Chapter 21: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Nusha played with a stray thread on Caph's sleeve. 'That's not possible.'
She was still smiling, her bright yellow eyes staring at him.
He was about to protest and tell her the history of their ancestors and their bonded mates, how they only married the ones they were bonded to, so there should be no reason why he couldn't—
'I don't mean bonded mates are not possible, Caph.'
He smirked at her, waiting for her dramatic silence to end. 'Then?'
She looked away, her long brown lashes fluttering like butterfly wings.
Nusha had wavy brown hair that bounced lightly when she moved. Paired with bright yellow eyes and a perpetually cheerful expression, she had a fairy-like appearance.
She continued twisting the stray thread on his sleeve.
'I've been thinking about it while i was in Middleton. Why you can't find your bonded mate.'
Her eyes focused on him again. Her cheerful expression was replaced with a bashful one and the yellow in her eyes seemed to darken in intensity.
'I think it's me.'
Caph removed the arm she had around his shoulder and pushed her off his lap. He turned to face her seriously. 'Nusha. I appreciate that you missed me while you were studying overseas. But we're just friends. You said so.'
Nusha's eyelids flickered. 'You know I only said that because your girlfriends don't last,' she replied flatly.
He stood up from the bed, ruffling his tousled red-brown hair in frustration.
She was persistent. Stubborn.
It had been almost a year since he had to deal with one of her moods.
'We checked,' he said vaguely, walking to the door to make his escape. 'We're definitely not bonded to each other.'
She leaned forward, a faint smile on her face. 'You checked a lot of other girls too. I'm the only one who's still here.'
He wrinkled his nose.
It would not be good for Ran to hear about that.
Nusha read his thoughts in his eyes.
'I'm the only one who can accept you for who you are.'
Caph smirked. 'Well, my current girlfriend accepts me for who I am too.'
She raised an eyebrow. Her yellow eyes glowed. 'You haven't told her anything about yourself yet,' she guessed.
That's true. Other than his suspension from college, she didn't even know his mother's name.
Ran was not interested in him after all.
She only needed his help for a while.
As far as she was concerned, they would part as soon as she became Alpha.
Nusha noticed his hesitation. 'If you tell her that you are her bonded mate, she'll bolt. Just like the others.'
It stung to hear the truth out loud like that.
'You're the boy who cried wolf too many times after all,' she continued.
Caph flinched. 'Don't,' he said in a low voice. 'Don't—'
She tilted her head to the side. 'Don't what? Tell the truth? We're friends, right? Friends should be honest with one another.'
He opened the door and left, slamming it behind him.
'Don't pity me,' he said too softly for him to hear.
He stood staring into the pitch-black and silent corridor, shutting out Nusha's raised voice on the other side.
'I don't want you to get hurt again, Caph. Caph! Open the door. Listen to me! I'm sorry the truth hurts but you know what other people think...'
Caph had intended to stay for the full two days of the weekend but now he had the sudden urge to see Ran's face.
No, it was more than an urge.
It was a desire. A need.
Heat overwhelmed him like a tsunami, flooding his pores, making his skin prickle. His bones burned as he morphed into a red-brown wolf with a single, feral instinct.
Ran.
Caph streaked across the continent faster than he had ever run before. He arrived in Punggol before the sun reached it's zenith, drenched outside the front door of the Eridanus manor.
Should he knock?
Or open the door like he had always lived there?
What had he done in the days before?
Why was it suddenly awkward and nerve-wrecking?
Nusha's words still buzzed in his ears, her fairy-like face smugly smiling at him. 'I'm here for you,' she had said that night long ago. The night he 'checked' to see if she was his bonded mate. 'Even if I'm not, I'll still be here.'
They were friends.
The castle he'd just run away from was his home.
This place he was standing was just a temporary arrangement.
He didn't belong here either.
The door opened. He looked up, blinking sweat from his eyes.
Ran scowled. 'There you are! Where have you been? Don't go running off without telling anyone.'
Caph smiled at her tiredly. 'You weren't listening.'
The weight on his shoulders suddenly vanished.
Ran's furious black gaze and her indignation made all his worries melt away with the light of the sun.
'Listen to what? I looked for you everywhere. I don't have super-hearing, you know.'
Caph wiped the sweat dripping into his eyes with the back of his hand, laughing even though his chest hurt from overexertion.
'You really...weren't listening at all!'
Ran stared at him as though he had gone crazy.
'You weren't listening. You really weren't...'
He took a step closer to her. His blue eyes darkened.
'Hey, Ran, can I give you a hug?'