Chapter 47: CHAPTER 31.5: Love?

I found Vella out in the garden sitting on the ground against one of the pillars. “Vella, do you need someone to go home with you?”

Vella stood up. “I’m fine.” She glared at me. “I don’t need you or Cade or Lexus. I don’t need your help or your pity or their attention. Stop acting like you’re a saint Aqua, it’s annoying.” She walked past me and laughed.

I watched her. “What’s so funny?”

She turned to me and shrugged while walking backwards. “Just have fun, I wish I did.” She shifted into her dragon form and flew off.

I walked back into the ball and asked my father to send guards to make sure Vella got home safely. I often though that if me and Lexus weren't mates or if we were, but he didn't fall in love with me that I would have turned out like Vella, broken hearted, spiteful, a mess, and a distant regretful memory of Lexus. Maybe I that's why I had empathy for her.

I had got back after talking to Vella in time for the last performance which was Lexus playing the piano.

It sounded different than in class, he was doing his best and preforming instead of practicing and this time I knew he was playing for me. I was deep in the crowd so no one would notice but he kept eye contact with me the whole time.

Sadia walked to me. “He’s really talented. He hates playing at these, but I’ve always wanted to watch.

This is my first time being invited to one of their balls. My relationship with Lexus is really everything I have right now.” I felt guilty because she won’t have it after tonight. “What happened with you and Calvin? He mentioned something about you being heart broken and not being interested. Are you still thinking about your ex? You can talk to me about it, is that why you were so upset the other day? Did your mom give you weird advice about him?”

I shook my head. “Maybe we can talk about it another time.” We enjoyed the rest of Lexus’s performance in silence.

Once the night was over, I started walking back to my room. “Hey.” I heard Lexus whisper, so I turned around. “Want to go for a fly? I dropped Sadia off ten minutes ago.”

I bit my lip. “Okay.” I followed him out without anyone seeing us. He shifted and I climbed on top of him.

I climbed to his head since he was flying slow and so he could hear me. I went on and on telling him about everyone I met and how much fun I had. “They’re so much different than my human grandparents. My mom’s parents were old and didn’t really talk to us much even when they were younger. They were just boring, I guess. They’d give us money to leave us alone.” I laughed. “I guess that’s why my Mom wanted to be here so bad. She grew up neglected and craved magic.” I wasn’t exactly neglected, my aunt and uncle spent too much time trying to steer me in the right direction. A direction I didn’t want to go in.

Lexus landed in the cave village with the glowing crystals in the walls of the cave and glowing pixies. It was the same village we had our boat ride the second day I was here. I climbed off and he shifted. We sat down against the wall of the cave. The cave was huge and bright. “I’m glad you had a good time at the ball. Are you okay with us not getting married?”

I laid my head against him. “I’m fine with it, it’s just documents acknowledging us as a couple. There aren’t many advantages.” There might be financial ones like in the human world but he’s rich so that didn’t matter.

He shook his head. “Here we marry to mate, there’s a lot of benefits to mating. We won’t be able to mark each other because it would be a dead giveaway that we’re together and true mates.”

I didn’t think about that. There are a lot of situations where someone could end up seeing his shoulder.

“Oh… well that’s fine. We’ll just have to hold back.”

“It’s going to be hard for me when we have sex. Last time I was pretty close to marking you. It’s a hard urge for me to ignore but we’ll figure it out.” I wanted to have sex with him again.

I looked up at the cave ceiling that was so far up. “You won’t get to fully experience having a mate since we can’t mark each other.”

Lexus rolled his eyes. “I told you that’s not why I’m with you Aqua.

No one was outside in the village. Everyone must have been in their homes. “What will Sadia do now that you’re not marrying her? How’s she going to get out the pack?”

Lexus grabbed my hand to hold it. “She can still stay at the castle if she works there but it’s just going to be a longer and harder process,” he explained. “I’m not sure if she’ll want to, she might hate me after this. I fucked our friendship.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

Lexus kissed my forehead. “Yeah, it’s kind of your fault,” he joked. “Are you going to tell your mom?”

“Tell her what? That I only took her advice for three days? I don’t know, I think the only reason she didn’t like you was because you were engaged. She didn’t want me ending up like her. We’re not going to have that problem anymore.” I sighed.

Lexus grabbed my chin and pulled my lips to his. We made out for a while then got up. “I have a bad feeling.”

“What kind of bad feeling?” He frowned.

“No not that.” I quickly corrected him. “It’s my intuition, something bad is going to happen but I don’t know what.”

Lexus looked around. “Let’s just get back to the castle then.” He shifted and flew us back to the castle.

He went to his room and I went to mine.

Even though we were safe at the castle, the bad feeling didn’t go away.