Chapter 208: Apology and Reconciliation
Chapter 208: Apology and Reconciliation
Draven.
Dealing with Meredith was like fighting an endless war with a shifting battlefield. One minute she was defiant, the next, vulnerable.
She could infuriate me with a single glare—and yet, even now, the image of her smiling at that damned burrito earlier still lingered in my mind.
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t ever be involved with women. They were too complicated. Too unpredictable. Too... everything.
But the Moon Goddess had bound me to her. Not just to her body, but to her chaos. Her fire. Her damn stubbornness.
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, hands clasped tightly. My claws itched at the tips of my fingers. I wanted to rip the tension out of the air.
Instead, I closed my eyes and started plotting.
I couldn’t just barge into her room like nothing had happened. She’d close the door in my face or worse—tear into me with words that would make me want to break something. I had to be precise. Strategic.
Like preparing for war.
Maybe I’d catch her on a walk. Or after dinner. Something casual—where neither of us would feel cornered.
I’d start with something simple. Small. Then, explain the training: why I did it and what I hoped to achieve.
She wouldn’t accept it immediately, of course, but maybe—maybe—if I said it right, she’d see my side.
But before any of that, I’d have to say the one thing that burned the worst: "I’m sorry."
I growled under my breath.
Damn her.
Damn this mate bond.
And damn the fact that even after everything, I still wanted to be next to her.
---
For the rest of the day, I struggled with this decision to apologize to Meredith. And I was so distracted by it that I couldn’t focus on any other thing.
A few times, I had almost changed my mind about it.
However, after finally coming to a conclusion about my decision, I found peace and then set out to find Meredith.
She wasn’t in her bedroom when I knocked and opened the door.
And as if the Moon Goddess was personally overseeing this, to make sure the apology happened, I found one of Meredith’s maidservants in the hallway after I came down to the ground floor.
"Good evening, Alpha." She bowed as soon as she saw me.
"Where is your mistress?" I inquired in my usual calm and authoritative tone.
---
Some minutes later, I found Meredith exactly where Deidra said she would be.
The pool glowed under the dusky sky, reflecting ripples of soft blue and silver, and she was just stepping out of the water, skin glistening, hair dripping down her back in wet strands as she reached for the towel on the chair.
She hadn’t seen me yet.
I hesitated—briefly. Then I crossed the paved floor with the steady weight of my footsteps announcing my arrival.
Her head jerked up. She stilled when she saw me. There was no smile or a frown—just a blank, guarded look.
I couldn’t tell whether I was the last person she wanted to see—or the first she hoped to avoid.
"Do you know how stubborn you are?" I asked as I reached the lounge chair beside hers and sat down like I had all the right in the world to be there.
Meredith scoffed, snatching her towel to squeeze the water from her hair. "And here I thought you came to apologize. But clearly, you came to spar."
I let out a quiet breath and tilted my head slightly. "No. I mean it. You really need to see yourself from my perspective. No one rivals you in the art of being infuriating."
She turned her body toward me fully now, one brow raised. "So says the man who walked away from me, from our training, and pretended like I didn’t exist for two weeks."
Her words hit with precision—cold and cutting. But I didn’t flinch.
I gave a slow nod. "I know."
A pause followed.
She blinked once. "You know," she echoed, voice sharp. "And that’s it?"
"I know I messed up."
I could feel her eyes narrowing even before I turned to meet them.
"I shouldn’t have let Wanda train you without warning," I continued. "I told myself it was for your growth... that it was necessary. But I didn’t consider how much it would feel like betrayal."
She folded her arms, towel clenched in one hand. "You’re right. You didn’t."
"I thought you’d gain something important," I went on, forcing the words out past my pride. "And maybe you did. But that doesn’t excuse the way I handled it."
Meredith didn’t reply right away. Her jaw was tight. Her posture was stiff.
"I never expected an apology from you," she finally said. "Because I knew your ego was too bloated to see your mistakes."
I exhaled through my nose. "And yet, here I am."
She shot me a sideways glance. "Barely."
I ignored the jab. She wasn’t making this easy—and she shouldn’t.
"You’re angry," I said. "You should be."
She looked at me now, fully, her eyes hard and unreadable. "Do you even know why I’m angry?"
I didn’t answer.
She leaned in slightly, her voice low. "Because you humiliated me. Not just by throwing me to that woman, but by standing there while she beat me, and saying nothing. You made me feel like nothing. Less than nothing."
That pierced deeper than it should have.
"I never wanted to diminish you," I said, quieter now. "But I was trying to show you what real combat feels like... what it means to be up against someone who truly wants to see you broken."
"You succeeded," she said, the corners of her lips lifting in a humorless smile. "Congratulations."
"Meredith—"
"No," she cut in, standing up abruptly and facing away from me as she ran the towel through her hair again. "Don’t Meredith me."
I stayed seated. "If I could redo it—"
"But you can’t."
She wasn’t giving me an easy out. I respected that, but that didn’t mean I was comfortable with it.
"I’m not asking you to forget it," I said. "Or to forgive me tonight."
I let a beat of silence pass and then, I continued:
"But I am saying this now because it is the right thing to do. And I don’t want the tension between us to grow thicker than this. I’m sorry."
And there it went, the ’I’m sorry’ I thought could never slip out of my tongue.
A few hours back, I had rehearsed saying the exact words and found the bitter aftertaste it left on my tongue.
I had thought it would take something from me. But lo and behold, I was still the same Draven. Nothing changed.
Meredith turned back to me slowly, eyes searching mine now, probably testing.
And then, after a long, heavy pause, she extended the towel to me. "Dry my hair."
I stared at the towel briefly and returned my gaze to her face.
She arched a brow. "Or are your Alpha hands too delicate?"
I sighed weakly and took the towel from her. "Have you been fantasizing about this moment?"
"It seemed like just the right task for you," she said as she sat down on the lounge next to mine.
I moved behind her on the lounger and began drying her hair in slow, careful motions. Her silence didn’t feel cold anymore. It was thick with thoughts, but not hostile.
And yet, I still wasn’t satisfied because there was no response regarding my apology. But I didn’t push more words between us. This moment was enough.
Until I heard her voice, soft and deliberate.
"Forgiveness takes time, Draven—especially with what you did to me."
"That, I am well aware of." noveldrama
Silence settled between us, lasting for over two minutes, as the only thing that accompanied us was the small sounds of our breath.
Then, Meredith broke the silence. "If you still want to know about my wolf, you will wait until I’m ready to share the details myself."
I froze for the briefest moment. Then I resumed drying her hair, my motions unbroken.
"You can’t force my hand, and you won’t bring her up until I do." She let out a small breath and then asked, "Do I have your word, Alpha?"
"No, you don’t," I replied almost immediately without doing as much as letting my fingers falter.
But I felt her pause, then suddenly turn her face to me, snatching her long silver hair from my gentle grasp.
Meredith’s brows furrowed as her eyes narrowed at me. "You don’t?"
She looked like I had just shattered whatever peaceful agreement we had reached.
She had misunderstood me because of my choice to deliberately withhold the second half of my statement, just to draw this reaction.
But I wasn’t about to let her fly into a fitting rage before resolving the situation.
"As Alpha, I don’t give my word, but as your husband, which is the role I had chosen to play before coming out here to apologize, I give my word."
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