Chapter 7

• I sat frozen in my seat the moment I saw him.
• It wasn’t what I expected or had been anticipating all night, but he was right in front of me, drunk as every other man in this damn place.
• I rose from my seat as if on instinct as I moved towards him. The closer I moved, the better look I got at him. His eyes were barely open and his hair was a mess as if he'd run his fingers through it countless times.
• I actually felt sad seeing him like this and I couldn’t understand why. Why would a rogue have this effect on me?
• I felt like I wanted to take him to the castle and make whatever problems he had disappeared, yet I felt like I wanted to rip his throat out for putting me in this pain.
• Was he feeling the same thing? The thought only just occurred to me after seeing him this wasted. I paused a few feet away from him as I considered it all. What if he was telling me the truth?
• I knew I denied it, simply because I couldn’t dare begin to think that I was the soulmate of the very thing I live to kill. I didn’t want to believe it because I thought he wanted to come into my life and ruin it.
• I am to marry a duke who will be my alpha and who will be the king one day. Yet every time I thought about marrying another man, I was pushed into awful pain as if I was being punished.
• Why would it be happening only when I met Drew? I was thinking about marriage days before my ball, because my mother had been buzzing about it for weeks! So what were the odds that only after I met Drew, did I start feeling like this?
• Not to mention the fact that he messes with my emotions, my mind won't give me a break because it's on him 24/7, and I can't, no matter how hard I try, bring myself to kill him.
• Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all, or maybe I was just as crazy for considering it. But there must be some level of truth behind what he said. Even my wolf insisted that it was true.
• Otherwise, I wouldn’t be feeling this only now when I met him.
• This made me even more determined to be done with him. Yesterday he said there wasn’t any way to undo a mate bond, but it had been clear that he was lying. I grew determined that I wouldn’t leave tonight without knowing.
• I simply couldn’t afford to have him come into my life and turn it upside down. I had a duty that was instilled upon me from the minute I was born, and then fate comes with this crap? I cannot be a rogue Alpha’s mate. It won’t work because I don’t want it to work. Besides, what would I tell my parents?
• 'Oh by the way, Mother, I cannot marry the duke because I have learnt that I am the mate of this rogue, and so you and the entire kingdom should accept him as I have. But don’t worry because he’s still an Alpha.'
• Yeah right.
• I haven’t even accepted him, not to mention my mother. I could see both our heads flying by the simple thought.
• I resumed my journey towards him, pushing away whatever affection that I felt in my stomach by the simple thought of him. Hell, even after I just accepted that he was telling the truth about this mate bond, I felt immensely better. I relished in the feeling for a while, but I knew what I simply had to do.
• His eyes found mine only seconds before I was in front of him and I watched as his eyebrows pulled together in confusion as if he was trying to remember who I was. I stopped a few inches away from him with my arms crossed, and his eyes lit in realisation before a lopsided smile grew on his face.
• "My princess," he mumbled in a slur as his eyes drooped. He smelled disgusting, as if he puked and bathed himself afterwards in alcohol.
• "We need to talk," I said sternly, and his eyebrows shot up in what seemed like amusement as he reached for me.
• "Oh? You wanna marry me instead of that duke, don’t you?" The venom in his voice was evident, and it made me realise that this was the reason why he was drunk.
• Guilt rose in me, but I quickly dismissed it before leaning closer to him which I immediately regretted. "I said, we need to talk." I didn’t wait for a reply, only held him by the collar and dragged him from the bar.
• I almost moaned when the fresh air hit me, eliminating all the stench and high scent of liquor that the inside provided. I let go of Drew and he stumbled and fell to his bottom before rubbing his eyes.
• "Ouch that hurt," he mumbled as he shuffled to get up. I watched him in annoyance, knowing I probably wouldn't get much out of him like this, but I could at least try.
• Who knows? Maybe he was an honest drunk.
• "Get a grip on yourself, Drew. I need to ask you a few questions."
• "How did you find me?" he asked in a low, almost disappointed voice. He met my eyes again, and they seemed a little bit more focused, as if he was sobering up a bit.
• I grabbed my water bottle from the holder on my bike and threw it at him. I was shocked when he caught it, but he eyed it weirdly.
• "This won't help me if you want me to get sober," he slurred, but drank anyway. Shivers ran down my spine when he licked his lips, making them glisten under the moonlight.
• Get a grip, Amber!
• "What do you need then?"
• "You can't help," he mumbled, making his way back inside but I grabbed onto him to keep him from leaving.
• It then occurred to me that if he was my mate, then I could help him get his bearings. But I hated how it would have to be done.
• This went against everything that I believed in, but not even twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t believe that I could be the mate of a rogue. So in order to get what I wanted, I made a tough call.
• I grabbed my dagger from my waistband and made a slice in my hand, barely wincing as it opened my skin. Drew's eyes watched me in confusion as I held my palm out for him. He didn’t even take a whiff.
• "I can't drink your blood, Amber," he said with hurt evident in his eyes, as if I'd just offended him. Did I?
• "Why the hell not?" I snapped. “I read somewhere that mates can heal each other with their blood so drink!”
• Yet, he stubbornly shook his head. "I won't ever taste your blood unless..."
• "Unless?" I probed, but he only looked more pained.
• "It doesn’t matter." He spun on his heels again, almost falling over as I caught him. "You will be another man's wife soon so it will never happen." He sounded as if he was talking to himself rather than talking to me.
• "Is that why you got wasted in a bar? Because you believe your mate is getting married to someone else?"
• His famous smirk emerged at that, but he nodded anyway. "So, you believe me now huh? Why?"
• "Because..." My voice almost came out harsh, but with him in this state, I thought it would be best to keep a reign on my annoyance so I could get better answers from him. "Because I've been feeling...pain." There was no pain in telling the truth about, well, the pain.
• "Shit," he cursed softly, smirk gone as if it wasn’t even there. "You feel it too? I thought it would've only been me since you don’t want me."
• "But you don’t want me either." I pointed out. He seemed to always forget what he said to me.
• "No. But only because I don’t deserve you, not because I don’t desire to be with you, Amber. You must know that," he said, sounding very much sober and sincere.
• I was confused. I thought he hated me because I hunted his rogues for a living. Now he was saying he didn’t deserve me? But why? What could he have done to think that?
• My breath hitched and images of Nathan's happy face flashed in my mind, reminding me why I was even here.
• "Drew." I sighed. "I need you to tell me how I can put us both out of this misery." I thought it would be beneficial for both of us. Even after this mate bond is broken, I don’t think I'd be able to kill Drew.
• So, he can leave when I no longer 'trap' him, and I can move on with my life forgetting he even existed.
• "How?" he asked again, feigning confusion.
• "When I asked you yesterday how I can undo this..." I motioned between the two of us for emphasis. "You said there was no way to break the bond, but I feel you weren’t being honest."
• He chuckled humorlessly, and his eyes looked detached again as he staggered closer to me.
• "You would have to reject me."