Page 38 of Pregnant Rejected Mate

“Ah,” the woman grimaces. “You probably don’t want to skip his class. I heard he banishes students who skip without a doctor’s note.”

All I can offer her is another shrug and a half-smile in response. “That doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

The woman grows silent as she stares at me, brows furrowing slightly. “I can offer you a doctor’s note, you know. I’m the resident counselor. If you wanna talk, I’m free this morning.”

“T-talk?” I ask with a frown. When she nods, I realize I’m a walking time bomb, and this woman can see right through me.

“Sometimes all we need is a listening ear,” she offers. “I’m Ms. Walter, and my office is next to the staffroom,” she says as she turns to leave.

I realize that walking around like a zombie will do me no good except crashing into more coffee cups. Maybe, just maybe, this woman has been sent as an answer to the prayers I’ve been praying for weeks since Felix left me without a final goodbye. On those nights when sleep wouldn’t come, I’d cry out to the powers that be to lift the pain in my chest for good.

I never considered getting therapy. But right now, it’s my last strand of hope to get me through my life without Felix.

“Wait!” I call out to the woman, rushing behind her. “I’m ready to talk.”

***

Waking up in the early hours of the morning with only about three hours of sleep in my system, I recall my therapist’s advice.

Happiness can’t be found outside of myself. I have to find it within me.

It’s not as easy as it sounded seven years ago when I was alone, and Felix became just a figment of my imagination. He’s here, in the flesh, the light tingle between my thighs attesting to what occurred between us yesterday.

Since then, he hasn’t been to see me. I can only imagine that he’s hurt because I couldn’t tell him I love him. He probably doesn’t understand what I’d been through when he left. That needing to get therapy with Ms. Walter at college was the only way I could go on without him.

I was a shell of myself when he left. Now that he’s back, he can’t just expect me to drop my guard and trust that he won’t hurt me again. Even though I know what he is now, and I’m here on the island where the weredragons hail, doubt still lingers in the back of my mind.

Closing my eyes while I cross my legs on the bed, I take a few deep breaths to center myself for the day ahead. I didn’t think I’d end up in his arms when I woke up yesterday. Today is no different, with no expectations of the future. A part of me expects to open my eyes to see him standing at the door when I hear it open up.

Instead, I find Kairo smiling at me from the doorway.

The disappointment that rears its head is why I hate having any expectations in life. I’d learned to have none, only for Felix to come back into my life and disrupt my peace of mind all over again.

“Morning, Sierra,” Kairo greets as she enters the bedroom. “How are you feeling?”

I shrug diffidently. “I’m not sure,” I admit tersely. “Have you spoken to your brother?”

Kairo grimaces as she comes toward the bed. “He didn’t say much. He just requested your presence at breakfast this morning.”

“He did?” I frown, wondering why he’d want me there. “Why didn’t he ask me himself?”

“I’m guessing it has to do with yesterday… What happened?”

Lacing my fingers together on my lap, I sigh. “Nothing happened,” I lie. “We talked for a bit, and he finally apologized.” Kairo doesn’t need to know the details or the extent of his apology. Or how his apology only served to resurface the feelings I thought had died.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“I—I don’t know.” Lifting my face, I’m met with her kind eyes allowing me to cross the threshold of what is in my heart. “I think I might have broken his heart.”

Kairo frowns. “He’s deserving—”

“No,” I interject, shaking my head. “He doesn’t deserve to be as broken as I was. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy.” I sigh heavily. “He told me he still loves me, and I couldn’t be honest with him.”

“Because you don’t love him?”

“Because I do,” I admit as a sob escapes my throat. “I didn’t tell him anything ‘cause I’m too afraid of getting my heart broken again.”

While I sob into my hands, Kairo gently rubs my shoulder in silence. I look at her sweet face when I’m done choking up on my emotions.

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