Chapter 11

Seb's pov

Festivals are innately excruciating. I mean its a given when it involves masses of various demographics but what I recently discovered is festivals are even more excruciating when you are involved in the organising end of them and being a mere judgemental audience to the outcome, is nothing compared to being on the other side of the stage. Being the alphas mate is the absolute exemplification of it.

"Sebastian! "

Speak of the devil.

Oh, and the fact that the said alpha is continuously on your throat, coaxing you to not do any task at your hand, doesn't really help.

" Sebastian! Get down. You don't really have to do this, there are others-" He stops his babbling as I climb one more step on the ladder,not paying him any attention. We wouldn't get anything done if I did.

I peel the rope resting on my shoulder and start tying it the hook attached to the wall, with his disapproving eyes on me. After forming the perfect knot,I pat myself on the shoulder mentally before I place my left foot on the descending step to get down. I repeat the same until  I reach the last, as I was setting the foot on it, my grip on the side rails falters resulting in me missing the step.

"Goddess! Seb, careful." Big hands are already on my back to stabilize my stance. The near terrifying experience should've been the reason for my heart thumping faster but it's not.

Seb

He called me seb.

Now with my cheeks flushed, both with embarassment and new found bashfulness, I get down.

"You okay? I told you it wasn't safe." He says with a pained look on his face. Concern and alarm emitting off him as he carefully places his hand on my shoulder to look for any possible injuries.

"I'm fine, not hurt anywhere." I reassure him by placing my hand over his as his concerned expression turns into one of relief. He points to a nearby chair and dragging it effortlessly, for me to sit. Even though his worry is completely redundant, I couldn't say no to the gesture.

I sit in the chair awkwardly feeling the eyes of people in the room on us, their curious looks trying to figure out the situation. Oblivious to everything, Leo hands me a glass of water keeping his eyes solely on me. I accept the water, drinking it in slow gulps to concentrate and the glass in my hand nearly breaks as my hand jerks in shock at the scene infront of me.

Leo's frame descends until his height reduces into half and settles on his knees infront of me. I look up finding his eyes right in front of me and the whole world blurs.

A skeptical look gracing his face as his fingers brush against the skin on my ankle. The simple touch makes me feel things I shouldn't be feeling at the moment.

I divert my attention to his touch, he slowly raises up my leg to get a better look. In a trance, I kept watching him as he examined and blindly nodding to his whatever questions he's been asking.

A few coos from the background brings me back into this world and the chatter in the room suddenly seems louder, I look around to find everyone's eyes on us, all the girls with similar awed look and guys just look amused.

"I think it's sprained." Leo states, still oblivious to all the attention.

As if my body is just realising it's condition, it provides me the pain to prove his words. I wince as he quickly retracts his hands and looks up in concern.

"I don't think it's--" I tried to get up. "Oww" but the pain shots through me as soon as I set the foot down.

" I will take you to the hospital, we should get it treated."

"It's not that serious."

"It's going to swell." He looks at me like I said something crazy.

"I will ice it." I reply in the same exasperated tone making him sigh in defeat.

" We should go home atleast, I will bring the car." He says, his hand already reaching his pockets to whip the keys out.

" You can't be serious, we have so much work left to do. "

" They can manage this without us. " He counters scanning the room. Thankfully the room is empty, so there's no one witnessing our bickering.

To be honest there isn't much left, most of the arrangements were done by the first two days, only few changes to the interiors are balance. Like he said, others can manage more than fine without us but I hate the idea of laying in bed while they worked hard.

" No, I want to stay here but I won't touch a thing. I will just sit here and watch. "

He gives me an uncompromised stare, the vein in his jaw ticking as he tightens it in frustration. The expression that always made my insides feel some sort of way.

He doesn't seem to be budging this time. I guess it's time to use my ultimate tactic, so I add " Please! I promise. I will just watch." Lowering my head down and looking at him through my eyelashes.

" You promised. Okay? " I nod frantically before he leaves, cursing something under his breathe.

I follow his retreating back as he walks towards the group and joins them.

The bunch usually includes Glen, Arhin who's the delta of the pack and Stephan, head of the pack warriors and two other guys I'm not really familiar with.They are almost the same age as Leo, so they usually have an unspoken bond that formed their friendship. Leo seems carefree and relaxed around them mostly. He's still friendly with others but seems to have his guard up.

They seem engrossed in discussing something, occasionally smiling at eachother while others are mostly joking around and laughing. They sure are the weird bunch compared to others.

Despite seeming to be engrossed in the conversation, Leo kept glancing at me from time to time as if I would disappear. Even from the farthest corner of the room he is easy to stop as he ends up towering everyone in most of the rooms and the way he carries himself sure makes him stand out despite wearing simple attairs.

He looks good in everything.

Someone clears their throat interrupting my gawking session. Shit! I was probably staring at him like a creep.

I turn around to find Misa, standing there with a teasing smirk on her face.

" You should take a picture of him, it will last longer. " She says with a childish grin.

"Hi there."

" Hey. I didn't know you guys are gonna be here?" I greet her back while attempting to stand up ignoring the pain.

She notices my discomfort and lends me her hand. Taking it, I support my right leg and place it on the ground, the hard surface only makes it worse by poking the nerves, my body jolts resisting any further moment.

" Are you alright? "

" I sprained my ankle." I answer falling back into the chair.

" ofcourse you did." She comments with a sympathetic look.

I pat the chair beside me silently asking her to sit and she abides as soon and makes herself comfortable. Once we are both settled, I face her to have a proper conversation.

" Where's Roger ? "

" He's just outside talking to someone." She says, both of our eyes searching for any sight of him. " Roger said Alpha Reginald called him and invited us to be a part of this celebrations. So we got here to see if we can help with anything."

" That's amazing, you know what they say ' the more people the merrier ' " I smile at her genuinely appreciating their presence here. Having them around would be great especially during these hectic days.

" We're supposed to make it here by noon but your amazing friend planned us an impromptu date without even checking if the place is opened or not and he took us to a closed restaurant and now here we are, three hours late after roaming the whole town for nothing." She explains, her frustration growing with every word.

" That might have suck. Hey, but it's the thought that counts. " I tell her trying to cheer her up.

" I can't believe you are actually defending him. Ofcourse you would take his side." She accuses me, dramatically rolling her eyes.

" Who's taking whose side? " Another familiar voice beams from behind, forming a knowing smile on my face.

I turn around to see Roger with matching grin on his face. He makes his way towards standing beside us with his arm resting on my chair handle.

" I am just telling him about how great you are planning dates babe." Misa says with a wink and my grin

He shakes his head  at our antics and lowers himself to hug me from side and greeting me with the warmest smile.

" This one can't stand up. " Misa says probably sensing his confusion as to why I wasn't standing.

"Oh God! Did you break it? " He asks pointing to the leg situated on a extra chair for support, with a frightened expression.

" Chill, It's just sprained." I clarify and he sighs in relief.

" So, how's it going? " He asks and that's enough to start a conversation that lasted for an hour.

After what felt like forever, Roger looks at Misa and she stands up immediately, he instantly drapes his arm around her before kissing her temple.

" We should probably go and greet others. "

" Yeah, especially your mate. " Misa adds looking at Leo before turning to me with a smirk. "And then I am all yours. We have a lot to catch up on Seb." Misa says, as the couple makes their way towards the spot where Leo is standing.

They reach the group and Glen is the first to notice them and wave to them immediately. As they join the group, everyone nod to them in a respectful manner.

Leo stiffens, his body changing from his usual relaxed stance. He almost looks tensed as he stretches his hand to Roger for a handshake. Roger takes it and shakes his hand politely.

Didn't they go to the same academy.

Overall there isn't something unusual about their interaction if you take it as one between two alphas but it sure is a weird one, if you take the fact they knew each other before this into consideration.

Maybe I am just obsessing too much over every micro expression of him.

They were soon to fall into a conversation and it seems like they're explaining the plan to them and it goes on for about two hours.

Misa is the first one to leave the group and make her way towards me. " These things drain you out so much. " She comments massaging her temples and taking her earlier spot beside me.

" They do. " I agree. " Would you like something to drink. Coffee? "

" Coffee. Yes, I would appreciate that."

I call Maya asking her to help me with that. She is kind enough to oblige quickly, soon she is making her way towards us with a tray in her hands.

She places the tray on the table nearby and pours coffee into cups before handing them to us with a polite smile.

" Do let me know if you need anything else." She offers.

" Thank you Maya. " I say and she takes her leave.

We both savour the coffee, catching up on things about the pack and other stuff. Misa is one of the very few people from the pack I feel welcomed to talk about personal things. Despite studying in the same class for several years, we were barely friends given the circumstances but we were quick to gel once we got to know eachother which isn't very long ago. Maybe it's because of our similar backgrounds or because of the similar turns out life took.

" Doesn't this feel so weird to you? Like us sitting here and watching others work? "

" It does. It does. " I agree, understanding what she meant.

We have always been the ones working. Even at a young age, we were put to do minor tasks contributing to events like this. Coming from the low social hierarchy, you don't have much choice but to participate in such chores, it's looking as your duty. Fifteen years old Seb wouldn't have even dared to dream of a scenario like this.

Life sure has its mysterious ways of working.

" I remember attending this festival when I was very young, they stopped celebrating it after that." She says after a while.

" I don't think I attended one."

" You didn't? Well, it's gonna be your first one then and you are ' hosting ' it. Isn't it great."

" I don't know. " I chuckle, honestly not knowing how to respond to that. "It's weird to understand why they wanted to restart the tradition suddenly."

" I mean it's definitely not surprising since the council have been trying to do it for a while even after many failed attempts. "

" Failed attempts? " I don't know about any of such.

" Yeah. I think it's few years ago. They did their usual thing saying it's for people's own good that they want to reintroduce the festival and offered the 'sheniri ' pack the chance and they totally fucked it up. "

" Sheniri? You mean the pack lead by Kyle? "

" He is the guy. You remember the rumours about him killing his own mate." She asks about the horrifying rumours I have ever heard.

I nod, waiting for her to say further.

" Apparently they weren't just rumours, that guy actually killed his mate. " She says shutting her eyes tightly.

How can someone kill their own mate.

" What- Why did he do that? " I ask, ignoring the discomfort I felt in my gut imagining it.

" Everyone known them to be perfect couple that were very in love with eachother. Until one day they are not. " Stopping midway she signals me to come closer " Allegedly she caught him cheating."

There's a loud shot in my ear and the ringing noice increases worsening everything, I realised it's from the loud thuds of my heart which threatened to drop any second.

" Seb? You alright? You look you are about to puke."

" I'm, I was just very shocked. And what... happened next? "

" When the poor thing confronted about him, he didn't take it well. He denied doing any such thing as blamed her for making crazy allegations and when she threatened him that she'd tell everyone. She just ended her life."

My whole body just paralyzed preventing me from even taking a breath.

" You know what's the worst part, when the news got out no one believed her and took his side, they sided with the murderer Seb. Eventually her family just vanished from the pack and no one didn't even care. Of course the council just cared about their reputation and removed themselves from the situation pretending it never happened" She finishes and the daggers that are surrounded my heart slowly cut it one by one.

As tears threatened to spill my eyes, I murmur to myself " How could he do that to his own mate? "

" Oh! Sebastian. You are so naive. You don't know half of the vicious acts those beasts are capable of doing. Let's just say, we got lucky by getting the best ones among them." She says chuckling to lighten the mood.

It had the opposite effect, the words just seemed as mockery at that moment. Mockery of my trust in him, mockery of my sanity for ever thinking I would have the upper hand if I confronted him.

He can do the same, wouldn't he.

How foolish. I let the tears fall as I drown in self pity.

" Sebastian. No. You are just overthinking this." Venus tries to comfort me but even his tone isn't compromising.

" Am I? " I ask him with a humorless chuckle.

" Aww. I shouldn't have brought that story up now. It just ruined the mood. " She states looking at me apologetically.

" No it's fine. " I say firmly, my own voice surprising me.

" You sure? "

" Yeah. I'm just so tired. Long day." I manage to smile.

I put my feet down, determined to stand up and get out of here.Regardless of looking baffled,Misa comes to my help to support me up, her small frame almost faltering under my weight.

" I got this. "

Large hands snake around my waist hoisting me up, the touch that only ever brought comfort to my being now just burnt the skin underneath making me flinch away from his touch.

Unable look at him, I frown looking at my own feet in disgust.

" Did it get worse. The pain? " He asks gently even though his voice broke at the edges.

" It did. "

Later when I got in the car with him, scared to even sit in the passenger seat beside my own mate. Laying in the backseat with my eyes closed.

I curse my own life for ever getting me here.