*Abi POV*
Brenda’s dogs turn out to be adorable darlings. I was sure that they will tear me into pieces when they ran towards me, but all they did is lick the blood I spit on the floor and wang their cute tails, like Titan does when he wants to play. It turns out that they actually like playing and being bathed too. I think I am a dog person because after twenty minutes I don’t mind when they grab my feet or arms. I am not terrified of these supposedly vicious dogs. A few giggles and running around, I have forgotten about Omario and the dull pain that still lingers on my chest. I am still playing with the dogs and they are pulling me into different directions when Omario matches in. Olivia and Loyd stand on the other side of the gate and watch us.
“Abi, do you have any idea how… what are you doing here?” Omario yells with his whole face trembling.
I look at him, confused. He looks very angry for some reason. I have never seen him like this.
“Answer me! Do you have any idea how stupid and reckless this is!” he shouts angrily.
“Stop shouting at me.”
My voice is soft and my tone is low. I don’t get why he is so mad. My response seems to make him angrier because he roughly he grabs my chin and forces me to look at him. When our eyes meet, his are glaring at me and there goes the pain I had forgotten.
“What the fuck are you wearing?” he roars, his tone sends the dogs running with the tails between their legs towards the corner, scared.
I swallow my saliva. I don’t know what I did to offend him, but I can’t take it. My heart still hurts from his reaction earlier, he does not get to scream at me for nothing and even scare my newfound friends.
“I told you that I won’t be dolled up while my people are enslaved,” I keep my voice down to avoid eavesdroppers but everything I say fuels his anger.
“You think you have I say in it? Who do you think you are?”
“It is my body.”
It’s a stupid thing to say to a prince when I am a slave he can do anything to, but I am angry, exhausted and hurt.
He narrows his eyes at me before letting go of my chin.
“You are intentionally pushing my buttons. You are angry and you are pushing me to hurt you. You came in here hoping the dogs will kill youa and finish what you started. You are suicidal again.”
“What?”
That’s the most absurd thing I have ever heard. His fiancée sent me here and he thinks I am suicidal. Now I am fuming too. I promised him that I would never do something that stupid again and here he is throwing accusations at me.
“Let’s go,” he commands, grabbing my arm. I shake his hand off.
“Leave me alone, I’m working.”
At this point I would rather slave off here than be with a mate who refuses to acknowledge our bond and is angry at me about nothing.
“Not anymore. You are never coming here again.”
He grabs me again, throws me over his shoulder and carries me like a bag of potatoes. I wince as the friction between his body and mine, an action that pressed the vase glasses deeper into my skin. Olivia and Loyd exchange looks when he matches past them and out.
“Let me go, I’ll walk by myself!” I snap at him when we reach the corridor but he ignores me and continues walking towards his chambers, where he throws me on the bed and presses me down with his body.
Argh, it sulks being weak and thin. All o can do is refuse to look at me, until his utters a threat.
“You will stay here, Abigail. Defy me again and I will hurt your people.”
I turn my head to search his eyes.
“You..wouldn’t..”I hesitate because all I see is anger in them. How did we get here? A few days ago he was the kindest man I knew and risking his relationship and reputation to help me out. Does he hate the idea of being mated to me so much that we have become enemies in a matter of hours?
He gets off me and backs away the same time a lump forms in my throat and my heart aches so badly. The stupid gates to my tears open up and pour out despite my hardest attempt to keep them in. Soon I am inconsolable and he is holding me in his arms.
“Abi….”
I shake my head. I don’t want him to say anything that will hurt me more. I just want to cry my lungs out, recollect myself and get over his unspoken rejection.
He keeps quiet and lets me be, but the damn tears just won’t stop.
“I..want..Titan,” I choke and he complies.
The white giant of fluffy fur, my comforter rushes to my arms. I burry myself in his broad shoulders and my tears completely disappear.
“Why is he mad at me, Titan? I was only doing what I was instructed to do. My heart aches so badly. You feel our bond too, don’t you? I understand that I’m just a slave, he is a prince and somehow he is meant to be with Olivia, but denying it and blaming it on my wolf really hurts.” I mumble about everything in my head and Titan makes noises I can’t understand. He starts licking my neck, where a lot of glass pieces are lodged. I wince in pain and he stops and looks at me as if expecting an explanation from me.
“I think she hates me as much as her aunt does. She hit me with a vase and it did not even hurt because my heart aches more and I want it to stop. How do I make it stop, Titan?”
Titan shifts unexpectedly and I find myself looking at Omario. I suddenly have nothing to say and neither does he. He walks to his cupboard and searches something. He returns to the bed a few minutes later with plastic pliers on his hand.
“Why can’t you just talk to me like you do to Titan?”
I look at him. He’s tone is accusatory mixed with hurting in it. He was shouting at me the moment he walked into the kennel, how exactly was I supposed to talk to him?
He holds my gown and tears it apart, leaving me with just an underwear on.
He removes two glass pieces from my face and stop.
“Sorry, I should have…”
I look away and interject. I hate seeing him like this. “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. I should have asked you to take it off so I can remove all the glass pieces on you. That’s why you prefer Titan, isn’t?”
I don’t respond. I don’t know how much of what I said to Titan made it to him. I don’t know what he wants me to say.
It takes about ten minutes for him to finish removing all the glass pieces, but it feels like ages. I want him to be a few meters away from me, not this close.
“I searched the whole wing for you. Both Olivia and Brenda had no idea where you were. They were shocked that you went in the kennel. Those dogs are vicious, Abi. I was terrified and angry with you for being so reckless,” he explains himself. Now I understand why he was so mad and made those assumptions. I still don’t know which one between Brenda and Olivia send me in there but they both claimed innocence. They would have done the same thing had I died in there, but I didn’t, and they made a mistake of putting my chores on paper.
I get off the bed, pick up what used to be my gown and take out a piece of paper with my chores and give it to him.
“I am not suicidal. I was doing my job. I can’t talk to you when you shout at me.”
He looks at paper for few minutes before putting it in his pockets but I can’t quite read his expression.
“I am sorry. Come, I will run a babble bath for you.”
He is a different person when he looks up at me again. The warm smile and gentle tone makes me ache more. A cold-hearted, unreasonable man I can quickly get over soon, not this. A lump forms in my throat again and all I can do is utter a muffled thank you and follow him to the bathroom. I could really do with a warm bath. I watch him fill the water up and check the temperature before instructing me to get in.
I get in and already feel so much better until I see him pick up a sponge and my heart starts pounding.
“Your…”
He gives me a deadly stare.
“Omario,” I quickly correct myself and he chuckles.
Surely he is not planning on bathing me!
“I have seen you naked too many times to be shy now.”
My jaw dropped and he laughs before getting all serious.
“I am not rejecting you, Abigail. I never will. I revere the mate bond and I believe in Frode. If you were truly my mate, I would not care what you are.”
“You believe that Oli is your mate and Terrence is mine,”I say softly and he nods his head.
“Yes, and that has nothing to do with you being a servant.”
“Okay.”
There is really nothing more I can say to him.
“Will you stop being mad at me now?” he asked and runs the sponge over my shoulders.
“You were the one mad at me,” I remind him while doing my best to ignore what he is doing.
“You were mad first.”
“I am not mad anymore. Can I please bath myself now?”
I reach out to take the sponge from him. This is too much for me. If he believes that we are not mates, then we are friends, and friends don’t bath each other.
He moves the sponge away from my reach but, to my relief, stops bathing me.
“I really hate those rugs you insist on wearing, Abi. What will make you stop wearing them?”
I shrug my shoulders. He knows my reasons.
“Aha! I know!” he exclaims, piquing my curiosity.
“What?”
“You will have to wait and see.”
“Omario!”
“You are stubborn and proud, but I can tame you,” his amused tone is really irritating.
“I am not a horse!”
He smiles and I can’t help but smile too. This man is just so infectious. The pain in my heart is completely gone and I’m glad that we are fine again.