Then she was pulling away, her expression shuttered and neutral once more. “That’s it.”
“Pardon?” I asked, sounding incredibly dull.
Guinevere crossed her arms over her chest. “That is all you are getting until you decide to pull your head out of your ass and truly get to know me for who I am, not who you think I am. I’m not a monster for wanting a pack and you aren’t being disloyal to Arthur for wanting me.”
“How—?” She had read me as if I were a book and my face must have shown my surprise because the omega let out an inelegant snort.
“Lancelot, it was as clear to me as if you had shouted it at me. You may think you hide your emotions well, but I’ve spent a lot of time watching you so I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’ve been thinking.”
My face warmed inexplicably and I hoped the darkness of the forest around us concealed it.
“Now, figure yourself out or I’m going to really make the gods mad by drowning you,” Guinevere said, pointing at me before she turned and pulled the hood of the dark woolen cloak she was wearing over her hair again before venturing back off into the forest.
I had barely uttered a word during our entire conversation, but as I stood alone in the forest, I could not help but reach up and touch my lips.
“You have been watching me?” I wondered into the empty air, but the forest around me was silent as I continued to stare after the omega who had come in like a storm before leaving me off-balance once again.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Your majesty, you cannot just keep running away from me,” Bedivere called from behind me as I hurried down the hall in the opposite direction of him.
For the past few days ever since the day I had struck out with not only him, but also Merlin, I had avoided the pair like the plague.
Add in my forest one-sided shouting match with Lancelot and I was definitely batting a thousand when it came to these men.
I continued down the hall, past curious workers and towards my shared chambers with Arthur. If I could just make it there, then I could avoid an awkward conversation with the alpha.
Arthur was out with most of the men today, patrolling the borders of Camelot to make sure none of the Saxon invaders had encroached into our lands, but that also meant I lost both of my buffers as Gawain had gone with them.
That left me in the castle with not only Bedivere, but also Merlin.
Case in point the invisible wall I walked face-first into.
“Stop, Guinevere.” I could hear Merlin’s voice as I rubbed my sore nose.
“You didn’t need to conjure a damn wall,” I grumbled, reaching out to knock on the air in front of me and watched as magic reverberated in a way that only someone like me, who used magic, could see.
“I would not have to resort to walls if you just stopped to speak to us rather than running away.”
Bedivere’s thick sandalwood scent filled my nose as he stepped up behind me.
“Your majesty…” he began, trailing off as he seemed to be at a loss for words.
I glared at him and at Merlin who hovered just behind the massive alpha’s shoulder. “I’m not talking to you if you aren’t going to call me the way I asked you to call me.”
I knew I sounded like a petulant child, but I had had days to stew on my interactions with these two men and I was more angry than embarrassed at this point.
Arthur and Gawain had reminded me that I was desirable—and if Bedivere, Merlin, and Lancelot couldn’t see that? Then screw them.
I was half-tempted to go to the top of the mountains and scream at the gods to give me a new do-over pack because obviously my current one was fucked.
But then Bedivere surprised me, his lips pressing together with consternation before he finally whispered something so quietly that I couldn’t hear him.
“What?” I asked crossly.
“Guinevere,” he finally said, my name sounding odd coming from him. “Please come and talk to us so that we may explain.”
I narrowed my eyes, glancing between both men, half-tempted to tell them no and go sulk in my nest, but I knew I needed to be a big girl and hash this out with them sooner rather than later. My mother would have been horrified to see me run away from them like a coward the other day and I could hear her scolding voice telling me to be a grownup.
