Tangled Hearts - The Alpha's Baby Mama-Chapter 267: Be honest with your feelings, Lucius…

Lucius POV

I gritted my teeth in frustration as I pushed away from Emilia and quickly pulled on my clothes. My face was a mix of anger and embarrassment as I cursed under my breath.

I buttoned my shirt in a frenzy, berating myself for letting down my guard. Emilia surprised came to me, placing a dainty hand on my arm.

"What’s wrong, Lucius? We were in the middle of something, why are you suddenly leaving?" she asked.

"Because, of this!" I pointed at Kurtis who had paused his movement now and was staring at us. "I am not interested in this, in whatever this is," I snapped. "I’m done. I was serious about that rejection, so hurry up and accept my rejection now."

"C’mon, Lucius," she sighed "How long would you fight this? I thought we already settled and agreed that this was not our doing and that we would take our time slowly. Why are you acting up please for the love of the moon, can you stop these threats about rejecting us, I know you don’t mean it."

"I do Emilia," I retorted facing her and I mean it in all sincerity. This is not going to work out in the end, so I’d prefer we end everything now and stop wasting each other’s time."

Emilia sighed running a hand through her hair. "Is it still because of what happened before? I thought I’d apologized for both of us. I thought you had forgiven us. It doesn’t have to be like this, Lucius. Fine, I’m sorry for how things turned out, but can we ..."

"No, Emilia," I cut her off, my tone cold. "I’ve had enough of this. It was fun while it lasted," I shot a glare at Kurtis who hadn’t said anything since he arrived and was watching the scene with a blank expression. "I don’t want to be a part of this anymore. This time around, I’m serious. Hurry up and reject me."

Emilia grabbed her dress and slipped it on, her movements were quick and jerky now as she rolled her hair and packed it into a high bun on the top of her head. When she faced me, her eyes were flashing with annoyance.

"You know what!" she said "I’m tired of you being a coward, Lucius. Why are you hiding from our reality? Do you think this is fake? We’re fated mates for moon’s sake. Why are you acting like that doesn’t mean anything to you? On a normal day, I’ll not be hanging out with someone like you. I am an Alpha’s daughter and I think I deserve more, not all of this drama you have going on."

She walked past me, anger radiating off her body. When she reached Kurtis, she grabbed his hand. "C’mon, let’s get out of here."

Kurtis shook her hand off, his gaze still on me. "Go ahead first, Ems, I’ll be right behind you, I need to talk to Lucius."

Emilia hesitated, glancing at me for some sign of what she should do, but I refused to meet her eyes. With a resigned sigh, she grabbed the rest of her belongings and hurried out of the room, leaving us alone in tense silence.

I turned away, crossing my arms over my chest as I tried to contain my frustration. "I don’t have anything to say to you, Kurtis," I muttered, my back still turned "There’s nothing to talk about that has not been said."

Kurtis took a few steps closer to me, his expression darkening as he came closer to me.

"Why do you hate me so much, Lucius? I can understand way before we discovered we were fated to the same woman. For some reason, I saw how mad you always used to be when I started being friends with Xavier. Is this deliberate? Or did I do something wrong? It’s like no matter what I do, no matter how much I try to prove that I am not the problem, it’s never enough for you."

I rolled my eyes, fighting the urge not to laugh. "I don’t hate you, Kurtis," I said flatly "I resent you... fine... because there was a time you started this crazed thing for wanting to change our world and stuff like that and you had to rope Xavier who had barely recovered and was trying to make up for all the years he wasted. I just think you’re too frivolous. You don’t take anything seriously."

I smacked my head, hating myself for saying too much. I didn’t want to answer him to start with.

"You think I am frivolous and not serious? What things have I done to make you think that way? And trying to live a little is not being frivolous. We spend too much of our time here trying to play by the book and to do everything right that we barely have time to live. You could live a little, Lucius."

"It must be so nice to live without responsibilities and real duties," I scoffed. "Thank you, Kurtis but I am not interested in living a little. I have way too much to take care of than to be running around and frolicking with you and Emilia. I’m sorry but you’d never understand."

Kurtis let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. "I know more than you what duties and responsibilities are. You’re too fucking uptight, always trying to put a leash on everyone. Even on Xavier who is clearly your Alpha."

"That’s not true," I scoffed "And you don’t have to resort to insults just to satisfy your tiny male ego," I retorted. freēwēbnovel.com

"But that’s the truth, Lucius. You want to control everything going on in your life and for the first time, you cannot control something and it’s making you freak out. You cannot control the way you feel about me and Emilia and you’re panicking. Are you scared to admit that you fucking love us?"

"That’s not true!" I growled, raising my voice. Even at that moment, something inside me was whispering to me that Kurtis was right. "You’re talking nonsense, Kurtis," I snapped. "We’re just tied to the same woman. That’s it. There’s nothing else."

Kurtis stepped closer to me, undeterred by my outburst. His gaze was deep and probing and it unsettled me. "Is that really all it is?" he challenged, his voice was quieter now, tinged with a sadness that surprised even me. "Because it feels like there’s more. Something neither of us want to say loud."

I averted my gaze, my emotions running in spirals inside me. Kurtis had always been a complication in my life. From the moment I met him, he had affected me in ways I couldn’t explain. His misleading Xavier was just an excuse I love to tell myself.

I’ve always wanted to deny it, to push away the uncomfortable truth that Kurtis’s presence had always stirred within me, but the words stuck in my throat.

"I don’t hate you," I finally repeated. "But whatever you think this is... it’s not what you want it to be and it never would be."

Kurtis watched me for a moment, and then he chuckled. "If you can only be honest with your feelings, Lucius... you’d save yourself a lot of things. You cannot seriously want to throw away the bond that you have between me and Emilia. You might regret it."

"Then so be it!" I shrugged and walked past him to the door, closing it behind me and ignoring the crestfallen look on his face.

Everything would be fine eventually.