CHAPTER 64

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Nadia’s POV
I watched the now all too familiar streets pass by, my heart feeling heavy with each second rolling away. The knot tightened around my chest was something I had not expected to feel and yet with Collins now officially out of my life, it was inescapable. My mind reverted back to the last words he’d said to me, bitterness springing up the back of my throat.
*
“Well, at least you are not leading me on like William, right?”*

That one sentence had served to make me feel like he had put a sword right through my heart. The look he had in his eyes when he spoke that last statement to me seemed stuck in my mind, playing over and over like a record on repeat. It haunted me, making me almost change my decision and run after him but I knew better than to do so. In this time and space, we were severely incompatible but what baffled me was how he chose to believe we would work out somehow. He had no fucking right to make me feel like I had just made the biggest mistake of my life.

“Fucking Collins!” I muttered unconsciously, my face still turned to the side.

“I don’t know whether I should feel offended by that or not,” For a second, it had escaped my memory that I was in car with Drake, headed to Las Vegas.

“Why would you feel offended?” I questioned, turning to look at him. His face was drawn into a look of concentration, eyes never wavering from the road ahead. We had just driven out of town and thinking of the seven hours of driving awaiting us, made me sigh in restlessness.

“Because you clearly are thinking of that wolf. Why does he even affect you that much when you claimed you only had fun with him?” In his tone I sensed a bit of edge mixed with jealousy.

“He doesn’t affect me,” I denied, returning my gaze to stare outside the window.

“Now I’m really beginning to get offended,” He mumbled under his breath loud enough for me to hear.

As much as I wanted to understand the origin of my connection to Drake, I was also afraid of it. What secrets would knowing about it come to light? What scared me the most about him was how he seemed pretty certain that he and I were meant to be together when I didn’t feel even a slight spark of attraction towards him. I pushed the thoughts of him out of my mind, creating space for me to be bombarded by the memories of my parents’ death. I let them punish me to remind me the exact reason why I needed to stay away from Collins. I dug my nails into my arms, tears of rage threatening to fall from the corners of my eyes as the bloody images decorated every space in my mind. At least now he was fading off to the back of my mind.

“Stop!” Drake snapped pulling the car to a sudden halt and if it weren’t for the seatbelt holding me in place, I would have been flying out of the car from the impact.

“What?” I questioned, surprised.

His eyes shut briefly, hands tightened around the steering wheel till his knuckles grew paler. For a second there was no movement from him but suddenly he hit the steering wheel, leaning back on his seat before he let out a frustrated sigh.

“Are you okay?”

“Am I okay? Let me see. Of course, I’m not okay and its all because of you, Nadia. You are my promised mate, a promise forged by blood and yet since I walked into this fucking town, it’s all been about that bloody werewolf. Everything you do somewhat always ends up being roped with Collins fucking White. I’ve tried my best to ignore it and be patient but I’m really sick and tired of you being all about him,” he chuckled,” Look at me, an original Hybrid, moaning about not having enough space in your life. Let’s be honest Nadia, if right now it came down to choosing between his father’s life and yours, would he pick you?”

I swallowed down the bitter gall,” Why are we talking about Collins?”

“Because it irks to see you care about him that much when between him and I, I’m the only one who would choose you in a heartbeat,” his breathing was fast.

“You are only saying that because clearly you’ve got nobody else to care about. Maybe Collins would pick his father over me but I wouldn’t pick you over him, Drake,” I snapped right back.

“What?” his lips parted in surprise.

“You know what? I’ll take that back. I wouldn’t pick either of you but for completely different reasons,”

“Why wouldn’t you pick me after making it clear that I would choose you?”

“Because you’ve been nothing but a conceited jerk from our very first interaction,” I shook my head,” I don’t care if we have some sort of history together. You can’t just barge into my life, act like you’ve been there from the very beginning and expect me to be thankful for it,”

His sea-green eyes held shock for a second but then he pulled his gaze back to the road, starting the engine. He had no right to act hurt when he was the one trying to fit himself into my life like that. For a while, we travelled in silence until we pulled to a stop outside a gas station to refill. The sound of something hitting the trunk had me jumping in my seat in surprise.

“Bloody fledgling,” he cussed, getting out the car with a tranquilizer dart laced with a strong unconsciousness-inducing sedative.

How had I forgotten about William in the trunk? With no one to look after him back in town, Drake had resorted to bringing him along. Everybody in town was apparently laced with vervain and if he didn’t drink some fresh human blood straight from the vein, then he would have to go through an insufferable death. I don’t know what scared me more; watching him wither away or letting him tear apart a human being. Neither option seemed better than the other.

A minute later, the hitting stopped just as Drake came back. He barely glanced at me as he put the tranquilizer gun back in the gloves compartment, filled the gas tank and then drove off. I was a little worried about William but with Drake now in a foul mood, I couldn’t exactly talk to him about it.

“I know the vampire who did it,” He broke the silence after some time.

“What do you mean?”

“Caleb,” he stole a glance towards me while I arched an eyebrow in confusion,” He is the vampire we are going to meet,”

“T-The supposed vampire king?” I questioned.

“Yes,” he answered casually.

“Wait, if he is the one who tried to kill my ex-fiancée, why are we going to meet him? you seriously don’t expect to sit down with someone who tried to hurt William and beg him to join hands with me, do you?” I stared at him ridiculously.

“This is the exact same reason why I didn’t want to tell you earlier. You know, if you are going to be part of this new world, then you need to accept the consequences that come with it. In our world, someone could kill your brother today and tomorrow you’ll have to sit in the same table with them,”

“Well, not me. Turn this fucking car around because we are going back. I’ll find some other allies,” I said in determination.

“I asked him to do it,”

“What?” I looked at him in shock. Just why did I think he couldn’t get worse than he already was?

“I asked Caleb to bite him,”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? Why did you do it? Is it because I happen to have a connection to him and so you wanted to get rid of him?” I snapped, feeling rage awaken inside me.

“No, because it was either him or you,”

“What do you mean?”

“If we were going to meet up with him and the dragon Alpha, we needed something to keep the wolves occupied and since only you and him didn’t have any vervain in their system, I had to choose. The werewolves are in full panic mode right now, trying to find the vampire in town and that should keep them from poking their nose in my business for a while,”

“Stop the fucking car right now!” I screamed, catching him by surprise.

I stepped out of the car the moment he pulled to a halt. A few seconds later, I had him follow me.

“What are you-“ I cut him off mid-sentence with one hot slap that left my right hand burning.

“What do you think we are? Puppets? Are our lives that meaningless to you, Drake? First Trina and now William and still you wonder why I can’t stand you,” I was shaking with rage.

“Too bad. Because you are stuck with me for the rest of your fucking mortal life,” he snapped back.