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

"Protect from what?"

"From you...from your family."

"I wouldn't hurt the baby." The colours runs off his face as if I had just slapped him.

"No, I know that. But the baby will be the heir to the Clear Waters until you have a real baby with your mate.."

"A real baby.." He chuckles out finding my paranoia laughable. Well he is the only one.

I take a further step back from him, anger radiating through me. Always pushed aside by him, always

ignored for no fault of my own.

"Don't laugh at me." I seethe out, hot molten anger racing through me.

"I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. You must know how much I love you Cleo, how much I want to be with you. Since the hotel..." Again he tries to close that gap between us. My back almost touching the brick house wall.

"Since the hotel you've had plenty of time to tell me that you have another. You let me find her almost naked in your bedroom..." My finger jabs into his chest, pure anger in my voice.

"You've had time to tell me you were pregnant." He jabs me back, in the upper corner of my chest...just before my shoulder.

He's strong, it actually hurts more than I am letting on. He doesn't know I feel everything at the moment, that my wolf is withdrawn.

Jaxon must have failed to tell him about my burn with the pizza as he spilled my most inner secrets.

"I only found out that day, I came straight to tell you Jace. I would have come to the hotel if you hadn't text back to say you were home.

Two months I've reached out, you had plenty of times to tell me.noveldrama

Do you realise what that night meant to me, how I had waited...then you left me alone. Left me to wake up alone in your penthouse, made me feel like a one night stand.

Is that what I am to you Jace, a hotel girl. Some female you picked up at the bar, a dirty little secret?" I was finally letting out two month's of anger, two month's of frustration...and hurt.

"No, of course not......." Perhaps it is finally dawning on him that he shouldn't have treated me like that. How he shouldn't have tasted me and then ran out, bringing home another girl. He was almost speechless, his words struggling to come out. "I was naïve, I can see that now." My spine straightens, my chin rising as I realise how he played me.

Not any more.

"I want you.."

"You can't have me, not when you have another. I won't be a mistress, a dirty secret. I should have gotten into that lift, I should have gone downstairs to the human."

"Listen to me....I love you." He grips my shoulders painfully, shaking me slightly to make me listen.

"No."

"Yes I do, I've just tried to fight against it. I want to be with you, don't do anything you will regret. just need time. Please Cleo." I

whimper with the plea in his tone, he was only asking for some time.

Time that I also needed myself but there was something about him, something that didn't seem right.

I know he was in shock, I was still in shock myself...I can give him time, surely can give him some time. He needed to do right by his mate, he needed to tell her... to reject her.

Jace wasn't a villain, he was caring, warm and protective...of everyone. He needed to make sure she was safe, that she was taken care of.

I can give him time, for the sake of our baby, I can give him time.

"I can give you time, If you are sure

this is what you really want?" I shouldn't let it in, I know I shouldn't That small ball of excitement, of hope that I keep quashing back down...it starts to grow again

I struggle to fight against it as he keeps saying the right words.

"Yes Cleo, this is what I want. This is all I have ever wanted, I just need time. I need time to tell Callie and to put measures in place for her." He sighs out with relief. "Of course, I understand."

"Then you will wait for me, you won't act on this without me..do you promise Cleo? I need to hear you promise me that."

"Yes, I promise you Jace."

"Good now go around the back, you can't climb the walls...not pregnant Cleo."

"When will I see you next?"

"Give me a few days, I'll come back. Don't tell anyone I was here...not until we have decided what to do...together."