Lovers' Oath Ch. 09

Author's Note: Life sucks, and then we don't get to do things we love, e.g, write good stories for great readers. Then we start writing and posting again. :)

Thanks for hanging around. Any errors you might find are results of my post-editing tweaking. Thanks to my editor Gabriel for keeping the chapters error-free.

Enjoy.

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2 days later, Kiel's Office.

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"Kiel, can I talk to you?" Priyal asked from the door way of Kiel's office.

"Only if it's highly important and can be completed within 5 minutes." Kiel replied sharply as he looked through a few files. In truth, he wasn't in a mood to listen to any more reports or anything. He had returned from a mission just a few hours ago, and had been dying to go meet Rayn ever since he found out she wasn't at HQ. He had to leave on the mission without talking to her, and now, being so much closer, he felt restless not being able to see her.

"It's about Rayn." Priyal said as she walked in. That got his attention.

"What about her? Is she alright? Has she gotten into some trouble?" He asked worriedly, quickly closing the files.

"No, she's alright. Just that, I don't think she should be hanging with Rogers much. I'm not sure but he seems...well," She paused searching for an appropriate word, "Not good for Rayn." Then she added, "And she has been hanging around with him a lot, lately."

Noticing the suggestive tone in Priyal's words, he frowned slightly, "Is there any particular reason that you think he is fishy?"

Priyal shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "No. Well, I can't exactly put my finger on it, but... He is supposed to be a Shape-shifter, yet he seems much too powerful for that. I think he is lying." She blurted out.

Standing up, Kiel picked up his jacket, "Well, Kendra recruited him. And neither Kendra nor I find anything suspicious about him, so you don't have to worry about it. Good day." He prepared to leave.

"Wait, Kiel." Priyal stood up, "I still don't think it's good for Rayn to spend so much time with him. I mean, for the past two days, she has been spending almost all day with him locked up in his office, leaving late at night. The day you left, we were training in the gym, and he came and literally dragged her out of there, saying he would be training her. He didn't even ask for my permission." She fumed, completely failing to notice the way Kiel stood rigidly in front of her, his face turning into a dark mask.

"Is she with him today?" He asked without facing her, barely managing to keep from growling.

"Yeah, I guess. They are probably 'training' again." She replied scathingly.

"Oh!" He stood rooted to the spot for some time, then threw his jacket back on his desk. Going back to sit on his chair again, he pulled the files back. "Well, who she hangs with is none of your concern. I'm sure she knows what she is doing. You can leave now." He dismissed her without looking up at her.

"But you just got back! You should go home and take some rest."

"I appreciate the concern. I know what I'm supposed to do. Go back to work. Good day." He replied coldly. As he heard the door shut behind her, he pushed away the files and leaned back into the chair, closing his eyes. As Priyal's words came back to him, he pinched his nose. "Mistake. Big, big, big fucking mistake". He cursed at himself even as his heart wrenched to think he had lost Rayn. He shouldn't have waited for so long to claim her heart. He should have just snatched her up the moment he had known she was meant for him and made her his. Now, he had lost her.

He felt like some one was holding his heart in a strong grip and squeezing really hard. It was so bloody painful. Opening his eyes, he stared blankly at the ceiling. Was it just two days ago that he had held her in his arms? It felt like a century. And now, he would probably never be able hold her like that again.

He felt his wolf curling up, burying its nose between its paws, unable to bear this pain. The wolf didn't understand the complexities of human relationships, but it did understand this gut wrenching pain -- somehow, for some reason, their mate had rejected them. The wolf was pretty damn sure it was the human half's fault. After all, it he had his animalistic way, she would be with him right now.

"It doesn't matter", he muttered, half conscious that he was talking to himself, despite knowing he didn't have to say things out loud for his wolf to understand it; he said it out loud to make himself believe it, "It doesn't matter whether we were mated or not. If she wanted us, she would be here."

As the human half tried to bury his pain under his work load, the wolf remained curled up, trying very hard to resist the temptation of simply overtaking the consciousness and fight to win his mate over. It wasn't the nature of the animal to just let go of his mate. If someone tried to take away your mate, you fought back tooth and nail -- that was his philosophy. But knowing his human side would not go with that plan, it stayed put, simply waiting until the human burned out and returned home.

His human may give up, but it was only in his sleep that the wolf would be able to persuade him to keep fighting for their mate.

*****

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That night, The Den.

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"No, I don't bloody want dinner. All I want is for you lot to leave me fucking alone. Think you can do that?" Kiel half growled half shouted at the young man who flinched with almost every word he uttered. The poor man had been assigned the job to ask the Alpha whether he would like his dinner to be sent up to his room or not. As he stood at the receiving end of Kiel's murderous glare, his knees trembled. Trembling like a leaf, he meekly answered,

"Yes sir."

"Yes sir what?" Kiel shouted again.

"I... I will not bother you again, sir." The man's reply was barely audible.

"Then why the fuck are you still standing here?" As Kiel growled, the man quickly turned and walked away as fast his trembling legs would carry him. Glaring at his retreating back, Kiel stepped back into the elevator. As the door closed and it started moving upwards, his anger started to drain little by little. Even as he realized how futile his anger was, still he tried to cling on to it. Because once the anger left, there would only be pain to deal with. And he seriously didn't want the pain to return.

"Oh hell." He slumped against the back wall of the elevator. As the gut wrenching pain started to come back, he slowly sank down onto the floor. Staring up at the brightly lit panel as he saw the numbers change, he felt utterly and profoundly hopeless.

In all his life, no matter how hard the situation got, he had never felt hopeless. But this one woman walked into his life and changed everything. Just the thought that she wouldn't be his anymore made him feel lost. Missions and wars didn't matter anymore. Everything seemed pointless. Right now it felt as if every step he had taken in his life was for him to reach her. And now, when she was so close, he had pushed her away and into someone else's arms. The only thing he wanted to do right now, was to mimic his wolf and curl up on the bed, trying not to wake up ever again. He sighed. He didn't even realize that it was his floor until the door made a soft 'ding' sound as it started to close.

"Crap." He quickly stood up and exited the elevator just in time to get out before the door closed. Standing outside the elevator, his eyes instinctively drifted towards her door. Wandering closer, he stood in front of it like a true blue heartbroken puppy. A quick sniff at her door told him she wasn't in her apartment, in fact, she hadn't been in the apartment the whole day. She was with Rogers, probably. Sighing again, he turned towards his door.

Walking into his apartment, he threw his jacket onto the couch. Then starting to take off his shirt, he lazily dragged himself towards his bed room. As he opened the door to his bed room, he had already taken off his shirt and the belt and was about half way through undoing his zipper when a sleepy voice greeted him,

"Kiel, is that you?"

Kiel froze in place. A small sensation of hope and joy started in his chest. Could it be?

"Kiel?" The voice tentatively asked again. As his eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness of the room, he could make out someone sitting on his bed. He took a few hurried steps forward as the figure stood up.

"Rayn?" He guarded his eyes with his palm as the light was turned on.

"Hey." There she stood beside his bed, looking as if she had just woke up from a long sleep, her hair was messy, her cheeks looked rosy, and her slightly puffy, pouty lips called to him, as if begging for him to kiss them.

"Uh, hey there." He replied unsurely. Should he ask what she was doing there? He opened his mouth, then closed it. It might sound rude. After all, he was very happy she was there. Should he tell her how happy he was to see her in his room? He opened his mouth again, and closed it again. It might sound cheesy, or creepy. What if she freaked out? May be she had just woke up from sleep and had come to meet him? Still, it doesn't explain why she was in his room in the first place. Was she waiting for him here the whole time? That feeling of joy grew a little. He could almost feel the smugness of his wolf. Oh, how he wanted to grab her and kiss her senseless right now. He couldn't help the mischievous grin that spread on his face.

"I was... I was just..." She fidgeted as he just stood there smiling at her. "I'm sorry, you must be very tired. I was just leaving." She tried to quickly brush past him.

"Uh uh uh, wait." He caught her with one of his arms around her waist. Gently dragging her back to himself, he tilted her head up with two fingers,

"That's not why you were here in the first place." He murmured softly, then unable to resist the temptation, he let one of his fingers gently caress her lower lip. He had almost forgot how adorably fluffy they looked when she was fresh out of bed. As he brushed back a few strands of hair from her face, her eyes fluttered closed for a brief moment.

Seeing that look on her face, he groaned mentally. Gods that felt so good! It felt like being able to breathe fresh air after having been locked up in a box for days or months. As he cupped her cheeks, she shivered slightly. Thinking she was feeling cold, he pulled her closer, bringing her body flush against his.

"I wanted to see you when you got back. I figured that you being tired and all you would come straight home. So I waited here, then fell asleep. Just woke up to find you coming in."

"Hmm..." he rumbled. "So you were right here the whole day?" He could feel her getting sleepy again. She planted her cheek against his chest.

"Hmm. Yes." She was loosely holding on to his upper arms.

Circling her with his arms, he smiled gratefully, sighing contentedly. "Oh. That's wonderful." He rubbed his cheek against her head. He just couldn't stop touching her, letting her get out of his arms were out of the question.

"Hmm, yes it is." She sleepily murmured against his chest, then yawned. "I feel sleepy again." She complained, starting to pull back.

"Hmm, better get you to bed then." He wasn't going to let her out of bed anytime soon.

"Yeah you are right. It's too late." Then, as if something had just occurred to her, she stepped back from him with a frown, getting out of his arms. "Where the hell were you? I thought you came back this morning?" She demanded suddenly.

"Yeah, I did." He guiltily admitted. "I had to stop at the office first, and well, work just kept piling up."

"Ah, I see. Well you must be tired. You should get some rest." She looked back at the bed then back at him, "See you in the morning then. Good night." She smiled up at him.

"What?" He stared at her, and then comprehension dawned on him. Of course, she was going to go back to her apartment. Why should she stay the night with him? She had no reason to. As he frantically tried to come up with a reason to make her stay, she walked away from him, towards the door. "Uh, wait. You can't go back to your apartment." He desperately tried.

"Why not?" She turned back towards him.

"Um, because... because, I broke the door, remember?" He offered hopefully.

"Yeah. Then you got it repaired the next morning, remember?" Then pausing, she added, "Oh, no, you don't remember. That was the morning you went away on the mission. Without telling me." She glared at him.

"Ah, um, it came up so suddenly. I didn't have much time." Did her pout always look that sexy?

"Well, you had time to call up Dina and ask her to get on this mission, didn't you?"

Nope, it looked so sexy because she was so sleepy, he decided. "I didn't. Rohan did that."

"Whatever." She shrugged, turning back and walking out of the door.

As he heard first his door slam shut and then the opening and closing of her door, he dropped onto his bed with a big sigh. Not only had he managed to waste an entire day working when he could have been with her, he had also managed to piss her off as soon as he met her. The only bright side was, he still had a chance to win her heart. And he wasn't going to waste that.

All he had to figure out now was what went on inside her head, and everything will fall in place. "Dear Gods, help me." He groaned loudly.

*****

"You are here?" The sudden inquiry made by Rohan made Kiel jerk out of his thoughts. Turning around to face him, Kiel drew his fingers through his hair.

"Huh?" He asked, his brows knitted in confusion.

"I asked why you are here. You are supposed to be at home, making peace with a certain lady, aren't you?" Rohan cocked an eyebrow.

"Ah, yeah, that. Not going so well. So I figured I should get some work done." Kiel mumbled turning back to the monitors.

"Clueless why she is so mad?" Rohan guessed. When his friend didn't answer, instead his ears started to turn red, he took that as a confirmation. "Oh, well, I might be able to provide some clues to that." Rohan sat down on a couch and pretended to focus on one of the monitors. After a few seconds passed, Kiel growled.

"Well, what the fuck are you waiting for?"

"Um, I don't know, for you to ask me?" Rohan shrugged, trying very hard to hide a smile. It bugged Kiel to no end to admit that he couldn't understand his own mate, and Rohan knew it. Letting out a sigh, Kiel glared at him,

"Well, then. Do enlighten me, why is she so fucking mad at me?" Kiel was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to strangle Rohan as he smirked very smugly.

"Hmm. I think it has something to do with the fact that you selected Dina to be your partner on this mission and not her, so she hates it. You also waited until last night to meet her despite being back in the morning, and oh, you left without talking to her. So, at this moment, she feels pretty pissed at you because she thinks she has feelings for you that you do reciprocate, yet some of your actions tell her the exact opposite and she feels as if she is being foolish in believing that you actually care for her as something more than a protégé." Pausing, he added, "Yeah, I think that's about it." Then frowning, he added as an afterthought. "Also, Priyal said something to piss her off a few days back. That might have something to do with it too. I'm not very sure."

Staring at him with wide eyes, Kiel shook his head, "I don't even wanna know how you know so much about her thoughts."

"Meh." Rohan shrugged, "It's not hard when you've studied women as extensively as I have."

"Ahh... I see." Kiel nodded, before his brows furrowed, "Wait, what was that about Priyal saying something to her?"

"I'm not sure about the details, but it seems Priyal had said something during training to piss her off and they were on the verge of a fight in the gym when, apparently, Rogers showed up and took over Rayn's training, breaking up the fight."

"What do you mean 'it seems'? What did she say to Rayn?" Rohan almost winced seeing the anger in Kiel's gaze.

"Whoa, calm down. I told you, the details are fuzzy. No one was in the gym at that time. An operative saw something happening in the gym from a distance, he didn't hear anything, but judging from the way Rogers seemed to be shouting at Priyal he thought it was a fight and came and reported to me. Rayn and Priyal aren't talking about it, and knowing Rogers, he would make a riddle out of it before he talked." Rohan shrugged helplessly.

"Huh..." Kiel muttered thoughtfully, putting two and two together. "That explains the venom." He muttered to himself, his eyes staring at nothing in particular.

"What venom?" Rohan asked with alarm, not having heard him fully. Then he frowned at Kiel, "How the hell did you know about that Toxicology lab screw up? I thought I covered it up nicely."

"Oh?" Kiel's eyes focused on Rohan. "Did you, now? And why didn't you tell me?" He demanded, trying hard not to smirk.

"Didn't want to bother you with petty details. Besides, it wasn't anything serious. Some new assistant mixed the wrong chemicals, and won't admit it." Rohan shrugged.

"Huh." Kiel found it somewhat curious; he knew his Tox lab team was very efficient and scrupulous, so such screw ups, and then denial of the screw up was rather unexpected from them. "Oh, well, even they have to screw up sometimes, I guess." He shrugged.

"Yeah. Barry, the team leader, he said he would shove a Dragon scale up my ass if I said that to him again. Said, his team didn't do screw ups. There was, supposedly, some kind of an 'energy surge' in the immediate environment which led to the accident." Rohan pulled a face.

"And?" Kiel prodded. When Rohan stared blankly at him, he added, "Didn't you investigate this energy surge further?"

"Oh, yeah, I did. But no one else felt that, and, besides, none of the 'Works in Progress' can result in that kind of Energy surge."

"Hmm." Kiel stared out of the window for a few moments before turning back to Rohan, "Rogers is working with the gem. May be..."

"Nope. I saw his logs, and he wasn't working with it at the time of that accident." Rohan was starting to get irritated now. "Look man, I know my job, and I know how to do it. I'm telling you, there was no energy surge that night. So stop worrying."

"Alright." Kiel stared at his friend, Rohan rarely lost his cool, and even then, only for something really irritating. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Rohan shook his head slightly, "I'll see you later." Then, without giving Kiel another opportunity to say anything, he stalked off. Kiel blinked with confusion. Apparently, something had happened in the two days he wasn't here and it had changed quite a many things. Looking down from the window, he followed Rohan's progress through the hall towards the Armory. Suddenly, a movement off to the side in the hall distracted him. Looking towards the side, he found Rayn walking into the hall from the corridor leading to the gym, she was waving at someone with a smile on her face. As his eyes followed the direction of her gaze, he saw Rogers walking towards Rayn. As they came close, Rogers said something, smiling down at her, to which, Rayn replied with a shy smile. A few moments later, Rogers had turned and offered her his arm, and Rayn placed her hand on his arm as they walked away towards his office. As he followed them with his eyes, he promptly felt an urge to run down to Rogers' office and drag her away from him. He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. A memory surfaced in his mind of Rogers taunting him. "I think you should just tell her... before she starts wanting someone else."

It was high time he won her heart, because, if he didn't, there was at least one other man who would.

*****

"I'm sorry, I just lost control." Rayn pouted at Rogers who stood in the middle of his office, drenched in water. Rayn was supposed to shield herself against a Water Blast that Rogers directed at her. Instead Rayn had pushed back the magically created wall of water on him. Shaking his head, he huffed.