CHAPTER 367: TELLING THE TRUTH

A soft, half-hearted laugh escaped her. Uncertain and slightly nervous, Inez said to him, "You just said that he was going to prove troublesome."

"I never said that I am scared of trouble," countered Killian. He then leaned forward, and Inez felt her breath getting caught in her lungs. The air between them started to charge once again, and she could feel her siren screaming at her, yelling in her head to kiss him.

No, we can’t! Inez told Nerina.

Yes, we can! Nerina fired back. She didn’t care about anything other than shedding the clothes of her mate and taking him down on the floor with them, but Inez knew better. At least she thought she knew better, for she knew that she couldn’t do that. Not when she knew that if she dared to let her siren take control, Killian would be reduced to nothing but an empty shell.

"You need to step back," said Inez, feeling a bit stifled. His cologne smell was getting stronger, and Inez had to force herself to stop from drinking in too much of his scent. She was worried that if she sucked it like a woman drowning in it, she might not be able to keep her hands off him.

"Why?" He asked.

And she knew that he was teasing her. That glint in his eyes was enough to prove that this little flirt was actually making fun of her. She narrowed her eyes and stated, "Well, it’s either that or you’re going to the hospital for having way too low stamina."

That successfully made him back off. His face seemed to have darkened a lot more than it was the last time he was told that they needed to keep a distance. But he was not angry at her; this was something that Inez knew. He was angry at the situation. He was staring at the wall behind her, his eyebrows twitching.

"Did something happen in the dungeon?" he asked, trying to change the subject to something else that won’t make him lose his temper. "I don’t remember hearing Seth giving out any commands that stated that the guards could hurt you."

Inez pursed her lips as she stood up on her feet. She felt her head sway a little, but she somehow managed to stay stable on her feet. "I told the head guard that I was your —mate. He didn’t like that I was using your name to get out of trouble."

She then headed to the shower and started pulling her clothes, or what remained of them, off her body. "I didn’t know that it was a taboo."

Killian’s eyes softened as he followed Inez inside the shower, but as soon as she sensed him coming after her, she turned her head to look at him. "We cannot—"

"I am not going to do anything to you," promised Killian.

"Then why did you follow me?" Inez asked with a frown on her face. She was still looking at the man behind her with a dubious look on her face, as if she couldn’t understand what was going on in his mind.

Killian smiled at her. He picked up the body wash and started to lather it between his hands. "I am taking care of you."

His voice dropped lower as he started to rub those soapy hands on her body, wiping the dirt and dried blood clean. Inez never thought that Killian could touch her and that her body would not respond. But it turned out it was quite possible. Even though his hands were roaming all over her body, there was nothing sensual about his actions. She felt calm and at ease, not to mention a little weird because no one had cared for her like him.

"It feels weird," she muttered, looking at her reflection and his.

"What does?" he asked while trying to take off a huge lump of blood from her shoulders. It had dried up and was proving quite hard to wash.

"You taking care of me."

"You deserve the best," his voice turned a bit deeper; the rumble vibrated through the water and settled into her chest like a purring beast. "Stop thinking about what you faced in your previous pack. You did nothing wrong and didn’t deserve what happened to you."

Something awful was wedged in her throat. She could feel her eyes burning and her nose feeling a lot more stuffy. She raised her hand and rubbed the tip of her nose, fighting the sudden prickling sensation behind her eyes. No one had ever said those words to her. Not even her mother told her that she didn’t deserve what happened to her. She had loved the Venus pack with every fibre of her soul and Dominic. Oh, she had treated him like the sun in her world. And yet all of a sudden they had thrown her away without asking, without telling her anything. Plenty of the members of the pack said to her that she didn’t belong in their pack and that she didn’t have the right to stay there. Her mother also asked her to stay quiet and let it go because Ricky’s enforcer position would be threatened. It had hurt so much. And yet she had kept holding on because she believed that Venus Pack was her home.

The place where she grew up.

And now she understood. There was no point in holding onto those who didn’t have her in their hearts. She raised her head and watched Killian, who was now washing her hair. He was detangling the locks that were coated with blood. Maybe her gaze was way too intense because he paused and raised his head to look at her. "What’s the matter? Does it hurt?"

"No." Once again, her avoidant personality reared its head and kicked her off the road of proper conversation. She gave a one-shoulder shrug and said lamely, "I was just looking around; it’s a bit boring."