CHAPTER 359: AFTERMATH

"I am fine."

"No, you are not, but you will be," said Killian as he marched past the corridors of the council building. His voice was dangerously flat, and he didn’t seem to like the fact that his mate was hurt. Of course, he didn’t. He was fiercely protective of Inez and the fact that she was kidnapped right under his protection. Tied and thrown in prison, well, one could say that the man was an inch away from burning the council building to ashes.

Tracy could feel her lips scrunching up even with the horrible possibilities jumping up in front of her.

"I don’t know what you are thinking—alright, who am I kidding? I know exactly what you are thinking, but you’d better keep your anger suppressed," Tracy drawled. She did enjoy the lycan heir snapping and growling, but she couldn’t allow him to run amok like a feral toddler with no sense of direction. "If you burn this place down, others are bound to blame Inez. keep this in your mind and don’t act on your instincts, no matter how much you want to."

"I wasn’t going to," Killian glanced at her and gritted out. Though he said that, his expression was full of reluctance.

Finn looked like he was contemplating whether to stay with his alpha or find the nearest exit from where he could escape. His gaze kept darting to and fro at his alpha’s increasingly thunderous expression and at Inez, whose face was getting paler due to the pain and agony she was suffering from.

"You better not burn this place down." Laxus glanced at his alpha. His voice was even and firm, even though he looked like he very much wanted to bolt from here. "We don’t have enough funds to build the council another building. And we just finished building this one."

"Oh, so you have already walked down that road of embarrassment." Tracy whistled.

Killian turned and glanced at the woman, his gaze full of displeasure. "Why are you still following us?"

"Why else? I need to make sure that she doesn’t suck you dry of your life essence. When sirens get hurt, they rely on their prey to recover their strength. With how weak Inez is at the moment, there is a very good chance that her siren would try to seduce you into sleeping with her. Which, mind you, will not be good for you unless you want to die a horrible death."

Inez’s face turned red despite the loss of blood that she had suffered from, while Killian’s eyes locked onto Tracy like targeted missiles.

Inez could feel her heart pound. Trapped between embarrassment due to the words that Tracy had spoken to her and the worry of doing exactly what she said. After all, she could feel her siren stirring stronger than ever within her. She had known that her siren was capable of hurting Killian, but hearing it again made her feel—well, scared of her own powers. Of her own existence.

"I think...she is right—we shouldn’t be alone." Inez’s voice was thin; even when all she wanted was to reach out and hug Killian. Inez knew that it wasn’t quite possible, not without her swallowing the essence of the man who was holding her in his arms.

The words were weak; there was no particularly strong desire or determination within them. If anything, they sounded like a whine as if she were a toddler upset with her parent for peeling the banana in the wrong way.

Killian dropped his gaze. His jaw clenched so tight that Inez could hear him grinding his teeth. The look in his lightning blue eyes was enough to make her lower her head.

Tracy hummed softly. "Don’t look like that. I am only doing this for her own good."

"She is hurt." He said, his voice full of menace.

"All the more reasons for you to not touch her and stay away from her." Tracy stood firmly by her decision. She turned her gaze up and stared right into Killian’s eyes before stating, "You cannot play hooky with her when she is like this, can you now?"

Killian seemed like he was planning on saying something extremely ridiculous. Like, heck yeah, he was going to do whatever he wanted, but he simply sighed and resignedly agreed. "Alright."

And that was it. There were no hard feelings, no fighting, and no making a fuss. Inez also felt relieved. There was no one hurt, there was no murder and no bloodshed. Which was indeed quite good, considering the situation. But as she raised her head and looked at Killian’s handsome face, his chiselled jaw and luscious lips felt and tasted amazing whenever he kissed her. And suddenly she felt a bit regretful. There was this sharp pang of disappointment

Ridiculous.

She was the one who wanted to stop Killian earlier, and now she was disappointed? She was not an eighteen-year-old who couldn’t control her feelings. She knew the pros and cons of letting her siren let loose, and Inez knew very clearly that the cons outweigh the pros in more than just one way.

And yet.

For one brief, insane and chaotic moment, Inez wanted to forgo every worry. Someone, for the first time, had chosen her, came to her rescue without worrying about the consequences, and someone had trusted her without a doubt. Killian could have ignored her. It was convenient to do so. Or because coming to her aid could have totally caused him a lot of trouble. But he didn’t. He came for her. He trusted her even when others told him that she was the one behind the murder.

And that alone put him way ahead of Dominic, who never once trusted her.

Inez swallowed hard and smiled at Killian. "Don’t make that expression. Aren’t I doing it for you?"

Even though her heart was breaking a little, Inez knew that this was the right thing to do.

**

Sorry for the lack of updates I was travelling. Shopping for my wedding kekeke