Chapter 100

Chapter 100: Chapter 100

Chapter 100

Leo stood before the cabin, hands buried in his pockets, and it made me think he was more audacious than I had imagined. The lamp hung beneath the roof glinted off his hair, casting shadows across his face in a way that seemed to harden his resolve.

He waited for me to approach.

"You found your way here."

"I can teleport," I responded curtly.

He rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. "Oh, right. I forgot."

I wrapped my hand over my chest. "How do you know so much about my powers?"

The question had lingered in my mind all the way here.

He tsked and turned toward the entrance. "You forget I spent time with your ex," he said, then glanced at me when I scowled. "Oh, believe me, I certainly didn’t sleep with him. He’s such bad taste, and I’m not some cheap Omega. I didn’t even look at him that way at all."

I swallowed a lump that left me feeling strangled. The intent behind his words was obvious, and it stung more because I had still come to his abode.

"Let’s get this finished here and now," I said, clearly not in the mood for conversation or explanations.

He wasn’t going to believe me anyway, so why should I bother?

As bitter as it sounded, the truth was already glaring, so there was no need to hide behind assumptions.

"Oh no, Alex. I didn’t call you here to be petty. Please, come in. I made tea. Two cubes of sugar. Just exactly how you like it," he said, waving an inviting hand.

Inside the cabin was warm and cozy. The bland wooden texture outside had been deceptive. The interior was painted in merging tones of beige, white, sandy brown, and cream, accented with extreme shades of red and yellow.

"You like it, yeah?" Leo beamed. "You’ve seen Ser Cavriel, haven’t you? Imagine the horrors in his eyes when I was redecorating. By the way, where did you leave him?" he added, gesturing with his well manicured fingers before settling into a seat at the dining table.

A teacup sat before him, and he poured himself a drink from the kettle beside it.

"I did tell him, in all honesty, not to engage you. He was supposed to convince you to come and see me."

"He executed the job, didn’t he?" I replied, my eyes still scanning the room with caution.

It was confined, yet comfortable. Somehow, it all fit.

Leo extended a teacup toward me. I twirled my index finger and the tea froze midair, solidifying instantly.

"I didn’t come here for tea. What do you want?"

"You’re so tense," he said. "What’s happened, Alex? You used to be... less troubled."

Then he tilted his head. "And I thought you wanted the throne so badly, yet it doesn’t seem to suit you. More like trouble than the paradise you imagined."

I slammed my hand against the edge of the table. "Enough with the indirect insults. If you have something to say, then say it outright."

Leo remained unfazed. "I could begin with... you stealing my boyfriend."

"I didn’t."

He stood, his frame towering slightly over mine. "Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?" he scoffed. "Anyway, while I still wish to kill you, I need you."

"What?"

"Your ex boyfriend stabbed me in the back. No wonder you both once clicked. Such a nasty thing to do," he said, playing with his fingers. Then his eyes narrowed. "You still haven’t told me where Ser Cavriel is. He’s the last family I have, you know. You wouldn’t kill him just to get to me, right?"

"Fuck. You talk too much," I growled, bending the chair he had stood from forward and forcing air against his chest until he sat back down. "I’m not here for chitchat. What do you want?"

"Simple. I want Nathan gone. And as much as it pains me to say it, you’re the only one I know who can help me defeat him. I can’t kill you or Kai if he’s still alive as an obstacle."

"I disagree. You have an ulterior motive."

"You killed my uncle. My fucking last family, so yeah, I want to kill you too."

I paused and took a seat as well. Leo passed the teacup to me. It had begun to melt, but I still didn’t touch it.

I stared at the brown liquid for a long moment, both of us stretching the silence between us.

"We weren’t supposed to hate each other," I began. "When I think about it sometimes, I wonder how we came to detest each other so much."

Leo smirked. As serious as I looked, he remained completely nonchalant, as though the tension meant nothing to him.

"Imagine this," he said. "You have a friend. One day, he catches you and your boyfriend... together. Fucking. It turns out your boyfriend intentionally left the door open, making your friend watch everything. And your friend, being wayward and a fucking cock-starved bitch, got slick and hard for your boyfriend."

The emphasis he placed on "your" made my heart beat faster. I tried to control my expression, but I feared it was already slipping through my eyes.

Leo wasn’t lying. One could lie with words, but the eyes revealed everything, and his carried too much certainty.

"Not once or twice did your friend sleep with your boyfriend, but he fell in love with him. They had sweet affairs while you returned home and even prepared dinner for them while working yourself to exhaustion in the castle, defending your boyfriend’s excuses about why he wasn’t fit to be Alpha King. Only for him to eventually return the affection to your friend, suddenly decide he wanted the throne, and instead of choosing you as his Luna, he chose your friend. So in the end, your friend stole your life, and your boyfriend became a stranger. And oh, he also killed your uncle while your friend tricked you into his plan."

Leo laughed, slapping his thighs. "Don’t you think that’s so messily funny?"

"You have a sick mind, Leo," I said after a long pause.

I needed a break, so I stayed silent. A larger part of me blamed myself. In fact, all of me did. But when I thought deeper, I realized...

"You ruined yourself. I didn’t do anything. Kai and I were fated mates. The sex was merely a push. You didn’t even love Kai. Your entire plan was to turn him into a puppet so you could rule. After our fallout, I pieced the puzzle in your story together. You believed Kai’s family caused your downfall, so you decided they must fall as well."

Leo watched me.

At least the smile on his face had faded.

"And I was a pawn in your game. Was I even truly a friend, or someone you wanted to use at first, before you eventually grew attached to me the same way you fell in love with Kai?"

I exhaled slowly.

"Your greatest enemy is your heart. You crave evil, but your heart refuses to fully harden the way you want, and so it betrays you in the end."

Leo’s face reddened as he flared. "Don’t you fucking speak like you know me. You don’t!"

"I don’t," I said. "But I can read people."

His eyes followed mine to the table, where a faint emerald glow streamed from my fingers into his hand resting on it.

"I simply read you," I stated. "The wood was just like the vines, but I guess you don’t know that."

Realizing what I had done, he quickly pulled his hand away, gritting his teeth.

"So what?" he snapped, voice lowering slightly, as though something in him was beginning to crack. "You know my hatred, how deep it goes. And what are you going to do about it?"

"We both have a harsh past. Mine forged me into what I’ve become, and yours shaped you into what you wished to be. I won’t change you, but your proposal is for the world, and I agree. I also need you."

Leo smiled faintly. "So we have an agreement?"

"You help me destroy Nathan."

He shrugged. "And then I come back for you and Kai."

I stood, the chair scraping loudly behind me. "You act like you want my demise, but from this entire conversation, I see only assistance. You’re helping me, Leo, whether you admit it or not."

Leo turned away from the light, his voice softer now. "If my calculations are correct, by the next full moon, you will give birth. I want Nathan and you both gone afterwards."

"Why wait until after I give birth?" I queried.

Though I seemed to have a feeble memory of a time when Leo wished to be my children’s godfather if I ever had one, I wasn’t sure if it was what this all meant.

"I have no concern for your babies," he said, before walking into the room beyond.

As I stepped out of the cabin, I couldn’t help but wonder how much this conversation had reshaped everything, especially with a thought lingering at the back of my mind: monsters are different, and the kind Leo was... was unlike anything I had fully understood.