Side-Story: 3 - Alternative ending to be continued... - Part 3
Casimir
»He marked you! He already hurt someone!«
He was a wolf? How had I not noticed until now? We were already together for five months.
And he had marked me? That meant...
I was his mate. His destined one. The other half of his soul.
The shock about that realization and me not noticing it until now, hurt like thousands of knives stepping through my heart.
I knew about the rules of wolves, after all I grew up with them. I was aware that wolves needed to mark the other in a little time window of three days, if not they would die.
Would I have died too? Would I even have noticed when the other half of my soul died, because he considered my human side more than marking me without me knowing?
God, I didn't want to think about it.
I was thankful that he marked me. If not, I would have never been able to get to know him. To hold him in my arms. To kiss him. To hear his laughter. To gaze into those sparkling brown eyes.
How could I care about the fact that he wasn't part of a pack? It didn't matter to me at all. He mattered. And now, even more than before.
But what shocked me the most right now were my parents.
The way they pushed him away, without even getting to know him. Even attacked him. God, he was bleeding!
Just how-
A movement and a sudden quietness made me spin around.
First, I thought Eden had killed him. Horror and fear took over my body.
His whimpers and howls had filled my whole apartment just a second ago and shook me to the bone. And at that moment his screams in pain had stopped.
My head yelled in panic, He is dead, he is dead, he is dead
However, he spun around, bit Eden in his injured leg and ran away.
»Keith!«, I yelled his name in panic and followed him. Out of my apartment, down the stairs, following the trail of blood. But then it disappeared and so did he too.
»Keith?! Keith! Please answer me!«
Tears welled up as I desperately yelled for him.
Where was he? Did he faint somewhere? Was he bleeding out?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!
I could call him! Leave a message! Anything. Just get to him.
My legs carried me back home as quickly as possible. Up the stairs, along the bloody trail that made me dreadful.
»Hunters? Really? I chased him away. That should be enough.«
I heard Eden's voice and stopped before I entered my apartment. »If there is one rogue, there are more. They need to get killed before they create more chaos«, father answered.
Anger spread from my heart through my whole boy, making me see red.
»The only one's creating chaos are you!«, I screamed at the top of my lungs. »How could you?! He is bleeding! Hurting! He might be dying for fucks sake!«
I stomped up to them and clenched my fist. Wanted to punch them, pull at their hair, scream into their faces.
»He marked you without your knowledge. He is a rogue. Do you want me to continue?«
Hissing, I looked down before my head jerked up. Tears now streaming down my face from the anger that I couldn't hold back.
»So? He marked me because I'm a human and your kind has the rule to mark their fated-one in three days! He had no choice! And it's not like you asked me, if I was aware! Maybe I knew it and wanted him to mark me willingly!«
Not that I was aware of it, but still.
»Sure, he may be a rogue, he may be without a big pack like yours. But he has his family! There could be thousands of reasons why they are without a pack! You can't just attack him without reason!«
»Your parents' accident was caused by rogues. Don't you dare order me to not kill any rogue that comes in front of you!«
I couldn't believe he dragged my dead parents into this!
»He is my mate!«, I cried.
»He is nothing like that.«
The coldness in his voice made me fully aware of the fact that he was an Alpha. A good leader but sometimes horrible if it was about relationships and being a father.
»Stop giving every rogue the fault at my parents death«, I whispered hurt.
»Ha?!«
I lifted my arm and pointed at the door.
»Get out of my apartment. I wanted you to meet my boyfriend, the person I love, my mate but you choose to not accept him, so I will stand on his side and will reject you.«
»You choose a rogue above the family that raised you?«, my father, Kenny, snarled.
»I'm choosing my mate over the people that want him dead«, I hissed.
They walked past me. Eden threw me one look. Pity and regret were in his eyes, but he should have stopped when I screamed at him. Now it was already too late.
»And if you try killing him in any other way, I will completely break off our contact.«
My parents whirled around and ripped open their mouths to scream and yell at me but I just stared at them. What else could I do? I wasn't as strong as them, I couldn't win in a fight against them. I could only hold my already weak body up and stand my ground.
They went against all their principles. A mate stood above everything? Yeah, I saw that above everything today.
It wasn't like I could feel our bond but he was still my mate, after all, I knew about the bond from the family that raised me and knew about all the feelings that came with it. The family that now rejected my mate.
I couldn't even comprehend how hurt I was because of it.
»Sorry«, Eden said regretfully after our parents left in a fit of anger.
»If you were, you wouldn't have done it in the first place. You know that your kind only marks their mate«, I whispered. Hurt from his betrayal and of what he had done to Keith.
He dropped his head and nodded. »I will try to stop them from doing anything to him. So you can be at peace.«
Could I? Could I be at peace when I didn't know how Keith was right now? I could only hope that they wouldn't send hunters to kill him and his family if he wasn't already dead.
»Fuck«, I cursed and lifted my hand to my forehead before covering my mouth to suppress a sob.
I should have known. I should have known. I should have known.
Eden had already left and I was alone in my almost destroyed apartment. Claw marks and blood covered the ground. How should I explain those marks to my landlord?
It was even more impressive that nobody called the police with all the noises that came from the fight.
No, right now, I shouldn't care about that.
I turned around to run to my bedroom where I left my phone and picked out Keith's contact. He was already pinned right at the top. Saved as Keith with a heart behind.
Walking up and down in my room, I waited for him to answer but he didn't - he couldn't because the ringing sound came from my short hallway.
He had left his phone and headphones here.
Terrified, I grabbed his phone and squeezed it against my chest. How could I find him now?
Maybe at his workplace?
But his next shift was tomorrow and I was too nervous to wait for the next day to come, though it was already turning dark outside.
What if I looked through his phone and maybe found an address?
I apologized for trying to get into his phone but got immediately blocked by a pincode.
Cursing again, I tried tipping in two pins I thought were possible options but both of them were wrong.
His birthday and strangely, I tried my birthday too. A little bit in hope, he would act a bit childishly in love like I did. Because his birthday was my pincode.
Social Media was another option but without his phone, he probably wouldn't have access to it.
So, now that I didn't know his pincode and his address too, my only option was to wait. And it felt horrible.
The whole night I couldn't find a bit of sleep. I tried staying sane by cleaning my apartment and also the bloody trail on the stairs. I was glad nobody had noticed until now.
The claw marks were the only signs of a fight after I cleaned everything up. It was sad that the food got wasted because I had given my best to cook something he would enjoy but now...
Sighing I laid down on the couch and gazed up to the ceiling.
Just a few days ago we sat here together and flirted with each other. God, how I wished to be back to that day. To never have him asked to meet my parents.
My chest hurt painfully and I grabbed the place where my heart was beating beneath and hit it a few times. Not hard but hard enough to create a sound.
It hurt so much. But he must be feeling much more hurt. Not just his physical injuries but the mental one's too.
Had he felt betrayed by me? Was he scared? What did he think at that moment?
»Goddammit!« I buried my face in my palms and could feel my tears making my skin slippery.
After some hours I fell asleep, although my mind was spinning about Keith's wellbeing. Maybe that was the reason why I fell asleep because I was exhausted to a point it affected me physically.
Waking up in a daze, I stared blankly at the ceiling. Blinking a few times before I sat up straight. How late was it?
My phone was luckily not out of battery but much wasn't left. I charged it and quickly went into the shower to wash myself up because after a look in the mirror, I noticed how horrible I looked.
Puffy eyes that were red from all the tears. Pale skin and shadows beneath my eyes as if I hadn't slept a wink in weeks.
Right after showering I noticed something else in the mirror. I had only thought it was a leftover of a hickey Keith gave me. He loved covering my neck with them.
Now I vaguely understood why he did it.
He already had me marked as his but the tiny scare that I now noticed was mostly invisible for humans - even I hadn't noticed and it was my body. But humans didn't know I was taken, so he showed his possessiveness through the hickeys. The human kind of marking.
My fingers traced along the little scar that had the shape of fangs before I dropped my head and could feel tears welling up again.
How had I not noticed when I grew up with wolves? Mother even had such a mark on her neck and many others from the pack.
Quickly, I tried myself and put some clothes on before I grabbed my phone that had a bit more power by now and left my apartment. Keith's phone and headphones were stuffed into my pocket.
My eyes glanced around on my way to the subway. Searching for traces of blood or even a human or wolf lying on the ground. I even listened to the conversations of passing people, maybe they had seen him and talked about Keith.
Nothing. Maybe there were traces but I hadn't seen them. Or they were washed away.
I drove to the station where the café Keith worked at was and walked along the road. Here, too, was nothing that caught my attention. No signs of Keith's body or his blood. I should be glad about it, right?
The bell rang when I entered the café but when I looked up to see him standing at the counter, there was nobody.
Maybe he was with Teddy in the kitchen, I calmed myself though I was so tense I couldn't relax.
Nervously, I waited for someone, for him, to come out from the backdoor. I prayed in my head. But when the door finally opened a woman, who had the same height as Keith, came out.
My heart dropped immediately.
»Casimir?«
Naomi noticed me instantly. It wasn't very difficult because no customers were here right now.
»Are you here for your daily black coffee?«, she asked and stopped in front of the machine to get my order.
»Uhm... no.« Though I really needed my coffee. Half for my sleepiness and half to calm my nerves. »I looking for Keith.«
She must have heard my nervousness and despair in my voice because she frowned with worry.
»Did you two have a fight? Can't you just go to his home?«
I tugged at my sleeve and bit my lip. What did I even know about Keith?
»We had something like a fight... I would like to go to his home to look for him but he never gave me his address...«
She moved around the counter and signed me to a table where we both sat down.
»You want to talk about it?«
I shook my head but then stopped. Well, I could tell her part of it, not all, but the most fundamental.
»My parents reject him and say he is the wrong guy for me, bad for me.« She nodded and then sighed. Heavily she dropped backwards against the back of the chair and crossed her arms.
»I thought something must have happened.«
Fear shot through me. »Why...?«
»Sorry to tell you but he resigned. At least, his sister came by and brought a letter from him.«
No... No. No!
If he had resigned how would I be able to meet him? To tell him that I didn't reject him? That I accepted him as my mate?
»Can you at least-«
»I cannot«, she refused. »It's not that I don't want to, Casimir. But I can't. I don't even have his address. The only contact info he left was his phone number. We never asked for his address because at the time we hired him, we were in need of any kind of help. And we could always get in contact with him over his number.«
I lowered my head and felt like crying again.
Now I wouldn't be able to contact him at all.
»Why not try to wait for him when he has a reading?« My head shot up when I heard Teddy's voice.
Right... Why didn't I think about that? »Thank you!«, I breathed and stood up.
»And when you see him, tell him he can come back anytime«, Teddy added right afterwards.
I left the café and went halfway to the station when I remembered that it was saturday and he had no reading. Not today and tomorrow either.
And on monday we had our readings at the same time. No, my reading didn't matter as long as I could confirm he was fine and could talk to him about everything.
To assure him that I accepted him.