"What is it?" Ava squinted. The man was hiding something from her. And she could feel it. He was clearly blocking the bond and was trying to stop her from reading his thoughts.
He raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think that I am hiding something?"
"You are good at hiding your emotions, Matthew but I... I was an empath even before we established the bond. I can feel your emotions. Though it isn’t as strong as before I could feel it."
Matthew blinked. He crossed his legs and leaned back.
"Now... I am not going to force you to tell me. Clearly, we are both logical enough not to trust each other." Ava said.
"You— "
"Oh please... your secretary allowed Almeru to leak my files. The Lycans... hate witches. No, let me correct that. The shifters hate witches. And they hate me. Which means... Working here isn’t the best course of action that you would take if you want me safe."
"I already said, I will take care of Almeru," Matthew said. Despite his gentle tone, Ava could feel the anger in the man’s eyes. "I will take care of him."
"You should... or I will."
Ava got up.
"Where are you going?" Matthew asked. He too got up from his seat.
"Taking care of things..."
"You cannot harm a Lycan."
"And why is that?" she asked.
"You— "
"So you wanted to protect me from your family. From the other witches. Is that what it is Matthew?" Seeing the man’s speechlessness, Ava snorted. "So I was right. How many shifters have you eliminated so far? The shifters who had been trying to kill me or harm my brother?"
"That— "
"A lot, I presume. Who sent them?"
"Ava..."
"Please Matthew. Whatever is it that you do doesn’t affect me."
"Ava please you have to understand. I was just trying to protect you."
"So, you are trying to protect me by hiding things? By lying and not telling me anything." Ava smiled at him. "Do you think that I’m a ten year old?"
"This is different. If those people would know that we are mates then they would want to kill you!"
"And if that happens, I would die without knowing who wants to kill me," Ava said. "You know..." she looked at Matthew’s anxious face. Despite this, the devil still looked handsome. In fact, this side of him looked hotter than the calm Matthew that she was used to.
Damnit.
Her head was slowly getting the wrong way again.
"I always wondered why Almeru and his sister didn’t retaliate." Ava continued. "It turns out... you already took care of everything, eh?"
"Normal women would thank their men for protecting them."
"Oh... I am thankful Matthew. You just saved me all the hard work of trying to fight off shifters." Sarcasm laced her tone. "But I hate it when you hide things from me... things that could... could possibly come back to bite me in the ass in the future."
"I am not lying..."
"Nope. You’re not. But you are omitting something." Lying by omission is a thing.
Matthew’s face turned softer. "I just want to keep you safe."
"That’s it. Treating me like a princess inside a safe castle... won’t make me safe. I need to know Matthew. I need to know who my enemies are. I need to know what kind of creature I am going to fight against in the future. You need to tell me things. If you want us to work together... You need to tell me something."
"I can’t."
"Then consider it as done."
"You— "
"Oh... did you think I would stay with a man who doesn’t trust me?" Ava snorted. "You wanted a real relationship and I wanted one. So yeah... let’s treat this as a normal relationship and you know what a normal couple does when they can’t really trust each other? They break up."
"You are not serious."
"Oh I am as serious as— "
"You are not leaving me!"
"And you can’t stop me." Ava was confident that she could run away in a fight against Matthew. "So... it’s either you tell me the names of my enemies or...I am out of your life."
"You— " his intense gaze made her stomach churn. Just saying the word break up was enough to make her want to vomit her guts out. It was weird. Her body hurt...
It felt like her body was resisting what she was trying to say.
But Ava was done playing house and acting like she was safe. That they were safe.
Their enemies were lurking around and she ... they needed to prepare for the worst. But how could she prepare for anything if Matthew was trying to hide these things from her?
"Look I don’t want to argue with you," Matthew said. "You win. I am going to tell you everything."
Ava rolled her eyes.
"Alright. Start by telling me about Almeru’s real intention."
"Almeru... wants me to mark her sister."
"Aira?" A bitter taste suddenly appeared on Ava’s mouth. She frowned. She was right. Aira indeed had a crush on Matthew.
"A mistress. He wants Aira to become one of my mistresses once I become a King. In return, the de Cene Family will support me."
"And you declined?"
"I did."
"So now... they are targeting me because they thought that I charmed you into fucking me." Ava scoffed. "Did they really think you are that weak? How could they see you like a King and then... look down on you at the same time?"
Matthew pursed his lips then he got up. "I have nothing Ava. Before you... I had nothing."
She looked at his broad back as he faced the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. He looked so lonely... yet strong.
"I never wanted to enslave a witch. And your appearance was a surprise to everyone. They never thought I would make one follow me... especially with the fact that a witch... killed my mother."
"Is that so?"
"Precisely," Matthew said. "And now... Almeru got the approval of the King."
"So... I was right. Almeru’s move was because of the King’s approval."
"Yes. The King wants me to take in Aira as a mistress."
"Before you could even mark a queen?"
"I refused to mark any woman," Matthew said.
"So... what are you going to do about it?" Ava asked.
"I wasn’t planning on doing anything. I never thought he would blatantly disrespect me now that he already got my father’s backing.
"Do you have files about him?"
Matthew turned towards Ava. "I do. Why?"
"If we ruin him... what would happen to the King’s favor?"
"You are planning to— "
"Everyone already thinks that witches are evil beings... why not show them how evil I am?"
Matthew instantly shook his head. "That would only attract more attention."
"So what should we do Matthew? Don’t tell me you are going to fuck another woman just to fucking keep me safe?" Ava didn’t even know how angry she was until she felt her blood rush towards her face. Her breathing turned shallow. In and out. In and out.
Her fist was already balled tight. So tight, she could feel her nails against her palms.
"You are planning to take her as a mistress, aren’t you?"
"No. I already told you. That would never happen."
"Then... how are you going to deal with them?" Ava felt her anger was about to explode inside her head. "You— You actually tried to hide this from me? Just for the sake of what? Protecting me? Because you were scared that they would know I am your fucking mate and they would try to kill me? What the fuck Matthew?"
Matthew opened his mouth but Ava added, "No. No...." She shook her head. "You are not going to tell me not to deal with this. Give me Almeru’s files."
"What are you going to do about it? The de Cene Family is one of the older families in Spain. They have been considered one of the powerful nobles who were able to maintain the power inside their family. If you kill them...."
"Kill them?" Ava snorted. "Did you really see me as someone who easily kills people?"
"Shifters..."
"Right... you must have seen it. The civil war in Egypt. You must have heard about it, huh." Ava was talking about the case that she completed before coming back to Alaska. It was a case of shifters who had been terrorizing the streets of London. She immediately discovered that those shifters were based in Egypt and they were there to cause chaos to implicate their clan.
She sighed. "I don’t blame you." There were rumors that the animal instinct of shifters could actually sense it when a person or a witch have killed shifters before. They could smell the stench of death around that person.
And that must be true.
That’s the reason why most shifters would immediately feel agitated around her.
"I won’t kill him," Ava said. "I promise you."
"I want to protect you, Ava. Please let me handle this..."
"He was targeting me, Matthew..." Ava smiled. "Isn’t it fair that I handle him on my own?"
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