𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 | ✔

FORTY SEVEN

"I bet that's what they all say whilst you're trying to slide in next to her, take her from who she's meant to be with." Kassian's voice booms across the clearing, taking another step closer to him, grabbing Everett's collar.

Everett just stares back at him, not retaliating, not moving. He does nothing. Because he's being the bigger person and not reacting to this nonsense, he's not feeding into Kassian's bruised ego.

"Kassian," I snap angrily. "Let go of him, now."

"I suggest you get off my territory before there is nothing left of you." Kassian drops his tone as he levels his nose against Everett's.

After a few moments he releases his collar with a push and Everett stabilises himself. He brushes down his jacket once more and wipes his face of his dark blood. He gives me one glance and turns away from us, walking towards the trees.

I grab onto Kassian's shoulder and rotate his vibrating body towards mine. His dark eyes looked like they were ready to kill, his jaw about to snap any given second.

"Is it so hard to believe that I want to connect with members of my old pack without shagging their Alpha?" My tone drops to a pathetic whisper.

Even I couldn't recover the hurt in my voice. As much as I wanted to be strong about the current situation, I couldn't. He thought the worst of me and what does that say about our relationship?

"I literally just told him that he can't just show up on our territory like that, he has to respect us.
Respect you as an Alpha. He wants me to be involved with these people's lives, their rekindling with their families." I speak almost breathlessly. "He came to tell me that, I told him it's not wise to just show up without being invited. It's straight wolf code and he apologised and said it wouldn't happen again."

Kassian's eyes remain stern as he listens to me.
"You've actually lost the plot, Kassian. You've lost it." I shake my head in disbelief.

"He's coming here to see you because he wants you, Cleo. It's so fucking obvious!" Kassian snaps back suddenly.

"Oh my God," I laugh sadly, my head extending to look up at the ceiling. "I've known him for less than two weeks. We're working on this together, am I not allowed to do that?"

Kassian's jaw tenses, he doesn't know what to say. Maybe he finally realises what he did was wrong. That he shouldn't jump to conclusions.

I release his arm and take one step back, heading towards the house without looking at him. My head lowers and I try my hardest not to release an almighty scream that seems like it would help my situation, but in fact I'd just look crazy.

"Cleo," Kassian follows after me but I ignore him.
My hand pushes onto the door and I step in, Kassian was right behind me because I could feel the heat of his body.

"Cleo," he tries again.

I turn around to him sharply and stare up at him through my raging eyes. "I don't even want to talk to you right now," I shake my head vigorously. "You've crossed the line, big time and I'm done with this shit."

My feet carry me down the hall but Kassian clearly wasn't done.

"Cleo, I-I–" his voice struggles but I didn't care anymore.

"No!" I shout as I turn back to him. "You don't get to call the shots this time. You can't just go around punching people when you get jealous especially when I tell you that nothing is happening between us and you still choose not to believe me."

Kassian stops walking and glances over my face. He looks lost, so lost that he doesn't even know what he's thinking anymore.

"Please just give me space because I cannot bear being around you right now," I drop my eyes to the floor and rush down the hall, slipping through the stairs to the library.