Chapter 106
Chapter 106
Kaeleen’s POV
The silence in my office was a heavy, suffocating blanket. It was the kind of quiet that only exists when the person who should be filling it is absent. I stared at the financial projections on my screen, the numbers blurring into meaningless symbols. My company was thriving, my pack was secure, and by all accounts, I should have been on top of the world. But my world had narrowed to a single, agonizing point of focus: Astrid.
Something was wrong.
It wasn’t one big thing, but a hundred small, unsettling details. The faint, persistent shadows under her eyes that even her brightest smiles couldn’t hide. The way she would jump at the slightest sound when she thought I wasn’t looking. The way she clung to me at night, her grip almost desperate, as if she were afraid of drifting away in the darkness.
And she never told me what was wrong. She was pulling away from me, retreating into a place in her own mind where I couldn’t follow. And it was killing me.
I leaned back in my chair, the leather groaning in protest, and ran a hand over my face. I had thought we were past this. I thought after everything, after the bond, after she had chosen me, after we had finally, truly become one, that the walls would be gone for good. I thought she trusted me.
The door to my office opened, and Alex walked in, holding two cups of coffee. He placed one on my desk without a word and settled into the chair opposite me. As my best friend and advisor, he had a unique ability to read my moods.
"She still hasn’t told you, has she?" he asked, his voice calm and even.
I shook my head, taking a sip of the hot coffee. It did little to burn away the cold knot of frustration in my gut. "No. I ask her what’s wrong, and she gives me a tired smile and says it’s nothing. That she’s just adjusting. It’s a lie, Alex. I can feel it through the bond. She’s terrified of something, but she’s hiding it from me."
The hurt was a sharp edge in my voice. "I thought we were a team. I thought she knew she could tell me anything."
Alex took a slow sip of his own coffee, his gaze thoughtful. "She does trust you, Kaeleen. More than she’s ever trusted anyone,I think. At least that’s what I got from my wife. But you have to remember where she came from. For years, her survival depended on her ability to hide her true feelings. Leon trained her to believe that showing any kind of weakness, any kind of problem, would be used against her. That kind of conditioning doesn’t just disappear overnight, not even for a true mate."