The Alpha's Fated Mate Is an Outcast-Chapter 89

Her head banged a little bit and she felt a bit too tired.

Grunting in her sleep, Alexis slowly blinked her eyes open. She stared at the bedside lamp that was left on despite the room being as bright as possible. It was early in the morning, but she could hear the rain pouring heavily outside and slapping against the closed windows.

She tried to sit up, but something was holding her down. Keelion. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, and his head rested comfortably against her stomach. He was still fast asleep.

Alexis blinked.

She very well recalled every single thing that had happened last night and she didn’t doubt that she was as red as could possibly be.

Her teeth dug into her bottom lip and she slowly reached over her hand to touch her neck where he had marked her again. This time, he wanted to and he did it because he wanted to mark her.

Her eyes flickered and a smile suddenly emerged on her face.

She’d marked him too—she couldn’t understand how, but she had. Her body was entirely weird—something she couldn’t comprehend, because, in that moment, she had felt this indescribable urge to bite him, to mark him and own him. And for some reason, her gums had begun itching, so did the canines she had.

She had also deeply felt Sereia like she did on that day she lost it in the foyer. It was almost as if she and Sereia merged again accidentally. Did they?

"What are you thinking about?" His voice, deeper in the morning than it would usually be, sounded, breaking her out of her thoughts. She lowered her gaze to the man who still had his head resting against her stomach but was rather now staring at her with blue eyes much brighter than they normally were.

They were beautiful like they had twinkles of stars in them. A beautiful man, he was.

Alexis’s lashes fluttered and she slowly shook her head at him. "Nothing..." She couldn’t hold eye contact with him, but she’d lowered her fingers to his head, carding them through the strands of his hair as if caressing it.

Keelion arched a brow, wondering what she was doing. Why wouldn’t she look at him?

"Do you want to get away from me?" he asked suddenly, voice brimming with insecurity.

That’s when she finally looked at him. "What?"

"Why won’t you look at me?" Keelion grabbed her hand, but not to push it away from his hair. Rather he began rubbing his thumb across the dorsal. "Did you not mean what you said to me yesterday?"

Alexis batted her lashes at him. "W-what did I say?" She knew what she had said. She’d told him her feelings—that she loved him.

The brightness in Keelion’s eyes dimmed. They were fading and she lay rather confused. Was he disappointed that she acted like she didn’t remember?

But...he didn’t love her back, he didn’t feel the same. If he did, wouldn’t he have told her? She didn’t want to feel any more embarrassed.

"Yesterday..." he mumbled, this time, no longer willing to meet her gaze. "You said...you loved me."

Alexis swallowed.

"You didn’t mean it, did you?" His tone was shaky. "I figured so..."

Sadness?

She could feel his emotions, which she had never been able to do before. He was filled with sudden emptiness. Why? Did he want her to love him?

Keelion pushed back to get up from the bed, but she was quick to grab him by the arms, holding him back. She shook her head at him. "I know, I know. I-I didn’t forget what I said."

He peered at her with a desperate expression. "Did you mean it? Do you love me?"

Alexis bit into her lip and turned her gaze away from him. But she did slowly nod her head at him. "I...I do. I-I-I always have. I just never told you."

"Why?" He cupped her cheek, turning her gaze back to him. "Tell me why."

"Because..." She exhaled shakily. "Because you...didn’t feel the same. I-I didn’t want to embarrass myself or—"

"That’s not true," he interrupted her immediately and cupped her cheek.

She stared at him. "What does that mean?"

"You’re wrong." He shook his head at her. "I don’t understand what made you think you would embarrass yourself or that I didn’t feel the same."

"Am I that bad?" he asked, genuinely clueless.

Alexis couldn’t answer. Did he love her? Is that what he meant? Or was he just... He wouldn’t mess with her emotions, right?

"Alexis," Keelion breathed out. He didn’t mean to ever make her think like that. He’d never loved anyone before romantically, so he didn’t and doesn’t even know how exactly to do that.

Love had always been something that frightened him. He knew it was one emotion that no one could ever have control over and so he didn’t ever want to succumb to it. He didn’t want to add another vulnerability to himself and he didn’t want to hurt himself because, at that time, he’d fully expected that he could let her go.

What had he even been thinking? He should have known it was impossible to let her go in the first place, from the very first moment he met her.

She’d always fascinated him. He’d always looked at her the way he knew he had never and would never look at another woman. The constant need to have her, to hide her, so no one else could take her away from him. His need to touch her, to hold her.

He didn’t like being around people, hearing their aggravating voices. But Alexis, he’d always enjoyed her presence more than anything. Her voice, words, and laughter, they never annoyed him, if anything, they made him strangely happy.

Why did he never realize it? That he’d always liked her—that he was in love with her? Why had he been deceiving and convincing himself? Gaslighting himself for two whole months?

He lowered his head and chuckled to himself.

Alexis blinked at him, confused. "Keelion?"