The Delta's Daughter Chapter 277

CRIMSON

As the weeks went by, I had become more agitated. Even Gillian’s presence gnawed at my nerves, and I didn’t know why.

Lie.

I knew exactly why.

Ever since Tawny rejected me, it hadn’t sat right with me. The scene from that night - playing over and over in my mind drove me insane as to why I should even care.

She rejected me, so what? It’s not as if I felt the mate bond anyway.

Gillian was upset with me. I could tell. Last night while staying in the hotel room she tried to be intimate with me and I pushed her away. I just couldn’t. I couldn't even get hard the last few times she stroked me or took my cock between her lips. Her scent was beginning to repulse me.

She knew something was wrong. And there was. Is. Tawny.

I played it off that I was just stressed and wasn’t feeling it. To her credit she let it go, but I almost wish she hadn’t. I wish she has yelled and screamed at me. Demanded to know what my problem was. I wish she had gotten so angry that she lashed out at me because I deserve it.

Guilt washed over me for keeping secrets from her. I figured the less she knew the better. I was trying to protect her heart.

The palace came into sight and couldn’t have been happier to be home than I was right now. As we passed through the gates up the gravel driveway, Lord Maydor’s car passed by us.

What business would he have here, without me?

“What was he doing here?” Gillian voiced my thoughts, breaking the silence between us since last night.

“I don’t know,” I respond running through all the possibilities I could think of. “But I don’t like it.”

We pull up to the palace and I’m out of the car before I can even shut the engine off. Hurrying to make sure Tawny is ok.

Bursting through the door to Tawny’s office, unaware that Gillian is hot my heels, I find my kitten behind her desk. She looks fine, but still, I cross the room to her and lift her into my arms, cupping her cheek with my hand.

My eyes travel over her body, inspecting her, looking for any injuries or signs of duress. I find none. “Did he hurt you?” I ask her, pulling her against me, still cradling her face.

And for the first time in weeks, my body comes alive. My manhood hardened at the sheer touch of my kitten. I want to devour her, lap her up - Realizing I missed her.

My lips brush against her as she squirms away from me, her hands shoving at my chest. “Crimson,” she grunts, trying to push me back.

“Oh, my goddess!” Gillian shrieks from the doorway, giving Tawny the opportunity to jump away from me. “Is this why?” Gillian’s voice raises a few octaves, tears filling her eyes.

“Gillian…” I protest.

“No, Kolby! Is this why you won’t touch me? Is this why you turn away from me? Because you two have been screwing!”

“Fuck,” Tawny backs away pointing an accusing finger at me. Her wide and shocked yellow eyes turned to Gillian who has tears streaming over her cheeks “I swear to the gods, Gillian. Never! No,”

“Then why are you all over her? Don’t lie to me! Either of you!”

“Gillian, sweetheart…” I speak softly, guilt and shame rearing up and churning my stomach. When I see the hurt and betrayal in her eyes, it makes me sick. I want to throw up.

“You tell her Crimson; you tell her because I will not take the blame,” Tawny says to me.

I look between them, My blue-eyed doll on one side and my temptress kitten on the other. I don’t know what to say. I’m just as confused as the two of them. I love Gillian, but deep down – I can’t deny the need to protect Tawny and I can’t deny the lust and want I feel that drives me to her every time.

Gillian puts it together herself. The knowledge washes over her as her skin pales even more and her blue eyes widen, her mouth hanging open in stuttering silence. She points a finger at me and then moves it to Tawny. Back and forth until she finds her voice “You, you… You are mates, aren’t you?”

“I’m so sorry Gillian, but I swear nothing ever happened between Crimson and me,” That’s a lie because I’ve tasted her, fucked her with my fingers until she came apart on my hand and tongue.

The thought went straight to my cock.

Gillian slumps onto a chair, holding her head in her hands. Her long blonde hair hid her face from us. “How? Why?” She grumbles between defeated and forlorn sobs.

“I rejected him.” Tawny blurts out, thinking it would help the situation. I stay silent because I know if I open my mouth, I will dig a deeper hole for myself.

“He isn’t a werecat!” Gillian wails, and I rush to close the door so no one else can hear us. “He wouldn’t feel the mate bond, so how can you reject him if he has no spirit animal to break a bond with?”

Well shit,

I can see Tawny’s eyes flicker like she is thinking over Gillian’s words “That’s why it didn’t hurt” She mumbles. “But my heat… it went… away”

“Oh, my gods!” Gillian snaps her head up clamping her hands over her mouth “Oh gods!” she exclaimed again “Every time we… oh my goddess Bastet! You felt it - every time we were intimate!” She looks horrified, Gillian’s face turning a green hue.

Tawny rushes a trashcan to her just in time for Gillian to throw up.

“Once I rejected him, I didn’t feel anything anymore-” Tawny confesses.

“When did she reject you, Kolby?”

“Umm, uhh, right after she came back from Riocht,” I think.

“That’s because he hasn’t touched me!” my fiancée tells my… mate. Is she still my mate? Hell, if I know what’s going on.

Gillian looks brokenhearted, and Tawny looks guilty as sin, even if she has nothing to feel guilty about. I go to Gillian, after much debating on which female needs me more.

Instinct tells me to protect my kitten. Rationality tells me to comfort my fiancée.

I kneel in front of Gillian. The woman I have known since we were young moggies ourselves. I have loved her since I can remember, and I vowed to take care of her and protect her. “Gillian, baby. I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t think I needed to. I love you, baby.”

The words taste like ash on my tongue and I struggle to get them out. I don’t know why because I love her, I do. Nothing will ever change that.

“I’m hurt.” She sobs, “Betrayed by both of you…” She stumbles through her sniffles.

“I swear baby, I didn’t betray you, neither of us-"

“You both betrayed me!” Gillian yells “Neither of you had the balls to tell me, and that hurts more!” She looks at Tawny, “Were you just pretending to be my friend?”

“Goddess no!” Tawny rears back then swiftly comes to kneel next to me, rubbing a hand down Gillian’s arm and handing her a box of tissues.

“You’ve been here for months! How much have you suffered?” Gillian starts to sob again, the snot running from her nose. Tawny hands her another tissue. “You guys are idiots!” she hisses out.

I’m in awe of my fiancée. She has just discovered a soul-wrenching secret between me and a woman she became close friends with and here she is, hurt and heartbroken, still thinking of what Tawny must have gone through every time we fucked.

“You have to choose Kolby,” Gillian says, standing now, her chin held high while she tries to look strong.

“We are bound by a blood contract, baby. Choosing is not an option.”

“Screw the contract!” she yells! “You may not know how special mates are, Kolby, you will never understand. But I do!” She jams a finger into her chest. Poking harshly. “And you,” she points that shaking finger at Tawny now, “You should know better.” She hisses and storms out of the office. Leaving Tawny and me to pick our jaws up off the floor.

“This week has been a fucking shit show,” Tawny groans dropping her tiny frame onto one of the couches and running a hand through her hair which is now past her shoulders, the red in her hair growing out to reveal a copper color from the roots.

“First, Hunji shows up out of the blue. Leaves Tristan behind. Oh yeah, by the way, I have a new advisor. You will meet him when he comes back with Mason. Then, Gillian’s father shows up today demanding I give his bastard son a ranking position amongst our army…”

“What?” I ask her to repeat because I’m not sure I heard her right “Maydor asked you what?”

“Close the door,” she sighs. I do and as soon as it’s closed, she says “Maydor came here to request his son be given a ranking position in our army. Of course, I told him no he would have to earn it…”

“What son? Who?” Now I’m really confused, Gillian doesn’t have a brother, she’s an only child.

“It turns out Tomislav, is his illegitimate son,” She bobs her head, giving me a look like ‘yeah I was surprised too’.

Fuck. “I need to talk to Gillian.” I voice my thoughts out loud, even though I really don’t want to leave Tawny alone.

Fuck my life I don’t know what to do.

“Give her space Crimson.” I nod at Tawny’s suggestion, that seems like an excellent idea. I need space, and quiet. I just need to get away. I need to think. There’s no right or wrong here. I’m in an impossible situation. I just hope Gillian can forgive me. I don’t think I could live with her hating me.

“Give her a couple of days, then we can tell her about Tomislav. We’ve hurt her.” Tawny repeats.

I agree and a few minutes later I find myself walking out the back of the palace, strutting through the gardens like I have a purpose - somewhere to be. But I don’t. I just need air, to breathe, to stop feeling so suffocated.

Before I can start to remove my clothes, my skin ripples, and I begin to shift. The feeling of fur flexing through and over my skin form is exhilarating. Partially shifted I begin to run. Picking up speed before I even reach the dense brush of the jungle and morph into my full fur form.

Legs stretching, strides long and powerful. I feel the jungle dirt beneath my paws. Air wooshes by as I leap and bound up and over trees and fallen foliage.

My claws scratch and mark the path I take, like a warning to other shifters; There’s something much bigger than you. This is my land. My jungle. My kingdom.

‘choose’ Gillian said, how can I choose? There is no choice. I love Gillian. Tawny’s face invades my mind, her petite features, dark skin, and succulent mouth. A tiny kitten compared to the tall and thin pale beauty of my fiancée.

I would choose Gillian. I always will, I promised to choose her years ago. I chose her all those years ago when we were still children, brought together by her father and Armand.

Yet, even as I think it, I growl. Because it no longer sits right with me. My heart has betrayed my promises, and it yearns for another.

Tawny already rejected me. She doesn’t want me. She was unwilling to wait for me.

There are second chances. Tawny will get a second chance mate - or take a chosen male. She will be queen. Our bond is broken - she rejected me. I cannot, will not abandon Gillian. She needs me.

‘how can she break a bond when you have no spirit animal to break a bond with?’

I come to a dead halt, feeling as though my mind is made up.

My conscious argues that my choice is too rash, too soon. But I ignore the niggling feeling.

My muscles ache as I run back home, confident. Yet still, there is a small flicker of uncertainty with my choice.

I shift back to my feet, crashing through the back doors of the palace, lifting my nose I follow my fiancée’s scent - finding her in the library - curled up under a blanket and a book resting by her side. She’s sleeping so I leave her to rest knowing what I have to do.

*****

“Tawny,” I knock on the open door to her room, the memory of the last time I was in here flitting behind my eyes.

My tiny kitten pops her head out from one of the connecting doors.

“Crimson,” she grimaces, looking me up and down. I think I see a flash of lust in her eyes before she averts them from me. Finding a spot on the wall that’s more interesting.

“I can’t do this to her.” I shake my head, looking down.

“Can we have this conversation when you are fully clothed? It’s very distracting, you, standing here… naked.”

“Shit,” I curse.

With inhuman speed, I dash to my room, throw on a pair of shorts and dash back to Tawny’s room.

My heart is racing as I knock on the still-open door, and she yells for me to come in. I find her in the joined lounge room.

Her eyes wander over my half-dressed state. Gaze lingering on my groin, she licks her lips. The thought of those lips wrapped around my cock, sends blood rushing south and I feel myself harden.

“What did you need Crimson?” I’m not sure if it’s me or if her voice sounded sultry because I want it to, or if she is feeling the pull to me.

“I, I came,” The words get logged in my throat.

“You came…?” She looks at me, waiting for me to string a sentence together, but I blubber some more.

“I came to, to tell you,” I can’t do it. I can’t reject her, “That Gillian is sleeping in the library.” My words trail off, defeated and ashamed that I can’t do what needs to be done.

Why?

I made my choice; this should be easy. For the bond to break all I have to do is reject her. Right? So why can’t I find the words?

Again, I argue with myself. Telling myself that Tawny no longer wants me. She didn’t want to wait for me. The bond is already half broken. I just need to finish the job.

I try again “I, I…” Fuck, my tongue feels thick, thicker than my rock-hard cock that’s pointing right at Tawny, wanting to bury himself deep inside his little kitten.

Swallowing the lump of coal lodged in my throat, “Never mind” I turn away from her confused expression, hanging my head, and silently plod from her room.

A coward. That’s what I am. A fucking weak fraidy cat.

A fraidy cat with blue balls, I laugh at myself.

Resolve ignites within, I am not afraid. I need to man up and do what I need to do. I have to push my lust aside. This is what Tawny wants. This is what Gillian wants.

What I truly desire doesn’t matter. It’s what’s best for the kingdom.

Yet again, I turn on my heels and stalk back toward Tawny’s room. I lift my hand to knock on the now-closed door, with renewed bravery. Just get it over and done with and everything will be fine, I tell myself. Chanting it over and over again.

“Kolby, what are you doing?” Gillian’s soft voice brings my knuckled hand to a halt.

“I’m doing what I need to, to break the bond,” I tell her with finality.

“You’re going to reject her?” Horror crosses her face. Not happiness, or satisfaction like I thought she would have. “You can’t!” she rushes over, grabbing my hand and pulling me away from the door.

“I thought, you told me to choose?” Now I’m super confused, I thought this was what she would want but now she stands before me, dragging me down the hall, mad as all get out.

“I know what I said,” she hisses. “She is your mate Kolby!” she scolds me as if I should know better.

“Well, yeah but I can reject her.”

“No! you won’t!” She stops walking and turns to me with a fierce fire in her eyes “A mate is a precious gift. We always deemed you would never have a mate because you are not a werecat. But the goddess has granted you a gift, a prize. The rightful princess of Cambiador to exact.”

I still don’t get where she’s going with this.

“Bastet, give me strength!” she expels throwing her hands up in the air. “Goddess knows I love you Kolby, so, so much. With all my heart. Do you know how broken I feel that you are mated, that I have lost you? That you will never be mine?”

“But I am yours, baby. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, I will always be yours.”

She shakes her head, I’m all but down on my knees begging her. For what I don’t know.

“Just, wait before you reject Tawny. See if you feel like this in a week. Because now you have met your mate, you won’t want anyone else. Rejection or not. It makes sense why you stopped touching me, making love to me. I get it now.” I see her strength wavering and bring her into my arms and let her nuzzle against my bare chest.

“We will get through this, I promise.” I hope I can keep this promise because I feel as though my whole world is crashing down around me.