A L E X E I

estrella.

17

estrella.

unedited.

"star. estrella. stelle. étoiles. they're all the same brightly shining objects in the sky. the ones that I look at each night. the ones I pray to each night."

if there's any chapter that you must read carefully and read each and every detail it would be this one.

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It was odd how Cat had made a beeline for Alexei's car, had sat silently and listened to everything Alexei had told her to do.

Alexei knew that she was the type of person to turn up the music loud and talk a mile per hour. But she had been quiet, too quiet.

The drive back home was tense, Cat had spent it looking outside her window. She was noticing everything, every detail.

As soon as they pulled up to the castle, Cat had jumped out before the car could completely stop. She rushed upstairs, ignoring the strange looks from everyone.

It didn't matter how happy Damon had made her, it didn't matter how Cat felt. She had realized what her worth was in Alexei's eyes.

A possession to look after, a possession to keep all pretty locked in the house. But as soon as that object went missing, Alexei needed it back. Only to lock it back in the pretty little house.

So Cat threw on her favorite plaid shirt, pulled her hair up in a bun, grabbed a vodka bottle and settled in to watch some Netflix, she didn't know what to do. She was so, so lost.

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Alexei wanted to go after her, he was so confused as to why she was acting this way.  But he was needed to look over some paperwork.

In his office was Elisa, the most beautiful women he had ever met. Well not completely true. But still the most amazing, the women who was good at everything. And just last night she had proven how good she was in bed.

But Alexei wasn't in the mood, he pushed her advances away, promised to call her tonight and made sure that she left.

Instead he focused his attention on the work in front of home. Frankly, he needed a queen. His council reminded him almost every day how important it is that they have a queen to uphold the duties.

With Catherine unable and unfit  to do so, Alexei had been trying to uphold both the queen and king duties. Unfortunately, he didn't know the difference between decorating fora keg party to decorating for a ball so he had formulated a plan that let Catherine do them but keep her name out of it.

As soon as the clock hit 10:00 pm, Alexei grabbed his jacket and left his office. Once in a while nodding to his staff members, he made his way to the quarters where he hid Catherine. It was where his aunt had lived because he simply never saw the reason for living in the King and Queen quarters and didn't want to take Catherine there either.

As soon as he reached the double doors, he could smell the strong vodka. Here we go again.

He rolled his eyes before opening the door, ready to deal with Catherine but he was shocked at what he had stumbled onto.

There she was, sitting on the couch sipping vodka from the bottle. She wore a plaid shirt that hung off her frame, showing her bra strap. Her hair messed up and her eyes bloodshot.

She looked like she had been crying.

Now this was one of the many reasons he couldn't have her as his mate, her alcoholic tendencies.

His breath hitched as their eyes met and her lips curled into a sad smile.

"It's fine, I'm not drunk all the way yet," she whispered. Slowly Catherine sat down the vodka bottle and brought her knees up to her chest, her head rested on her knees.

He had never seen his Catherine so disheveled before, his Catherine who looked perfect always. His Catherine who always had the biggest smile on her face.

Cat pat down the space next to her, slowly Alexei sat down.

She took a deep breath, tears welling up in her eyes.

"You can't do this, Alexei, you can't" she whispered again.

"What can't I do?" he said in a arrogant manner.

"This, you can't make me suffer" she whispered again.

"You can't do this to my heart, break it into little pieces. Because I'm not just anyone, I won't sit here every day waiting for you to come home, to break it even more. We're mates, we're mates" she whispered, laughing quietly.

"You might not wanna admit it but we are, but know that I believe in choice more than I believe in fate. I believe in choosing who we want to love, making our own decisions. I once let someone else dictate my life, I once let others choose my life path drive me to insanity. But I'm not that little girl anymore, I refuse to make that choice again. You don't wanna let me go but you want to make me suffer."

"You can threaten me all you want, but I'll leave and I'll never come back. I'll go through that door and whatever you ever say won't make me turn around and come back. Because I can teach myself."

Every word she said was a blow to Alexei's heart.

"What do you mean?" his voice was shaky, for reasons that were unknown to him.

She gave him a sad smile and somehow that was even worse.

"I can teach, I can teach my heart how not to break. I can teach my heart how to not skip every time it sees you, I can make it learn how to be okay without you, how to be happy without you. I can teach it to not miss you anymore, to not long for you. Because while you werewolves detest what I did to myself, how weak I made myself, it was what helped me learn that we all hold a power where we make decisions, we are human's. Even you werewolves hold a human part and humans evolve and adapt. Just like our hearts."

"You can't expect me to be here everyday, waiting for you. I won't, not after what you do to me."

She leaned into to press a small kiss on Alexei's cheek. For a second, he couldn't see that brightness in her eyes.

And for the first time, Alexei felt like he could lose all he had.