"I'm sorry" Hazel muttered silently but he waved her off, telling her that if anyone should apologize it should be him for sneaking up behind her without notice and not the other way round.
"I'm glad you made it to the ball" he said after a few seconds of silence and she smiled hoping distinctly that Kieran wouldn't spoil the moment for her.
"It's nothing" she replied nonchalantly and he nodded once.
"Weren't you headed somewhere?" Xavier asked and she shook her head slowly. "May I have this dance, then?" he offered, stretching his hand forward to take hers but before she could think of accepting his hand, Kieran foolishly showed up in all his glory with an big smirk smeared all over his face.
"Hi love" he mumbled silently he sipped from his drink, his gaze lingering on Hazel's face for a second before looking back at Xavier. Though he tried hard to keep his expression leveled but Hazel could swear that she saw his victorious smile when Xavier's expression hardened at what he had just called her.
Hazel glared hard at him, her gaze oozing out warning for him to fuck off, but he never once looked her way and even when he did, he'd simply smirked and returned his gaze to Xavier.
Hazel stood angrily and helplessly as she watched Kieran move close to Xavier, slowly and dangerously asking him why he was talking to her.
She wanted to jump right on top of him and snap his head off or pull out his tongue for being such an asshole.
"What does it mean to you if I talk to her?" Xavier retorted, cocking his head to one side and Kieran's expression hardened.
"You have no right to talk to my mate, especially not flirting with her" he snapped and Xavier raised his brows, looking from Hazel's face back to his.
"I meant no harm, man" Xavier replied, raising his arms up in surrender with an amused laugh.
"I didn't smell a mate on her and I certainly couldn't ignore such beauty before me sitting all alone in a whole ball party" Xavier added.
"Besides, she never told me she was involved with you, Alpha Kieran" he said and Hazel's face immediately shot up with a frown.
"I'm not…" Hazel tried to interfere and make things clear, but Xavier excused himself and walked away before she could explain herself.
She sighed in anger, shooting Kieran an angry glare as she grabbed her bag and immediately walks out of the hall. she could feel everyone's gaze piercing into her back but she didn't even care to look back for once. She was utterly livid with anger and she might break something if she didn't get out far away from Kieran's annoying presence.
She didn't even realize that Kieran had followed her outside until she got to the parking lot outside, and when she did, she stopped walking for a second or two but didn't look back. She was too angry to try.
Who the hell was he to butt into her business without warrant? He'd turn up at his convenient time, take advantage of her vulnerability to him and then the next minute he'd leave and make her feel like a slut.
Tears welled up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. She was stronger than this. she hated when she's trying hard to get over him but all he does is come back and torment her determination.
She made to walk off and leave him staring but he stops her, trapping her slender wrist in his hand while he gave her no room for escape.
"Just leave me alone, okay? It's best if you just maintain a distance" she said coldly, struggling to free herself from his grasp but he only tighten his hold on her wrist, almost hurting her.
"You're hurting me!" she yelled, dragging her hand out of his roughly but he didn't budge.
"Why would I, when I'm certain you'll simply walk off on me?" he inquired nonchalantly and she scoffed. Painfully.
Kieran couldn't miss the hurt that laced her tone but he still couldn't just let her walk away. Especially not when she was this angry.
He was aware of how much he'd hurt her, both in the past and now but he couldn't help it. It just had to be done and he couldn't even explain himself.
"Why can't you just let me be, huh? Why must you always show up and make things hard for me? Why do you have to creep up on me in happy moments only to spoil my day? Why do you always just have to hurt me every chance you get?" she said angrily, her eyes gleaming with fury and tears that threatened to fall.
Her words got to him, she could tell by the look of guilt on his face but it was gone almost immediately and she couldn't help but wonder if she had just imagined him looking guilty.
"I didn't know you took this all the wrong way! I was just trying to look out for my mate" he mumbled cockily and she rolled her eyes in frustration.
"You call that looking out for me? What the hell do you know about looking out for someone who doesn't even want you around?" she said in a loud tone, almost yelling. "And what? Your mate? Don't be delusional, Kieran! That was all in the past" she said in the same loud tone, seething with sheer anger.
Her mouth tasted like ash, having to say those words that she didn't mean. Facts that she never wanted to be true.
"You know nothing about that fox, Hazel" he chipped in
"What does that got to do with anything? We were together for years, Kieran. Yet I knew barely anything about you. At least, nothing that I should have known. I don't think you're in a position to judge me" she said without blinking.
She just wanted him to share her pain, she'd deliberately say those harsh words and make him let go of her eventually, or rather explain why he is being so ruthless to her feelings. She wished it was the latter though.
"I promise you, Hazel. I didn't mean it that way. I'd never judge you. I just… felt that something wasn't right" he added silently, trying to get her to calm down. He planned on ending things on a neutral term before she left the ball but things aren't going as he wanted, everything he said, no matter what it was, only seemed to rill her up all the more.
"Of course you felt that way! Isn't that a reasonable sense of alertness coming from someone who's done several unrigthful things?" Hazel replied in sarcasm, earning a displeased growl from Kieran who looked like he was going to rip out her bones.
"This isn't about us, Haz" he growled in a low tone, trying hard to keep his own pitched anger at bay.
"It isn't? Then what was that about being my mate when we clearly have nothing going on?" she asked and he sighed.
"Nothing?" he asked with a frown and she shrugged.
"Oh please, Kieran. Can you just save the sarcasm? It's clear you just see me as some one time acquaintance who turned out to be an everyday slut to satisfy yourself. Just cut it out already" she said meanly. It took all her willpower to keep herself from tearing up in front of this manwhore in front of her.
"Let me go, Kieran… Please" she said in a scratchy whisper but he simply pulled her into his chest and captured her parted lips in his, blocking her every attempt to protest.