Leilani.
Caelum's kiss— being my first kiss— was brutal. Punishing. It wasn't like what I'd young maidens whisper about… or the sparky googly ones I'd seen in movies and novels.
This one was raw. Wicked. It felt as though he was doing this, not because he wanted to, but because he wanted to hurt me for hurting my sister.
Tears streamed down my face as our lips collided, his mouth devouring mine in a torturing manner. In the heat of the kiss, Caelum fisted his hands into my hair and pulled so hard that I feared my skull would crack and then he dropped his head to pepper aggressive kisses down my neck and shoulders, intentionally nicking my skin.
I cried out in pain but stopped when he clamped his hand over my mouth. "That's for being a bitch…" he mumbled lowly against my lips, pulling back for a very brief second to nibble on my lower lip.
"That's for asking for a rejection, Leilani."
A shudder ran through me at the action but despite the way my body called out to him… aching for more of him… I planted both hands on his chest and pushed. Hard.
But he didn't budge.
"With me… with us… you don't get to choose. We own you. Your body. Your life. And you don't get to end what we have."
Now, I was frantic, and so was he. While I tried so hard to struggle out of his hold, his mouth claimed mine over and over again.
The kiss was urgent, like he'd been holding back for so long, but beneath the urgency, there was something more, something deeper.
Something dark.
His tongue teased mine, sending a shiver down my spine, and for a minute, I could swear that I almost felt the emotions he wasn't saying pouring into my soul every time his mouth claimed mine. It made my body go weak and my knees to turn to jello.
He moaned. Gosh, this wasn't just a kiss. It was raw need, it was longing. It was everything we hadn't spoken.
Everything I could never bring myself to speak.
—But he had kissed my sister not so long ago.
This sudden thought made me shiver— and not in a good way— and when his hands slid up my back, pulling me close, as though he couldn't stand the thought of even an inch of space between us, I pushed back, harder this time.
"Let go…" I spat, but as soon as my lips parted, his tongue thrust into my mouth, drinking me in. Devouring me in ways that I never dreamed it ever would.
I pushed and pushed. Hard and harder… until…
A scream pierced the air, momentarily deafening me.
The shock made me scoot away from Caelum who looked as though he'd just been caught with his hands deep into a cookie jar. And suddenly, I noticed to my horror that he could no longer look at me. Even his face had since lost its color.
"Leilani!" It was Chalice. Her trembling voice sounded strained… forced even, and when I turned to look at her, my breath hitched when I saw the sorrow in her eyes. The pain. And the betrayal.
"What have you done?"
Caelum was the first to snap out of his daze. He cast a sidelong glance at me before turning to Chalice who instantly turned away from him with tears streaming down her face.
"What are you doing here? I thought you had been taken to the hospital?"
"Is that the only thing you have to say after I caught you cheating on me with my sister?" She barked just as tears streamed down her face.
So perfectly… so picturesque-ly.
"I wasn't…" Caelum began to say, his face twisted in agony, "…I would never!"
"So she seduced you!" Chalice exclaimed, turning to me to pin me with the ugliest glare I've ever seen on her. I froze.
"What?!"
"So it wasn't enough that you'd tried to hurt me, but now, you'll also try to seduce my mate?!"
For a moment, I wanted to remind her that he was my mate not hers, but deciding to let that go as she could have him for all I care, I shook my head.
My chest felt heavy, my breathing came out laboured— first from the kiss then from this… from this lie.
I turned to Caelum, hoping that he would be decent enough to explain what happened to his fiancée but after sparing him a glance and seeing that he didn't seem like he was willing to speak, my heart fell.
Something like bile settled at the base of my stomach. "I didn't seduce him."
"Then what the fuck had I walked in on?!"
Her voice was drawing the curious attention of nearby passersby. Some servants around the house had now formed a crowd by my door, even some of her friends were there too. And as usual, they held their phones high, taking pictures of this moment and videos.
Tearfully, I looked up at Caelum again, desperately, and held my hand out to him. "Please, tell her the—"
But Chalice slapped my hands off his arm before we could make contact, her eyes darkening when she noticed how close I was standing beside him. "You're a bitch!" She growled, "a whore! And I curse the day that I was born with you!"
Those words, so lightly spoken, shattered my heart into a million tiny pieces, but what hurt me the most wasn't those words or the nods of agreement ripping through the crowd behind us. It was not the way her eyes shone with hatred.
But the fact that Caelum stood there quietly, his face a mask of righteous fury—directed at me.
And then, he spat; "I came to scold her but she threw herself at me."
I blanched.
His voice wasn't so loud but he'd been loud enough for everyone around to hear him. And they did. They turned to me in disdain.
Goddess, my world had never felt so bleak. So raw. So colourless. I shook my head just as more tears slipped free. And whispered; "You know I didn't."
"Leilani, are you saying the Alpha is lying?" A girl, Shantel, one of Chalice's minions, screamed from the door and I lowered my eyes in shame.
"I did not… I d-don't—"
No one would believe you. Now, it's their Alpha's word against yours.
"Cat got your tongue?"
"She's such a whore!"
"Seducing her sister's fiancé? What despicable thing can she not do?"
Suddenly, something in the air shifted and I glanced up just in time to notice that Zevran and Kael had joined the crowd. They cast just one glance at me before they rushed to Chalice's side who soon began to cry harder when they arrived.
"What happened?" This time, it was Zevran who asked and at the sound of his voice, Chalice looked up pitifully, her eyes wide.
Her red-rimmed eyes glistened with tears. Her lips trembling as she said; "Leilani tried to seduce Caelum. She told me earlier today that she could have any of you if she wanted and now she did it. She's so hateful, I don't know what I did to deserve all of this from—"
"I didn't seduce Caelum!" I growled, and as soon as I spoke, Kael stormed over to me. However, he was just about to strike me across the face when Zevran held his hand and whispered;
"You can't."
A moment of silence passed between both of them before Kael begrudgingly dropped his hand, and then he turned to Chalice; "What do you want me to do to her."
'Do to her' like I wasn't a person myself.
'Do to her' like they had that much authority over me.
I tilted my head up and met their gazes even before Chalice could speak, and I spat; "Reject me. That's punishment enough isn't it? So do it, right here, right now."