Chapter 11: Explaining Things

-Rhys-

I was so confused …

*I haven’t done anything …*

What did that mean? You had to commit a horrible crime to become a cast out and a rogue. So how could she not have done anything? It made no sense, and I just looked at Nova confused, but she wasn’t looking at me. She almost looked … embarrassed, like she didn’t like admitting this to me. I couldn’t understand it, and I just kept studying her for a little while, trying to find the answer I was looking for, but I couldn’t and eventually had to ask her.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Just … let it go!” she said and looked at me again.

“No, tell me, what does that mean?” I said.

“Rhys!”

She sounded so desperate. Like she really didn’t want to tell me, but I wanted an answer.

“Tell me!”

“No!” she said.

“Nova, I am not letting go of you otherwise,” I told her.

She sighed and looked down, and I just watched her, waiting to hear something that I already had an idea of what was, but I found it too unbelievable, so I needed to hear her say it.

“Nova …”

“I never … hurt anyone,” she whispered.

I looked at her so confused, and she slowly lifted those dark eyes that told me what she was and looked right into my own blue ones.

“What?”

“I told you, so now you can let me go,” she said.

“But it makes no sense. You are a rogue!” I said.

She nodded.

“I am.”

“So, how can you not have hurt anyone?” I asked. “You got the eyes!”

“But I never earned them …”

It was just getting more and more confusing, and I knew Nova saw it on my face that I didn’t get a word of what she was saying. She sighed deeply, and her whole body just seemed to slump a little. It was clear she knew she wasn’t getting out of here before she explained this to me.

“I am second generation,” she told me.

“Second generation?”

“My parents were the real rogues. The ones who had done horrible crimes,” she told me. “I never … I never did anything.”

“You didn’t?!”

She shook her head, and I saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel suddenly. If Nova had never done anything, there was no reason for the pack not to accept her as my mate. She had never committed any crimes, so technically she wasn’t a rogue. Just the child of one.

“Then why were you out there tonight?” I asked.

“I … I just wanted to prove myself.”

“Prove yourself?”

“Listen, I might not have done anything … yet, but I want to!” she said and looked colder now.

I shook my head.

“No, don’t say that,” I said.

“But it is true! This is who I am, Rhys, and that is why we can’t ever work,” she told me.

“I am not letting you go.”

“You have to! I am bad!” she said.

I shook my head again.

“If you are my mate, you can’t be that bad,” I told her.

She seemed shocked by my words and I leaned closer to her, so there was barely any space between us. We were practically breathing the same air, and I knew she wanted to lean even closer so we could kiss. I could see it in the way she was eying my lips hungrily, but she wasn’t ready to admit she wanted it and turned her head.

“You’re not bad, Nova,” I said.

“I am,” she whispered.

“I know you’re not.”

“You don’t know anything about me …”

“Then tell me about you,” I said.

She turned to look at me again, looking so shocked.

“Why don’t you just get it over with?” she asked.

“What?”

“Killing me!” she said. “Because when your alpha finds out …”

“He already knows,” I interrupted.

She looked at me so scared now, but I just smiled a calm smile and lifted one of my hands, running it down her hair, and feeling the softness of it.

“H-He knows?!” she asked.

I nodded.

“Then you must let me go!”

I shook my head.

“He will order you to kill me or at least reject me,” she said.

“He won’t.”

“He will!”

“I know Rogan, and he won’t do it,” I said. “His mate is a hunter, and now my mate is a rogue. He understands our situation.”

“Understands it?!” she asked like she couldn’t believe I was saying this.

I nodded.

“Exactly.”

She shook her head, unable to wrap her head around this, and it looked so funny almost. I couldn’t help but smile a little.

“No … no!”

“Yes,” I said and lifted my hands so they landed on the sides of her neck. “You are *mine* now.”

“I can’t be!”

“But you are,” I said and then leaned closer to kiss her again.

She let out a small whimper, but then she couldn’t help but respond to me, and shit … never had a kiss almost made me lose my mind, but I just couldn’t explain it. Nova was something else. So sweet and so delicate, but there was also something rough about her, and innocent too. I just wanted to know everything about her and explore every inch. I devoured her mouth with mine, slipping my tongue into her mouth and finding hers, stroking it with mine, and I let her hands go, and she grabbed onto my shirt, almost like she needed something to hold onto. Fuck, I just never wanted to stop kissing her. I just wanted to do this all night and I could die happy, but then she turned her head again, both of us breathing so damn fast.

“W-We can’t …”

“But we can,” I whispered.

“Please … I don’t belong here.”

“You belong with me,” I said and bit her earlobe.

She gasped and tried wiggling away, but I was not letting her go.

“Rhys … please,” she said.

“You’re going to be mine, Nova. *You will beg me to mark you*,” I whispered in her ear.

“N-No …”

“Yes.”

I didn’t hesitate as I pulled back, stood up, and then threw her over my shoulder.

“Rhys!” she screamed, but I just spanked her ass, silencing her.