Chapter 14: Fire Vs Water

Stephanno….When had he come back? I thought he had left for good when he ran away before, without a word, but here he was glaring at my neck, the vein on his forehead about to pop. A sinking feeling hit my stomach as if I had just let him down. I felt like I had cheated on him, which was ridiculous because I just met him.” SIN….SIN….” The annoying voice in my head was back.

“ Oh, Fuck off” I growled at her.

“ Excuse me? You maybe the MISTRESS of the Fire Sect, but you are still in the presence of the Head of the Council, I suggest you watch your tongue, MRS.VALDEMEIRE.” He bellowed at me, taking care to emphasis on ‘Mistress’ and Mrs Valdemeire’.

“ I ….Uhmm…No…I wasn’t talking to you” I stuttered, frightened by the murderous look on his face.

Stella had told me Stephanno wasn’t a hostile person, in fact she said that he was an honorable and sweet men, one everyone loved. I didn’t seem to be getting the same treatment from him as everyone else apparently.

The door to the study opened with a bang and a furious Dominic walked out.

“ Stephanno…OUT….Why on earth would you come back here? I thought I had made it perfectly clear that you are not welcome inside the fire sect.”

Stephanno walked past me, headed straight towards where Dominic was standing right now with a devil may care attitude.

I sighed. This is not gonna end well. Stephanno wasn’t just the Head of the Water Sect, he was the Head of the goddamn council. He can have Dominic arrested and thrown into his dungeons just for fun. I glared at Dominic. That idiot should really keep his trap shut, or he is gonna spend a day or two in the palace dungeons.

Stephanno pulled Dominic up by the collar of his shirt and hoisted him up in the air, as if he was just a doll, not a man who weighed around two hundred pounds.

“Dominic Valdemeire, I have been nothing but patient and understanding to you, excusing your insolent behavior on the grounds that you have always been a petty, jealous person. However, even rivals are to be respected…And I am your goddamn leader, you report to me and yet you dare treat me with such defiance?” He bellowed at Dominic, while Dominic tried desperately to escape from his grip.

I was petrified to see Dominic in the air, desperately slashing his legs against the wall.

“ Stop! He is turning blue. You may be the Goddamn Head of the Council, but that still doesn’t give you the right to take an innocent person’s life” I yelled at Stephanno, panicked.

Stephanno released Dominic in one swift motion, and in a blink of my eyes was right in front of me…

Holy crap! He was fast, I didn’t even see him move. The previous emotions I had when I saw him in my dreams was gone in a flash. He wasn’t sweet or adorable like in he was in my dreams. He was an A- grade asshole….a deathlier, more arrogant version of Dominic. Why were my potential mates both assholes?

Stephanno’s nose was touching mine, that’s how close he was standing… “ And you! What kind of a woman are you? You betrayed your true mate and married someone else, you gold digger! You threw yourself to the first billionaire who made a move? And you think he is innocent? After all the atrocious crimes he had committed, you think he is innocent?” he spat at me.

I sucked in a deep breath….Dominic’s hateful words never really had an effect on me….But Stephanno, I don’t know why, but it hurt like hell. I blinked back the tears that were threatening to erupt. No I won’t give that smug bastard the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Dominic stirring. He got up from the floor and came in and positioned himself between Stephanno and me, his back facing me. Dominic glared at Stephanno and yelled furiously, “ Back off from my mate”

“ YOUR MATE?” Stephanno bellowed back at him.

“You always wanted what was mine since childhood, Dominic. But I never expected you to be so petty that you would claim MY MATE .....I never imagined that you would stoop so low that you would claim another man’s mate, VALDEMEIRE” he roared at him.

“ Everything doesn’t revolve around your tiny little presence, Your Honour…You think I would claim someone who wasn’t even mine to claim?” Dominic replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“ Knowing you….Yes. You would claim her knowing full well she was my mate so that you can have hold over me, Isn’t that what you wanted since childhood?”

I stepped in between in them and pressed my left hand on Dominic’ chest and my right hand on Stephanno’s and pushed them apart.

Stephanno glanced at me maliciously and said, “ And you….How can you be so stupid to fall into his lie…It is not you he is after, it’s my position as the Head of the Council he is after. But you have miscalculated, Dominic. No one , not even this gold digger girl can make me give up my position.”

I winced involuntarily at his snide remark while Dominic tried to move past me in a bid to punch Stephanno obviously, but I barely managed to hold him in place. This fight is so getting out of hand.

Stepanno saw me tackling Dominic and narrowed his eyes, then pulled me off Dominic towards him in one swift motion. My head felt light…I was feeling dizzy. Man ! He was really fast.

When Dominic moved forward to protest, Stephanno simply put his index finger on Dominic’s chest and hit some places in Dominic’s chest with the index finger, and Dominic fell to the floor, as still as a statue. I gasped out loud, bewildered by what just happened and quickly knelt to his side and put my fingers near his nostrils. I sighed with relief when I felt his breath on my fingers….He was breathing, he was just knocked out cold.

“ Tell your dear husband when he wakes up that I will be coming to take you to the water sect after exactly one week. Your husband reckons he should also get to train you….I will give a week’s time for him to complete his training with you, then you will come with me to your sect, where you will begin your real training. Don’t misunderstand me, Mrs Valdemeire, I am not coming to claim you as my bride, I am just taking you to the water sect as your mentor…….I am just fulfilling my duty, nothing else. And you shall treat me with the same respect you give to your teacher. When you come to the water sect, don’t go telling anyone that you are my mate, for I will never claim you. From today onwards, the only relationship that will exist between us is that of a master and his apprentice.” He declared pompously.

“ I…Uhm..” I stuttered like an idiot , too surprised by his unexpected declaration.

Then he stomped his foot impatiently and left in a flash, within one blink of an eye.

I burst into tears unexpectedly. I am not a crying person, but being told by my mate that he won’t accept me made me all vulnerable and gooey…Why didn’t he want me? He was such a different person from the person he as in my dreams….But I remember Stella talking about Stephonno, of how he was always just and equitable, how he treated everyone with kindness that he made it very difficult for anyone to hate him….So this vengeful attitude of his was clearly reserved only for me. Yay! Lucky me…I get that he is upset about my marriage to Dominic, but shouldn’t give me a chance to explain how Dominic tricked me into marrying him so that he could insure his goddamn position as the Head of Fire Sect.. And it’s not like we mated, he only claimed me, I haven’t claimed him…The bond can still be broken without much damage to either one of us because we hadn’t completed it yet…And my mate…MY TRUE MATE, refused to claim me or even acknowledge me? He wants me to treat him like my mentor only?

I looked at Dominic laying nearby in the floor still as statue, then something broke in me and I sobbed , sobbed now without trying to hold it in….I let it out……Stephanno…..You managed to hurt me, to break me when no one had ever succeeded in breaking me…