Chapter 124
1277words
She took visible steps away from me, and I scoffed at her attempts to get away from me,
"I didn't ask him to do any of those things. I didn't even know it was my cousin who did that." she blurted and I nodded,
"I see. But you were on a call with him, talking about how you weren't going to pay him the money he required because he didn't do the exact job he was to be paid for. But yet, I'm supposed to believe you did not know that your own cousin was responsible for such a misdemeanor."
"Paris…”
"Enough with the lies, Kate. Just stop them! They are becoming all too annoying and tiring. Come clean for once, and if you can't come clean, then at least stop partaking in things that require you to lie." I said angrily and watched as tears formed in her eyes,
Tears were her go-to, and I was completely unfazed by them,
"I had a good reason for doing what I did, Paris. "
"What?!" I barked, "What on earth could have possibly been your reason for doing such a terrible thing? For trying to hurt someone who had done absolutely nothing wrong to you?"
"you!" she screamed, and I looked at her like she had lost her mind,
"me?" I asked, utterly confused,
"Yes, you. All you care about lately is Ember. These past couple of days, you've only dedicated yourself and your time to finding whosoever had hurt her. She's all you care about these days and you barely even take the time out for me. Me, who is your actual mate?"
"but you already know how I feel about Ember. I tried to cut things off between us so that I didn't drag you along in a relationship that wasn't working, that I wasn't invested in, but you refused. I haven't lied to you about anything. I haven't given you a Reason to believe that there was something that you were meant to hold on to. So why would you be hunting Ember down like she's the source of all your problems?"
"Because if she was not in the picture, you would still love me. We would still be together and nothing would have ever gone south between you and I. You wouldn't even think about rejecting me."
"So rather than handling it appropriately, you choose to hurt her? What has deluded you into believing that if anything happened to her, I would suddenly want a relationship with you once again?"
"Is there someone else I should know about? " she asked and I groaned,
"That is beside the point, Kate!" I barked, "It's neither here nor there, if there is someone else outside of Ember, what matters is that you had no right hurting her, or sending your cousin to hurt her." I said and narrowed my eyes when the tears began to fall,
"I only did all that I didn't because I did not want to lose you," she said sadly,
"but what you fail to understand is that I'm not even yours. I agree that we are mates and that we share a bond. For the longest time, I was bound to that bond, but not anymore Kate. That's why I tried to reject the bind. I didn't want either one of us to feel bound to the bond."
"What about your puppies?" she asked, sadly, and I narrowed my eyes at her,
"There aren't any puppies, and we both know it." I said and ran a hand over my face, "I'm so angry Kate. So bloody angry, but to hurt you would be to hurt myself. So just go."
"What?" she asked, looking broken and I had to shut off my feelings to how sad she looked just then,
"I'm asking you to go away, Kate. To leave me alone. Leave the pack land. That's the best punishment there is for all your misdeeds.
"but that's too much!" she cried. "where is the justice?"
"justice? Kate, because of you, a heavy metal rod fell atop me. And you're trying to tell me that the reason why you set that whole thing up with your cousin was because you felt Ember was coming between us? Did you forget that I'm married to Ember? That we were in a relationship before you ever showed up?"
"I haven't forgotten, but perhaps you have forgotten all of the promises you made at the beginning of this relationship with me. You promised that this was forever. Where did all of that go?"
"probably where all the confusion has gone." I said and heaved out a breath, "Forty-eight hours. You have forty-eight hours to head back to the house, gather your things, and leave. I'm done with you, Kate. You won't be rejected, fine, but you will leave my house. You will no longer be the reason why I'm upset every odd time."
"Paris, you don’t have to make such rash decisions. I'm sorry! I'm sorry I hurt Ember. How could I have known that you would take it so personally."
"In what world is hurting anyone okay? If you didn't think I would take you hurting Ember personally, did you still believe that it was okay to hurt anyone in that at all? Where the hell is your head?"
"full of you, Paris. My head is full of you. And everything I do? I do it all for you. I know I did wrong, but what was I supposed to do when I wake and sleep every day with the knowledge that I might be losing you?"
"you still don't get it, Kate?! I am not yours to hold on to! I don't belong to you! I belong to me! And I'm trying my darndest to belong to Ember! How the hell am I supposed to do that if you end her life?"
"Exactly!" she yelled, and it was my turn to be taken aback,
"What?"
"Of course, I don't want you to belong to her. How could I when I want you all to myself?" she said and those tears fell freely and violently,
"I love and adore you and I can't live without you, so how can you blame me for not wanting you to belong to someone else?"
I sighed, and ran a hand over my head, completely tired of the back and forth. I had followed her, set on giving her a piece of my mind, but obviously, that wasn't going to work out. Because it didn't matter how angry I was, the mate bond made me hold back more than I wanted to.
"Leave me alone," I said weary of this argument, and began to turn away,
"I will not!" she yelled and began following me, and I heaved out-breath,
"you're following me with that limp of yours. Then at least make sure you're heading back to pack up your things to leave. "
"You don't mean that," she said adamantly,
"If you don't leave this place in the next two days, " I began and turned to face her, "you'd be surprised just what I mean and what I don't mean," I said firmly. And then I turned away once more. And only then did I remember that Jackson had requested that I pay his regards, in other words, he had expected that I would put her in her place. I simply couldn't. To do so, I needed to get past the mate bond.
Perhaps, I thought as I walked back toward the house perhaps from here on, I would simply let Jackson deal with retribution and recompense.
