Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond

"Are you okay?" Jace's voice enters into my mind, his eyes similar to that of his brother's concern.

How long had a I spaced out for. How long had I allowed my mind to wander...

"Yes..." Thankfully my voice sounds stronger in my mind than if I were to speak my answer.

"Are you sure?"

"I think I need to sleep." I cut the mind-link, moving away.

"Hey Cleo." Jace tries to pull me into him but I've stepped out of reach, turning my back on him as I head towards the hallway.

I needed to be alone, I needed to sleep.

"Excuse me, I think I need rest." I offer out to the room before heading towards the stairs.

Jace didn't join me in the night, even if he had slept in the same bed and risen before me to check something within the pack lands...his scent was missing. No trace of it.

Meaning I had spent the night alone.

Something that hadn't satiated my anger from last night. Even as I stood in the shower, I could feel my hands scrubbing that little bit harder upon my skin.

"Cleo?" Josie calls out to me from the bedroom as I was in the ensuite.

"Josie?"

"A few of us are going swimming this morning, did you want to join us?"

Swimming, most likely with Callie...no...no swimming wasn't something I needed right now.

I needed to work off this frustration in me, this rising anger. I needed to train, to run...something a bit more vigorious than a gentle swim.

"No, but could you ask Ares to wait for me."

"Sure."

Tomorrow was the planned date for Alora's funeral. I just needed to get through today, then tomorrow would be a day spent in sorrow and sharing of fond memories of Kaia's sister.

I just had to survive today, put aside my anger...try and work it off before it exploded out of me.

No matter how much I try to think of something else, all I can think of is Callie in her red sexy lingerie.

Of how she thought I was house staff. How my mate was showering in the background...she must have seen him naked. Seen what is mine.

They must have been sexual, how could they not have been.

These damn pregnancy hormones!

I should eat, but the need to burn off these dark thoughts, this jealousy within me was more important right now. This possessiveness I was feeling, I'm not sure how to handle the intensity of it.

Dressed in sports legging, a sports top and a hoodie, I walk downstairs...to find Ares waiting at

the bottom, and he wasn't alone.

Josie stands next to him, watching me walk down with a curious look upon her face.

I don't look but I can feel him

watching me. See him in my

peripheral vision. I was too angry to look at him, he must feel the anger radiating off, humming through the mate bond.

Unlike last night, I wasn't willing to rein it in any more.

I hear inaudible whispers coming from where he is sitting, Callie on the sofa next

to him as they both look at a tablet, Jaxon stood behind them also watching it.

Again, I don't look...but I can feel of three of them looking at me, discussing me. My jaw tensing even more.

“Not swimming?” Jaxon isn't as subtle as he calls out to me, my annoyance peaking when I have to turn my head to answer him.

"No I'm in a fighting mood this morning." I use the stairs to tie my trainers up, my bump felt bigger today and I didn't want to squish the baby just to put some shoesnoveldrama

on.

Something I noticed when I woke up, the baby has grown. Something I reached over to excitedly tell Jace, but he wasn't there.

Again...I was alone.

I didn't need him beside me 24/7, but he had already missed out on so much...I didn't want him missing out any more.

I'm not being melodramatic, I'm trying to be understanding but he isn't really helping himself.

"Erm...maybe..." Josie looks at me, panic in her eyes as I turn to straighten up, readjusting my waistband that was now digging into my tummy.

"Josie, I'm pregnant...I'm not going to break from a little work out with my brother." I'm short with her, and I'm never short with her...with anyone. She was my best friend, she was just looking out for me.

I know this, but I just needed to get out of here.

I needed space, I needed to train.

"Ares?" I call out to my brother. I marking Jace and by being marked by him, I had

lost my mind-link with Ares...something I hadn't prepared myself for.

I head towards the door, movement coming from the living room...to hell if he thinks he is stopping me.

I turn when my own brother doesn't follow me, to find Jace leaning casually against the hallway wall, a smirk upon his face as his heated gaze bores into me. "You're not training!" He commands through the mind-link.

"To hell I'm not."I growl back out through the mind-link, a mental middle finger up at him.

If you don't spend the night with your mate, then this is what you get the next day. Perhaps he'll remember that tonight.