Always here

Chapter //TWENTY FOUR//

A/N:

Thanks for all the votes, comments and reads! I read through every one of them every single time. They make me happy. ☺

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"Lia."

"No."

"Lia..."

"No."

"Lia!" he cried out in exasperation.

Frustrated, I sighed and nodded my head reluctantly, passing over the comb.

His face brightened in an instant, his lips pulled up into a dazzling smile. I laughed. He was so beautiful.

I watched Xavier as he grabbed the comb in my hand and sat behind me on the bed, a purple scrunchie in his hand. He shifted a bit on the bed before I felt warm fingers holding my head while he ran the comb through my brown locks. He made sure not to yank on my hair when the teeth of the comb got stuck in knots of my hair. His movements were gentle and firm, like he knew what he was doing. It seemed as if he had been doing this for someone else. A woman.

I shifted on the bed, hating where my thoughts were going. I felt uncomfortable being jealous when I knew in my heart that Xavier loves only me. But however hard I tried to push the thought out of my head, it stuck on like a freaking gum. I blew out a breath before speaking.

"Um... Xavier?"

"Yeah?" he hummed back.

"Can I ask you something?" I fiddled with the hem of my shirt.

"Of course babe. Ask me anything you want."

I turned around slightly to face him. I bit my lip. "Well... I wanted to ask if you had combed any girl's hair before... you seemed experienced?" The last part came out more like a question. I blushed at how stupid I sounded. He probably thinks I'm childish for being jealous.

Surprisingly, I heard him laugh.

"That's right." he paused, making my heart clench in anticipation. "I used to do it for my sister."

"Sister?" I furrowed my eyebrows. He had a sister?

He ran the comb several times through my hair before gathering all my locks into one hand. He sighed.

"Yeah... I had a sister." Had. He said had. I knew what he was going to say. I just knew it. "She died 4 years ago." I sucked in a breath. I could empathise with how he had probably felt at that time. I had lost both parents at a young age myself.

His hands continued to gather my hair and I felt him begin to plaid it. His warm breath hit the shell of my ears everytime he exhaled.

"Xavier you don't hav-" I started.

"No." his tone was clipped, angry even. "You're my mate. You have every right to know." he declared softly yet firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"Go on then." I said.

"Charmaine." he merely breathed out the one word. One precious word that had most likely meant the world to him.

"Her name was Charmaine." he continued. "She was beautiful, with black hair like me and black eyes. I loved her a lot, I still do. We had always been close since young. I still remember all those times when we would gang up together against Nathan. She-" he choked on his words for a moment, making my heart clench painfully for him. He coughed. "She was so precious and so so... important to me. To the whole pack, really. But Nathan... he just had to love the wrong girl." Love the wrong girl?

He was still plaiding my hair and sometimes caressing the nape of my neck gently. "He fell in love with a hunter." he spat out, venom clear as day in his voice. "He fucking fell in love with a monster. He was so far gone, if I hadn't stepped in, I would've-" he choked on his words once more as he attached the scrunchie around my hair.

I turned around immediately and found his eyes, brimmed with unshed tears. I cried out softly before hugging him, wrapping my arms around his waist tightly.

"It's okay Xav... shhh." I cooed in his ears as I rubbed my palms on his back soothingly, at the same time trying to calm my erratic heart. My heart was beating so rapidly and painfully for all the unimaginable pain that this man had went through.

We pulled apart from the short embrace and sat crosslegged, face to face.

"I would've lost my brother too." he whispered so softly I had to strain my ears to pick the words up. When I made the words out and finally digest them, I was speechless. My eyes watered a little more for the man in front of me.

"Go on." I spoke softly, urging him to continue.

He held both of my hands in his tightly.

"That fucking hunter had placed him under some sort of spell, turned my little brother into someone crazy and rude and snappy. He was so in love with her that he didn't realise that he was making a big mistake by bringing her into our pack house and showing her around our lands. He had lied to me that she was just a friend. A human friend who was coming over to do some stupid project. I believed him. And what did he do? He broke my fucking trust." he spat out harshly, his hands tightening around mine. His eyes burned with something that was unfamiliar to me. Pure, raw hatred.

"Nathan wanted to marry her, for fuck's sake! She wasn't even his mate! That fucking hunter was cunning, I'd give her that. She had my brother around her fingers. She brainwashed him and made him think that I wanted him dead because I didn't want him to be Alpha in case our father chose him." he growled loudly.

"He challenged me and tried to snatch the Alpha title from me, his brother. I loved him so much, but he didn't see that. Charmaine died because of him!" He growled again and his body started shaking.

"Shhh Xavier calm down. I'm here, you're fine." I assured him as I placed soft kisses on his cheeks and lips.

His shaking stopped, but his body remained tense. He sighed tiredly. "You want to know what happened to my sister?" he looked me in the eye.

I nodded my head.

"Nathan's lover fucking burned my sister in her fucking backyard." he growled as I sat there, stunned.

My mind went into overdrive as I tried to process the possibility of that sweet boy I had met in the kitchen to even possess any evil in him. I could tell he has a kind heart...

What exactly happened?