𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 | 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦

Chapter 7: Tease Pt. 2

I searched for hours, circling the island multiple times over and flying back and forth between the island and the rock formation that they had taken Lo'ak to.

Eclipse had begun and we still hadn't found Lo'ak and I was beginning to worry. But then on my last run around the islands outer reef, a horn blew. I ordered Seraph to land through the bond, jumping off his back before his feet touched the ground. The crowd had already dispersed before I had made it there, Aonung being dragged away by his parents. He gave me an apologetic look before turning and following his parents back to their home.

Seeing Lo'ak alive and safe made all the tension leave my body.

Jake and Neytiri took Lo'ak back to their bungalow but Neteyam went in the opposite direction.

I followed him on silent feet, curious where he could be going after what had just occurred.

I followed him all the way to the edge of the forest, when he changed direction and walked to the edge of the beach, where a lone tree stood. He climbed up the tree and I watched as he stopped at one of the large boughs and leaned against the trunk of the tree.

I knew I should leave, but I didn't think he should be alone right now. Not after the scolding he and his brother had received from their parents.

I began climbing the tree and he leaned over the edge of the bough, his face blank as he watched me ascend.

"Why do you have to climb so high up." I said, remembering when he had followed me that fateful night.

"To get away from people who don't know when I want to be alone." He threw back at me and I smiled despite myself.

"Do you want me to leave?" I stopped climbing when I reached the bough he was sitting on.

"Would you listen if I told you to?" He looked down at me and I titled my head.

"If you truly didn't want to be near me I would leave you alone completely Neteyam. I don't want to make you hate me more than you already obviously do." I watched him debate whether he wanted me to stay.

"You've already climbed all the way up here, you might as well stay." He repeated my own words back to me and I didn't hesitate to pull myself onto the bough fully.

He scooted over so that I could fit in the bough, and we sat in silence for a while. I closed my eyes and listened to the lives around us. Some foreign bird cawing from within the forest, Ilu's communicating with one another with a series of clicks, the waves crashing on the shore.

"I don't hate you." Neteyam broke the silence first, and when I looked at him he was already staring back at me. "I've never hated you a single day in my life."

"Then why push me away." I searched his eyes for the truth, for any deception in his words.

"Because you shouldn't be here." He pulled something from a pouch that was tied to his waste, flipping in over in his fingers. I looked at it more carefully and realized that it was the rock that he had found that day in the forest all those years ago. "You should be back home, in the forest with your mother."

"It's funny, she said that my place was with you." I reached for the rock, our fingers brushing against each other for just a second as I took it between my fingers. "I would still be home if I didn't find this in my hammock."

"A stupid rock isn't a reason to abandon your home and follow someone you aren't even mated to." It was true, it was a stupid reason to come, but I came regardless.

"If its so stupid then why keep it in the first place?" I challenged, turning the rock over in my hands, my fingers running along the white veins that ran through it.

"Why follow me all the way out here if you thought I hated you?" He was trying to change the subject and I almost let him.

"I asked you a question first." I handed the rock back to him and he took it in his palm, staring at it.

"I kept it because it reminded me of when things were easier. When I could be the man who deserved to be your friend, who deserved to be your mate." My chest tightened at his words.

"You have always been deserving of my friendship." I started, not know how to touch the second reason why he had kept the rock.

"No, I haven't." He shook his head and sighed, looking over over the water. "You don't deserve the way I've treated you these last few years. Especially the last few days."

"I hurt you." I played with one of the braids that hung from my temple nervously. "I deserved it."

"You don't." He protested, taking the braid from between my fingers.  The action made me look at him. "You deserve so much better than what I'm able to give you."

He brushed the braid behind my ear, sending shivers down my spine. It drove me crazy how such a simple touch from him could have such an effect on me.

"You deserve to have the world laid at your feet, and I can't give it to you." His thumb brushed against my cheek bone, tracing the bright freckles that outlined my facial features.

"What if that isn't what I want?" The words were hoarse as they left my mouth, "What if I don't want the world?"

He rested his forehead against mine, his mouth so close to my own. If I just leaned forward, his lips would touch mine and we would share our first kiss.

But I never get what I want.

Neteyam pulled away and moved away from me, standing on his feet and walking to the edge of the bough.

"You should go." He whispered, "Wouldn't want Aonung seeing us together."

"What doesn't he have anything to do with this?" I stood and closed the distance between us.

"I've seen the way he looks at you." He pushed the rock back into the pouch at his waist. "He can give you what you deserve, he's to be the next leader of this clan."

"You think that's what I want?" I scoffed and stepped back from him, "you clearly don't know me at all if you think that interests me in the slightest."

"We haven't known each other in a long time, Äeya. Let's not try to force it now."

Silver lined my eyes as his words hit me like a physical blow. It was a mistake to follow him up here, thinking that we could fix things once we were on even ground.

"You're right, I don't know you at all." I shook my head to clearness my thoughts and climbed down the tree trunk, not looking back as I walked back to my bungalow, and I let the tears I'd been holding back since I arrived fall.