Chapter 15

“It’s crazy, I know,”

“What’s crazy?”

“Everything,” I say as I unconsciously tap my cheek with the ball pen I am holding. I could feel a kind of chill come with it but it seems I might have forgotten that I just took the pen out of my mouth before tapping my cheek.

“Do you even know what you are talking about, Soma?” A slight yell and I am stunned to the core. My mind had completely blanked out before the sudden force of the yell that got me this way.

I shake my head before twitching my face into a frown while staring at the person that chose to almost give me a heart attack across the desk in my office. “What did you do that for?” visibly annoyed, I ask the person who was none other than my sister, Cassie. Enough reason to keep on glaring because there was nothing else I could do to her.

“What did I do that for?” she reiterates my question but directs it to herself. “You ask yourself why you had to say things I could not understand,”

“And what did I say?”

“Something about everything being crazy,”

I scoff. “Pfft. I never said that.”

She doesn’t give me a response after not admitting what she says I did but I guess she might have been right after all. Before she supposedly yelled at me, I was lost in thoughts already that I can affirm that I do not recall what we were discussing before that. And there is no way I can confess to her that I don’t know what we have been discussing.

I stare at her for a while and the way she stares back generated a thought in my head. She knows what she is doing but not responding. Her goal is to make me have a rethink so I could realize that I truly was not here with her. Such craftiness.

“Well, as I was saying,” she starts to say, sitting upright when she does so, “we need to do something about it,”

I hold in a gulp because I have no idea what she is talking about. And because I want to act like I was interested in the conversation, I decide to sit upright as well. “Uhm, about what?” I have to ask her in a tone that would not allow her to portray her ‘I don’t care’ attitude.

“I knew you were lost in thoughts before. See, you cannot recall what we last talked about,” she doesn’t rebuff, thankfully. Instead, she adds, “So I was talking about what father asked us to do regarding the opening of a new branch in the neighboring city. Are we doing it or not?”

“Oh, that. But why does it have to be that decides how the opening of a branch in this company should be? I am not the head of operations, remember?”

“But you are the assistant head of operations...”

“Still doesn’t make me the head,” I counter.

“Soma, your role in this company is much bigger than what some head of operations can get. You know that, and I know that. And since we both know, then why shouldn’t I ask you when an issue as big as this occurs?”

I sigh because I know what she is talking about without mentioning it. But she should know that kind of talk does not sit well with me. I hate this job I’m doing. Mainly because it was forced on me just like the Alpha job was forced on me. Now I have to be making decisions like a responsible adult when I do not even like to make decisions for myself. Can’t even make a hairdo myself without consulting my sister most of the time.

“I don’t think I want to talk about it, Cassie,” I admit while trying to relax my back on the chair. “Let's figure out how we’ll get in touch with the exact head of operations so it could be sorted out. As for me, I don’t think I’m interested in getting in line with the family business.”

Cassie nods and then I watch her slowly get up to her feet. Fortunately for me, she doesn’t look annoyed that I chose not to make a proper decision for the company or even want to involve myself. I have a million reasons why I can’t.

“I have to go now—”

But before she could complete her statement, I have to ask her, “Cassie, what do you know about the mate bond?”

Probably because I have never attempted to ask her such a question before, she sits back down with her expression a little twitched in confusion. “Not sure if I know much, but why do you ask?”

“I feel like I should at least know something about it.”

“Did you feel a strange connection with someone? Or are you asking because you are bothered about not having a mate yet?”

“I’m uncertain what to choose but I would still choose a ‘no’ to both of your questions. Just tell me what you know about it and that's all.”

She seems reluctant. And I have no idea why she is. “You know, it feels kind of strange to me,” she tells me.

“Well, are you saying or not?”

“Depends on what exactly you want to know,”

I decide to think it through first because I am looking for the best way to ask her questions without making her know I’ve got a lot to say regarding my personal life

“What do I want to know? Does one get extremely sure of what he or feels whenever the bond happens or does it always have to be strange most times?”

“I don’t think I get your question. You are trying to know if one would feel something he would be sure of or not... is that what you’re asking?”

“Yeah, I guess so,”

“And you’re certain it has nothing to do with you?”

“Must it have to be about me? The question is bugging me, and because I want to know about it that is why I decided to ask.”

“I see,” she nods slightly. But then she looks around as if to see if there is anything around here. That felt off in many ways. “About your question, the mate bond works in a way that would make both individuals feel a strong connection at the same time. No matter how one of them even tries to fight it, it cannot be overwhelmed because it’s like a predestined feeling already. Only a rejection can deny the bond from going through,”

“I know the basics, Cassie,” I say, almost rolling my eyes at the fact that she just explained to me like she's reading from a book. “What I really want to know is the probability of one actually feeling it and the other not feeling it,”

Am I not delving into myself already? And with the strange look Cassie is giving me, it seems I am giving out myself in some way.

Asking her such questions that I would never ask her in a lifetime could only mean I have someone already. If I were in her shoes, that is what I would think straight up.

“In as much as I want to know why you have such questions in your mind, I will still answer you,” Cassie positions herself in a way that would make her seem she is on the verge of interrogating me. Why do I know that? Because she often did that in the past whenever she wants to question me intensely: Shifting her body to the right side while her arm took all the weight.

“So, about that,” she starts to say, already attempting to go into the explanation, “The legends have told us about the possibility of one feeling the bond but not the other. The first and most noticeable instance is when one is mated to a human. The humans are not like us, and neither are we like them. So, a situation could occur where a wolfling starts to feel attached to a human, the human wouldn’t feel the same pull until the wolfling gets involved with the human. That's just one of the instances,”

“Hmph. And?”

“This other one is complicated because has to do with our kind in general. It—”

And a knock interrupts her from going further on the topic. She looks at me while I do the same, and I do not have to think through it too long before saying, “Come in.”

A sudden chill in my body. I feel kind of fragile at the moment and my head seems to want to take a lot in. Suddenly, I feel uncomfortable while sitting in the same place I have been sitting on since dawn. Everything feels out of place in the most likely way.

When the door into my office opens is when I realize the reason for my change of reaction.