Caia recoiled as if she’d been hit. She staggered back, her mind roiling with confusion. This woman really hated her. Not the petty teenage hatred of Alexa, but real intense dislike. As if she had wronged her somehow. She felt the tears prick the corners of her eyes. She didn’t want to be here. Where everything was unfamiliar and cold; where she was welcome, but unwelcome; where secrets hung in every doorway and no one trusted her enough to confide them. Instead of asking for an explanation, exhaustion defeating her, she turned and hurried from the room, brushing past a worried Irini who tried to stop her. But she didn’t stop. Not until she was in her room with the door closed. The tears had cascaded down her cheeks now, her vision blurred as she stumbled past the bed, and into the bathroom where she could lock the door behind her. Relieved, she slid down and crumpled onto the bathroom floor. Big fat tears rolled down her cheeks for the first time in a long time. And she let them keep on rolling.
It wasn’t long before she heard a soft knocking. Irini must have followed her.
“Caia?”
She tensed at the voice. It wasn’t Irini. It was Lucien.
“Caia, open the door.”
“I’m OK.” But she knew he would hear the tears in her voice.
“I’ll just break it down,” he teased.
Sighing, she slid away from the door to the wall opposite it, rubbing the salt out of her eyes. She must look a mess. Sniffling, she stretched up and flicked the latch up on the door, and then settled back against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms protectively around them.
“It’s open.”
Slowly it eased open and Lucien appeared. His hair brushed the top of the door frame as he stepped inside, his gaze soft as he looked down at her. In fact, Caia could have sworn there was anguish in his eyes.
“Yvana’s gone,” he told her quietly.
“I’m not crying because of that.”
“Uh-huh.”
For a moment Lucien just stared at her, and then sighing, he stepped towards her. She was surprised at how he managed to fold his huge body down into a sitting position next to her, his entire left side pressed against her right.
“So... why are you crying?” he persisted gently.
“Tired, I guess.”
“It’s been a long couple of days for you. But I thought... I don’t know... I got the impression last night you enjoyed yourself at dinner.”
Caia peered up at him from under her lashes. He was looking down at her, his eyes wary, sad even. She nodded. “I did.”
“But today you don’t want to be here,” he guessed.
She didn’t have to say anything. Why else would she be sobbing her guts out on the bathroom floor?
Lucien sighed again. “Yvana has her reasons, Caia. Not great ones. What she said she never should have, but the rest of the pack wants you here. You belong with us.”
“Her reasons?” she whispered.
“Griffin was her husband,” he explained wearily, grief in his own voice. “He died alongside your father... I mean, your parents... protecting you.”
She blamed Caia then; blamed her, and her parents, for bringing The Hunter upon the pack. She guessed she could understand her rage. Most lykans when they mated, mated for life. It was said that when their mate died, a part of themselves died with them.
She let silence fall between them, relieved that it was actually a comfortable silence with him. For someone who could be slightly overbearing he had the ability to be patient when he wanted to be.
“Why?” she croaked, verbalizing the confusion in her head. “Why does Yvana hate me, and Ryder and Aidan don’t?”
“She was his mate, Caia,” Lucien whispered, turning to gaze at her intensely. “She can’t see reason in this.”
“I’m sorry.” Frustratingly, the tears came even more intensely this time. Just as Lucien tut-tutted and leaned over to wipe the tears from her face, the tap in the sink and the shower blasted on.
Lucien cursed and jumped to his feet to quickly turn them off. He muttered under his breath and then turned to look back down at her. She felt his gaze, but her own was on the tap in the sink. A sense of déjà vu washed over her. It was insane, but that was three times in the last few days that the water had come on unexpectedly around her. Really, it was crazy for her to even think that she had something to do with it. Right?
“Is there something wrong with the pipes in this town?” she asked quietly.