I couldn’t help smiling. I’d been young, curious, and too stubborn to turn down a challenge from Jackson. As bad as things were, there was some semblance of peace within our pack back then.
“You snuck up on me,” I said while staring at the table, but I was seeing the past in my mind.
“And you almost punched me in the face.” Kaleem laughed, and so did I. “You were terrified.”
“Well. I was there expecting to face off with a vampire, and you sunk up on me,” I grumbled while my cheeks burned with embarrassment, and I leaned across the table just as he was. “Try and sneak up on me now, Alpha, and you won’t dodge my fist.”
When he laughed, the sound was hoarse yet soothing. “I don’t doubt that.”
We stared at each other, our faces so close I could see his pupils dilate. The air between us became charged, and I held my breath. Physically, Kaleem was bigger than me in every aspect. One of his hands could easily cover my face, and it was something I’d always loved.
He was a giant, a protector, and sitting here with him, I felt safer than I’d felt in a long time.
“I would have kept you safe if you’d stayed,” Kaleem said after a while, and his eyes wandered to my lips. “We wouldn’t have lost so much time.”
I swallowed hard and leaned back. “I didn’t leave because I didn’t trust you to protect me or because I chose Colin over you. I left because I had to.”
“You didn’thaveto, Diana. You made a choice,” he rebutted, and just like that, the tension between us returned.
“Kaleem, none of that matters now. We were foolish to think we’d ever be able to make our mate bond public. Colin would have never accepted it,” I shook my head. “You know we were never going to work out.”
Kaleem’s jaws clenched, and his eyes flashed like headlights. “Despite the feud between our packs, Colin wouldn’t have had any right to keep us apart.Youwere the one that didn’t believe in me enough to trust me and stay.” He shook his head. “If you never believed in us and knew we’d have to reject each other, why are you angry at me? None of this makes sense.”
I got up and walked out. This had been a mistake.
Once outside, I zipped my jacket up as if cold, but all that was cold was my soul. All the life in me was being sucked away bit by bit. I started to breathe heavily, feeling trapped suddenly, and thick fog formed before my lips with each breath.
There were things Kaleem didn’t know, something I’d kept a secret for so long.
“Diana?” Kaleem called, but I kept walking. “Diana, tell me the truth! There’s more going on here. I know it!”
I spun around to face him. “I’m Colin’s niece!”
He slowed down where he’d been rushing towards me. “What?”
There was no one around us, and luckily, because what I’d just said wasn’t known within my pack, let alone for outsiders to overhear me screaming it.
“What are you talking about?” Kaleem asked, and I combed my hair back with both hands.
“My dad’s Colin’s half-brother, his secret half-brother,” I said low enough so only Kaleem could hear, and his eyes widened. “That means I’m from an alpha bloodline, Kaleem, Colin’s bloodline, and us being mated would have turned our lives upside down.”