Chapter 127 - I'M SCARED COZ.

Maya followed Emma's movements with her eyes while she sat on one of the stools in the kitchen, as she was already done with washing the dishes. Even as she sat, watching the redhead, also noting that her cousin was doing the same, she wondered on how they got here, on how and why the moon goddess has chosen the redheaded human for her cousin. Not that she doesn't like Emma; of course not. In short, the human was the most lively person she had been around for a while, even though it seemed that trouble always sought her out or the other way around. But it's just that, for the moment, with the upcoming pack war and the perilous times, she did not think that it was suitable for the soon to be alpha to be mated to a human. For the first time in her life, she thought that the moon goddess had done a wrong pairing.

Casting a long glance at her cousin who sat on the other stool, she wondered what was going on his mind at the moment. She knew that he had been jealous when they had stepped into the kitchen for that first time, when the redhead and Anthony seemed to be having the time of their lives. And having known the unstable countenance of her cousin, especially since Emma came into picture, she had rallied around in her own way trying to make the atmosphere less dense, which had worked out for a while, before Anthony had known that Emma was his brother's mate. She had known that would have what Derek must have mind linked Anthony about, which had had him opening his mouth and eyes wide enough to have earned him a slap from the redhead.

When the slap had come, she had been astounded. She had to give it the human then that she had guts to slap someone so much bigger and taller than her! Well, the human had never ceased to amaze her. It was like every day, there was something new to be known about her, like a new layer of her being peeled off her. It got her anticipating daily. And she had a feeling that this was the least of what was to come.

"I'm going off to bed." Emma's voice interrupted Maya. She had been so knee-deep in her thoughts that she hadn't known that the redhead was already done sweeping, hadn't seen her coming either.

"Okay. Let's go."  She said, standing up from the stool.

"No, don't worry. I know my way around now." Emma stated, tapping her by the shoulder, while trying to mask her own feeling of sadness.

"You should stay with Derek. I know you guys must have something to discuss about." She added, making Maya shake her head negatively.

"It's okay. I understand. You don't need to say it aloud." She mentioned wearily, her eyes communicating a clear information, before walking unfalteringly out of the kitchen, not for once throwing a glance, even the shortest glance, towards Derek.

And of course, he wasn't pleased about it, one bit.

"She is still angry with me." He said, his voice totally coloured with sadness.

"She is just tired and overwhelmed." Maya replied, in a bid to console her cousin, before he went off the edge again. She was still trying to understand why he was so fixated with Emma, that he could even run into depression because of her. Yes, she got that they were mates; but the redhead was a human, not a wolf. So, the mate pull or bond shouldn't be this strong between them. She also knew that it was the same for Emma. The redhead couldn't do without her cousin, even if sometimes she had acted like she could. But she couldn't. Maya was sure of that.

"But she didn't even look at me, or wish me goodnight before she left." He said, looking sullen the next second, looking like an over weight sagged bag of potatoes on the seat. He drooped that way.

"Derek, snap out of it. She is just annoyed with herself for slapping Anthony. She knew she had gone over the borders with that. And that is why she needs some time alone for herself to think and repent from her rash behaviour. Hopefully, she will sleep later on." Maya summarized, not finding it necessary to add that, the reason why the human had left the two of them in the kitchen and went away was because she actually knew that they both had a conversation to make, and that she wouldn't be invited. And even if she was, she thought it would be all lies, as the usual.

"You think so?" Derek asked, raising up his head which had sagged across his shoulder in his sullenness.

"I don't think so. I know so." Maya replied, walking closer to him, and ruffling his hair, while resting his head on her stomach, like she had usually done when they were little and he was unhappy.

"I love her so much." Derek muttered, after taking a deep breath in.

"I know." Maya responded, still ruffling his hair, happy that the tactic was working as before. He was calming down.

"I can't even bear to see her unhappy." He muttered again, with a long sigh.

"It is normal. It's the work of the mate bond." She stated.

"Is it? But she is a human. It shouldn't be this strong." He said, lifting his head up from her stomach.

"Well, sometimes it is." Maya replied, not even sure of what she was saying. She hadn't even heard of an Alpha mated to a human before around these regions. A pack member? Yes. But not an Alpha of a big pack like the Blue Moon Pack.

"Hmmm.." Derek sighed, not really believing his cousin's statement.

"You know when I had first known that she was my mate, when she had jumped on  me to flee from cockroaches that day, I had thought that I would be able to reject her since she was a human…" He was saying, smiling as he remembered the first day that he had met his little witch, that fateful day when he had come to clean her house. 

She had tripped him, after oogling at him, not keen to have received his bashful insults. No girl had ever done that, wolf or human. They all fawned over him, even while he insulted them openly and made jest of them. But Emma, she had been different since the first day. And, he was not happy that he had been lying to her, and worse, that she knows that he had been lying to him. 

He knew his cousin was just trying to console him in her own little way, of which he was grateful for. But he was sure that his little witch was angry with him, apart from being guilty over slapping his brother. And it was driving him nuts. Her heady scent wasn't making it easier too. He wanted to be close to her. To hold her. To cuddle her to sleep. But unfortunately, he couldn't and he could nothing about it. His wolf was silent too, obviously annoyed with him. After all, it had been one of the forces which had been gearing him to come clean before his mate since day one, and he had disobeyed.

"...But now, You can't." Maya mentioned, sighing as she did.

"It's okay. She will come around by tomorrow morning." She added, tapping her cousin by the shoulder.

"I hope she will." Derek muttered, his head drooped down again.

Few minutes had passed with them staying that way, when all of a sudden, Derek popped up his head as he remembered something.

"Tomorrow is Curtis' birth day right?"  He asked, turning a bit around, to face his cousin squarely.

"Yeah." Maya chuntered, taking some steps back till she got to the other stool in the kitchen. She sat on it slowly, as if in a trance, after pushing a bit to where Derek was sitting.

"Are you going?" Derek asked, berating himself in his mind for acting all selfish, talking about his mate always, when his cousin had a more difficult and complicated issue. Her mate couldn't recognize her! He couldn't imagine that happening to him. It would so painful. And now, she might have to face him tomorrow, seeing him but not touching him.

"I have to. He is my younger brother. Some of our warriors like Louis would be going too. But we would be back by nightfall, at most." She replied, not looking happy at all, like someone should be, if her sibling was celebrating a birthday.

Derek soughed, before standing up from the stool he has been sitting on. He stepped around her, and hugged her to his belly; tapping her long blond hair, ruffling it at some point as she had done for him some minutes ago.

"I'm scared Coz." Maya whimpered, tears already strolling from her eyes, as she wondered on how close her mate must have gotten with Zoe.

"Don't be. I will be going with you.." Derek stated, making up his mind to be there for his cousin this time around.