Chapter 526
0526
ADRIANA
“Hey Valerie,” he says, kissing her forehead and giving her a small smile.
Can I say I’m jealous of her right now? Of his sister? Yes, I’m losing my head.
“I could be your big brother and give you a smack over your head the way normal brothers would. That shit ain’t the standard. Zade’s mocking voice comes clearly, seeing right through me.
I smirk at that. ‘As long as I can smack you back.”
‘You could try. He shrugs.
Zade has been an awesome alpha, and I’d not admit it, but that big brother too. Someone who I could always count on even when he’d barely spoken two words.
“Shall we?” Atticus asks me.
I nod, glad neither Zade nor Valerie asks where we are going.
Zade pats my back as I pass, and I give him a small smile.
I’m halfway down the stairs when I falter, realising somehow Atticus had picked me up when I felt so down. So easily…
He’s waiting at the bottom of the stairs for me and I look at the box of single pink and white roses that sit there, as well as
the stunning bouquet that sits separately. He didn’t hold back with Ada’s flowers either.
He picks them up, opening the door with one hand, and I quickly step forward to open it fully for him so he can get the flowers out.
“That’s a lot of flowers,” I state.
“Well then, I hope she likes flowers.”
“She did,” I say, falling in step beside him. “Want me to carry some?”
“I’m alright. Thanks.”
We fall silent and I pluck a flower from the loose ones and play with it as we walk side by side. He doesn’t speak and I appreciate the silence.
We reach the grave and Atticus passes me the large bouquet. I bend down and place it on the centre of the grave. I never thought I’d have to bury my sister…
My heart fills with sadness as I simply gaze at the fresh earth.
102
+15 BONUS
He goes down on one knee beside me, placing a single rose beside the bouquet, and lowers his head.
The silence is comforting, but the onslaught of pain hits me again. The reminder that she’s gone, once again hits me hard.
She has left me…
I miss you, Ad… I miss you.
The moment my eyes blur with tears, Atticus’s arm wraps around me.
No. I can’t let him comfort me anymore. In the end, he will leave me too and then I’ll break all over again.
I pull away and stand up quickly.
“Thanks… for everything… but I just want to be alone,” I say quietly as he stands up. The moment he tries to approach me, I step back and shake my head. “Don’t.”
“Hey, don’t shut me out. Please, Adriana.”
I turn to leave when he grabs my arm and spins me around. “Let go of me,” I command.
“I won’t hurt you. I just don’t want you to run from me,” he says softly.
I feel humiliated by his words.
Hurt me. So he’s clicked. There’s something that triggers me. Great, now he probably thinks I have issues.
“Why are you doing all this, Atticus? You made it clear you didn’t want me as a mate. Yet you refuse to accept my rejection, and you continuously give me mixed signals. I don’t need sympathy,” I say quietly, my tone full of hostility.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want you as my mate, I just didn’t think I would be your ideal partner-”
“Just stop, don’t try to pin this on me.”
“I’m not. I would genuinely love to have a chance to get to know you properly,” he says, his voice almost sounding earnest.
“Hmm, funny you say that here in a pack where you are able to be all nice out here, where none of your pack members can see us, right? I’m not your ideal partner. Not that perfect woman with perfect manners. I know how you pined over Zaia Toussaint for years. Even when she was pregnant, you were willing to be her unborn children’s father. She’s your type and I’m not her,” I say icily, trying to pull free, but he refuses to let me go.