It’s been four days since Roy walked out of the house. Kimberly couldn’t help but feel like he had walked out of her life, leaving her empty. She had no idea where that thought came from since all he did was offer to get her out of this place. Besides, she barely knew anything about him, but the heartache she has been feeling for the past days was proving otherwise. His absence was slowly driving her crazy, making her feel like she has known him all her life when in reality, he was a stranger who only offered to help.
They barely spoke to each other when he was home but his presence made her feel safe in a way. Now, he’s rarely home, he leaves the house very early in the morning and returns very late at night.
Kimberly had to cry herself to sleep each night, not only because of her fiancé and friends that were murdered but also because of Roy’s absence, which was already taking its toll on her as she looked paler than she used to and has also lost weight. The only consolation she had at the moment was Christine, who came everyday to be with her. She often tries to strike up a conversation with Kimberly to make her feel at home, in the end, she only earns nods and short replies from the latter who was always lost in her thoughts.
Kimberly was having coffee in the living room with Christine, as that was the only thing she accepted from the older woman without any complaint. Her thoughts were still about Roy, no matter how hard she tried to fight it, it always wandered back to him.
Why was she growing a sudden interest for this stranger?
“Christine?... Why does he live alone?” Kimberly suddenly blurted out.
“Who? Roy?” Christine asked with furrowed eyebrows, trying to understand Kimberly’s sudden question.
“Um, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that, it just came out.” She nervously tried to explain after realizing what she had asked.
Christine gave her her warm signature smile before replying.
“It’s okay to ask, Kim. What would you like to know about Roy?”
“I don’t know, anything you tell me would be fine.” Kimberly timidly said, feeling quite embarrassed for sounding like someone who was obsessed with Christine’s husband’s nephew.
“Roy is… how do I put it?... Roy is the ruler of our clan.” Christine began.
Kimberly could now understand why he radiated much authority from the moment she had set her eyes on him.
“But how come? He is quite young.” she quietly asked, quickly picking interest in this subject of discussion.
Roy looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties, so how is it even possible that he is a leader at quite a young age when such positions were held by much older persons with experience. Being a ruler at this stage of his life was a whole lot of responsibility, she thought to herself.
“He actually took over when he was twenty, that has been our tradition for ages… To answer your question, Roy’s family are like royals, if I should put it that way.”
That was hard to believe since Roy didn’t give away any character that portrayed he was royalty. He ought to have personal maids at his beck and call and ought to be proud but he acts differently, yeah he does act composed but not proud and only utters few words.
He's really lucky to be born with a silver spoon, don’t get her wrong, she isn’t ashamed of her background or anything like that because she lives a very comfortable life. Her dad gave her everything and anything she ever asked for, so she never lacked for anything in her life but being born into a royal family comes with its own perks.
“Where is his family?” Kimberly asked, feeling the urge to know more about him.
“I’m married to his uncle who lives some minutes drive away from here and our son, Roy’s cousin works for him…”
“I meant his parents. Doesn’t he have siblings?”
Christine gave a deep sigh. This was a personal question, she doesn’t know if telling Kimberly would be a good idea, but on second thought, she felt like she could trust Kimberly, so she decided to go ahead and tell her.
“His dad died while trying to protect his people from intruders.” she explained, carefully picking her words so she doesn’t give away any information about their kind.
“His mom couldn’t take the pain of living without her husband. She passed away few weeks after his death… He had a little sister, Caroline. She was his everything, they were inseparable as they did everything together…”
Kimberly noticed the smile on Christine’s face while talking about Roy’s sister. She could also see the hurt in her eyes, that was how she realized that Christine was only smiling to hide her real emotions.
“She was killed by some humans.”
“Humans?”
Kimberly was confused at this point. What did Christine mean by humans? Why was she specific?
“Um- sorry, d-did I say humans? What I actually meant to say was, um, hunters, yeah hunters.” Christine nervously corrected.
Kimberly didn’t know what to think about her reply. She didn’t sound convincing, it was like she was hiding something.
“Oh… I'm really sorry about that.”
“You don’t have to be dear, it’s now in the past.”
Christine wiped her tears. She wished Roy could see it that way.
#
Roy couldn’t bring himself to face the truth. Kimberly obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with him, that awareness was making him mentally and emotionally disturbed. He had to lock himself up in his office, brooding over his unfortunate fate, yet staying away from her was quite a difficult task as he watched her everyday in his wolf form as she cried by the lake which he recently noticed was her new favorite spot.
Each time he saw her in that manner, he always felt like walking up to her and holding her safe in his arms or preferably going up to her in his wolf form so she would cuddle him close like his sister always did when she was alive, but he couldn’t because, she would never accept him for who he was or what he was and he couldn’t bring himself to comfort her from crying for another man, his jealousy wouldn’t let him. His mate being in love with another man was already a slap to his ego, so he did what was best for her and that was to leave her be.