Chapter 212 - 0212

Lorelei POV

Honestly, when a man was as intensely jealous as Kaelen, his brain seemed to develop a special talent for jumping to the most ridiculous conclusions. I mean, how exactly had he gotten from watching how coldly Jaxen treated me at the banquet to thinking there had been something between us?

I had wanted to tell him about Jaxen under completely different circumstances, but now that Kaelen had asked me directly, there was no point putting it off anymore.

I took a slow breath and looked him straight in the eyes.

"He was my mate."

The moment the words left my mouth, I watched Kaelen’s expression change right before my eyes. The softness disappeared from his face, replaced by something so dark and dangerous that it made the air around us feel heavier.

"What?" he asked, his voice dropping into a dangerously low, hoarse tone.

"Alpha Jaxen was my mate," I repeated, making sure there was no misunderstanding.

Kaelen sucked in a sharp breath and shifted on the mattress, sitting completely upright. I adjusted myself beside him, suddenly feeling the weight of the silence between us.

"You are mated to that man?" he asked, though the way he said it sounded more like he was struggling to believe what he had just heard.

"I was," I corrected quietly.

I took another breath, forcing myself to keep going even as the memories I had spent so long trying to bury began clawing their way back into my mind. My fingers curled tightly into the sheets.

"I rejected him, and he accepted the rejection. There’s no bond between us anymore."

I turned toward Kaelen, but the moment I met his eyes, the tears I had been fighting began burning behind mine.

"He hurt me." My voice cracked, and Kaelen’s eyes immediately widened with concern.

"He promised me the world. He told me he would protect me, that he would always be there for me..." I swallowed hard, trying to steady my voice as the memories continued to flood back. "But he hurt me anyway. He turned his back on me and got my sister pregnant, even though he knew everything she had done to me. He knew what she put me through, and he still chose her."

My chest tightened painfully, and all the memories from my past came flooding in with so much force I could barely breathe.

"I hate him," I whispered, my voice trembling as the tears finally spilled down my cheeks. "I hate him so much, I hate him with all my heart."

For a moment, Kaelen simply stared at me, his expression shifting as though he was trying to find the right words and coming up completely empty.

Then, without saying anything, he leaned forward and pulled me tightly into his arms.

"That’s enough," he whispered urgently, his voice thick with the anger he was clearly still struggling to contain, even as his touch remained gentle. "Don’t tell me anymore. You don’t have to relive it. Not now."

He pulled me closer against his chest, one hand moving slowly through my hair while his other arm stayed wrapped around my waist. I couldn’t stop myself from crying.

After everything I had spent so long forcing down, being in his arms had somehow made it impossible to keep pretending I was fine. The grief, the betrayal, the things I had endured without ever allowing myself to fully feel them all came rushing out at once.

Kaelen didn’t try to stop me. He simply held me through it, gently rubbing my back, pressing soft kisses against the top of my head, and murmuring quiet promises against my hair whenever another sob shook through me. He stayed like that until the tension slowly left my body and my trembling finally began to settle.

With my cheek against his chest and his warmth surrounding me, I eventually felt myself slipping into sleep.

When I woke the next morning, my hand instinctively reached across the mattress, expecting to find Kaelen beside me. Instead, my fingers brushed against nothing but cool sheets, and my eyes slowly opened.

To my surprise, I found Kaelen sitting on the edge of the bed with his broad, bare back facing me, his attention fixed on the laptop resting in front of him.

The morning sunlight streamed through the windows behind him, casting his silhouette in a bright haze and making it difficult to see exactly what he was doing. His hair was slightly messy from sleep, and despite the strange position, the sight of him shirtless still brought a small, sleepy smile to my lips.

I pushed myself up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I started moving toward him. But before I could get close, Kaelen suddenly snapped his laptop shut.

The sound made me pause.

I stared at the back of his head for a second, caught off guard by how quickly he had closed it.

There was something slightly strange about the movement, almost like he hadn’t wanted me to see what was on the screen, but I immediately pushed the thought aside.

It was barely morning, and after everything that had happened last night, I really wasn’t in the mood to start looking for things that weren’t there.

So instead of questioning him, I slid closer and wrapped my arms around his shoulders from behind, resting my cheek against him as I buried my face into the crook of his neck.

"Good morning," I whispered against his skin.

"Morning," he replied easily, as though nothing had happened. He reached up and took one of my hands, turning it slightly before pressing a soft kiss against my knuckles. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmh-hmm," I hummed, tightening my arms around him.

And honestly, I had. After the emotional mess of last night, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to sleep at all if I hadn’t had him beside me.

But as I nestled closer to his neck, my brows slowly pulled together.

Something was different.

His scent was stronger. Way stronger. That I found myself taking another breath, just to make sure I wasn’t imagining it, and somehow that only made it worse because now I wanted more.