Chapter 63: Rejection

JADE:

The next day came. I struggled out of bed, still feeling worse.

It turned out that I had some fever.

“Stay in bed today, Jade… Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to a doctor,” Liam said that morning after knocking at my room and finding me in a wobbly and feverish state.

I shook my head. “No… I’ll just rest here. I’ll be fine.”

“How about your parents? Do you want me to call them for you?”

“No…” Their incessant worries and nagging might just end up making me feel even worse.

Anyway, maybe the fever was related to my period. Plus, I deserved this much suffering. I was a rotten person after all…

“Don’t punish yourself, Jade. It’s only natural to get sick sometimes,” Liam said as he brushed some of the hair away from my face.

“I’ve prepared your medicine and water here by the side table… I’ll check up on you at lunch time. Are you sure you’re going to be fine all by yourself?”

“Yes. Go to school. I’ll be alright,” I assured him.

I don’t know which was killing me more – that Liam was still super nice despite what had happened or that he was still willing to be there for me.

“You really deserve someone better,” I muttered under your breath…

“That’s why I deserve you,” he whispered, leaning over to kiss the top of my blanketed head.

I stayed in bed for a couple of minutes after he left, trying to find some restful sleep, which didn’t seem possible since last night.

Late last evening, I kept hearing the howl of a wolf.

I don’t know if it was guilt or delirium of a little bit of both. I just know that it bothered me a lot because I can feel all of it…

The sorrow in the wolf’s heart, the longing for me - I can feel everything inside of me, like I was sharing someone else’s body and consciousness.

Now I can even hear some remote thoughts inside my head that didn’t seem to be coming from my own.

“Jade,” it was calling me. “Jade… Please let me in.”

I heard some faint scratches somewhere. Was that an illusion too?

Nope… It was coming from my veranda…

I struggled to turn around and look at it, and that’s when I heard the whimpers of a wolf.

Yup. I wasn’t just hearing things inside my head. Kix was here.

I got out from bed sluggishly and opened the door, the huge white wolf outside waiting patiently for me despite how his eyes seem to cry from pain.

“Come in,” I said hoarsely. Before I could walk away, however, he jumped at me as if attempting to give me a hug.

I hugged him back, his soft white fur enveloping me all around… This will be the last time I shall hug him like this.

After what felt like an eternity, I pushed his furry butt to one side. I rummaged through my closet, fetched a fresh bathrobe, and spread it on his back.

“Please transform back. We have to talk.”

**********************

KIX:

My heart stopped in amazement. Did I really hear Jade correctly?

She repeated back her words firmly. “Go back into your human form, Kix. We really need to talk.”

So, she knew it all along?...

I was hoping she’ll never discover it all her life, but who was I kidding? Now that I have marked her, I was sure she could feel me more intensely in her heart than before. At least for me, that’s what has happened precisely.

I whined a bit as I channel back into my original body. The bathrobe Jade placed behind my back fell into the floor, and I took my time to pick it up and to dress right in front of Jade.

I was hoping it would have some effect on her, but she only watched me with a dull expression in her face.

“Jade… You’re sick,” I realized as I tied the ribbon in front of the bathrobe she gave me.

I stepped closer to touch her forehead in an attempt to confirm her temperature, but Jade raised her hands in defense.

“Sit down, Kix… We need to talk about something.”

“Alright. I’ll sit down here,” I said as I fingered the backrest of a chair, “but you’ve got to stay on the bed.”

Jade opened her mouth as if to protest, but I could tell how fuzzy she must have felt. She finally nodded. I helped her go to bed, arranging her pillows for her.

I moved the chair right in front of Jade’s bed and sat right there.

There was a long and awkward silence between us. My Jade didn’t look very good.

“How long have you known,” I started.

“I had a hunch it was you, but I confirmed it when you started talking inside my head last time,” she said.

So back then, Jade had already started to feel the pull of our intertwined fates…

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you… I was hoping you’d remember me in Riley’s form though.”

“Well, the last time I remembered Riley, he didn’t look so massive…”

“That’s because I had assumed the alpha position, so he naturally grew bigger.”

Jade could only nod her head.

“Listen, Kix… I’m sorry I ran out of your room yesterday, and thank you for sending Edril to help me get home… However, what I had said yesterday to you, all of those were true. Please don’t come looking for me like this.”

“Why?... Why are you pushing me away again, Jade?” I thought that because of our encounter yesterday, Jade would finally welcome me back into her arms. I thought her internal struggle between me and Liam would finally end after I marked her…

It seemed I was wrong…

“Kix, we made a mistake. Yesterday wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m not your girlfriend anymore. I haven’t been your girlfriend for a long time now,” she said softly.

“But we are mates, Jade. We are fated for each other.”

“If we truly are mated for each other, then please let me be.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to be with you… Not like this.”

“Well, I won’t allow it. You can’t back out,” I said, the emotions in my chest bubbling in heated anger.

“Then… There’s no other way, is it? I have to do this,” Jade uttered quietly.

I looked at the sorrowful glint in Jade’s eyes as her lips moved in a near whisper, which I was still able to catch.

“I, Jade Sy, am rejecting you, Kix Sarmiento, as my mate… Don’t come looking for me again from now on.”