Chapter 41: Chapter 41

“That’s it, Gabriella. Your magic is improving and growing stronger.” Doctor Kusher applauds me while I set the levitated books down.

I turn to him gratefully. “Thank you, doctor Kusher.”

“You seem rather cheerful these days as well.” He noted.

“Yes, I am trying to practice how to smile these days.” I confirm. I am still not used to expressing joy on my face because of years of trying to hide it.

“I see.” He chuckles. “It’s good to see you smile, so it won’t worry Master Tyrelle.”

I look at him oddly. “Worried? Why would he be worried?”

Doctor Kusher looks at me with wide and worried eyes. “I’m sorry, but didn’t Master Tyrelle tell you?”

“Tell me what?” I suddenly feel a little nervous because Doctor Kusher seems a little troubled.

“Well,” He scratches the back of his head and tries to look away and change the topic. “I think it is about time that we end this lesson-”

“Doctor Kusher, what is it that you’re not telling me?” I urged him to talk.

Doctor Kusher hesitates, but after meeting my gaze, he shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Lady Gabriella, but I cannot meddle with this. You should hear what he has to say yourself. I believe that he will. He’s just looking for the right timing.”

His words caused a numbing sensation in my chest, which made me anxious. I can’t even say for certain whether Tyrelle’s arrival at the time made me feel relieved or even more worried.

“Hey, Gabriella, I have come to pick you up.” He looks so cheerful when he first arrives, but upon seeing our tense expression, he starts to furrow his gaze. “What’s wrong?”

Doctor Kusher seems a little nervous and breaks eye contact with us. I grab my back from the floor and thank him for his lesson during the day.

“Nothing’s wrong.” I tell him. “Shall we get going?”

Tyrelle raises a brow in question like he is trying to read me. One thing you should know about me is that I have mastered the art of the poker face to the point where Tyrelle can't seem to figure me out. “Sure.” He finally said. “Do you want us to go somewhere to eat first?”

“If you’re asking, I assume you’re the one who’s hungry?” I look at him. If there’s something that I learned about wolves while hanging out with them, it’s that they have a very big appetite.

Tyrelle blushes. “Y-Yeah. Kind of. Plus, I wanted to hang out with you a little longer since I need to discuss something with you.”

At the corner of my eyes, I see that Doctor Kusher gives me an affirmative nod, which brings me to the conclusion that this must be related to what we talked about earlier.

I look at Tyrelle and nod my head. “Sure. Where do you want to eat?”

***

Well, my question was rather stupid. Of course, Tyrelle would take me somewhere where there’s meat. He brought us to a park and bought hotdogs for us while we sat on a bench to eat them.

“If you want dessert, don’t be afraid to ask.” He says after handing me a hotdog.

“Thanks.” I could barely eat the hotdog at first, but looking at how Tyrelle seemed to be enjoying it, I took a bite for myself as well before asking a question. “You said you needed to discuss something with me?”

“B-before that, I would like to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

Tyrelle looks uncomfortable. In fact, his face looks a little bashful, like he is trying to think of words to say to me.“Gabrielle, if I leave and promise to come back, will you wait for me?”

“Leave?” I tilt my head to the side. “Where are you going?”

“My dad allowed me to go back to the states to compete. And as you know, that’s the duration of our contract…”

“Oh…” There’s a temporary pause between us until Tyrelle gets the courage to say something first. “Well, um, congratulations! You got what you wanted.” I’m truly happy for him and yet I can’t help but feel a little worried that we’d start acting like strangers.

“But that won’t change anything. Well, unless you…”

“Does that mean that we’re still going to be friends?” I continue to speak to him with a hopeful voice. Even though Tyrelle and I are in a fake relationship, I still see him as someone dear to me. I never had any real friends, but if someone asked me who I might consider as one, I would definitely say that it’s Tyrelle.

Tyrelle seems a little taken aback by my answer. “F-Friends, huh.” He has an awkward smile on his lips and gulps. “You don’t want something more than that?”

“What?” I blush at the same time as Tyrelle. “Y-You mean best friends, right?” It’s embarrassing for me to say because I never had any people that I could call friends before, much less bestfriends.

Tyrelle looks at me dumbfoundedly before he laughs and shakes his head. “Wow. Gabriella, that’s not what I meant. What I wanted is-” Tyrelle breaks off mid-sentence as his gaze turns into a frown. He discreetly looked around us and I could see that men were starting to head in our way. “Gabriella,” Tyrelle holds my hand and meets my gaze. “At my signal, head straight for the car.” I nod.

Tyrelle grabbed our drink and threw it at the man as soon as one of them got close enough. Then he kicks him so forcefully that he falls in the direction of his friends. “Run! I’ll be right behind you!”

I rush to the direction where I remember him parking his car. In this situation, I should only focus on running, but I didn’t even get that far when I heard Tyrelle letting out a grunt in pain. I turned back to see him sprawled on the ground with a bloodied head.

“Tyrelle!” I tried to run back, but someone held me back. It’s a tall man with a face covered in scars. He’s wearing an eyepatch on his left eye, but it doesn’t mean that his gaze was any less threatening.

“I’m sorry about this, but you are coming with us.”

“Why?”

“You’re bait for him.”

Him? I am not sure who he is talking about, but I will not let myself become bait. “You’re going to let go of me.” I say it in a threatening way. I may no longer have my killer smile, but I still have my magic with me.

The man scoffs. “That’s an adorable threat.” He says before looking at his companions that were tying up Tyrelle. “Let’s go. We got what we came here for.” He tries to drag me away, but I plant my heels to the ground. I manage to get one hand free and raise it in the air to cast my magic.

Before I can summon a shockwave to knock out this man, a hand suddenly grabs my wrist to stop me. “Gunther, what a surprise. What are you doing here?” Aelfric says behind me. He is looking at the man with a funny and amused expression.

“Alpha!” The man that was holding my hand released me so he could kneel. I noticed that the others were doing the same.

Alpha? I look back at Al with wide and confused eyes. I don’t know what is going on, but this is an opportunity for me to knock these guys out since my other hand is already free. Aelfric must have realized what I was about to do because he tightened his hold on my wrist. “I wouldn’t do anything reckless if I were you.” The warning in his voice caught me off guard. Does he care about these guys?

“What are you doing here, Gunther?” He ignores my look as he addresses the man kneeling before him. “Why are you spoiling my fun?”

“Alpha,” The man looks up with a pleasing stare. “Please return. In your absence, the Omega is ruling. He’s ruining the pack!”

Al raises a brow at the guy. I was perplexed when I watched him because he has never had this kind of serious expression before. It’s like he is a different man. “That does not explain why you are attacking this girl.”

This girl? For some reason, the way that he just addressed me felt weird.

Gunther lowers his head in shame. “We…we thought that if we take her as hostage, you might agree to return. We notice that you care deeply about-”

All of us were surprised when Aelfric burst out laughing. “How amusing. I must have been acting so well that you guys even fell for it.” He cackles. “Care? I don’t care about anyone. Especially this girl with a plain appearance.”

Hearing him say those words surprised and hurt me that I can’t even react. I suddenly felt so conscious about myself that I lowered my gaze as I tried to hide my face.

“You bastard…” Tyrelle coughs out blood and throws away the men holding him back. Once he’s free, he starts to head towards Aelfric like he’s about to punch him. Aelfric pulls me towards him before throwing me at Tyrelle.

Tyrelle stumbles back to catch me. “Are you alright?” He asked me but I did not answer. I am unharmed, but why do I feel so hurt? I don’t understand.

“My bad, little Alpha. Sorry if my guys were rough on you. But don’t worry, we’ll be leaving soon.” Al waves a hand at us like he’s bored all of a sudden. “Thank you for the months of entertainment. It was fun.”

“Fucking Hybrid. You said you love her. How could you say those words to Gabriella!?” Tyrelle screams at Aelfric.

“Lover her? I was just fooling around. She seems like the type of emo girl with no friends. I was just wondering how long it would be to make her fall for me. Sadly, you ruined my plans, lover boy. But hey, since I am going to be out of the picture, you should be happy, right?” He smirks.

“You asshole! So all this time, you really were behind all those attacks?”

Al shrugs. “In a way, I guess that you can say that. I was bored. I got nothing to do aside from-”

At that moment, I manage to find the strength to pull away from Tyrelle so I can slap him. I see that the men made a move to attack until Al raises a hand to stop them. Then, he turns to me with an emotionless expression like he is waiting for me to talk.

“You just have to keep on talking, don’t you?” I was fighting back tears when I met his gaze. “Why don’t you just leave already? Haven’t you caused enough trouble or are you looking for more? You don’t belong here so why don’t you just leave, hybrid?” It was the first time that I ever addressed him with spite and insult that I momentarily saw his eyes waver for a bit before he closed them. When he opens them again, he presses a hand to the cheek that I just slap him while he looks at me with an amused grin.

“As you wish, princess. There’s no need to tell me twice.”

His smirk turned my sorrow into anger. He doesn’t even feel guilty at all the trouble that he has caused Tyrelle’s pack! “I hope you’ll never return. I wish that I would never see your face again.”

Al turned his back to me with a sigh before I can even see his eyes. “Don’t worry. I have no plans to ever return. I’ll stay away from the mutt’s pack. They’re not even worth conquering anyway. Gunther gathered everyone. We’re leaving immediately. So long, Gabriella.”

I'm not sure how long Tyrelle and I stood there watching Aelfric and his pack walk away, but it felt like a piece of me was breaking with each step they took. When they finally left, I sobbed on Tyrelle's chest as I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.

I don’t understand why I am even crying. This was what I wanted, right? For the hybrid to leave me alone?

But somehow, I feel like that’s no longer what I wanted.