Bee's way of fixing me included attending all our classes, including the 8 am Calculus lecture and the afternoon extracurriculars I didn't remember registering for. Lunch in the city, a mild shopping spree for the upcoming semi-formal banquet that will be held by the Yeti association this weekend. Known in the human world as an American branch to an old, European society for the rich and influential, the Yara Timons Foundation is the biggest sponsor of my university. And every year, after the mid-terms, the school organise a big banquet to feed the ego of the snobby hunters that are part of Yetis. Like they need more reasons to feel superior to the normal students.
"Maybe I should've had got the other dress," Bee tells me in the Uber, as we were going back to the halls.
"Green isn't your colour, Bee." I remind her and she peaks at her red dress and nods in agreement.
She then continues to push a conversation about dresses and banquets, but I'm not capable to fully listen to her. Something kept distracting me ever since I got into the car, an annoying feeling that I should look back. When the Uber stops at a red light, I get the opportunity to open the window and get my head out. I don't have to search more, because my eyes immediately fall on his figure. Asher was standing in the bus station, looking directly at me but not making any gesture. A bus approaches and I barely have the time to follow my own actions, when I throw my shopping bag at Béatrice, with some money for the ride, and apologise for having to leave so abruptly. I know she shouted after me when I jumped from the car and navigated through the other cars and their annoying honks.
"Hey, hotness!" Calls out a chav just as I got on the sidewalk. "Need another ride? I saw you leaving that beat-up Honda. I bet you'd like an upgrade."
"Hey, arsehead! Need someone to beat some sense into you?" I reply bitterly, ready to launch myself at the idiot who dared to catcall me.
"Do I look like I'm afraid of you, hot-thing?"
"You should be," a shadow covers me and I giggle when the douche's face grows pale. "My sister is a lot more terrifying than she seems."
I turn around to face Jonty and Jez, not minding about that idiot anymore. I hug my brothers, not realising that I've missed them a lot in the year that has passed.
"The hell are you guys doing here?" I ask them with a big smile on my face.
"As usual," answers Jonty. "We're the bearers of bad news."
"And an immediate solution to the bad news." Adds Jez but his words don't make me feel better. I can't even imagine what made them fly all the way from England, but I'm pretty sure it is deadly serious.
I subtly glance back to the bus station and he was still waiting, patiently. I keep myself from staring too long, so my brothers won't grow curious for why I'm looking so intensely at a stranger. Or I hope that he appears as a stranger to them and that Asher won't be recognised by either Jez and Jonty. I don't need to create a big fuss about it, I'll talk to Asher and then leave. But I need to get rid of my nosy brothers first.
"Were you going somewhere?" I ask them, hoping that they whatever business to attend.
"Jonty was going to pick you up from the halls, and I was about to pay a visit to our father."
"But now we can all go to dad's and address the problem." Says Jonty and I rapidly interrupt him.
"What problem?"
"That shady transfer mother made up, the dead-end trial she is pursuing and..." Jez takes a deep breath, before continuing. "Your forsaken act."
I'm not that surprised by his words, they just start to make more sense to me. Of course, my mother wouldn't mess with a judge's decision, but she will be prone to make suggestions. She will exchange the forsaken penalty with my freedom. She'll make me a slave, rather than have me happy and free from her shitty world.
She is so predictable.
"Well, I don't think I'm in the mood to discuss such manners, especially if mother will be there," I tell my brothers. "Moreover, it'd be better if mother thinks that I'm unaware of her devilish plans. We need to keep this upper-hand."
"This ain't a war, Aline." Says Jonty. "We're having an issue and we'll discuss it as a family."
"You know this is not a simple family issue, mother is out for my blood this time." I look at my brothers carefully as I continue speaking. "If you want to help me, I'll be grateful, but be aware of what you get yourselves into."
Silent falls after I talk, which makes me uneasy. I know my brothers are aware of my mother's odd ways and that they disapprove them. But will they ally against her?
"We'll address the problem Jonty's way because it's harmless." Decides Jez. "But if it's ineffective, then we're on your side, Ad."
I nod in agreement, grateful for their help. They'll message me how the meeting went, then we'll decide the next steps. I wave them goodbye, saying that I'll take a bus to the halls, but I wait for them to disappear from my view before I start walking towards the station. Once there, I sit next to Asher on the bench we were on, both of us not able to mutter a word.
"I know I said I'd let you go if you decide to leave," he finally says, taking a deep breath and keeping his eyes on the space between our feet. "But I can't. I'm a mess without you, Aline."
"I can't help you," I answer simply.
"Let me explain myself..."
"Can you?" I ask him. "Can you give me a reasonable explanation? Can you tell me why you lied? Why you tried to use me?"
"It was never my intention..."
"Is the Throne worth all this trouble?"
"It isn't," he answers immediately. "You are worth all this trouble. All the effort, all the suffering, I'd go through it every second for you."
"Trust me, you're wasting your energy on the most undeserving person on this planet. Stop before it's too late."
"It is too late, my beautiful mate" he declares sternly. "Because I love you, Aline."
"You can't tell a girl whom you've met less than a month ago that you love her," comes my reply full of disbelief.
"I'm not telling this to any girl," he voices his come-back which is not helping him much.
"Still, this is not how love works, Asher."
"And how does it, Cupid?" He asks, full of pride and his expressions trying to disarm me. Too bad I love to argue.
"Love takes time," comes the reply he didn't expect, and neither did I. "You can argue all you want, but the love-at-first-sight you shapeshifters praise so much, isn't real, sustainable love. Real feelings are built in time. You may be in love with someone, but never love that person."
"You think too humanly these things," he argues, making me laugh.
"And how am I supposed to think? Like the Lycan am I not?"
He means to answer me, but something doesn't let him. He bites the words off his lips, and my curiosity just came back. It was latent for a while, along with my will to love whatsoever, but now has been brought back to life. "What did you wanted to say?"
"Nothing," he replies quickly, not looking at me as he tries to keep his shields of denial up.
But I don't try to get him to tell me, but I stand up and pretend to walk towards the bus that just got on the station. Asher catches my hand as soon as I make a couple of steps away from him, his fingers clinging to my arm like he was afraid I'll leave again, like last time we saw each other. Well, he isn't entirely wrong, I would've got into that bus, had he not stopped me.
"Where are you going?" He asks, gently pulling me closer to him, but I keep my feet grounded to the pavement.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I've thought this conversation is over. Do you have anything more to tell me?"
"I don't want to tell you this here."
"Why not? Is a public place, nothing bad will happen."
"You may not react too good to my news and I'll rather have you a little further away from your family."
Oh, here we go again. Yet another bad reveal about my wrong-wired family. What will be this time? They're trying to sell me as a test subject to the aliens?
"I'll be on my best behaviour," I assure Asher, although I'm pretty aware that I'm lying and that I'll react badly to whatever he is going to tell me. But he doesn't need to this, because my curiosity can't survive another second.
"Nice try, sweetheart, but I'm not that easily fooled." He tells me and I roll my eyes. "Besides, you need to hear it from Kale, as you won't believe me if I tell you."
Suddenly my headlights up like fairy lights on a Christmas tree. "Nice try, sweetheart, but I'm not that easily fooled." I mock his words, letting out a little giggle as I speak. "You won't get me back to the pack. That chapter has ended, Asher."
"What do you mean?"
"Just because I agreed to have an adult conversation with you, it doesn't mean that I forgot everything." I take a deep breath, getting my hand out of his and ready to leave. "I don't trust you, so you either tell me now or never."
Asher doesn't seem to believe me, bit when I make yet another step away from him, he gets up and stops me from distancing further away from him. "Fine, fine." His hands stop on my hips, but I don't let my thoughts to linger on this feeling. I need to focus on.
"I'm all ears."
"Just promise me that you will try to believe me."
"By saying this you're not helping yourself too much." He sighs as I cross my arms, ready for whatever trouble his confession will bring. I'm full of issues, how much can one more problem complicate my life?
"Do you remember that soul-analysis you have taken?" He asks and I nod. Of course, I do, it happened a few weeks ago. "Well, it did show something interesting."
"What?" I ask when his pause longs too much. "I'm dying?"
"Of course you're not," he finally answers, bewildered and somehow scared by my words. I wanted to mention that it was a joke, but he seems finally ready to talk and I'm not going to interrupt him this time. "You're under an oppression curse. Someone cast it on you when you were very young, which means that it has become a part of your life and it will be very hard to break."
"So it is oppressing my ability to perceive that soul-link?"
"It does," he answers and I mean to say that it's not a big deal, but he continues. "Amongst other things."
"What other things?"
"I'm not sure, my love. But usually, such curses aren't cast to keep someone from recognising their soul mates. They are meant to keep other things bound..."
"I'm human, Asher." I remind him when I sense where this conversation is going.
"I'm not doubting it... yet."
"Don't ever doubt it!" I shout a little too loud and some girls that were giggling nearby stopped to watch me in horror. Thankfully I don't give even a flying crap about whatever they must be thinking about me right now. "Listen, Asher, I know you're trying to find an explanation to my reticence to these 'mate'-thing, but you must understand that there isn't any. It's only how I feel... or rather what I don't. So stop pushing this subject, or I may not stop for the chat next time I see you lurking in the corners."
"No, you must understand that we have an actual problem, Adeline. You are cursed and we have to find a way to break it," he further insists with the stupid curse which makes me roll my eyes. "Aren't you even curious why was it cast? What it suppresses?"
"I don't because, even if it turns out it keeps locked up some inner monster inside of me, I'm better off this way."
"Didn't you ever felt like you lack something?" He asks and I quickly shake my head.
"No."
I mean, if you don't count the lack of family love and the fact that I've longed for a real mother all my life, but I doubt lifting this curse would help with any of that. Even if it does, I'd hate my family so much for subjecting me to a life full of terrors, when I could've lived happily, had it not been for this curse. And I fear what I might do if it were real. It's better like this for everyone, even for me.
"We're done talking about this, Asher. If you don't have anything else to tell me, I'll be on my way..."
I pull back when he comes closer to me and nearly catches me in his arms. I shake my head when he watches me with his sad, puppy eyes because it won't impress me. Doesn't he understand that the more he pushes, the more I'll pull away? The more he tries to come near me, the further I'll go. The more he insists, he'll make me disappear for good from his life.
"Adeline, tell me what should I do? I don't know how human relationships work, I've never understood your ways." He explains cautiously, as I cross my arms across my chest. "What do you want me to do for you to stay?"