Thalia's POV
I knew from which direction I was feeling the stare and aura coming from, I was just too shocked to face him.
Ronan however, didn't notice it immediately.
"What's wrong with you? You look like you've just realized the mess you've gotten yourself into." He commented, looking at me like I was some bug that he could step on at any moment.
I didn't say a word, as I was trying my best not to look in the direction from which I knew He was staring from.
And I'm not talking about Ronan.
The man was a man of the past. I'm talking about the man that was already sending chills down my spine from looking at me.
And the crazy part is, I wasn't even looking at his direction.
"Come on! What's wrong?
Cat got your tongue?" Ronan asked me, teasing me to see if he could get a reaction out of me.
What he didn't know, is that he could as well be dancing naked in front of me and I wouldn't bat an eye in his direction.
That entire time, I was looking in the distance, praying that the immense feeling that I was getting was going to go away.
But even I knew that with Him, it wasn't going to happen. He wouldn't just stare at me talking to my former Alpha and let it happen.
It was next to impossible.
By that time, Ronan seemed to be cooling off.
That was unlike him, and the moment I noticed that, I could tell that he was sensing something as well.
What's scary is, even if I was overwhelmed by the thought of someone staring at me through the crowd, I hated Roman enough to pull myself from that temporarily.
And I did that just so that I could say to him, "What happened? Cat got your tongue?"
It felt so good to be able to pull that one on him, and from the glare that he gave me, it became so much more worth it.
That's when I convinced myself that if I had managed to escape Alpha Ronan, I wasn't going to allow myself to be thrown under the bus by Alpha Kade as well from the beginning.
I slowly turned my head to the direction that I knew he had been standing with Cassian and the elders, knowing that I was more likely to catch his gaze.
And that's exactly what happened.
I didn't just look at him, our eyes locked.
And even in the distance, I could feel the intensity that came with his stare.
You might have thought that I had confessed to kill his childhood toy or something like that.
However, his gaze didn't linger on me that much.
His eyes move from me, to the man that was standing right next to me, Alpha Ronan.
I wasn't the one being looked at, but I could tell that there was more animosity between the two men that even I couldn't compare to.
From the moment I saw the two of them lock eyes with each other, I knew that there was something awfully wrong between them.
It seemed like the two shared a history, unlike any that I could have expected.
Never had I seen Alpha Ronan look at someone and immediately react the way he did.
His body tensed up, and he clenched both of his fists.
I had stayed with him long enough to even know how to pick up the nonverbal cues that were a manifestation of his wolf.
And as I stood next to him, his whole demeanour changed.
It wasn't just Ronan that was fuming with silent rage in front me, but also his wolf.
Some part of me could tell that he wanted to step away from me, and disappear into the crowd, but when I looked back at Kade and saw him whispering something to Cassian and then take a step towards us, I knew that even Ronan was not going to avoid him.
It was kind of like an unwritten rule.
He had to wait till Kade got to where I was before he walks away.
This entire time, I wanted to note everything that was happening.
And as people cleared from Kade's path, letting him pass without the need for him to tell them to make way, my eyes wandered to the man that he had left behind.
Cassian.
After he had whispered something to his Beta, Kade had walked away from the elders that he was talking to, but his Beta didn't.
Instead, Cassian immediately shot a glance over to my direction and the moment his eyes moved and saw Ronan, I could have sworn that he rolled his eyes and sighed.
It was almost as if he knew that whatever was going to happen, wasn't good.
As Cassian went back to talking to the elders, Alpha Kade was finally getting to where Ronan and I were.
And by that time, I felt like Ronan had tried his best to maintain his composure, and take his feelings down a notch.
When Kade finally got to where we were, he didn't even bother with looking at me, he straight up stepped in front of Ronan.
None of them said a word for a few seconds, and the tension that was building up in that moment was so much that I noticed a few people started to feel it as well.
From just looking on, to completely stopping what they were doing so that they could witness what seemed like it was about to be clash between two Alphas.
"I didn't expect you to come here." Alpha Kade commented, finally breaking the silence.
His tone wast hiding anything. It was easy to also tell that he looked genuinely surprised that Ronan had made it to the finals of the Luna contests.
He sounded just as surprised as I was.
"I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Ronan commented, looking right back at Kade.
"I'm glad you could make it. Especially since you've played a big role in the contest." Kade said, as a grin crept on his face and he looked at Ronan with pride.
In that moment, I didn't understand what he had meant, but I soon came to realize that he was talking about me.
"I wish I could say the same." Ronan said to Kade, and then looked over to me and said, "It has certainly come at a cost."
That's when I got a glimpse of what was happening in that moment.
The realization kicked in that they were talking about me, and I have to say, the urge for standing up for myself was high.
But I would be caught dead if I dared to open my mouth and speak.
Especially when I was in the presence of the two Alphas.
"Everything comes at a price. Sometimes you lose, and sometimes I gain." Kade said with a snicker.
He was trying to trigger Ronan, while I wanted to speak up for myself.
However, Ronan didn't react verbally, and neither did I.
Ronan's face on the other hand twitched, for just a fraction of a second.
He almost lost it, and I knew that if I was able to spot that, Kade saw it as well.
I was coming to terms with the realization that Kade and Ronan weren't just the typical Alphas that don't get along.
From the animosity and tension that was in the air the entire time, I was coming to the conclusion that the two clearly hated each other.
While other Alphas feared and took a bow when Kade was in their presence, Ronan didn't display and show neither of the two.
And from what I could piece together, with how Ronan always vowed that I was never going to go anywhere, it would seem like the most tactical option for Kade to snatch me from him, just to provoke him even more.
'That is why my name was drawn in the first place. Just so that Kade could infuriate Ronan!' I said with a gasp, internally of course.
'Did I also win because Kade wanted to further infuriate Ronan?' I asked myself, realizing that the entire contest could have been compromised from the start.
The thought that Kade could have influenced my victory just for the sake of his sick satisfaction at getting at Ronan made me want to puke.
I couldn't believe that I had gone through shit in the contest and think that I won because of my witty brain, and then realize that it was all a sham.
As my eyes shuffled between Ronan and Kade, I felt like to the two of them, I was just a pawn used by both of them to see just how much they could get under each other's skin.
It was also starting to make sense why Ronan would even look for me when I had gone to take a seat.
He wanted to fish Kade from wherever he was, since he knew that Kade wouldn't stand seeing his newly announced Luna, talking to her former Alpha.
'Ugh men!' I groaned internally from disgust.
'If that's the case, why don't you just shove your dicks out, and swordfight with them to see who had the biggest dick and balls!'