Chapter 33

SOMA:

“You kissed him or he kissed you?” Cassie throws a sort of confusing question at me, earning a twitch on my face.

“I don’t get you,” I say.

“I want to know who made the first move between you two. Did he do it? Or did you do it?”

I press on the pillow I have under my left arm while still trying to figure out what she’s trying to drive at with her statement. “Does it make a difference if it was me who made the first move or him?” I quiz, shrugging alongside.

“It does, Soma. In a whole lot of ways. Kissing him first means you’re desperate to have him knowing fully well he has not made a decision about what the two of you share. But if it’s him who made the first move, then he’s starting to acknowledge the bond. Which, I will say, is a green light there,”

Well, this is kind of a messed-up situation because I actually made the first move. Wonder how she will react to it when she hears what I did.

“You are not saying anything,” she grabs my attention which was already on the pillow I was stroking.

I look at her in her blue nighty, the top a little exposed. Okay take your mind off your sister’s property, I caution myself before looking up at her face.

“Because I have nothing to say,” I quickly admit.

“So, you kissed him first, didn’t you?”

Nonchalantly, I half-shrug. “Well, I did. It’s no biggie,”

“Soma!” she yells my name... sort of.

“What!” I yell back. “At least he kissed me back,” I say in my defense.

“That’s not the issue here. I don’t care if he kissed you back. The fact established is that you did it first,”

“Doesn’t mean I’m desperate to have him,”

And then silence ensues between us. She’s staring at me all weirdly while I shift my focus back to the stroking of the pillow which seems to be giving me a little thing to put my mind on other than the interrogation from my sister.

“Can you give me one good reason you had to make the first move?”

“I was dying to all night. Especially after seeing him looking all hot in that suit of his. I just couldn’t resist going in for the kiss,”

She shakes her head. “Tsk, and you’re not desperate for him, huhn?”

“That wasn’t desperation. Neither is how I feel presently. Instead, I’ll say I’m getting into the whole thing between us. Kissing him was just to make a statement to him. And boy, he sure does know how to be passionate,”

I think I need to stop talking about how things went between Luis and me last night. The most memory it’s bringing out is my self-control in not getting him to a hotel to get it down with him. How long the passion between us lasted outside the restaurant is still unknown to me.

It wasn’t I realized that Cassie was still here with me did I decide to stop with my hallucinations about last night. Thankfully I didn’t go deep into it or I would have fallen into a pit of embarrassment by now.

“You need to be careful, Soma. I feel you’re starting to take things too fast,” Cassie is back with her words. Makes her sound like my mother.

I roll my eyes. “You didn’t tell me that when I told you he was taking me out on a date,”

“Because I didn’t know you were going to make a terrible mistake!”

“I’m not a kid, Cassie. I know what I’m doing. How is what I did so terrible? Am I the first to find myself unable to resist the urge to make the first move? Oh, or it’s because I’m the woman here so you think it’s inappropriate to do such, right? Well, let me make this clear: I don’t care. I did it. And if it comes to worse, I’ll do it again. You can’t call me terrible just because of a kiss,”

“I didn’t call you terrible. Just what you did,”

“Read my lips, Cassie: I do not care.”

“At least be calm. We’re not having a brawl here,”

“You know what’s funny? The fact that you’re dishing out words of advice like you’ve got an experience or something when it comes to being in a relationship. Or is there something I’m missing?” I can’t help but note because I do not understand where’s she getting her ideas from. Movies, maybe?

But it should be expected. Cassie has always been my older sister even though I’m the older one. Crazy theory but that’s just how we are from scratch. When we’re together, it’s always hard to tell who got into this would first.

“I don’t need to have an experience before knowing what’s right,”

Now, that beats me to whatever I can use to counter her. Because she’s right and there is no arguing about that.

“Whatever,” I can only say. Then I push the pillow aside and then get off the bed. I do a little crack around my somewhat stiff neck, already backing Cassie in the process. I follow it up with the stretching of my hands and then say, “Harold was in the company today.”

“So I heard,” I hear Cassie say as I put down my hands.

I then turn around to look at her and the view of her newly styled hair catches my attention. Seems like she put a lot of work into this one because the quality looks top-notch.

“And he had something to say,”

“Like?”

The window by the side of the bed... that’s where I go to after she speaks. I draw open the curtains and then the panes. The breeze that flows into the room right to my face was chilly but I endured it only because of the sensitivity that came with it. Especially how it made my unpacked hair blow to my face.

“He says I have been neglecting my duty as the vice-president of the company. And that every report sent to the headquarters in the last few weeks has been your doing,” I turn my head to look at her briefly. “And he’s right,”

The breeze hits my face again and I close my eyes to let the current flow through me. Magnificent, but not compared to the one I felt at the Dark Moon pack. Just right there where Luis’ duty post is.

“Pretty sure it didn’t sit well with you,” Cassie says.

“Of course, it didn’t.”

“And you told me off?”

I nod. “I had to.” was what I say to affirm her question.

“Don’t you think it’s high time you forgo the issue between you and him? Like, make up for lost times?”

The statement has me turning around to stare right at her with my brows raised. “And you... Have you forgone what he did to you?” I ask her, my hands folded together as I lean on the open window.

Hesitation floods her expression. “I might have. But that’s not important,”

“You haven’t. So don’t tell me to do that when you haven’t done the same. Don’t even try it.”

“Are you actually waiting for me to do it first? Is that what you want before you could get at peace with him?”

I take up a hand to adjust my hair, taking the tentacles that were almost blinding my sight. “I’m not thinking of that. It has never even crossed my mind. But I know one thing. And that is Harold and I not getting along with each other until he sits himself down to tell himself how wrong he has been over the years. To the pack members, to the family, to me, and you.”

“But what if he doesn’t see it that way? What if he feels justified for everything he has done and is still doing?”

“Then that means he has fallen into a problem he wouldn’t be legible to get himself out from,” I tell her and then turn around once more to stare into the dark of the night. “He sure is lucky that father still made him the president of the company. He should probably have never gotten the role in the first place,”

“Just because he refused to be the Alpha?” Cassie sounds a little... confused? “You do know that those two titles are two different things. The Alpha role most especially is by choice even if it has a heritage attached to it. Harold made his decision not to take up the role, thereby neglecting his responsibilities. But it doesn’t make him justified,”

I scoff, mainly out of disgust. “If I didn’t know what’s going on, I would say you’re trying to support him. Don’t know why you can be this mentally two-sided,”

“He’s my brother, Soma. Even if he’s done the worst of things that a man can do, it doesn’t change his identity in my life. I still got to acknowledge that bond we share as siblings and I hope you do the same thing,”

I will never understand Cassie. Never. Even if I try to study her, it will be in vain because she never ceases to amaze me with her actions. The things she does sometimes can be so annoying. Even when she explains herself which would end up being the justification, I don’t always get it justified enough.

It’s time I shut the window close. I can’t even do that fully because I like the air flowing into the room from it.

“Have you been in contact with Mark?” Cassie asks while I start to shut one of the panes close. The one I plan to keep open is the part that directly links to my bed.

“Mark?” I say as I draw the curtain to the now covered part of the window. “Haven’t heard from him in a while. He suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

Slowly I turn around. “The day before I contacted Hailey regarding us going to the Dark Moon pack... Yeah, that was the last time I saw Mark.”