The talk of rejecting Leah

Gerald's POV

It was the late hours of the evening, and the room was becoming dark with each minute that passed. Leah wasn't going to come for the rest of the day. Although she had told me, I still felt her around me. The bed contained her scent. Somehow, I imagined she was lying down beside me, and looking at me with those curious eyes of hers.

I hadn't expected such thoughts from me.

I heard someone knock at the door.

"Luna sent me to tell you dinner is ready," One of the maids in the palace said to me.

"I'll join them soon."

I collapsed on the bed, heaving a sigh. How was Andrea going to face me after her open display of trying to pry into me? Perhaps she would pretend as though nothing had happened between us, just like she hadn't come into the room. It was possible I felt awkward being around her, but I'd passed all that.

Prisca's picture… She had almost seen it. She must have noticed the way I had tried to hide it from her eyes, and that could have raised her concerns.

I held the picture in my hands, rubbing my fingers over it over and over again. "Prisca…"

My eyes became wet again. It was hard to stop the tears from dropping.

"We will meet again… The curse was the cause of everything that happened between us, but then, we couldn't mend it… Too bad for us."

I raised myself from the bed to walk around the room, fixing my eyes on the picture. "By now, our kids would have been grown up… How beautiful it would have been…"

I had a mirror in my bag, brought the picture beside my face to look at it. It appeared real to me such that her face seemed to be touching mine, and smiling at me.

Another knock on the door cut me off from the moment.

"Sorry…" Another maid was at the door, her eyes were scanning my body. I hadn't worn a shirt. "Alpha Roshan asked me to remind you that dinner has been served."

"Tell him I'll be there in a minute."

But the girl was still standing at the door, trying to look into the room. She had forgotten that she had to walk away, and not make her watchful eyes noticeable.

"You have something else to say?"

She took a quick step backward. "Sorry, I'll have to leave."

I walked out of the room after her, and got to the dining room. Andrea was already eating, but her head was bent low in order not to look at me. Roshan had a smile that screamed fake to me. I wondered my offense.

"Join us!" He said, trying to brighten the moment.

I took a seat beside him, and that caused Andrea to be opposite me.

"Thank you," I returned the smile, and opened the plate to look at the food.

It was some slices of toasted bread with chunks of fish in-between to form a sandwich, and the leaves slightly coming out of it. A cup of tea was beside the plate. That was the meal for dinner.

"I hope you enjoy the meal," Roshan said.

Andrea's eyes met mine, and the next instance, she left the chair she was sitting to stay a few chairs apart from us. Roshan must have noticed.

"Roshan…" I took a bite of the bread.

He straightened his head to look directly at me. Under the table, his fists clenched, the same way it had when I had informed that Leah was my mate.

"You know the main reason I'd come to this pack. It just happened that we haven't had any discussion about it."

He didn't speak, but appeared to be in serious thought.

"Andrea." He called out. "Could you please excuse us?"

That was strange, asking her to leave? What was special about our discussion that he didn't want her to hear? She was Luna.

"Was becoming a mate to my daughter part of your plan?" He changed the whole topic, his teeth gritting.

He wasn't looking directly at me. The expression on his face had no cheerfulness, it was just like he was taking part in a war.

"You will have to question the mate bond," I said.

Who plans a mate relationship? At least I hadn't heard.

It was obvious that his thoughts since the instant Leah became a mate with me was that I'd planned everything.

My eyes caught sight of Andrea, she hadn't left to give us space to talk, but was instead listening to our conversations from an angle Roshan couldn't see.

"About the war I might have with the other pack." I tried to put our conversation back on track. "I'd told you I'd need your help. The rogue wolves around my pack had teamed up with the Tolias pack."

He didn't speak, simply took a sip of tea. It was becoming clear to me that he was going to make a crazy decision. I could feel it. It was just for me to wait to hear him out.

"Leah is more important to me," he said.

"That's one reason you would help."

He shook his head. "I don't want her to go with you."

"What?"

I doubted I heard him clearly enough.

"You heard me."

I hadn't expected to hear that from him. Slowly, I got on my feet, jamming my hands against the table. But he was avoiding my gaze like a plague.

"It's not hard to do." He sighed. "A simple rejection can do the whole trick."

That was the first time he was involving himself with issues involving Leah, portraying himself to be like a father who could really care about her. He had sparked my interest all through the marking process, trying to make her change her mind.

"You've gone crazy."

He was acting as a relaxed person, sipping his tea, and taking bites of bread.

Andrea could hear everything, but she couldn't interfere with the crazy conversation.

"Are you serious about this?" I asked.

He nodded. "My men wouldn't go unless you let Leah go."

I left my seat to leave, and Andrea was still standing at the corner of the wall, hiding herself from Roshan.

I stopped when I got close to her. "You're okay with this trash?"