Mated - Chapter 217: Chapter 217

Because for the first time in a long time, I realized something I hadn’t wanted to admit.
I had fallen for Kester.
And now, there was nothing I could do but watch as he slipped away.
A rapid knock jolted me from the light haze of sleep I’d been slipping into.
I groaned and rolled over, pressing the heel of my palm to my forehead. The pounding behind my eyes had only gotten worse like someone was hammering nails through my skull from the inside out.
Who the actual hell?
Another knock–harder and more impatient this time.
If that was Mum coming to talk about Jaden again, I swear, I’d slam the door in her face just like I did the last time. I’d rather let a pack of wolves eat me alive than sit through another minute with that conceited asshole. The audacity he had to ask for a second date after humiliating me on the first… Men like him belonged in a museum of red flags.
I dragged the duvet over my head, barely mustering the strength to raise my voice.
“Who…” I was about to ask but paused abruptly when I heard the voice behind the door.
“I swear to fuck, Kasmine, if you don’t open this door now, I’ll break it down!”
Kester.
He sounded angry.
Well, I’d like to see him try. Because there was no way I’d let him into my room.
“Kasmine?” He called again, quieter this time… That quietness from him that always came before the storm.
My heart skipped. For a second, all I could do was stare at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure if it was the headache or the nausea that hit me harder… or the pure, sharp ache in my chest that came just from hearing his voice.
Before I’d settle back into the bed, I heard a loud thud on the strong, mahogany door.
What the hell?
Another thud slammed into the door–so loud I nearly fell off the bed.
“What the- I scrambled upright, still half tangled in sheets and my small, casual wear – a gown that barely covered my ass, “Is he serious right now?!”
Thud.
This one made the entire frame tremble.
Panic shot through me like a jolt of electricity. I just recalled now that Mum and Dad weren’t home, and the staff… they wouldn’t dare interrupt Kester even if he tore the whole damn house down.
Thud.
“No–Kester!” I yelled, rushing to the door, my bare feet smacking against the floor as dizziness swirled in my vision. “Are you out of your goddamn mind?!”
I unlocked it and yanked it open, fury hot in my throat. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
But before the words had even finished leaving my mouth, he shoved past me–shoulder brushing mine, hard enough to steal my breath and slammed the door shut behind him with an echoing click.
Then he locked it.
He locked it.
“What the-”
My back hit the wall as he turned around with dark eyes and clenched jaws. Every muscle in his body was coiled tight like he was holding back the kind of rage that didn’t belong in polite conversations.
“Kester,” I hissed, trying to keep it together even though my heart was thundering against my ribs. “You can’t just bust into my room like this.”
His gaze didn’t waver.
And mine?
Mine betrayed me.
Because as angry as I was, as humiliated and sick and wrecked… all it took was a look at him to make my chest ache. Because I knew this man. I knew what it meant when his jaw twitched like that. When his breathing turned shallow. When his silence stretched longer than it should.
He wasn’t just mad.
He was hurt.
And I hated that I noticed.
I hated even more that I cared.
“Say what you came to say and get the hell out,” I snapped, straightening, even though the room tilted slightly under my feet.
I wasn’t going to let him do this.
Not five days before he officially became someone else’s.
Not when I had just managed to pull myself together enough to breathe without falling apart.
Not now.
Not ever.