Chapter 23

KIRA:
“Glad I found you here, Kira,”
As I was seated on the ground, I have to lift my head from my arms which were resting solely on my knees to see Bradley standing in front of me. Strange that I didn’t feel his presence when he arrived.
“It’s you,” I say in a sort of whisper before putting my head back on my arms, burying my face in between my legs in the process.
Instantly I feel Bradley join me on the ground where I’m seated. Even though I wish to be left alone, I didn’t feel uncomfortable that he was with me now. Perhaps I needed company without knowing.
“Was surprised when your mother told me you were behind the house. Never thought I would actually meet you here,” Bradley lets that out in one go. “Are you okay?” I hear him ask after he sighs.
“Yeah, I guess,” my voice probably comes out muffled due to the little or no space left in between my legs.
Then silence ensues. Bradley doesn’t say anything to me for quite a long time and neither do I bother to strike up a conversation because I was totally uninterested in doing so.
“What are you doing here?” Bradley asks.
“Just wanted to clear my head off a few things,”
“You sure it’s just that?”
“Yup, I am.”
And a brief silence again before he says something else. “It’s been a while you know,” he says. “We haven’t seen in like a week,”
“Yeah,” I admit.
“Have you been avoiding me?”
“Of course not,”
“Then why aren’t you talking to me properly now that we’ve finally met?”
“I’m talking to you,”
“You call this a proper conversation?” he sounds a little bit annoyed as he asks that and then follows up with, “Look up, Kira.”
My eyes are shut close due to having myself in a secluded position. So the first thing I do is to have them opened before slowly raising my head to look at Bradley.
“Now that’s better,” he says, passing me a sly smile which I can only return with a saucy stare.
I push my body back, resting it on the tree behind me to prevent any form of backache that could come later. Bradley also has his back on the tree and from my view I can see that he is in guard uniform. The usual uniform he is always on anytime I come across him. Can’t recall the last time I caught him in casuals.
“You wanna talk about what’s going on in your head?” his masculine voice makes it way to my ears.
I sigh a little. “I already told you there’s nothing wrong with me. So don’t worry about me,”
“If I didn’t know you better, I would have taken your word for it. I can clearly tell that you’re lying,”
“I’m fine, Brad. Take it that way.”
“Say that to someone else and not me,”
I can’t help but roll my eyes because it is now obvious that he is not going to let me be until I talk to him. And I’m not sure if I do want to talk about anything at this moment because of how I feel. And how do I feel? Complicated.
“A lot has been going through my head lately—”
“I thought you said you were fine,”
“Don’t interrupt me, Bradley!” I say, glaring at him.
“Okay, sorry,”
With that, I take my time to relax myself. When I feel a little better than I already am, I start to speak again. “I don’t really know how I feel these days,” I start with that. “Too many events have been transpiring all at once and I cannot seem to keep up with them,”
“Are you willing to share at least one with me?”
I shrug. “I guess I could,” I tell him. “Only if you promise not to judge me,”
I feel his gaze on me so I look back at him as well. “Have I ever done that? I only scold you when you do things wrong but I’ll never judge you,”
Relief floods through me as I prepare to start to tell him what I have in mind. But first I look away from him because staring at him would not allow me to gather my thoughts well.
“I went into the Night Blaze pack again.”
I was expecting to be tongue lashed at after I make that declaration. So much that I much shut my eyes close in anticipation of it. But after a while, nothing has been said by Bradley which prompts me to look in his direction.
“You’re not saying anything?” I ask, surprised that he does not even look like he was going to speak yet.
I become more surprised, or rather confused, when his face twitches in confusion at my question. “Was I supposed to say anything?” was the question thrown at me.
I don’t know when I start to back away from him. “This is not the Bradley I know. What did you do to him?”
“Hey, hold on. It’s still me,” then he smiles. “C’mon, I thought you didn’t want me to judge you.”
“This wasn’t part of it,”
“Well, I was considering your feelings first. I couldn’t tell yet if you wanted me to say something or not which is why I wanted you to finish with what you have to say. Trust me, it’s still me,”
I give him a once-over first before saying, “I see,”
“Stop being that way. Come back here,” he says, obviously after noticing that I am still being wary of him.
“Okay,” and I do as told. A minute later, and I start to speak again, “So, I said I went into the Night Blaze pack again,”
“I would have guessed that you went there to kill your boredom as usual but something tells me there was more to that,”
“Apparently there is,” i say. “I was chased down by something I have no idea about,”
The reaction I get from him is a slight frown. But it was gone as quick as it came, which makes me wonder if I had seen him react that way at all.
“How did that happen?”
“I was deep into the woods as usual when I suddenly felt a presence around me. Upon realizing I cannot sense anything, I start to make a run for it and thoughtout the run, I realized I was followed by something i could not see. The only thing I know is that it sounded like it had footsteps which meant it might have been a beast or so,”
Bradley doesn’t look too happy hearing me say that. I can tell from his body language but I am not about to ask him why he was reacting this way.
“So what happened next?” he inquires.
“I found myself on the territory of the Night Blaze was what happened. I had no idea that there was another way leading to their pack which is why I was confused at first when I got there. Something tells me they might have been secretly using that route for something our pack knows nothing about,”
“Maybe,” Bradley says. “Wait, how did you even find out that it was the Night Blaze pack?”
“I met the Alpha.”
“Alpha Reid?”
“Yes, him,” I admit.
“And how come you’re back there?”
I narrow my eyes at him after the question. “What do you mean?”
“Trespassing into the Night Blaze pack and coming in contact with the Alpha is tantamount to being imprisoned. You should know that already,”
“Oh,” I come to a realization. “Well, that didn’t happen. And here I am back in the pack like nothing happened at all,”
“You met with Alpha Reid and he let you go scotfree? The story isn’t clear,”
“But I’m here. Isn’t that enough to tell you that I’m telling the truth?” I have to ask because he sure doesn’t sound like he’s going to believe me.
“You might be hiding something else from me for all I know.”
“He simply let me go. There’s nothing to hide,” Even after that, Bradley still shows that he is not buying my words. Which brings me to ask, “What do I have to say to prove to you that he simply let me go?”
“Start by telling me his reaction when you happened to meet him,”
I reflect on the day of the event for a little while before explaining it all to Bradley. I ensure I mention how he had been calm toward me even when I portrayed the saucy attitude of mine toward him. I didn’t forget to add that he almost had a go at his beta who wanted to come to me due to the first encounter I had with me.
“You mean he snapped at his beta?”
“Yes,” I say, not thinking too long on it before responding. “Guess it was because his beta was not adhering to his instruction,”
“And you don’t know what that means?”
I’m starting to get genuinely confused. “What does it mean?”
“That he could be your mate...”
“Hell no!”