Free Web NovelChapter 81: Chapter 81 Lecturing him
_Pierre’s POV_
I had been holding my tongue all evening.
That was not something that came naturally to me and anyone who knew me would confirm that. But I had watched the banquet unfold, had watched Rowena move through the room with that particular composed grace of hers, had watched Alaric arrive and pull her aside with the barely contained energy of a man who had driven across the city on feeling rather than reason, and I had stayed in my corner and held my tongue.
Then Kaelen walked in and I stopped holding it.
Not immediately though. I watched the whole scene. I watched Rowena dress him down with the perfect precision she brought to everything.
Kaelen was the most shameless man I had ever met. I must say.
I watched Kasper take him apart on the floor of the banquet hall and I felt satisfaction.
I watched Alaric deliver a rebuke that would be replayed on news channels until morning.
And through all of it I watched Kaelen’s face, and what I saw on it made something in me go cold and then very hot.
The bastard still thought he had a chance with my Rowena.
Even on the floor. Even after everything Rowena had said. Even after Alaric had finished speaking. Something in Kaelen’s expression, in the set of his jaw and the direction of his eyes, said that he was processing this as a setback rather than a conclusion. That somewhere in the machinery of his thinking he was already calculating the next move.
When he made no move to leave, I finally lost it. Without being told, I knew the shameless man was planning something else.
I picked up the nearest glass and set it down too hard.
It cracked along the base and the sound was sharp enough that the people nearest to me turned to look.
I didn’t care about that.
I walked toward Kaelen, who was now being moved toward the exit by two guards, and I positioned myself where he would have to look at me and I said, clearly enough that the surrounding area could hear it, "It’s over."
He looked at me.
"Whatever story you’re telling yourself in your head right now," I said, "stop telling it. She doesn’t want you back. She hasn’t wanted you back. Every single thing she has done since the dissolution has been her building a life that doesn’t include you, and you keep showing up in the middle of it like the ending is negotiable."
I looked at him steadily. "It isn’t."
Kaelen’s jaw tightened. "Stay out of this."
"You made it a public event," I said. "You walked into a room full of people and made it as public as it gets. So I’m standing in public and I’m telling you clearly what everyone else in this room is thinking."
"You don’t speak for this room."
"I speak for myself," I said. "And I’ll tell you exactly what I think." I took one step closer. "You had her. You had someone who was genuinely extraordinary and you treated her like she would always be there regardless of what you did, because people who are always there have a way of making you believe that always is a permanent condition." I paused. "It isn’t. And now she’s gone and you’re standing in her family’s home having just been taken down by her head of security in front of the Alpha King and a room full of witnesses and you still have that look on your face like this is a problem you can solve." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
He said nothing.
"You can’t solve it," I said. "There’s nothing left to solve. She told you that herself tonight. I’m telling you again because I want it said by someone who isn’t being polite about it."
A short silence passed.
Then Kaelen suddenly bursted out laughing like some maniac who has lost it all. He looked at me with his calm eyes, refusing to succumb since we both were Alphas.
"You want her," he said once his laugh subsided.
I didn’t flinch from it.
"That’s not what this conversation is about," I said.
"It absolutely is," he said. "You’ve been standing in this room all evening watching her, and now you’re here telling me to let go, and you want me to believe that’s coming from some principled place." He almost laughed again, and it was the ugliest sound in the room. "You’re no different from me. You just arrived later."
I looked at him for a moment.
"You want to know the difference," I said. "I’ll tell you the difference." I kept my voice even. "When I am with someone, I am with that person. One person. My whole life, one person. No second arrangements, no managing multiple women, no looking over my shoulder at someone I already left." I let that land. "I have never and will never treat a woman like a position that can be filled and refilled based on my convenience." I looked at him. "That’s the difference."
The room was listening. I was aware of that. I didn’t mind it.
Rowena’s voice came from behind me.
"Kaelen." She had walked over and she stood with that same stillness she always had, that quality of being completely present in a way that made the space around her feel more organized. "Look at me." fгeewebnovёl.com
He looked at her eagerly.
"Whatever you felt," she said. "Whatever you think was left between us. I need you to hear this from me directly." She paused. "It’s gone. I’m not angry anymore. I don’t have enough feeling left in that direction to be angry. What we had is finished and it has been finished for a long time and I am standing here tonight as proof of that." She looked at him with a clarity that was somehow more final than anything else said in the room all evening. "Go home to your wife. That’s where you should be."
Kaelen looked at her for a long moment.
And whatever he saw in her face, whatever he had been holding onto finally found no surface left to hold onto.
He let the guards move him toward the exit.
But again, he didn’t leave completely. He made a stop after a few steps.
