“Again,” I grit out through clenched teeth. “Well. Aware.”
Frustration bubbled up inside me, and I turned away from him. God, was he really this arrogant? He was acting as if he were entitled to me. We might be bound by prophecy, but that was a hell of a long way from deserving me. If this were going to work in any way, I would need to set boundaries. Though how to do that without pissing him off, I had no idea.
“I’m sorry.”
I blinked, pulling myself out of the reverie, the two words so out of the blue that I had no idea how to respond to them. “Sorry?” I said.
For a moment, I actually couldn’t believe it. Was he apologizing for dragging me here? For forcing me into this impossible situation that I could never untangle myself from? Or maybe he was apologizing for how he treated me when we were younger. For a wild moment, a small bud of affection and appreciation emerged deep inside me. If he was apologizing for that, then maybe he had changed his ways.
“I wanted to court you properly,” he explained, still watching the kids.
Those words snuffed out that tiny flicker of hope faster than a puff of air.
“I’m sorry?” I said, disbelief and frustration creeping into my words.
“I know this needed to be rushed for the sake of the pack,” he explained, clearly missing the point of those two words. “If things had been different, I would have taken this slower. Once I knew you were my luna, we could have taken some time to get to know one another better before the ceremony. But these are desperate times. Still, I don’t like how rushed this is.”
“You’re apologizing for rushing the ceremony?”
“You have to remember how conservative our pack is,” he said.
As if I would have forgotten. My parents had disowned their daughter and wanted nothing to do with their only granddaughter because she had been born out of wedlock. I probably had a better idea of how conservative this pack was than most of the people who had lived here the last five years.
“I know it’s been a few years, but as alpha, I should lead by example. If I’d had the time, I would have moved more slowly.”
I stared up at him, not bothering to hide my disbelief or frustration. He waited, clearly expecting me to tell him that it was okay, to thank him for apologizing.
“You dragged me from my home,” I said flatly as I clambered to my feet, barely containing the rage threatening to spill out at any moment. “You didn’t even give me the chance to process what you had told me, or to consult with me first. Hell, you sprung all of this on me without warning. All of a sudden, I’m back here. In this town that I hate. Because an oracle decided we had to be mates.”
A look of disbelief and growing irritation spread across Elias’s face, but I didn’t care. I had built up steam. Five years of pent-up frustration, of emotions that I hadn’t been able toproperly express, were all pressing at my mouth, threatening to spew out at any minute.
“Let’s not forget the fact that youcouldhave courted me.” I hissed, at least managing to keep my voice low. “You could have courted me for over five years if you had wanted to. But instead, you threw me out of your room and completely dismissed me from your thoughts.”
He blinked and actually took a step back in surprise, as if this was something he had never even considered.
“I didn’t know back then,” he said.
“Oh, and that makes everything you’ve done since okay?” I asked. “Just because you didn’t know doesn’t give you any right to treat me like I’m discarded trash.”
“It’s not like you knew, either,” he growled.
I let out a harsh, angry laugh that caused a few people nearby to stare at us in confusion. “Oh, trust me, I knew,” I said. “I knew before I spent the night with you.”
Once again, he rocked backward as if he’d been slapped. His mouth opened in surprise. It was worth it just to see that shocked, bewildered expression spreading across his face.
“You…knew?” he asked.
“Did I guess we were fated mates? Absolutely. I felt it. I may be weak. I may not be able to shift. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize the bond. Then I gaslit myself into thinking I had been wrong about the whole thing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.
“One, because I thought you were smart enough to recognize it on your own,” I retorted, rage still building and swelling inside me. “Two, when the hell was I supposed to tellyou? While you were kicking me out? When you barely gave me a chance to speak?”
“That’s not fair,” he argued. “I did what I thought was best—”
“Best for you, maybe. Not for me.”
He growled. “You’re impossible,” he said. “I know this isn’t easy for you, but you should at least learn to accept the circumstances, because they aren’t changing.”
