Chapter 33: Chapter 33

~ ROWAN

I’d initially planned to give the contract to her maid later in the day, but now was as good a time as any. Besides, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see the expression on her face as she read the new clause.

I tossed the spiral bound document onto the table before leaning back, my arms crossed over my chest with ease.

Nyssa locked eyes with me before glancing at the document on the table like it was a ticking time bomb. I could see the wheels turning in her eyes as she tried to decide what to do.

After a long minute of deliberating, she snatched up the contract and began sifting through the pages.

A surge of excitement filled me as I watched her.

It was stupid to feel so much excitement over something so insignificant, but in all my years of living, nothing had excited me this much. I watched her expression carefully, noting the exact moment it went from confused to aware before finally settling on anger.

She turned to me, eyes sharp and filled with disgust and disapproval. It was a look I was used to, but I was shocked at how violently my body reacted when I saw it on her face.

I braced myself for her anger, but instead, she just scoffed and stormed off, taking the contract with her.

I didn’t feel the excitement I thought would come from her reaction. Instead, a pit formed in my stomach and it filled with an emotion I couldn’t name.

“Do I even want to know what you did?” Aria asked from beside me.

For a moment, I’d forgotten she was there.

“I merely looked out for my own interests.”

My sister scoffed. “What interests, Rowan? What exactly did you do?”

“I made sure she couldn’t call the arrangement off unless I was in agreement as well. She’d have to reject me and I would have to agree.”

Aria stared at me with shock. I expected that, what I didn’t expect was the disappointment that followed. It was a look I was very unfamiliar with when it came to her.

“You don’t even like her. You’ve said it over again that you don’t want to mate with her. Why can’t you just leave the girl be? She’[s actually a pretty decent person and I don’t want you fucking that up.”

It stung to hear Aria be so vehemently against me. She was always the one I could count on to back me up, even when I was wrong. It was part of her idolization of me as her older brother.

“Are you on her side now?” I asked, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“I’m on the side of what’s right,” she snapped, rising to her feet. “I can’t be on your side for this, I’m sorry.”

“I thought you’d be excited that I was giving the mating bond a chance.”

“A chance?” she snorted. “You’re keeping the girl as a prisoner while you treat her like shit. What part of you thought I’d be in support of that?”

She reached the door, her hand lingering on the doorknob before turning to me.

“You know, you always have this thing where you feel like you’re this horrible monster and I get it, Rowan, I do. But have you ever once thought that maybe the reason people think you’re a monster is because you act like one?”

She didn’t give me a chance to respond before walking out of the dining room, calling out to Nyssa as she did.

For a moment, I felt a pang of guilt, a gnawing feeling that told me I’d gone too far and crossed a line, but the alternative was worse.

I wasn’t the right man for her, letting her love me would only be a crueler punishment.

Grabbing my mug, I forced what was left of my now cold coffee down my throat. It tasted like something out of the ends of the earth, but I’d gotten used to the taste and couldn’t stomach anything else right now.

I threw myself into my work, going over all the last minute security details for the bonfire.

It happened every quarter, and yet, security had to be tighter every single time. There was nothing lycans loved more than an excuse to throw a party, and having so many drunk lycans in one place was never a good idea.

When I was younger, I’d sneak out of the palace to attend. Aria caught me once and in exchange for not telling on me, she forced me to take her with me.

We got caught in a rumble that had to be broken up by palace guards. I ended up with a cut on my brow because some bastard shoved Aria by mistake.

It was the last time I went.

“Everything is set, your majesty,” a guard called out to me, snapping me back to reality.

We stood in the middle of the town square. The people were already beginning to decorate their stalls and houses despite the bonfire being a few days away.

Moon shaped lamps hung in doorways and silver confetti littered the streets. Teenagers chased each other wearing face paint and wielding pretend swords earning a slight tug of my lips.

I didn’t have to be out here, but there was something about standing in the middle of my town and seeing my pack so happy and at ease.

My father drilled into my head from a young age that a pack was only as good as it people. Everything I did, I did for them.

“Good,” I said to the guard. “Thank you all for your work.”

I started to leave when he spoke. “Will you be joining the bonfire this year, Alpha?”

A refusal was at the tip of my tongue as always but I remembered Aria’s offer to Nyssa earlier and the excitement on her face as she listened.

I turned to the guard and shrugged. “We’ll see.”

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