Souls Entwined

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen
Elle's POV

If someone had pulled out a crystal ball and said I would spend my afternoon crying because Kaden had said something sweet, I wouldn't have been surprised, considering our current record. But, instead, I pulled up my big girl pants, clambered to my feet and said, again, garnering half a smile from Kaden before he hauled himself to his feet and fell into his stoic, fearless leader façade.

Later, after half an hour of nearly scolding my skin off with the hottest shower of my life and trying not to be disgusted as the water ran brown with dirt and sweat, it was time for dinner. Throughout our tour, dinner had been had with varying shades of success. Most of the time, though, I considered it a victory if no one said a word to me.

It had become a regularity to see Kaden trudging in for dinner after everyone had cleared their plates, his hair pushed back with harrowed fingers. As his eyes hit me from across the room for half a second, his eyes weary and a slight stoop to his shoulders, I could read him so thoroughly it ached.

These past weeks had taken a toll on him, the past twelve months. He hadn't stopped moving for as long as I'd known the truth, preparing to take over the pack, emotionally drained from having to betray every instinct he had built up over the last fourteen years. Sometimes, when he looked at me for the briefest of moments, it was as though he knew he shouldn't. And maybe it was only because I knew now, and I had learned to watch him, that I noticed as those instincts fought to remind him that every interaction we had was dangerous.

He needed a break. He had been in the limelight for twenty-four years, piled with stress after stress, more so than any other potential Alpha because he had done it all with the knowledge that I was his future.

There was no break, though, no vacation time for someone in his position, and the only thing that would lift some of the pressure was time, structure, and me if I ever found the courage to do what he needed.

As it was, Kaden was in a meeting. Despite our promise to hold meetings once we returned from Iter Coronam de Terra, more than a dozen international packs followed us across the Vermiculo lands one at a time for a private meeting. Many, if not all, of these packs, were wary of me, and protocol stated I could not attend meetings concerning other packs.

I kept my head bent, trying not to draw attention to myself as I numbly ate my food, still feeling like I was struggling to draw breath into my lungs, even hours after training. Within five minutes of training, I had decided that I needed to find time to exercise now that I was no longer forced to do P.E. in school. I wouldn't have the lungs to run away from a would-be murderer a second time if I kept slacking off.

'It's ridiculous how much time ABC covers on that pack.'

My ears prickled, and I twitched, willing myself to keep my head down. It wasn't so much the words that registered first, pinging through my head without meaning for a heartbeat too long. It was the venom in their voice. I waited, wanting to see what I was missing before I tried striking a chord, and the two women across from me kept at it, happy to gossip away.

I'd almost thought they'd clued into the fact that I was still sitting with them, waiting for Kaden to show up, when Moira finally scoffed, 'I swear, every time I turn on my T.V., it's all they're talking about.'

Moira was a stout, sturdy woman with a face of sharp angles and sun-tinged skin. She was gorgeous when she wasn't scowling, but she'd hardly lifted her brows out of a frown since greeting me at the door when we'd arrived. I'd wanted to like her, and I was really trying to force myself to pretend I did, but it was difficult when everything out of her mouth was shadowed with a thin film of distrust and dislike.