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Part 16

Three days.

My happiness lasted for three days before I was proven a fool for entrusting myself to this lowly human.

Three days of making out until we were breathless, of his fingers exploring my body until I was so sensitive that I hardly felt anything anymore except for the wrecking pleasure that expertly shattered all my defences.

Three days of walking around with a plug inside my ass so that we would be able to mate.

Three days before he came home late from work, reeking of a particular cat that I had no fond feelings for. I'd been sitting on the couch for the past two hours, watching the door with increasing boredom, waiting for him to return – and my heart sunk once he stepped inside, the unmistakable scent of his arousal still firmly clinging to him.

Vince grinned when he saw me, walking over with quick strides to greet me as if nothing was amiss. I stared at his fingers closing in on me, aiming to fumble my ear the exact way that I liked it most, but I wasn't going to let them.

I wasn't going to let him lay hands on me ever again.

I slapped his hand away before it reached me, struggling to keep my claws retracted since I was dying to hurt him, same way I was hurting now. Maybe it was only this feeling of being utterly stupid that made my heart ache, but it was painful enough to rid me of my breath anyway.

I glared up at him, lacking even the voice to growl.

Vince looked taken aback. "What? What's wrong?"

He was seriously playing dumb. His brows pulled together, mimicking a worried expression that he certainly didn't mean. After all, he couldn't have been claiming to care after mating with someone else.

My lips quivered, and I was surprised by tears stinging in my eyes, a human emotional response that I had forgotten I had long ago. I sniffed, recoiling from Vince as he reached out once more. I jumped from the couch to gain more distance, then retreated further away.

Vince took a deep breath, briefly closing his eyes. "Would you talk to me for fucks sake? You've been clinging to me like crazy the past days and now this?"

"Sorry for clinging," I snapped, curling my lips back to bare my fangs at him. It hurt. My heart was a blur of white pain in my chest, and my lungs were burning hot. I gulped, but it felt like someone was pushing a dagger down my throat.

"I didn't say you needed to apologize," he said with an irritated frown, though he sounded pacified now that I was at least talking to him. "I just don't get how we get from there to – this."

"Ask Taz, maybe he remembers."

He blanked. His features lost all hints at an expression before they contorted in an anger that I didn't care about. Vince combed a hand through his hair, looking anywhere but at my cowering frame. "Come on, it's just sex."

"Then you won't mind if I'm not going to have any with you," I retorted acidly.

He looked incredulous. "What? You can't be serious! I was just letting off some steam."

"I – am – serious," I empathized, just so the message was going to get through to that inconsiderate brain of his.

"You – you – why are you acting like this?"

I growled but kept my mouth shut. Apparently, it had been utterly wrong of me to think that there was any use talking to this human. He wasn't even close to getting it, and his next words made it abundantly clear why that was the case.

"Don't tell me you're jealous? You're a pet, Moondrop."

I stalked off towards the guest bedroom with Vince following at my heels, stomping loudly across the parquet floor – until I shut the door in his face.

"Stay away!" I shouted because apparently, he needed clear verbal reminders to grasp my emotional situation. Surprisingly enough, it really worked. His ragged breathing echoed through the corridor, then stopped abruptly before he walked off.

Sighing, I dropped down on the bed and buried my face in a pillow as if to suffocate myself. It was in fact an attempt to drown out my feelings that threatened to burst from my throat in uncontrolled sobs. My shoulders were shaking already, struggling to keep the pain bottled up. Somehow, my heart was too small to deal with them.

Eventually, I tore free of the cushion to gasp for air, only for tears to well from my eyes and pearl down my cheeks. Despite the deep breaths I was taking, there seemed to be no oxygen inside my lungs.

I didn't understand why I was crying, much less why I was hurting. I was ashamed that I'd been stupid enough to trust this man, yet that was no reason so feel this badly. Besides, thinking of him bothered me more than thinking about myself. I remembered his touch, and his smile, and the warmth of his arms wrapped around my body – and I was missing these things terribly already.

Still, there was no way to regain them. After all, I was no more than a pet in his eyes, a thing that belonged to him and was exchangeable without much thought. It didn't matter whether he mated with me, or with Taz, or any other pet that stumbled into his hands. He'd been wanting to do it, and since I hadn't been ready, he'd simply gotten it somewhere else, only caring about himself.

I felt conflicted. Part of me regretted not having mated, thinking that he might not have done it with Taz in that case. Besides, I wanted to know what it was like to go all the way with him, to feel deep inside of me what I'd felt with fingers and tongue already. At the same time, I was glad I hadn't given him everything, suspecting that he would've cheated on me sooner or later anyway.

Though I had every right to hate this man, I didn't – and I feared I never would. Crying, I only wished that I was wrong, that I'd somehow misunderstood. After all, these past three days had been the happiest of my life.

But I guessed I was delusional, given that Vince had described the events as me clinging to him like crazy. Maybe that was it, maybe I was crazy. Maybe I really should've kept my distance, then I wouldn't have ended up hurting, rejected.