Ayla: Always an Alpha

Chapter 30 - Lie to Me

~Ayla~

Two nights later, I went to Killian's cabin for our daily check in, and I unlocked the door to a cabin that was spotless. In fact, it barely smelled like him.

"You've been cleaning," I announced, spinning around to check that he wasn't behind the door, waiting to pounce and teach me a lesson about paying attention as he had many times before.

"Hey." He appeared from the hall.

It was just a greeting, but something about his tone and the way he stopped just at the edge of the corridor, like he didn't want to get any closer, immediately put me on edge.

My hand closed around the knife at my waist. "What's wrong?" I whispered. "Is someone back there?"

"Nothing's wrong," Killian - his voice low - replied, still not moving from his position.

"I'm not sure I believe you."

"It's good news." Offering a small smile, the corners of his mouth stretched upwards.

The blanket of tension lifted from my shoulders. "Well, that's a relief." I gestured to the bar stools. "Come on, I brought your favorite vegetable today: broccoli."

When I'd removed all the container lids and he still hadn't moved, I looked back towards him. Watching me, he had not stirred from his place in the shadows. His hair was down instead of in his usual bun, and long pieces fell around his jaw, covering half his face.

"Someone's not excited about cruciferous vegetables," I commented, sliding onto the bar chair. "What's the good news?"

"I found him."

With those words, a seed of anxiety that had been rooting in my stomach since the monthly meeting completely died off. I placed a hand to my chest and let out a sigh of relief. "Oh my god. That's great news."

I couldn't see them clearly, but I could feel his dark eyes dissecting me from his spot at the end of the hall.

"Seriously. What's up with you?" I questioned. "Why aren't you cel..." My tongue stopped mid syllable as it clicked. "You're leaving." My next scan of the room told me all I needed to know. "You're leaving tonight. That's why you cleaned."

Killian nodded. He crossed his arms and leaned against the corridor wall.

It felt like my world had shifted off its axis. Sentences formed in my thoughts but fizzled before I could say them. I'm not even sure I would have been able to say them. My mouth had rapidly transformed into the Sahara.

It felt as if hours had passed before I said something. "You're going to disappear. It's going to be like we never even met."

"That was always the plan, Ayla."

The detached tone of his voice pained me as if he had stabbed me in the chest with the silver knife at my waist. I expected him to show some sort of emotion. It didn't have to be sadness, but something. Anger? A sense of despondency? Maybe regret? Instead, there was nothing. But there couldn't be nothing. I firmly believed that there was something, and I was willing to humiliate myself to prove my point.

"You don't have to do it," I said, getting up from the stool to invade the line he'd drawn between us. He could put it there all he liked. I'd just step over it. "You could stay, and we could anonymously tip off the council instead."

"Ayla." The hair fell back from his face when it turned towards my new location. The warning in his voice told me to quit.

I didn't. "You can't honestly tell me that we -" I gestured in the space between us, space that had been narrowed to only a few feet. "Don't make sense."