Leilani.
Like a completely rational person with a functioning brain, my first reaction to seeing Zevran standing on my porch was confusion.
Then I tiptoed to my couch, sat down and listened while he continued to ring the doorbell over and over again until it soon began to sound like some sad music on loop.
But I knew that I wasn't opening that damn door. I never will.
After the wave of confusion vanished, another emotion struck me. Anger… plus a ton of curiosity.
I wanted to know how he had managed to find out about where I live.
I wanted to know why he was here, if he had followed me, and why these people couldn't allow me to breathe peacefully at least for a second.
Suddenly, after several minutes, he finally stopped ringing the doorbell. I watched him quietly as he tried to peek into the camera hole, and as if suddenly realizing that he wouldn't be able to see me through it, he shook his head and turned away.
—so much for being the brightest triplet!
And then he got into his Porsche and drove off.
About forty minutes later, my doorbell rang again while I was preparing some Chinese noodles. I peeped into the intercom again, ready to curse out if I found anyone related to my family or the triplets, but upon realizing that it was a delivery guy, I walked up to the door, opened it and asked;
"What are you doing?"
Silence. He didn't respond. "How are you here? I didn't order anything."
"And I knew you were in, you just didn't want to see me."
I froze. I knew that voice. I hated that voice.
My heart raced in my chest when the delivery guy suddenly dropped the carton of milk on the floor, and then he slowly began to advance towards me, his eyes shielded behind dark sunglasses.
"Leilani, I only wish to talk to you. For a moment. You don't have to be nice to me, all you need to do is just hear me out."
"Zevran?" I breathed out in both surprise and anger. Surprised that he was back here so soon and angry because he'd managed to fool me so easily.
I couldn't stop the tremor shooting up my spine or control the jolts of electricity running up my body when he stood so close to me, it felt as though we were practically rubbing chests against each other. My heart raced.
"Yes, it's me." He whispered softly, taking off his sunglasses and face cap simultaneously. "I'm sorry, I just really wanted to talk to you."
I frowned, folding my arms across my chest. "What now?" I snorted. "Are you also here to remind me of how much money you'll make when I let you collaborate with Frostclaw? And how it would also magically mean improving my sister's livelihood?"
Zevran gasped. "No, I didn't…" then stopping to glance around, he asked; "Can we go inside and talk?"
"And you're dumber than you look if you think I'll let you come into my house after everything." I retorted sharply, my voice sounding so cold, even I was stunned.
He sighed dejectedly, rubbing at his face so much, he turned red. A moment of silence passed between us before he finally spoke. He said; "Don't you think you should return to your family?"
I froze. What the…??
You guys remember when I said Zevran was the smartest triplet? Well, I take back my words. He's even dumber than Chalice ever was!
"What makes you think you can come here, ask me to do shit… and then believe I'll do it?"
"Nothing besides the fact that I am still your Alpha." He answered quickly "You were never branded a rogue. You only separated from your family because you were jealous of your sister; And now that I think about it, that's totally understandable. I'd be mad too if everyone loved Kael and Caelum and shoved me to the side like I didn't matter."
"Zevran..."
"I'm telling you that I understand how you felt!" He continued dumbly. "Though you went too far with your theatrics. You lied a lot. Hurt your sister countless times. You even made rogues attack the pack and murdered your own grandmother… but I don't know, I don't think I hold it against you anymore. Your family doesn't even seem to be bothered by it these days."
The laugh that wrenched free from my throat was dark and icy. I laughed until the corners of my eyes teared up, and until I was gasping for air, unable to bear his stupidity anymore.
One look at his self-righteous face had me cringing internally. I shuddered, shrugging; "So now that you've listed out all my crimes, what do you think I can do to salvage the situation?"
At that, he beamed a smile at me, looking genuinely relieved. "You can start by asking for forgiveness. I am sure your family will be glad to take you back. I for one have forgiven you for all you did… and that one thing you did when we were younger."
Now, that had me cocking my eyebrows at him. I snorted; "And what exactly did I do then?"
"Stop feigning innocence, Leilani! And like I said, I've forgiven you." He snapped, stopping to glance around again. And now, I couldn't help but wonder if he was scared of being seen with me.
Was that why he had asked to come inside?
Why he's been looking around as if scared of being caught?
Rage squeezed at my chest so much, I could hardly see through it. And when his hands suddenly shot out to grab mine, I winced, snarling in disgust when sparks flew wild.
He probably felt it too because he stiffened, cleared his throat and let me go.
"I want you to return to the pack." He murmured after a moment of silence. "And I want you to forgive Caelum for what happened earlier today. Do not hold it against us… and do not… do not ruin our chance of getting to work with Frostclaw simply because you hate us."
Aha! Finally!
Finally he's said that thing I've been waiting to hear him say!
My eyes darkened and a small smile played on my lips. "No."
He blanched. "No, what?"
"No, I'm not returning to your pack because I belong to one now. No, I'm not apologizing to any goddamn person for something I didn't do. No, I'm not going to hand over what you're seeking from Frostclaw to you simply because I'm trying 'to be the bigger person' and no. You can take your shitty self and your box of expired milk off my porch!"
"Stop making this harder than it already is!" He snapped, sounding desperate. "You need to return. You need to make up with your family, especially Chalice, and then we can go on with the rejection ritual. Don't be so difficult!"
The more he spoke, the dumber he sounded. It was weird listening to him talk like it was my fault they hated me for not having a wolf at the time.
A wolf… speaking of which—
And then suddenly, it hit me. I muttered; "We don't have to do the ritual."
His eyes widened. "Why? Do you know how badly that will affect Chalice? How can you be so selfish?"
Of course, it's all about Chalice. It has to always be about her.
I rolled my eyes and frowned in irritation as I looked him over, whilst wondering what in him had made my stupid younger self so obsessed… so stupid.
I scoffed. "I'm not trying to latch onto you."
"That's not convincing."
"Well, I'm not trying to convince you!" I snapped. And as soon as my loud voice pierced through the air, I glanced up at my neighbor's veranda, my face flushing when I noticed some people standing there, watching our exchange.
They were humans so basically, they couldn't hear us… but this was already embarrassing enough.
I lowered my gaze and spat; "I'm not trying to latch onto you guys… truthfully, there's nothing to latch onto. I just want us to perform the rejection process without having to do any rituals as I think it's no longer important."
"It is… that the only way—"
"I now have a wolf!" I snapped, interrupting him. "So you can get your brothers over—not over here by the way, and we can get this nonsense over with!"
Zevran froze.
His deep dark eyes roved my body like he couldn't quite believe his ears and then suddenly, too suddenly, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into my house, shutting the door behind us as he turned to me.
"You what?"