The Purple Eyed Girl

46. A changed man at last

My claws dug into the leather of the seat while I ripped it out from the floor and threw it across the cabin. The plane had come to a stop a while ago, but I was still pacing back and forth in this stupid thing angry and confused, but mostly, hurt. The staff and most of the delegation had left for some time now, the only one still in the plane besides me was Roman, who was leaning casually against the wall.

"What's up, Val?"

With a sigh I sat down on the last remaining seat, letting my head hang, resting my arms on my knees while folding my hands together. "Nothing."

He walked over and placed a firm hand on my shoulder, causing me to look at his frowning face. "You didn't say anything the whole plane ride and when it landed you immediately started trashing the thing. You're my brother, dude, you can't fool me."

My gaze fell down to the ground again and I picked at my fingers. "I don't know, man. I don't know what to do. I've been with lots of girls, but only for the sex. This was the first time ever I simply didn't care about not having it, she was way too interesting to ruin it that way. I fell for her the second she stood up to me in that war room and it's not that stupid mate bond, that's been destroyed already. It's real, and for a split second I thought I saw it in her eyes too when I poured my heart out to her, I thought she was still there. But then it turned back to darkness again almost immediately. I know she spared me in the conquest, but she killed me anyway."

She was pushing everyone away and I knew we couldn't blame her for it. Every single one of us has contributed to pushing her over the edge. What I felt now was nothing compared to what she went through, what she was still going through even though she refused to admit it. 

"She's special that one." He smiled faintly, motioning for me to get up. "You're allowed to hurt even as king. It's completely normal, it fucking hurts but you have to go through it to heal. Just keep talking about it please."

Reluctantly, I got up and he swung his arms around me, roughly slapping my back a couple times. I sighed and returned it. "Will do. We have to keep fighting for her though. She deserves to be loved, even if she doesn't think so."

On the way to the house I discussed new pack laws with Roman. Ruthless or not, Iola made some good points about my reign. I gave the alphas too much freedom with their individual pack rules resulting in alphas like Anwir oppressing people in his pack, especially women. He pressured his pack and the people reporting to me into keep their mouths shut. I hated it and had to make sure it never happened again.

It was my job to keep the alphas in check to make sure they wouldn't abuse their powers and I failed in that regard. Some of them still had an ancient mindset which showed when Iola entered this kingdom. The joke was on them now, because she became queen and way more powerful. Hopefully they wouldn't see me as weak because she spared my life at the last second, if they did I was going to rip their heads off.

"Did my parents try to contact me now that I survived?" I asked one of the guards as I got out of the car in front of the house.

"No, sir." He nodded.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course not. I don't even know why I asked that."

I said goodbye to Roman and dismissed the guards since I was perfectly capable of protecting myself and the house. Closing the door, I leaned against it and sighed. My eyes roamed across the space in front of me. 

This place used to remind me of my family. They were close, but I never belonged in it. My father and mother were very conservative, while I was the complete opposite. My parents wanted a loyal follower for a son since I was born an alpha and they wanted to use that to their advantage, but I didn't want to be a puppet. When they tried to force me to change but failed, they decided to pretend I didn't exist, even though they lived in the same house. They didn't talk to me, refused to cook for me, my birthday wasn't celebrated and they convinced the rest of the family to cast me out.