This again?I bit back a sigh. It was obviously a sore spot for him.
"Look," I said a bit more gently, "I'm not saying I'm the lord of all omegas or whatever. What I mean is, don't take on so much responsibility. You're not a martyr. What you're doing for those omegas is awesome, but they're not helpless. Maybe it's a good thing that you left Galileo in charge for a while." I tilted my head, observing those stress lines etched into his face. "You looked like you needed a break."
Kamari stormed up to me. I held my ground. This time, I knew I wasn't out of line. One person shouldn't be responsible for the burden of all that responsibility.
Kamari didn't speak for a while, but the gears in his mind were shifting, sending ripples of tiny jerks and twitches across his expression, like he was thinking of the exact words to verbally pummel me with. In the end he exhaled a hot, disgruntled snort. I couldn't help but feel its warmth ghosting across my skin and smelling the scent ofhimbeneath it.
"Let's just get this over with." Even though nobody was around, he said it under his breath, as if being seen working with me was some faux-pas. "After this is over, I never want to see you again. Do you understand that, Zakariel?"
For some reason hearing my full name out of his mouth right after I'd gotten him to use my nickname hurt more than his actual statement did. I tried not to let it show on my face, but I was never good at hiding my emotions. But Kamari didn't seem pleased that he'd upset me. He looked upset, too.
I attempted to brush it off. "Sure, whatever. Then we better actually go look instead of standing here talking."
"Agreed."
And with that, Kamari turned on his heel and stormed into the forest. With no other choice, I sullenly followed him.
9
Kamari
The appalling nerveof that wolf infuriated me so badly it set my skin on fire.
Well, that was what I had to keep telling myself as I stormed away from him. When I'd marched up into his face to tell him off, the calm defiance in his mismatched eyes and the scent wafting off him... it knocked me off guard, like the solid ground I'd been standing on suddenly turned to water.
It unsettled me. I never acted this way. People didn'tgetto me, especially not alphas, andespeciallynot puny alpha wolves, the most basic and typical of all shifters.
A wolf shifter, just likehim.I shuddered at the memory.
Gods, I'd worked myself up into a frenzy over nothing. Why was I letting Zakariel affect me? He was nobody. He was unimportant.
But... he was also right.
That was the awful part. When he'd called me out on my feelings towards my omegas, shame washed over me. I didn't want to admit it because it hurt my pride, but I'd been thinking of them as powerless and naive. Just because they were under my care didn't mean they were incompetent.
I stopped walking and pinched the bridge of my nose to try and dispel the hot embarrassment seeping through my skull. It didn't work. All it did was summon Zakariel and his nosiness.
"You good, Kamari?" he asked.
I opened my mouth to snap at him but the words wouldn't come out. He hadn't done anything wrong at the moment except exist, and to be frustrated at him for that would be utterly immature.
I turned to face him. He stood a few feet away, almost guarded.
Right. Probably because I already snapped at him twenty minutes ago.
I ran my hand over my face with a weary sigh. I needed to get it together.
"Your words struck a chord with me," I mumbled, avoiding his gaze. It was embarrassing enough to admit he was right without looking directly at him. Or maybe there was another reason I couldn't bring myself to stare into those black and yellow eyes. "What you said about the haven omegas not being helpless, I mean."
Zakariel's brows raised slightly in surprise. "Oh." He didn't elaborate. I guessed he didn't want to get snarled at again, which made me feel a tiny pang of guilt for doing it in the first place.
Without a reply, I kept talking to fill the awkward silence. "You... had a point." Ugh, why were the words so difficult to get out? "I hadn't thought about it that way before you brought it up."
"So what you're trying to say is, I was right?"
My brow twitched. "You could say that."
A slow smile spread over Zakariel's lips. But that's what it was--a smile. Not a smirk. There wasn't any snark or judgment, which made this conversation a lot more palatable.
