Author's Note: Life sucks, and then we don't get to do things we love, e.g, write good stories for great readers. Then we start writing and posting again. :)
Thanks for hanging around. Any errors you might find are results of my post-editing tweaking. Thanks to my editor Gabriel for keeping the chapters error-free.
Enjoy.
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2 days later, Kiel's Office.
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"Kiel, can I talk to you?" Priyal asked from the door way of Kiel's office.
"Only if it's highly important and can be completed within 5 minutes." Kiel replied sharply as he looked through a few files. In truth, he wasn't in a mood to listen to any more reports or anything. He had returned from a mission just a few hours ago, and had been dying to go meet Rayn ever since he found out she wasn't at HQ. He had to leave on the mission without talking to her, and now, being so much closer, he felt restless not being able to see her.
"It's about Rayn." Priyal said as she walked in. That got his attention.
"What about her? Is she alright? Has she gotten into some trouble?" He asked worriedly, quickly closing the files.
"No, she's alright. Just that, I don't think she should be hanging with Rogers much. I'm not sure but he seems...well," She paused searching for an appropriate word, "Not good for Rayn." Then she added, "And she has been hanging around with him a lot, lately."
Noticing the suggestive tone in Priyal's words, he frowned slightly, "Is there any particular reason that you think he is fishy?"
Priyal shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "No. Well, I can't exactly put my finger on it, but... He is supposed to be a Shape-shifter, yet he seems much too powerful for that. I think he is lying." She blurted out.
Standing up, Kiel picked up his jacket, "Well, Kendra recruited him. And neither Kendra nor I find anything suspicious about him, so you don't have to worry about it. Good day." He prepared to leave.
"Wait, Kiel." Priyal stood up, "I still don't think it's good for Rayn to spend so much time with him. I mean, for the past two days, she has been spending almost all day with him locked up in his office, leaving late at night. The day you left, we were training in the gym, and he came and literally dragged her out of there, saying he would be training her. He didn't even ask for my permission." She fumed, completely failing to notice the way Kiel stood rigidly in front of her, his face turning into a dark mask.
"Is she with him today?" He asked without facing her, barely managing to keep from growling.
"Yeah, I guess. They are probably 'training' again." She replied scathingly.
"Oh!" He stood rooted to the spot for some time, then threw his jacket back on his desk. Going back to sit on his chair again, he pulled the files back. "Well, who she hangs with is none of your concern. I'm sure she knows what she is doing. You can leave now." He dismissed her without looking up at her.
"But you just got back! You should go home and take some rest."
"I appreciate the concern. I know what I'm supposed to do. Go back to work. Good day." He replied coldly. As he heard the door shut behind her, he pushed away the files and leaned back into the chair, closing his eyes. As Priyal's words came back to him, he pinched his nose. "Mistake. Big, big, big fucking mistake". He cursed at himself even as his heart wrenched to think he had lost Rayn. He shouldn't have waited for so long to claim her heart. He should have just snatched her up the moment he had known she was meant for him and made her his. Now, he had lost her.
He felt like some one was holding his heart in a strong grip and squeezing really hard. It was so bloody painful. Opening his eyes, he stared blankly at the ceiling. Was it just two days ago that he had held her in his arms? It felt like a century. And now, he would probably never be able hold her like that again.
He felt his wolf curling up, burying its nose between its paws, unable to bear this pain. The wolf didn't understand the complexities of human relationships, but it did understand this gut wrenching pain -- somehow, for some reason, their mate had rejected them. The wolf was pretty damn sure it was the human half's fault. After all, it he had his animalistic way, she would be with him right now.
"It doesn't matter", he muttered, half conscious that he was talking to himself, despite knowing he didn't have to say things out loud for his wolf to understand it; he said it out loud to make himself believe it, "It doesn't matter whether we were mated or not. If she wanted us, she would be here."
As the human half tried to bury his pain under his work load, the wolf remained curled up, trying very hard to resist the temptation of simply overtaking the consciousness and fight to win his mate over. It wasn't the nature of the animal to just let go of his mate. If someone tried to take away your mate, you fought back tooth and nail -- that was his philosophy. But knowing his human side would not go with that plan, it stayed put, simply waiting until the human burned out and returned home.
His human may give up, but it was only in his sleep that the wolf would be able to persuade him to keep fighting for their mate.
*****
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That night, The Den.
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"No, I don't bloody want dinner. All I want is for you lot to leave me fucking alone. Think you can do that?" Kiel half growled half shouted at the young man who flinched with almost every word he uttered. The poor man had been assigned the job to ask the Alpha whether he would like his dinner to be sent up to his room or not. As he stood at the receiving end of Kiel's murderous glare, his knees trembled. Trembling like a leaf, he meekly answered,
"Yes sir."
"Yes sir what?" Kiel shouted again.
"I... I will not bother you again, sir." The man's reply was barely audible.
"Then why the fuck are you still standing here?" As Kiel growled, the man quickly turned and walked away as fast his trembling legs would carry him. Glaring at his retreating back, Kiel stepped back into the elevator. As the door closed and it started moving upwards, his anger started to drain little by little. Even as he realized how futile his anger was, still he tried to cling on to it. Because once the anger left, there would only be pain to deal with. And he seriously didn't want the pain to return.
"Oh hell." He slumped against the back wall of the elevator. As the gut wrenching pain started to come back, he slowly sank down onto the floor. Staring up at the brightly lit panel as he saw the numbers change, he felt utterly and profoundly hopeless.
In all his life, no matter how hard the situation got, he had never felt hopeless. But this one woman walked into his life and changed everything. Just the thought that she wouldn't be his anymore made him feel lost. Missions and wars didn't matter anymore. Everything seemed pointless. Right now it felt as if every step he had taken in his life was for him to reach her. And now, when she was so close, he had pushed her away and into someone else's arms. The only thing he wanted to do right now, was to mimic his wolf and curl up on the bed, trying not to wake up ever again. He sighed. He didn't even realize that it was his floor until the door made a soft 'ding' sound as it started to close.
"Crap." He quickly stood up and exited the elevator just in time to get out before the door closed. Standing outside the elevator, his eyes instinctively drifted towards her door. Wandering closer, he stood in front of it like a true blue heartbroken puppy. A quick sniff at her door told him she wasn't in her apartment, in fact, she hadn't been in the apartment the whole day. She was with Rogers, probably. Sighing again, he turned towards his door.
Walking into his apartment, he threw his jacket onto the couch. Then starting to take off his shirt, he lazily dragged himself towards his bed room. As he opened the door to his bed room, he had already taken off his shirt and the belt and was about half way through undoing his zipper when a sleepy voice greeted him,
"Kiel, is that you?"
Kiel froze in place. A small sensation of hope and joy started in his chest. Could it be?
"Kiel?" The voice tentatively asked again. As his eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness of the room, he could make out someone sitting on his bed. He took a few hurried steps forward as the figure stood up.
"Rayn?" He guarded his eyes with his palm as the light was turned on.
"Hey." There she stood beside his bed, looking as if she had just woke up from a long sleep, her hair was messy, her cheeks looked rosy, and her slightly puffy, pouty lips called to him, as if begging for him to kiss them.
"Uh, hey there." He replied unsurely. Should he ask what she was doing there? He opened his mouth, then closed it. It might sound rude. After all, he was very happy she was there. Should he tell her how happy he was to see her in his room? He opened his mouth again, and closed it again. It might sound cheesy, or creepy. What if she freaked out? May be she had just woke up from sleep and had come to meet him? Still, it doesn't explain why she was in his room in the first place. Was she waiting for him here the whole time? That feeling of joy grew a little. He could almost feel the smugness of his wolf. Oh, how he wanted to grab her and kiss her senseless right now. He couldn't help the mischievous grin that spread on his face.
"I was... I was just..." She fidgeted as he just stood there smiling at her. "I'm sorry, you must be very tired. I was just leaving." She tried to quickly brush past him.
"Uh uh uh, wait." He caught her with one of his arms around her waist. Gently dragging her back to himself, he tilted her head up with two fingers,
"That's not why you were here in the first place." He murmured softly, then unable to resist the temptation, he let one of his fingers gently caress her lower lip. He had almost forgot how adorably fluffy they looked when she was fresh out of bed. As he brushed back a few strands of hair from her face, her eyes fluttered closed for a brief moment.
Seeing that look on her face, he groaned mentally. Gods that felt so good! It felt like being able to breathe fresh air after having been locked up in a box for days or months. As he cupped her cheeks, she shivered slightly. Thinking she was feeling cold, he pulled her closer, bringing her body flush against his.
"I wanted to see you when you got back. I figured that you being tired and all you would come straight home. So I waited here, then fell asleep. Just woke up to find you coming in."
