The Alpha Who Hates Me

CHAPTER 7

I noticed I'd been on the same page and paragraph of the book I was reading for the past couple of minutes. My mind was obviously somewhere else as I was still trying to digest all of the information I'd received from Narcia regarding the ritual of sealing the bond between mates.

Kissing felt like a mistake to Kaleb. What more if he had to have s*x with me to fulfil this mythical bond thing?

Frustrated, I finally closed the book and decided not to read it anymore. I walked to my window and noticed that the guards were still outside and Kaleb was probably still not home yet.

Narcia had gone down earlier to prepare our dinner, so I was left alone in my bedroom.

I contemplated if I should shower first before going down to help Narcia or just proceed right away to the kitchen. I'd decided to do the latter but just before I reached the door of my bedroom, it suddenly opened and Kaleb walked in.

Startled, I almost screamed upon seeing him.

My hand came flying to my chest to feel my heart. It was beating erratically. “You scared me! You should’ve at least knocked. This is still my bedroom, Kaleb.”

He ignored my remark, threw me a fleeting look before he walked to my bed and flopped down on it.

I eyed him cluelessly. What the heck is he doing?

“Kaleb, you’ve been outside. I just changed my comforter.” I whined, kicking his legs lightly.

He mumbled something I couldn’t decipher before he placed an arm over his eyes to cover them. I watched him just lying on my bed. He was so big he'd almost take up my entire bed and his legs were still dangling off it.

“Kaleb.” I called out to him. I couldn’t tell if he’d fallen asleep. “Don’t sleep.”

“I’m not.” He finally answered after a few seconds of silence. “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”

I sat on the empty space of my bed just a few good inches above Kaleb’s head. “What happened? They said there’s been another breach in the borders.”

He just hummed and didn’t say anything after that.

Why is he here anyway?

I sighed softly, then stood up. “If you’re tired and sleepy, go to your room, Kaleb. You can’t sleep here.”

“I thought that’s what you wanted.”

I was unsure if I had just heard him wrong. “What?”

He sat upright and looked at me. “I thought you wanted this, Ellie? You wanted me here in your bed. That’s what you said the other night. That you want to give me more than what those other women could give me.”

His words and tone were condescending. He looked so good with his hair disheveled like that and his skin was a bit more tanned after being outside the whole day. I would’ve thrown myself at him any second now, except right now, he was being a rude a**hole again.

“Just go to your room, Kaleb.” I rolled my eyes and turned my back to him to leave, but he stopped me by grabbing my arm. I hated that the moment I felt his warm hand, I could totally forget how he could be so obnoxious and unlikeable.

“I’m sorry.” He said those words so softly he was almost whispering. But I know I heard him right.

Kaleb McNair just apologized to me. Not because he kissed me but because of the way he acted. “It’s just… It’s been a long day.”

I caressed his hand that was grabbing my arm. “You’re tired. Go get some sleep or I could get you something to eat.”

His face displayed a sad smile. “If it was not for the mythical bond, you wouldn’t be here.”

My tears threatened to fall. This was the first time I heard Kaleb finally confirming what I'd always thought about for the longest time. He never wanted me here. “Is that why you’ve always hated me?”

His thick eyebrows furrowed as he looked up at me. “Is that how I made you feel?”

“Every single time,” I answered almost immediately while nodding.

Something in his expression changed but I couldn’t quite tell what it was and then I heard him cussed under his breath. “I don’t hate you for being here. I hate that you’re here and can’t be with the ones you love and your kind because of the mythical bond. And because I imprinted you that night when I saved you from the Devlins.”

It was my turn to furrow my eyebrows as I was clueless about what he was referring to when he mentioned that he imprinted me. “What imprint?”

“It’s not the mythical bond that binds me to you.” He let go of my arm then stood up, his back facing me. “That night when I saved you from the Devlins, I already knew the story of the mythical bond between a human and a shifter. We were on a mission that night, hunting Devlins. I didn’t know they were after you. We just followed them and that’s when we found them in your home. When we managed to defeat all of them, we thought no one in the family survived until I heard your cry.”

This was all new to me. Kaleb never really went into detail of what happened during the night of the attack that killed my entire family.

I listened intently as he continued.

“I imprinted you the moment I saw you. An imprint is something that happens when a shifter meets his soulmate. It’s more than just a bond. All I knew was from that moment, I couldn’t be away from you and I had to do everything to protect you. I don’t hate you, Ellie. I never hated you.”

I didn’t even realize that I was already crying until I felt my cheeks were wet from my tears. I buried my face in my hands as I began sobbing.

“Don’t cry.” I heard him say and when I removed my hands from my face, Kaleb was already facing me. He’s towering me so I had to crane my neck to look up at him. “I’m sorry if that’s what you felt this entire time. But I could never hate you, Ellie.”

Kaleb reached for my face to wipe off my tears with his fingers. The gesture was so pure and sweet that I couldn’t help but feel butterflies in my stomach.

“But I can’t let you offer yourself to me and seal this mythical bond. I have already ruined your life by imprinting you. I can’t let myself ruin you even more.” His voice was laced with pain and regret.

I looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

There was a fleeting silence but I never once broke eye contact with him, as I tried my hardest to read his mind but still failed to do so. “Sealing the bond would mean turning you into one of us. You’ll be a shifter, too, Ellie.”

And I knew from that moment, everything had changed.