my line
1290 Words
Asher POV
She wanted to leave.
She wanted to leave me. That's all I could think about after hearing Bella's words.
I thought that after staying here to recover, she would somehow come to change her mind.
She didn't. She was still insisting on leaving.
It was almost laughable.
After spending so many years looking for my mate and eventually finding her, she didn't want anything to do with me.
It was all thanks to that pathetic alpha. If he didn't…
No, don't think about that.
“ Is that so?” I asked, trying to sound more calm than I felt. My wolf was thrashing wildly in my head, demanding we claim our mate.
He has been doing that ever since we saved her.
All he wants is his mate. Too bad, she doesn't share the same enthusiasm as him.
“ Yes. You promised me that you'd let me go after I recovered.” She pointed out.
I did promise her that. What I didn't promise her is making it easy for her. She wanted to leave? Fine, but that would depend on how capable she was.
“ I am not holding you back. Once the pack doctor confirmed that you are fine. You can leave anytime.
I am just worried if you'll manage to make it past the pack borders.” I informed her, my face a mask of calmness.
Bella looked at me then scoffed.
“ Are you using the rogues as an excuse again?” She asked, a glare on her face.
“ An excuse? Why would I…” before I could finish my statement, my Beta, Leon arrived.
“ Alpha, we have captured two of the rogues that have been hovering at our borders. They are ready to be interrogated anytime.” He reported.
“ Okay. I'll be there.” I acknowledged then dismissed him.
I turned to look at my little mate who looked defeated.
“ Are you still thinking about leaving?” I asked, raising my brows at her. The way she glared at me, I fought the urge to chuckle.
“ Of course she is not leaving.” Kiara replied.
“ Until the issue of rogues is solved, Bella will stay here at the pack.”
Bella's eyes snapped to Kiara.
"You didn't mean that.” She said, a look of displeasure written on her face.
"You heard me." Kiara shrugged, looking entirely unbothered by the glare aimed at her. "The rogues are real, Bella. This isn't my brother making excuses." She explained and for once, I was grateful that my normally trouble maker sister was speaking up for me.
"Kiara, I don't remember asking for your opinion." Bella added
"You didn't.” Kiara agreed. "I gave it for free." She added, smiling sweetly at Bella.
I watched my mate's jaw tighten but she said nothing. Kiara had always been better at this than me.
She can wrap iron inside warmth until people accepted it without realising they had no choice.
She groaned, her hands running over her face.
“ You are impossible.” She said but there was no ice in those words.
Bella turned back to me, eyes sharp.
"So what exactly are you suggesting? That I stay here indefinitely waiting for a rogue problem that may never resolve itself?" She challenged.
"I am suggesting you stay until it is safe." I replied simply. "How long that takes depends on factors outside both our control."
"How convenient." She said quietly, the words carrying an edge I felt somewhere deeper than my chest.
She thought I was manipulating her which partly I was.
I could see it in those eyes with the way she measured every word I said against past betrayals that had nothing to do with me.
I was being judged for something I had no hands in and that made me mad. Not at her but at that asshole who left her this distrustful.
"Two rogues were just captured at my borders.” I pointed out.
“ That is not a story I invented to keep you here. You can go check them yourself.”
It's true that since her arrival, several rogues have been spotted hovering around my pack borders. I don't know if this has anything to do with her so I specifically instructed my beta to look into the matter.
I just didn't expect him to bring the news coincidentally.
Bella's eyes flickered briefly in the direction my Beta had disappeared. Something shifted in her expression.
Her brows straightened.
"Fine." She agreed with a sigh.
“But the moment that threat is resolved…"
"You have my word." I said, cutting her off before she could finish.
I could not help but wonder if that's how unbearable my pack and I was to her.
She held my gaze for one long moment then looked away.
She turned and walked back toward the pack house without another word, her shoulders straight and her chin up.
Kiara appeared at my side.
"She is staying." She announced quietly and satisfied.
"For now." I replied, watching Bella's retreating figure.
My wolf settled knowing that she was staying.
But that was not enough. I wanted her to stay because she wanted to and not because she was forced to.
She was already halfway across the grounds before I stopped watching her.
"She is something else." Kiara murmured beside me, amusement in her voice.
I said nothing but I didn't disagree.
In all my years as Alpha King, I could not remember the last time someone looked me dead in the eye and told me my concern was an excuse.
Bella didn't see the Alpha King when she looked at me.
I wasn't entirely sure what she saw but it wasn't that.
Everyone else did though.
Every Alpha who came across me, every pack member, every person who passed through these grounds…they all carried that particular awareness in their eyes.
They regarded me with that careful tone the moment I spoke.
Well, except for my sister Kiara and Leon unless the circumstances demanded.
It was exhausting in a way I had never admitted out loud.
Bella hadn't cared about that formality.
Ever since she woke up in my territory, she challenged me, questioned me and threw my words back at me with that sharp tongue and those eyes that refused to be impressed by anything as insignificant as a title.
And goddess help me, I liked it.
She was feisty and stubborn in a way that went bone deep.
I wondered if that stubbornness is what forced her into taking her own life.
Sometimes I don't understand it.
The spirit in her didn't suggest someone weak who would opt to take their own life.
Yet she admitted doing exactly that.
It was confusing and contracting.
Something deep down told me that she had been through things that would have hollowed out a lesser person entirely.
Yet there she was, glaring at me on a training ground and not a single apology in those eyes.
If I have to be honest, this was the most alive I had felt in years. Standing there being challenged by a woman half my size who had no idea how extraordinary she was.
"She called your rogue warning an excuse." Kiara said, barely containing herself from laughing out loud.
“Do you know the last time someone spoke to you like that?" She asked, already giggling.
"No." I deadpanned.
"Neither do I." She grinned.
"I already love her."
I glared at my sister.
She held her hands up innocently and started backing away toward the pack house.
"I'm just saying what you are already thinking." She defended.
“ That's my line. Go find your mate to love.”
- Writer
