Chapter 532 Don’t

Gilbert snapped out of his stare and said, “You’re drinking straight from the bottle.” He walked over, grabbed a wine glass, and handed it to her as though she didn’t know it existed. “Use this.”

Laila smirked, and while still looking at him, she drank straight from the bottle again. A thin trail of red wine escaped the corner of her lips, trickling down her jaw and along her throat before disappearing beneath the neckline of her dress.

“I don’t want to use the glass. My mom thinks it’s uncivilized to drink straight from the bottle, and apparently, the rule is that wine should be drunk from a wine glass. Hmph! I don’t want to follow any rules. Rules are boring, you know, just like everyone who doesn’t know how to stay out of other people’s business. Do you know what just happened out there?” Laila asked, angrily taking a long gulp of wine before wiping her lips with the back of her hand and gesturing toward the door.

Gilbert set the wine glass down on the bar and shook his head, realizing that his mate must have been provoked by someone out there.

“No. What happened that got you so upset?” he asked, glad that, for once, she wasn’t upset because of him.

The doctor had been in the middle of work when she arrived. After the memorial, he had come straight to his apartment and missed the big dinner. He had only stepped out to get some water when she showed up at that exact moment, but he put his work aside to attend to her.

It was something he’d struggled to do lately, since work was the only thing important enough to distract him from his depressing thoughts about the deceased, the countless ways he could have saved her as a doctor if they had been anywhere near Silver and his medical equipments, the way things were going on in the pack, and his recent discovery that he was related to the Luna.

“Upset is an understatement. They make my blood boil.” Laila grumbled, drinking even more, and then, as though remembering something, she looked at Gilbert and slowly lowered the bottle.

“Rodrigo, do you… am I so unlikable that no one understands my view? Am I a terrible person?” She asked in a quiet voice, staring at him.

Laila could feel herself getting drunk, for she would never have asked that question of anyone, or cared what they thought of her, but she suddenly felt small compared to everyone in that hall earlier. She’d never had genuine friends until now, and even now she wasn’t sure she wasn’t the one forcing herself onto them, leaving them no choice but to include her in their circle.

Maybe they were right, and she was too much. Viola and Tess and Ivy might never have included her in their circle if she hadn’t kept coming to them on her own. Maybe something was wrong with her, maybe…

She jumped when she felt Gilbert’s hand touch her flushed cheek, and she jerked her head back from it, glaring at him. He only smiled that disarming, handsome smile of his that melted her stomach as he said,

“You’re not a terrible person, not really. I don’t think so at all. You have your own way of expressing things, and some people take offense because they don’t understand it. People are so quick to be offended by what they don’t understand. Did someone say something to you?” He asked, looking into her emerald eyes, which looked more vulnerable than usual.

She looked away from him, shaking her head. “People like to say things to me all the time. It’s not new. It’s not like it’s the first time.” She looked at him warily when she felt herself going soft, and Laila immediately knew it was time for her to leave the place because some mate-crazy bond was making her melt like butter.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Gilbert asked her gently.

“No, I’ll be fine once I’ve had a drink. I’ll replace the wine when I’m done, and you can go back to your work. I don’t even know why I came here,” she whispered, gulping down the wine until the very last drop before setting the empty bottle on the counter.

She bent down to grab her shoes and leave, but she swayed slightly, and Gilbert caught her hand and pulled her back.

“You don’t have to go right now. Sit for a little while, and I’ll walk you back myself before you stumble and hit your head.” He began leading her toward his living room, and she followed him on unsteady legs, sitting down with her shoes still in her hand.

Gilbert handed her the water bottle, and Laila took a sip before lowering it, her eyes drifting past him to the glass wall, where the snow was still falling softly through the night.

“You can never please people… so I stopped trying to please them, and they still have a problem with me. They were offering me their scraps of sons as if I’d spare any of them a second look. What do they take me for?” Came her quiet complaint as she wiped at her eyes aggressively.

She wasn’t looking at him as she spoke, only staring out through the glass, and Gilbert, hearing her words, was overtaken by his mate’s possessiveness at the fact that someone was offering her their son. He went down on his knees in front of her and wiped at her eyes with his fingertips.

“I’m sorry,” Gilbert said softly, his voice thick with regret as he watched her emerald eyes tremble and her cheeks grow redder. A pang of guilt twisted painfully in his chest. He should have stepped forward that day to claim her openly, stood beside her without hesitation, and made it clear to everyone that she was his.

If he had done that, no one would have dared look down on her enough to offer their sons.

“For what? Why are you apologizing? It’s not like you’re the one who upset me, which is a first…” She allowed him to wipe away her tears with those beautiful hands she secretly admired and wanted all over her body more than once.

“I feel like I’ve never said that to you, after all the complications I caused when I realized you were my fated mate, and…”

“Don’t.” Laila said, lowering her long lashes. “I understand. I understand why you’d choose her over me. I’m not someone you take home, and you don’t owe me any explanations, because my own thoughts back then weren’t noble either. I was only trying to make my uncle shit eggs by getting you.” She said, and then she suddenly chuckled softly.

“What’s so funny, Serrano?” Gilbert asked, resting his hands on her knees and searching her eyes.