"That’s enough from you," Rowan said with a low growl of warning. "What are you playing at?"
"Nothing!" I cried out. My frustration was quickly building. I hadn’t attempted to escape that many tis for them to imdiately think that every little commotion was an escape attempt. "If you would just listen―"
"You have not proven yourself worth listening to," Rowan said harshly.
I flinched a little at his tone. Even though this wasn’t sothing out of the ordinary, I still couldn’t keep myself from being surprised by the harsh tone. It was almost as though my non-existent wolf still hoped that things would change, even though the human side of knew that this was a harder task than spinning straw into gold.
"Not everything I do is an escape attempt!" I snapped back. For so strange reason, I felt the back of my eyes burning. I blad this mont of weakness on my exasperation. "If I were truly trying to escape, don’t you think that I would’ve been a bit more discreet?"
Rowan pursed his lips, as though he was carefully considering my point.
"Then what were you trying to do, if not to escape?" Rowan quipped back.
"I was trying to get your attention!" I all but yelled. This ti, it was Rowan’s turn to flinch in surprise.
"You could’ve just called for one of us," Rowan said, narrowing his eyes in distrust.
"Would you have co?" I retorted, scoffing. "If I had yelled your na — touch your heart and answer truthfully — would you have even batted an eyelid?"
Rowan kept silent, hesitating. I knew that I had hit the nail on the head.
"That’s right," I said. "I thought as much. You wouldn’t have."
"I would," Rowan quickly argued, but by the look on his face, even he knew that it was a weak rebuttal.
I gave him a pointed look. "You wouldn’t," I said. "You, Soren, and Cassian would’ve simply thought that I had yet another plan up my sleeve. Or at least, Cassian would have convinced you two — and quite easily, might I add — that I was up to no good, and this was just a distraction from a greater plan that I was sohow hatching from this tiny room in the middle of nowhere, with absolutely no other resources than my own two hands!"
If it weren’t for the fact that Rowan had an iron grip on my arms, I would’ve wanted to pull my hair out. Ti was ticking, and yet here I was, arguing with Rowan over the semantics.
Rowan’s eyes darkened. "You have never given us a reason to trust you―"
"I have also never given you a reason to distrust !" I yelled, cutting him off. "I don’t know why you guys hate so much. Ever since I returned, you have avoided like the plague. At that ti, I didn’t care. You three were just the Alphas, but nothing more. We weren’t even considered friends."
I took a deep breath, feeling a heavy weight in my chest. "But even then, I could tell that you three didn’t like . I thought it was just because of my sudden return, even though I have no clue why that bothers you at all!"
My eyes squeezed shut. I shook my head.
"You know what? This is a waste of ti. I’m having deja vu. I swear we’ve had this conversation before."
Rowan frowned. "Now wait just a minute―"
"No," I firmly said. "There are more important things than that stupid, sa old argunt."
Rowan’s hands had finally loosened, and I word out of his grip. It wasn’t effortless, but at least it was possible. I quickly grabbed his forearm and tugged him to the window, ignoring his confused expression.
"I need you to see this before you regret it," I said, determined. "I was looking out just now when I saw a wolf."
"A wolf?" Rowan echoed. "You said it was Willow―"
"Yes!" I exclaid. "It’s Willow’s wolf. She was just..."
I peered out of the window, excited to point her out. After all, with this, I was as good as a free woman. I didn’t even care why the triplets hated imdiately upon my return anymore. At least this guillotine blade would finally be removed from my neck’s vicinity.
However, no matter how much I scanned the grassy plains outside, I couldn’t find the familiar figure of the tan wolf anywhere.
"There’s nothing outside," Rowan said. I couldn’t deduce the tone of his voice. Frankly, I was also too out of it to care about him right now.
"That... That’s not..." My eyebrows scrunched up together.
I reached forward and grasped the window grills, wanting desperately to take a better look. However, the mont my palms made contact with the silver, the sound of sizzling flesh filled the air.
I withdrew imdiately, hissing in pain as I took a step back. My back collided against Rowan’s chest as I stared at my reddened palms. It felt as though I had just touched a searing hot frying pan.
I only spared my palms a few seconds of attention before looking at the window again. My heart sank into the pits of my stomach when I realized that I hadn’t seen it wrongly― Willow’s wolf wasn’t there anymore.
"No..." I muttered, shaking my head. My throat felt as though soone had shoved a stopper into it. "No... No! She was right there!" I turned around, my eyes red. "I saw her, I swear! She was... She was right there, and she looked..."
She looked like she was dying. But apparently, she was still well enough to get up and leave at the very mont that I needed her to stay put.
"Briar," Rowan said. His voice was firm, but I could almost hear a hint of sympathy in it. "There’s no one there."
"I... I saw her..." My knees felt weak. They trembled slightly. I would’ve fallen if Rowan hadn’t caught .
"That’s enough, Briar," he said.
When I turned to look at him, the look in his eyes was conflicted. It held deep hatred, but swirling in the depths also included pity, hurt, and confusion.
I knew that he hated , but I didn’t know why the other three emotions showed up as well. Maybe I just looked so pathetic at the mont that the humane part of him couldn’t help but pity .
"Rowan..."
"You don’t have to put on such an act just to escape," he said.
That was the final nail in the coffin. My entire body frosted over, and I could feel my blood freeze in my veins.
"I wasn’t trying to escape," I said. Standing up properly, I tried to put so distance between us. "Honest."
Unfortunately, Rowan refused to let go. The pads of his fingers dug into my flesh, pressing harshly against my bone. I bit down on my bottom lip as a bruising pain spread from the point of contact.
"Let go," I said, struggling. "You’re hurting ―"
"And let you leave?" he asked. "So that you may run back to Lucien?"
I snapped up at Lucien’s na. The ntion of Lucien drove so fighting spirit back into my body.
Yet, I didn’t even have the chance to say anything before Rowan chuckled. His lips slowly spread, and I could feel chills running down the back of my spine. I had seen this expression before― right before he took in his office back in Shadowclaw.
This wasn’t just a look of hatred. That would be Cassian’s face whenever he so much as breathed the sa air as I did. Nor was it a look of warmth and regret, which I often saw in Soren’s eyes.
The look that Rowan wore was unbridled possessiveness.
"I―" I said, choked up by the expression on his face. This was sothing I truly didn’t know how to react to. I was so used to their hatred that this wasn’t sothing I had learned to deal with. "Lucien is my mate―"
"So are we!" Rowan yelled. I stiffened. He clenched his jaw, and I could see the muscle in his jaw flex as he did so. "So am I," he said in a slightly softer voice. However, it didn’t hide the fact that he was desperately trying to hold himself back.
I had never seen him practice such restraint before. As the Alpha, and more importantly, the leader of the Alphas, Rowan had always done whatever he desired. There was no one who could tell him what to do, and no one who could fault his behavior.
For a second there, my heart trembled. The pull between fated mates that I had buried was slowly starting to rear its ugly head. I had to force myself to ignore the tugging in my heart.
"No," I said. "I have already rejected all three of you. You hate . Even if there’s anything to connect us, it will not be the fated mate bond. What we have is that of a captive and their prisoner."
Rowan’s eyes darkened. Whatever glassiness that had gathered there imdiately evaporated. What it was replaced by was a dark, twisted look. My throat went dry instantly.
"I have not accepted your rejection," he said, his tone dangerous.
"Accepting it is rely a formality," I said, gathering my courage. "I have no intention of ever accepting you as my mate!"
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