74: Misinformed

Misinformed

Egon returned a few moments after that, his bronze skin significantly paler than usual.1

"He has been taken. The description of the person who reached him fits Claude de Lanark," Egon revealed, his voice heavy with disgust.

Adela closed her eyes and placed a hand on her heart, silently expressing her gratitude to the heavens for her cousin's intervention.

Father is in capable hands, receiving the care he needs...

When she opened her eyes, she was met with his pallid face and dilated eyes. her muscles tensed but she was unable to move, a helpless prey in the presence of a predator.

"You do realize what his plans are, yet you look... appreciative," he spat the final word.

Adela steeled herself then nodded, "I am grateful, and I want to go back now. If you do not wish to take me, then..."

"Not that again, we have already discussed it," he interrupted dismissingly.

Without another word, Adela turned around and began walking back in the direction they had come from. She didn't want to engage in any further discussion or let Egon's doubts affect her resolve. The journey back was easier this time, as Egon had already cleared the path ahead.

As they walked, Adela couldn't shake off the ominous feeling that enveloped her. She sensed an unseen force pressing against her back, and she knew it emanated from Egon who seemed to exude anxiety.

"Stop!" His voice boomed.

With a heavy heart, Adela turned slowly. Egon stood motionless in the middle of the road, his breaths labored, his face a battlefield of conflicting emotions. Frustrated, he tore off his glove and flung it aside before gripping his arm tightly just below the wrist.

With quick, agitated stomps, he closed the distance between them, stopping right in front of Adela's face.

"Look at this," he said, his voice surprisingly soft. "Care to guess what this is?"

A bite mark...she couldn't find the strength to voice her assumption. It was an embarrassing conclusion she had drawn during a sleepless night.

A strange smile curved Egon's lips, but his eyes belonged to a grieving man.

"This mark has changed my life, and now... It is changing yours,"

Adela's chest tightened, and her hand instinctively reached out towards Egon's wrist, pausing in mid-air. An unmistakable current pulsed between her palm and his rapid, shallow pulse. However, she couldn't bring herself to complete the gesture, her hand slowly lowering with a profound sense of disappointment, akin to a ship denied its intended port of arrival.

Egon's smile grew wider, his white teeth flashed under the scorching sun. "I can smell your fear," he declared, his nostrils flaring, "You are finally reacting the way you should."

It wasn't him she feared, but the depth of her feelings for him. 

Adela swallowed hard, summoning all the courage within her. "No mark has the power to change my life unless I allow it to,"

"Wrong answer,"

He pounced on her.

The fall wasn't painful as she was cushioned by the leaves on the ground. Egon's hand protected the back of her head, his bare fingers traced a path along the nape of her neck then pulled at the roots of her hair.

Egon's body hovered above hers, his upper half was supported by his elbow, and one of his knees was positioned between her spread legs.

She was afraid now.

"You have been warned about me," he whispered, his hunger evident as he stared deep into her eyes, "I know that you can feel this too,"

She felt it.

Their proximity was too distracting, it burnt with the most alluring fire, it took all of her self-control not to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him closer to her.

"Right…" he lowered his face as if to respond to her unspoken call to him, then purred next to her ear, "This right here is the mate bond between us,"

Leaving those words lingering in the air, he pushed himself up and distanced himself from her.

She mustered the strength to sit up, her yearning to comprehend his words overpowering the pain of their separation.

"Mate bond?" she repeated with a strangled voice, the weight of the revelation finally settling in.

"The faster you accept it, the better for you," he laughed bitterly.

His words struck Adela as insulting, and she couldn't help but question, "For me?" She repeated the part that seemed amiss.

"Your family might be planning to steer you towards becoming the wife of a human," his lips trembled, "You need to understand that it is no longer an option for you."

Adela's wounded pride fueled her strength as she swiftly stood up and glared at him. "Who are you to decide what options I have?"

His face turned blank, "Your mate."

Adela scoffed, "Is that the sole reason for your presence around me?"

"You wouldn't be subjected to this if I hadn't returned to Emoria."

"...You feel responsible for me?"

"We are discussing you now!" he roared, "Your unhappiness, your misery. I am offering you an option that will bring you peace. You don't have to follow the path others have laid out for you anymore."

"You make it sound as if you are unaffected," she retorted.

He gave her a cold glare. "You have been misinformed. My nature is far more resilient than that of a human like yourself."

She raised both hands, trying to slow the moment down while allowing him to change her understanding of things, "The attraction between us is called a mate bond. It means I will be miserable with other men, while you possess the power to overcome it, which I do not. Is that all?"

His face remained as hard as stone as he listened, and then came the nod that struck her pride in a vulnerable spot.

"How honorable of you," she murmured sarcastically.

Adela couldn't decide which was worse: his words being true, with the scales of power heavily tipped in his favor, or him fabricating a cowardly lie to avoid acknowledging the profound effect she had on him.

But neither of them changed what she had to do after that declaration.

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