Hey, Mate! (Cursed Mates #1)

Chapter #38- The Art of Breaking a Heart.

"Do you have to?" I ask with narrowed eyes, trying to make it seem like I am not quite willing to answer her questions. The truth is, she can ask as many as she'd like, if she just keeps looking at me with those amber eyes of hers.

"I'll die out of curiosity if I don't" Her nose wrinkles and even though I know she is not serious, I feel like I have been sucker punched. Just like I always feel whenever she and death are mentioned in the same sentence.

I let out a low breath to calm my beating heart and then nod.

"At the lake, when you first sat down beside me, you said that you couldn't come home for my birthday because you were busy with training. Were you really busy?" She is looking at me with hopeful eyes and I suck in a sharp breath, suddenly wishing her eyes were anywhere, but on me.

I gulp and break eye contact with her.

"Mate..."

"Sugar" She provides.

"Huh?" I am confused.

"That's what you used to call me before" My heart feels like it is clenching just by hearing her say that.

"Hmm" I humm and try to ignore the lump in my throat.

"I want you to call me Sugar from now on" She says it so innocently that my heart can't take it. She won't be saying that once I am done sharing the full memory with her.

Even the thought wants me to dig myself a grave.

"Sugar" I have not used this term as an endearment for 15 years.

15 long and lonely years.

Her lips pull in a satisfied smile and I want to peek in her head, just a little, to get a gist of what she is feeling. What she is thinking.

But it's risky, and I know that.

If I lower the wall that I have built between the two of us, she'll be able to see what is going on in my head. She'll be able to see things that I don't want her to see until she is out of her Heat so that they don't cloud her judgement.

"I like the sound of it" She grins and reaching forward, she pecks me on the lips swiftly.

A million sparks light up at the small contact of our lips, and they don't just light up on my skin, but in me too.

I groan, my head spinning and push her face away from me, so that I can think straight.

"Ouch" she fakes.

"Let's get started with the story, Mate"

"Sugar"

"Sugar" I grit out, ignoring the warm feeling in my chest.

"You didn't answer my question yet" she points out.

I don't even bother lying, even though I know that the truth is going to hurt her.

"No, I wasn't busy" I see the hurt on her face but I don't bother ellaborating my answer for her.

"oh" She turns to face forward, her body now tense and not leaning into me.

I want to be pissed, want to apologise, but what do I do instead?

I start reciting the damned memory to her, knowing that this certain memory is going to take her away from me. Even if it is just a little.

_____

I remember being so damn pissed after she had told me she 'thought' she had found her Mate.

Asher wanted to come out and tear that asshole she 'thought' to be her Mate into pieces, and as she guided me towards the Hub, I was contemplating whether I should take him up on his offer.