“Long time no see, Love,” Alistair greeted Tatiana, who just scoffed at him. The audacity this man had was off the charts. It had been years, but nothing about Alistair had changed, and Tatiana began questioning karma.
She looked at him, hoping that someone had at least done her the favor of cleaning him up. Maybe he had scars or something that could make her look at him differently. But there was none she could identify.
He still looked so good and tempting. His long hair was neatly tied up in a bun, a reminder of his obsession with the anime characters. After living for so long, you would think that he would have something else to fancy, but here he was, with the same habit.
Tatiana should have felt better knowing that she had been the motivation to some of the things he had decided to stick to six hundred years later, but nothing about that brought her any comfort.
“What do you want Alistair, I think we already agreed never to see each other?”
“That was YOUR decision Tatiana, not mine,” Alistair said gruffly. Why did his voice sound so good? He knew she would probably cave in as usual. He knew she always fell for his voice, and she knew he would enjoy pulling her into submission, but she had to remind herself of Xander.
Her mate may have been a grade-A asshole, but at least he made her feel something other than loneliness, which couldn't be said about Alistair.
“Well, at least you know your very existence repulses me...”
“I’m sorry,” Alistair said so quietly she could have missed it.
“What?” Tatiana asked, this time unsure of what to say.
Alistair Petrov, the man who had decided he was more significant than all the vampires, never apologized. He could be dying, but one thing that had been unheard of was his apology. So how was Tatiana to respond to that?
She didn't want him to know he still had power over her, but she also didn't want to be weak. She had spent the past six hundred years being stronger, but who could have told her that she would meet her mate and his dumb Beta in one day, and at the same time, she would also meet the ghost from her past?
“Great...Are you done now, because I need to take my coffee and head back home. I have more important issues to do rather than stay here and listen to you,” Tatiana said as she made a move to leave the alley. She didn't have much to do, but she needed to be away from Alistair.
She needed space, and now that this man was back, none of that would be possible. He was the very definition of trouble, the kind that Tatiana needed to stay clear of, especially if she was preparing to see her mate again.
“Wait...” Alistair said again.
He knew what he had done to Tatiana was unforgivable, but what had happened to the nice woman who forgave quickly? Maybe she would forgive him, and they would start over, but then she had spent the past years running away from him, so what made him think she would want him back?
Tatiana declined to pay heed to him. She knew Alistair was a good manipulator and maybe that was what he was trying to do again. But what if he was sincere? Of course nothing about Alistair was ever sincere, but what if?
“Leave me be, Alistair. Go on, live your life, and let me live mine. We have an eternity to fight, but I need this lifetime to be without chaos. At least for the next hundred years. That sounds fair, right?” Tatiana said, her voice cold and clear of emotions. She was wrecking inside, but he didn't need to know that, though maybe he knew because what he said next, startled her.
“It's because of the wolf boy, no?”
Tatiana stopped in her tracks, a confirmation that Alistair needed. She had found the man she had been looking for all these years, and it would be easier for her to forget him. He couldn't have that. She was his. She belonged to him, and anyone who tried coming between them would face the consequences— death.
“Y’know, the one you were hopelessly staring at a few minutes ago, no?” Alistair said again, this time having hit the right spot. He knew there was no way for her and the wolf to be together, and the Beta seemed to know that already.
She was a vampire, that much should have been enough for her to give up her quest, but Alistair knew she had the Belyaeva spirit, the kind that never gave up. He knew she would get hurt and didn't want her to go through that kind of shit.
He wanted her happy, though it was kinda funny how he was wishing for that, when he was the very reason she had been unhappy in the first place.
“If you’re done hallucinating, I’ll be taking my leave. It's never nice to meet you Alistair,” Tatiana curtly said, but before she could make another step, the vampire just had to open his mouth again.
What in karma’s good graces was wrong with today?
She had just wanted a normal morning, but it had to be ruined by her least favorite people and now, her whole day had been ruined. Maybe she could take up the yoga classes Zhuri had been so adamant about. She seemed to need a way to relax today more than ever.
“I wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I shouldn't have done what I did, but I thought it was the right thing to do. I can’t lose you, Tati -”
“Don’t,” Tatiana cut in before adding, “Don’t call me that. You lost the right to do so a long time ago. I get that you want to apologize, but you are six hundred years late, Alistair. Nothing you do will make it right.”
“But―” Alistair insisted.
Tatiana, however, knew she had to leave because the longer she stayed in this dark alley, the longer people would know there was a vampire here. The ordinary humans weren’t what Tatiana was worried about but rather the wolves and hunters. She knew Alistair hated everything that wasn't a vampire, and that’s why he never masked his accent.
He wanted them to come find him, to try messing with him so that he could put them in their place. He wanted war, and now that Tatiana was rejecting his first-ever apology since he was born, he was hoping he would run into the wolves.
To show her that he was better than them.
Tatiana had had enough with him, so she interrupted him, adding, “Oh, and about the wolf boy, you can do whatever you want with him. I couldn't care less about a wolf, especially at a time when our races are at war. Remember to have fun while at it.”
With that, she left the alley, walking away from the man who had once been at the center of her world, but no longer the owner of her love. That was her consolation.