” I cried.

“Come on,” she led me back home and whispered, “don’t worry, it will be ok, among werewolves fighting and violence is pretty normal, it would have been more odd if your father hadn’t lashed out, typical male wolves,” she rolled her eyes and I tried to give a small smile, but I wasn’t feeling it.