Lycan King's Nemesis
Chapter 98

**GWEN**

"Who is this woman?" I asked straight ahead, gesturing to the artwork.

His Adam's apple bobbed as his eyes flicked there and drifted to me. "Not someone that is important." Gone was the smile in its place was a scowl and his voice gruff. This was a danger zone. A topic he might not like to discuss. I sighed. "Do you want to talk about it? Her?" I already knew who it was. It had to be.

The veins on his forehead protruded as his eyes lowered to his hands and shook his head. He looked so vulnerable. I have never seen him like that. This woman must have really broken his heart.

"Look, Ashton." I started, leaving my position to step close to him. "I'm not going to force you to say something. But you should know whenever you are ready to talk about her or anything, I am willing to listen to you." I reached him and took his hands in mine. "That's what mates are for."

His downcast eyes lifted to mine and held. Saying nothing in response. I know I should suggest he brought down the pictures of her in order to heal faster, but I didn't want him to think I was rushing him. It's a soft process. Slow and steady and I hope we get there.

"Do you still love me?" He asked me, squeezing my fingers. "You said the last time you hated me. Was that because you were mad at me or..."

"Let's take the process one step after the other, Ash. And I don't hate you. I was only..." Emotions chugged down my throat causing me to halt as I recalled our fallout. My rejection and his response. It was like the same way he rejected me the first time we met and my blunt answer of No.

"Your food is ready." He loosened up and bent down to scoop me in his arms in a bridal style.

"Put me down!" I quipped, and at the same time the blanket fell off and chilly air whipped my skin.

He didn't relent until he got to the dining and placed me in a chair and my protest died down abruptly as the aroma of the sumptuous food attacked my nostrils. And before you know it, my stomach rumbled.

I turned crimson in embarrassment. "Ignore that," I quickly said.

He let out a rich baritone of chuckles as he drew out the chair next to me and sat down. "Don't worry, I will take care of you."

He served me a plate of steaming spaghetti while I savoured my cup of coffee. When I set the cup down, I took my spoon and began eating in earnest. One spoon and my eyes widened in awe. Unbelievable!

"I can't believe you made this," I uttered with my mouth full, mesmerized by how good the food tasted. How come?

He shrugged proudly. "I like cooking, you know."

"You like cooking?" I was taken aback. "How did you learn to cook, then? Literally, everything in the palace is done by others."

He took his time to reply. "As I said earlier, this place is my comfort zone. Most times when I am overwhelmed by Kingdom duties, I sneak off here to cool off. During those times, I have to fend for myself." I was indeed stupefied. To say as a King he didn't opt for the service of someone to help him do those things said a lot about him.

Who is Ashton? Is he truly the man he portrayed to me all these months or as his sister said, he was a good man hurt and now channels that hurt to me to make me feel what he felt from his past lover's betrayal?

If only he could confide in me.

I smiled. "I'm glad you learned well."

"What?" He snickered in between eating. Some of the food even left his mouth, but instead of irritating me, I found it enticing. This is the man I want to be with. The man of my dreams. Free with me, and himself without all that King stuff. "You don't know how to cook?" He asked, and then he rolled his eyes.

"I do." I deadpanned. "I used to assist my... mom in the kitchen when I was back home. In fact, my sister was the lazy one in the house." As I spoke, the memories flooded like a river. It brought a sad smile to my face. Talking about it now, I think Theresa had something against me back then. For one reason or the other, she was often snobbish or even had a biting remark.

At first, I felt maybe it was because I was the popular one, everywhere we went, people tend to relate with me more than they did her. It looked as if she existed in my shadows. However, I never made her feel like that. I loved her, and in everything I did, I put her first, including doing all the chores I knew naturally, she was supposed to do.

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Fuck that, I think it's all in my head. Theresa is just that kind of person. It's just her, nothing personal.

She loved me too, there was no way she couldn't. We were sisters!

"Ummm," Ashton's grunt brought me back, my eyes blinking repetitively at him. "Your family must have been a lovely one." He said thoughtfully. "You care to share about them?"

Usually, I would not want to discuss my family seeing as I was not even sure if they were truly my family, but then, it would come off like I was hiding something from him, so I shrugged a yes. "Well, we were like the normal cliche family." I dropped the spoon on the table, having wiped the contents of the plate. "My Dad... he was the best Dad in the world. My best friend. Though, I had another best friend I think I was closer to my Dad. He was the Beta of my pack." "The Beta? You mean you have a Beta's blood? Like, a Beta female?"

I blanched. "Uh... umm, I can't tell for now because..."

"Because you haven't shifted yet," he finished.

"Yeah... that," I mumbled in a weary tone. I was ashamed. This was my present weakness. My Achilles. My greatest fear. When he said it like that it made me feel less of who I was supposed to be. It made me question my existence more and made me realize that maybe the family I thought was mine might end up not being mine after all.

Then, who am I?

I trembled as I felt a warm hand placed over mine on my lap. I didn't know I had drifted out until now.

I gathered the courage to look up and met with Ashton's concerned perusal. "I don't judge you. And the last time you told me about... those things about your past, I felt like a bastard for the manner I treated you. You didn't deserve that." Tears stung the corners of my eyes. I didn't want to shed them so I bit down on my lower lip. "Thanks. But yes... You were a jerk back then. I regretted telling you."

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He chuckled, taking back his hand and facing his food. He liked taking his time to eat, I have noticed. "I deserve that." "So...?" He drawled.

"Yes... My mother is sweet and kind and very understanding, though I think she favours my sister over me, the way my Dad does me." This time I giggled, recollecting the times when my mother took my sister's side over mine and how Dad would precede like a wall of Abishama to fight for me. I missed him so much it hurts.

I wonder how he felt after I went missing. I pray it wasn't that drastic. He might not be my biological father, yet he loved me so much. It made me feel guilty for leaving like that and felt perhaps, he didn't deserve that from me. None of them did.

"So, that day you came here..."

I took my glass of water and chugged down and when I dropped it, my hand didn't leave it. I contemplated deeply telling him about my secret. He was my mate and if I desired him to open up to me, then I should lead the way.

"It was the day I had just found out I was unable to do what naturally was bestowed on me as a werewolf." My voice came off stronger than I imagined. "I couldn't shift. And that same day... I lost my best friend, the one I thought was going to be my mate... to my sister."

"Oh..." Once more he took my left hand on the table and squeezed in comfort. It produced a certain sensation inside me, a sensation that made me want to divulge everything to him, including what I overheard my parents saying that day when I reached home.

It was an overwhelming sensation. It was possibly the bond. Because this was something I swore to take to my grave.

"Who was he?" He questioned unexpectedly. "This person that broke your heart."

I opened my mouth and closed, snatching my hand back. My mind didn't go there. How was I supposed to tell him it was the same person he overheard me moaning his name in my sleep? He beat me to it. "Julian?"

...