Chapter 82: 82-My Mate In My Bedroom
Clementine:
"Haiden? What the fuck?" I gasped, stepping back and slowly lowering my vase. My eyes immediately looked at the band in my hand, then I began searching for his while he jumped into the attic. The outside was pretty cold, so he quickly shut the window before I froze to death. I was only wearing a very thin, white, loose shirt with loose shorts. My hair was in a messy bun, with strands hanging out and bouncing around my face.
"I didn’t want to go back to my pack," he said casually, wearing a black button-up shirt with several buttons undone, and black pants.
"Haiden? How did you manage to do that? Where is your band?" I asked him, my eyes showing I was scared for him.
"I found a way to take it off, so I put it around one of my old friend’s wrists. He’s staying at the pack. The council doesn’t have to know, the ringleaders don’t have to know, and I get to be here," he said casually and cheerfully, as if it were nothing. He began to stroll around.
"This was your bedroom," he said, casually looking around.
I didn’t want to say it out loud because I didn’t want to bring him back to that phase. But ever since my father was punished, which was only about two days ago, I had seen a positive change in Haiden. He looked more relaxed, more confident, and more at ease.
"Why would you come back here? Please don’t tell me you were so bored you thought you’d come here to bully me," I said tiredly as he jumped on my small bed next to the window.
"No, I was thinking I would spend time with my mate." As soon as he said that, I narrowed my eyes, my hands on my waist.
"Okay, okay, fine. I knew you would be alone, and you’d be feeling left out, because, you know—" he started to speak but didn’t say anything that I didn’t already know.
"Haiden, I’m fine here. You can go back. I’m used to being alone," I said, irritated. I didn’t want him around. I didn’t want anyone around me. Every time someone got too close to me, they betrayed me, and I didn’t want that. I was doing fine right now.
"Come on, Clementine," he groaned, sitting up in bed, his legs hanging down. My bed was at a good height. It was small, and I had placed it right next to the window. I didn’t know how it was bearing the weight of this giant monster.
"I couldn’t go back to my pack. I didn’t want to face those people who never believed me, who questioned a child’s story about his mother’s death and his sister’s abduction," he said under his breath.
I began to feel bad for him, so I sat down next to him.
"Fine, then you can stay here," I growled.
"But you’re not allowed to leave this room," I warned him, turning in the bed. My legs were also hanging down, but his reached the ground while mine just dangled in the air.
"Woah, calm down. You don’t need to get so possessive," he choked out, and I wanted to hit him so bad, but I didn’t. It would’ve been a playful hit, but like I said, I didn’t want to grow close to anyone.
"Why don’t you want to go back to your pack? I heard you have someone back there," I stated. He shook his head.
"My uncle wants me to marry this girl. You know my father, he’s a douchebag too. After my mom died, he believed the lies your father told him. He thought she was a bad woman who brought trouble on herself and my sister by having an affair with some rogue." he paused just so that he could gather his thoughts.
"Some rogue," he laughed, because we all knew there were no real rogues. They were sent North to fight monsters just to stay alive. That’s how the criminals were dealt with, left to survive in the North. Who knows if any of them are even alive now? And many weren’t even criminals, just teenagers or people like me who wanted to escape the pack’s messed-up rules.
"So my father and uncle ignored what I said and blamed my mom. They claimed she picked the wrong guy and died because of it. I guess that was easier to believe, since my dad expected her to save him during the war and get him help. Poor Mom, she tried. But in the end, none of those men cared," he shrugged.
"Sometimes I wonder if the North monsters were punishment for what our ancestors did," I said, pouting and staring ahead. He slowly turned to look at me, and I turned too. Now we were both staring at each other. I was swinging my legs, but the motion slowed when I saw how deeply he was looking into my eyes. I felt shy and awkward, so I quickly looked away.
"What happened between you and Troy?" he asked.
I was taken aback by the question. "Haiden, just because you’re here doesn’t mean you get to hear all my secrets," I stated, furrowing my eyebrows. I knew a lot of people were aware we had fallen apart, maybe even some bits about how he humiliated me, but no one really knew the full sequence of events. And once time passed, it got shoved under the rug and only the spicy rumors stuck around.
"Anyway, you should sleep on the floor. I’ll take the bed," I said, and he frowned.
"That’s the first time I’ve heard someone say that. Usually, when someone sneaks into your bedroom, they say, ’Hey, you can take the bed,’" he was saying when I had to cut him off.
"No. First of all, you won’t fit in my bed. So you’ll be uncomfortable, and then I’ll be uncomfortable on the ground. What’s the point in both of us being uncomfortable? Why not just one?" I shrugged, smirking as I got up. Still, I pulled a mattress out of one of the closets and laid it down for him.
"Are you sure you don’t want to go back to your pack?" I asked, and he shrugged.
"Nope. I’m fine here." With that, he lay down on the mattress.
I stayed in my bed for a while, afraid of falling asleep. I knew a lot had happened, and the nightmares would come back. When that happened, I usually sweated and experienced sleep paralysis, which gave me extreme headaches in the morning. I was scared, but eventually, my eyes grew heavy, and I started to drift off.
I didn’t even know how long it was before the sleep paralysis hit. My body froze, and I tried to break out. At the same time, I was staring into the eyes of an old man who kept repeating the same thing:
"It’s okay, you’re just a child yourself. You should give him to me. I’ll take care of him."
His hands extended unnaturally, almost inhumanly. Every nightmare was different. The man would shift shapes, change forms. I tried to run, holding my little brother in my arms, but an invisible barrier trapped me.
"No! No!" I screamed, kicking at him, trying to push him away. But his hands kept growing, his head expanded. He was getting larger. Panic and anxiety surged in me until my limbs went numb. My hands felt so heavy that I dropped my brother, and the moment that happened, I woke up.
"Hey, hey, hey. It was just a nightmare."
Right in front of me sat my mate, looking into my eyes, his hands gripping my arms. I glanced around the room, trying to gather my thoughts. Before I could, I felt a pull toward him. He held my arm tightly and pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me.
I didn’t hug him back. I didn’t place my hands on his chest. My arms hung limp at my sides. It took a moment to realize I was in my mate’s arms.