Chapter Thirteen
HEXIUS WAITED FOR HER to speak. To defend herself. To show some sign of the manipulation he was certain existed.
But all she did was stare at him like he’d destroyed her world.
And for one second—just one—he wanted to take it back. Wanted to cross the room and pull her into his arms and tell her it was fear speaking, pride speaking, anything but truth.
Then he remembered.
She’d heard everything. Every desperate thought. Every moment he’d been weak. And she’d said nothing.
Damn her.
His jaw clenched. “Did you really think a woman like you is a match for someone like me?”
She might have had the advantage of reading his mind, but he had been fighting and winning wars for years.
Samira slowly shook her head. “I...I...”
“Whatever you think you know about me—”
“I don’t—I don’t understand—” Her voice had started to wobble, and so he had to remind himself that this was all an act.
“I’ve had enough of you.”
The words were meant to destroy her.
And so it did.
He saw it in the way she stumbled back.
Saw it in the way the light in her eyes died.
This was exactly what he wanted.
So why, dammit?
Why did he suddenly feel like he had made the worst mistake in his life?
“I’m s-sorry.” Her words came out stilted.
“Do you really think I’d believe that,” he gritted out, “considering how long you’ve been reading my thoughts?”
Her face paled at his words, but seeing this didn’t give him the pleasure he thought it would.
“Y-You know?”
“Yes, damn you,” Hexius couldn’t stop himself from snarling. “I had to find out for myself because you didn’t fucking tell me the truth!”
Tears started falling down her cheeks, but this...this gave him no pleasure either.
“I’m s-sorry—”
“Stop fucking saying you’re sorry when your actions say otherwise!”
Samira started backing away, but no fucking way was he going to let her go without extracting his pound of flesh.
“Did you have fun leading me around?” Hexius demanded as he stalked toward her, and Samira let out a gasp of fear as her back hit the wall. “Did you think you were so fucking smart—”
“I n-never—”
“Stop playing the innocent, damn you!”
“I’m n-not p-playing anything!”
“You were manipulating me from the start—”
“I only started reading your thoughts after we mated!”
Hexius froze.
“And then I...I f-figured out how to block your thoughts out, and I n-never l-listened to them again—”
The truth in her words crashed over him like ice water.
“Oh God.”
And he could feel his own blood turning into ice as he saw the way she was now looking at him.
“Y-You t-thought—”
Samira was looking at him like he had just killed her for the second time.
“I w-would n-never—”
“Samira—”
He said her name because he wanted to make her stop hurting.
But instead it was the opposite, with Samira flinching upon hearing it.
“Let me explain—”
But it was too late. She had already run out of their suite, and he went after her without hesitation, his only thought to keep in his life the only thing that mattered.
And that was her.
“Samira, wait.”
This only made her run even faster, and that was when he forgot the fucking rules.
Preters are to match the pace of humans within the premises of L’Alliance.
At all fucking times.
And that was why—
One moment, he was just about to reach for her hand from behind.
And then the next moment, it was chaos.
Alarms shrieking to life, doors slamming open as L’Alliance guards blazed out from every direction, and her name ripping out of his throat—
“Samira!”
Security converged on him, but there was no way he would let them stop him from reaching her.
His hand almost touched her shoulder—
Alarms shrieked to life.
Doors slammed open. Left and right, up and down the corridor. Guards poured out—Panthera warriors with their enhanced strength, Caro enforcers with their preternatural speed.
“Sir, you need to stand down—”
Hexius shook off the first guard who tried to restrain him. His eyes never left Samira’s retreating back.
Fifty feet.
A massive shifter grabbed his left arm. A Caro enforcer his right. But Hexius threw them both off with just a twist.
Sixty feet.
His Samira was at the end of the corridor now.
More guards rushed in. Six of them this time, coming from three directions at once. Hands locked around his arms, his shoulders, his waist.
“Samira, please—”
He fought against the bodies holding him. Not with his full strength—he wasn’t completely lost to reason—but enough that it took all six of them to hold him.
“I love you!”
He shouted the words out as security forced him on his knees.
And that was when Samira’s steps crashed to a halt.
And she turned to look at him, tears endlessly streaming down her cheeks.
“You don’t have to lie.”
She only whispered the words, but he heard them from a distance, and they cut him to the core. “I’m not lying—”
“Then why?” Samira asked brokenly. “If you r-really love me, w-why? Why c-can’t you still read my mind?”
No. God. No.
Security wouldn’t let go, and he could not remember feeling this helpless.
He loved her.
He knew this now.
But for once in his life, he didn’t know how to prove the truth.