"I'm not saying you should just let her go, I'm saying you should take things at a slower pace. She doesn't understand everything the same way that we do." Crescent replied as he tried to reason with his brother.
"Why can't I leave? I need to get back and contact my family or they will worry about me." Celeste's interjection into the conversation caused both of the brothers to turn and look at her.
"Family? Based upon the report I read on you it didn't seem like you had any?" Bane asked, cocking his head slightly as he looked at her. When she didn't respond, he continued.
"If you mean the one that adopted you, I hardly doubt they should be granted privilege of being deemed 'family' consider the way they take care of you." he didn't mean to be harsh in the way he said it, but it rubbed Celeste the wrong way even though she knew that he was right.
"How is that for you to decide? You haven't even met them before and you don't know how much they've done for me since my real family dead. They took me despite.." Her eyes shown with rebellion as she argued with the werewolf, her fear of his diminished by her indignation by the way he was speaking to her even though he hardly knew. She trailed off at the last part though because she didn't want to say it aloud.
"Despite what?" Bane asked urging her to continue with what she said. Instead Celeste shook her head before shifting her gaze, refusing to look at him.
"You wouldn't understand." She said softly.
"I understand well enough to know that how they treat you isn't the way family should treat each other." Bane countered. He knew he was right and because of that, he had a hard time backing down from arguing with the little human in front of him. Even if her words and expression didn't say it, her scent gave away the fact that she was in denial even though she knew that he was right.
"You didn't even have the right to look into anything about me in the first place." Celeste finally said after a moment of silence to collect her thoughts. She didn't like the thought that this stranger thought he had the right to invade her private life so nonchalantly without her permission.
"Little one, I think that you may have forgotten that you're my mate. As such, I have a right to explore into anything related to you that I want." Bane replied smoothly.
When Celeste looked up at him, she had expected to see something cold and cruel in his eyes by the way that he said this, but instead there was an odd kind of softness in them inside. This human standing in front of her and the creature she had seen before, were they really the same person?
"I have that right because it's my job to protect you. There is a lot that you will have to come to understand over time." Bane told her his tone not holding the same softness as his voice.
"I don't care and I don't agree to this. I'm going to go home now and that's finally." Celeste told the other, determined that she wasn't going to allow him to keep her there no matter what he said.
Bane couldn't deny that he found her determination rather charming if not slightly frustrating since she was obviously naïve as to what was going on around her.
He was about to tell her for a second that it didn't matter what she wanted, she was going to be staying with him when Crescent grabbed his arm and shook his head.
He didn't quite know how to make his brother understand that the little human wasn't going to comply so easily with what he was ordering because she didn't understand.
She had been through a lot since the previous night and due to the adrenaline rush and having had nothing to restore it- she was still on edge and on high alert at the same time.
He knew what his brother was telling him by the look in his eyes but he was struggling to do it even though at the back of his mind he knew the other was right.
The human part of him had no problem being rational and understanding why he couldn't keep Celeste around against her will. The wolf part though.. it didn't want to give up his mate so easily already. He had been looking for her over the last five years with no success. Now to have set eyes on her for only a few hours before letting her go? It sounded preposterous! After all there was no one else that would be able to protect her in the same way that he could.
Glancing back over at her however, Bane could tell by her feeling and scent that Celeste didn't seem much interested in his protection as she was in getting as far away from him as possible. Could she not feel the same pull that his wolf felt towards her?
If that was the case, would it be better to let go and try and figure out a different approach to the relationship?
He didn't much like the idea of that but couldn't really see how the relationship would go anywhere so long as his human mate was either upset or scared of him.
Bane sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew later he'd regret his decision and the fact that he let Crescent boss him into something again.
"Fine, if that's what you really want- you can have it." Bane conceded. the "for now" was the part he said at the back is his mind. There was no way after all he wouldn't be getting his mate back in the future.
Fate and the Moon Goddess had a funny way of working like that. Once something like this had been decided- no one could go against it even if they wanted to.
Celeste seemed taken aback by the sudden change in attitude from the alpha.
"Make no mistake though- this won't be the last time that we see each other." his words came out as a mixture between a threat and desire from Celeste's perspective.
She wasn't quite sure how she should respond to it but something about a whatever he was and human mixing didn't feel right to her.