Channing did not turn around for some time. He was waiting for me to let go of his wrist, to run away from the situation. But I held on. He had to turn back. He had to meet my eyes.

"Have I done something wrong?" I asked innocently, looking for the answer. But his brows crinkled. As if not correctly understanding why I asked that.

His body turned to face me as he stood outside of my bedroom door frame and I opened the door full. His eyes looked down, and my eyes followed. He saw me still holding on to his wrist and I let go as if gently swatting a fly. It hadn't taken me a lot of time to adjust to the presence of men, but Channing had pulled me in yesterday, when drunk. It had made it difficult for me with him.

Channing had a faint smile, watching my reaction. The little time I took to adjust my eyes back to his. "You had hidden the truth, now you have rectified it."

But that answer did not convince me. He had been distant before the time of discovering me being the Alpha. There was something that happened between last night and the morning.

"Go to sleep now. You had a long day," He said, this time waiting for my reaction. His care was showing, and yet the distance was still there.

Since he did not want to come onto that topic, I asked upfront, "You are being distant. And it is not subtle, Channing. Have I... Have I done something to break your trust in me as a person?" If he had ignored my false information in the registry, that meant he still had trust in the person who I was. He did not even bother to push for revealing my true identity a while back. He still had that trust, but then what went wrong?

"What!" He laughed with a huff, but I could see the hesitation in his eyes. When he saw my narrowed eyes and I tilted my head, wanting explanations.

Channing sighed and raised his hand, bringing it forward to pat my head, "I am sorry I missed giving you a head pat back then, was a little distracted. There is nothing distant, Selene" He raised his eyebrows, forcing his usual playful nature forward. "Okay?"

I couldn't help but blink at him. He almost looked normal, but it just wouldn't convince me, "No!" My words came like a rebellious child. "No Channing. Do you take me for a fool? Please tell me whatever it is. You don't understand how heavy it gets later on, the things can't be fixed then and trust me I have seen it happen very badly." I unconsciously took a step ahead, reducing the distance between us and tilted my head up to match his eyes "What is it, Channing? Let's see if we can work it out"

Channing watched me step close, but did not budge. His eyes were searching for something on my face while I stood with my resolve. I wasn't letting my first friend go this easily.

He rolled his eyes, running his fingers through his hair, something he has been doing a lot since he came here.

Turning his head, he watched through the lobby of my rundown house, outside the broken main door from where the village was visible over a distance. The darkness had covered the skies and lights from the building reflected gently towards my house.

Turning back to find me still looking at him, he sighed and entered the room, making me turn sideways for him to enter. I didn't know why I shut the door. Maybe he wouldn't want any disturbance.

"Selene" Channing raised his hands to make them fall back again, he was struggling to say.

"Yes, Channing?" I asked, pushing him further, "Just tell the truth"

His grey eyes turned darker as he looked into mine. He was standing at a distance and yet I could see him clearly. "Selene, I don't want people to think I am being partial to you"

He stopped, and it was annoying me at this point. He will say two words, pushing forward and drop them.

"Are you being partial?" My eyebrows raised, a minor irritation in my voice.

Channing could see clearly that his going in circles was vexing me. "We are close, Selene, aren't we? I don't mean having known each other long or getting the door to each other's secrets"

Where was he going with this? Was he still wishing for my secret, where I come from? But he was distant since morning. At this point, he could not twirl me round and round. I nodded, waiting to see where it goes this time.

"We went through some tugging times together when we first met. You had brought me back from death's door," He elaborated further, "You blindly trusted me back then and so did I. It is a different bond we share, I can see what you are going through even without the use of my ability and somewhere you understand what I am feeling"

His words were overwhelming and although I wouldn't agree with the part of me understanding him, I still had to know him better for that, but I would accept that he understood me. They made me feel warm on hearing.

Channing casually smiled, "I would obviously be partial to someone with whom I share a special bond. Till the competition for Beta ends, I don't want that biased opinions and liking towards someone to be spotted out. It can hinder the selection of the correct Beta," His lips pursed before continuing, "You know what happened with John Walter, I don't want my trust coming in between this time"

My eyes narrowed. I did not want to call him out for his childish behaviour.

It was not his trust in John, even though he knew he was wrong and naïve with whatever decisions he had taken to end up in that situation then. If he truly had trusted John, he would have sided with him before believing my side of the story, which he did not take even minutes to do in the hospital.

This man was lying straight through his teeth. Not about the things he just said, but this was not the answer to my question and it irked me now.

I might have let him go if he would have lashed out and asked me to stay away from him, but with his circling the thing round like he wanted to hold onto me and yet keep his distance. In that case, he was going to talk. I would make him tell the truth because even if he did not, I cared!