The Game Of Quadruplet Mates
(Bk 2) Chapter 22

I did not cry

Though I wanted to.

And I was pretty sure I would have if it wasn't for the people around me,

My entire body was in this shocked state where I continued dancing and twirling while my heart was frozen and my eyes were stinging. My skin prickled as the seconds and minutes passed... on and on.

When the torturous dancing stops and we are told to enjoy the rest of the night, I feel my knees lock and my stomach drop. I could barely breathe. I can barely think.

Miss A and Miss E turned to me expectantly, ready to party the night away, but I walked out of the grand ballroom, unable to stay any longer. Pushing past overly eager couples and drunk wobbling attendees looking for the bathroom, I made it to the hallways lit only by candle light.

My heart jumps as my name is called from behind me. I think it's my guard for a moment, but it's not.

Mister W stood by the end of the corridor, his lips pressed in a worried line.

"Not now," I said as kindly as I could, a sour burp coming out of my lips.

1 think I was going to throw up. The alcohol I've been chugging carelessly was bubbling up my throat and into my mouth.

It was not pleasant.

My feet stumble, my ridiculously high heels betraying me, but just as I fall flat on my face, a hand catches me.

"I got you." Mister W says, pulling me and helping me to a window where I promptly start releasing what my stomach was trying hard to push out of me. "Let it out. It's okay."

Letting it out was putting it nicely.

I was hemorrhaging my insides at that point.

The sour taste of my vomit curls my toes and stings my eyes even more. From the way I was hurling and retching, it certainly felt very close to shifting into my wolf form for the very first time.

I sounded like I was dy in g as I coated the wall below the window in bile and whatever horror I was spilling from my mouth.

Through all this, Mister W's hand stayed on my lower back, tracing circles and trying to soothe the monster that was attempting to break out of me.

"Better?" He asks when the sounds of me gagging stopped.

I waited for a good minute, letting myself catch a breath and making sure that was all of it before I leaned back and nodded. "Yes, I think so. Uh, I'm sorry you saw that."

"What are you talking about? I didn't see anything." He smoothly counters, handing over a white handkerchief.

A smile pulled at my lips despite the vomiting I had just done and how weak I suddenly felt. And when I didn't take the handkerchief from him, he leaned over to dab the soft fabric on my lips. "Thank you."

"Fun night?" He inquires with a carefully lifted eyebrow. He was so relaxed, so casual, uncaring about how he just watched me hurl my entire stomach out the window.

I squeezed my eyes shut, my head starting to pound painfully. "I had too much to drink."

He leaned against the wall, his eyes on me the entire time." I know the feeling well."

I remember seeing him for the first time and seeing him for the rest of the day after that. He always had a drink in his hand and he smelled so strongly of liquor that I could get drunk from just the smell of him alone. I remember how sad he was, how incredibly defeated he looked. "Was that you escaping?"

Mister W took a second to reply, his eyes glancing down to my wrist where his bracelet was. "Yes, until..."

I wiped my lips, cringing when the taste of bile was still in my throat. "Until?"

"You." He confesses, his voice low as though he was telling me a secret. "I met you."

My breath catches as I look up at him in surprise. "What about me?"

There was no flattery in his voice when he spoke, only the genuine truth. "Seeing you and being with you was better than anything I could have done in the Games. Most especially better than my original plan which was to get myself drunk out of my mind to get this week over with."

My eyes widened, realizing that since day two started, I hadn't seen him drinking or smelled the alcohol on him. He was... sober and his eyes didn't have the same sadness anymore or at least not as bad as before.

But then who would dislike the Games so much that they would drink just to let the time pass?

The rumors of him being in love with someone else-someone that probably wasn't in the Games this year or in any of the coming years, settled into my chest.

"You're a miracle worker, Miss X." He cooed teasingly as he saw my cheeks go red. He was startlingly beautiful, the kind of beautiful that knocks the air out of everyone's chest whenever anyone looks at him.

I cough, giving distance between us, mostly so he doesn't smell me and my vomit breath. "Just because you were between my legs..."

Suddenly, he laughs, a low laugh that makes my heart beat a little faster. I wish I could put the sound in a jar to take out whenever I wanted. The deep boom of his chuckle felt like silk washing over my body, and I would do anything to hear the sound over and over again. He didn't look like the kind of man to laugh easily, but maybe that's why it made it so special. He didn't give it freely.

It made me think about how he was a man with such a heavy burden on his shoulders- a burden that I can understand fully and how, at first, he couldn't even look up from his drink but looked up to see me. And how he is the same man that crowned me the prettiest and kept me safe during the contests.

"Yes." He playfully admits, his hair falling to his face. "That is a big factor as no man, no matter how powerful, can resist having your legs squeezed against them for hours.

I wonder if his hair was as soft as it looked, but then I realized what he had just said and I flushed, my cheeks heating up. My pulse quickens as I do the most childish thing I could do; stick my tongue out. "Very funny." A smile curves his lips. "Just telling you how it

is."

I couldn't turn away from him, his beauty blinding.

The other attendees are right.

Mister W belongs up on a tree.

And when he looked at me, it was like a caress, his warm gaze slowly trailing down my body. It brought a shiver down my spine. "You and that guy with the hair,"

Why do people always describe O like that?

We all had hair.

I pull away, straightening my spine as my lips drop into a frown. "What about him?"

Apparently, O and I weren't as quiet as I had hoped in the grand ballroom. I'm sure plenty of people saw us together and no doubt some heard of what we said to each other.

I could tell Mister W was thinking about how to ask whatever question was on his mind and I waited patiently for him to replace the right words.

"Are you two... okay?" He asks, the question hanging. He sounded hesitant, like he was approaching a wild monster ready to pounce.

"We were never okay." I said with a shrug, my knees a little shaky. "We aren't anything."

His gaze doesn't waiver. "The man seems to care about you."

Ilooked around, checking if any of the guards were near us, but we were alone. "He's a pack member and he takes his responsibility to protect his pack members seriously."

He didn't look like he believed me, but nodded anyway.

A yawn left my lips as I leaned against the wall, feeling the cold marble on my back.

His eyes were still on me, almost as if he was searching for something, an answer to a question that he didn't ask. "Let me walk you back to your room."

My guard's warning whispers in my ear, but as I look at Mister W, I cannot replace a reason to distrust him or to reject his offer. "Okay, but only if you have no where to be and if no one is expecting you. The evening is young and the Games have just begun." Already, altendees were rushing to their rooms, pairing up and lip locked the moment they're in the halls. Ties are pulled off, suits are removed and dresses are slipped off.

It seems introductions went very well and everyone was in the mood for celebrations.

It's not uncommon for people at the Games to enjoy themselves with others. In fact, it's expected.

And with a man like Mister W, I can only imagine that he has a very long line of women waiting to warm his bed for him.

"I'm right where I want to be." He said once we had turned a corner and made it to the stairway that led to my room." What about you? Are you expecting someone tonight?"

"I am not like you, Mister W. I do not have an army of suitors begging at my feet." I poke fun at him, playfully digging my elbow into his side.

"Says the woman who is talked about by all men." He peers down at me, not moving an inch from my side. There was a certain tone in his voice... something I've heard before with 0 and my guard- but surely it can't be jealousy? "Do you know how many you left weeping in that grand ballroom? You barely looked at them."

"I could say the same to you. You barely looked at anyone as well." And it was true. The entire time he danced with all the others, his eyes were elsewhere, his hands were barely touching and he looked like he wanted to be somewhere else. The only time he ever truly looked was when I was in his arms and this thought makes me hot all over.

"I don't

think you even spoke with anyone."

He leaned back, deep in thought. "I didn't notice anyone else... because I suppose I didn't want to be with anyone else.

Anyone else?

Devoured by my own thoughts of him, I did not notice that we were already at my door. "This is you?"

I nodded, turning the doorknob and pushing it open. "Yes, this is me."

Something hung in the air as we stared at each other and I was more than a little confused about my next steps with him. And then, my stomach churns, bile surging up my throat once more and before I can say another word, I'm running into my room and sprinting for the toilet.

I skid to a stop and went down on my knees, hurling air and making a lot of atrocious gagging sounds as nothing seemed to come out of me anymore.

I dreaded hearing the footsteps behind me as I felt his warmth on my back. He leaned down, going on his knees as well and comforting me with his hand on my back.

"Just let it out." He says in a soothing voice. "You're going to feel much better after."

I don't know how long it took for my stomach to calm down, but by the time I'm done, I'm beyond exhausted

Mister W moves before I can process what was happening and scoops me up in his arms. Cradled in his embrace, he brings me to my bed and tucks me in. There's a moment of conflict in those beautiful eyes of his before he pulls away and, without another word, walks out of the room.

He looked like he had seen a ghost.

Just as the door closes behind him, I see a man blocking his way. Far superior in height, my guard's body stood deathly still as shock and rage burned in those sharp eyes of his.

His jaw flexes once, twice, the slightest movement, otherwise I might think he was a statue with how still he stood

My guard was staring down at Mister W hard, communicating the promise of hell with a single look.

Just as I thought he would toss Mister W out the window or curse him out, my guard shoved him out the way, walking into my room where I hurriedly tried to sit up.

There was this panicked look on his face as he saw me in bed. His gaze raked through me, carefully checking my face and my neck and whatever else he could see from my exposed limbs.

He robs me of all logical thought by walking right up to my bed and leaning ever so closely. His voice was like a cra c k of lighting, making me shudder. "Did he hurt you?"

The way he asked this, it was like he was ready to break allthe rules for me.

Like he was ready to start the war that everyone has been trying so hard to avoid.

And he couldn't care less.

Anything and everything, just to protect me.

Something... an energy of some sort was humming under my skin, overwhelming all my senses. "No, I just felt sick and he helped me."

Relief washed away some of his anger, but not all, as he hovered over me, his minty breath on my face.

"Remember what I said. Don't trust him."