Chapter 216: Don’t you dare

Yuki felt her stomach churn so violently that she instinctively grabbed her abdomen. Her face drained of colour beneath the flush of alcohol, and she swallowed hard, desperately trying to force the nausea back down. Kaden noticed the sudden change in her expression, and his brows pulled together as he studied her.

"Snow?" he asked, his voice losing its usual irritation. "Don’t you dare..." he warned, already knowing what was about to happen.

Yuki opened her mouth, and his stomach dropped violently. Her body lurched forward, and she violently retched, throwing up everything in her stomach all over the front of Kaden’s expensive suit.

Kaden froze. For several seconds, he simply stared down at himself, lips parted in complete disbelief. Yuki blinked up at him with an innocent expression, seemingly too drunk to understand what she had just done. Then her gaze slowly travelled down to his ruined suit before returning to his face, and the same horrified expression spread across hers. Kaden’s eyes narrowed.

"Don’t you dare," he warned in a dangerously calm voice.

Yuki immediately clamped a hand over her mouth. Her cheeks turned bright red as she stared at him, visibly frightened by the warning in his voice. Kaden pointed towards the bathroom, his expression still frighteningly blank.

"Keep it there. Don’t even think about doing that again."

Yuki nodded rapidly, but her stomach twisted again before she could even take a step. Kaden saw it coming.

"Fuck," he cursed.

He scooped her into his arms and hurried towards the bathroom, holding her securely against his chest. He had no intention of trusting her drunken mind to navigate the corridor without another disaster.

"Hold on," he ordered, his voice brisk with urgency. "We’re almost there."

Yuki groaned weakly against his shoulder, and Kaden pushed through the bathroom door. The moment he lowered her onto her feet, she stumbled towards the toilet. She barely made it before her knees buckled, but Kaden moved quickly, flipping the lid open just as she dropped to the floor.

Yuki bent over the bowl and retched again. Her shoulders shook violently with every heave, her fingers gripping the edge of the toilet as her hair spilled around her face. Kaden quickly gathered it away from her mouth, holding it behind her head while she emptied what little remained in her stomach. Another painful retch tore through her, and although Kaden grimaced at the sound, his hand instinctively moved across her back.

"Easy," he murmured, his voice unexpectedly gentle. "Just let it out."

Yuki couldn’t answer. All she could manage were miserable groans between each painful heave, and every one of them made Kaden increasingly uncomfortable. He hadn’t intended to help her beyond getting her somewhere safe, yet his hand continued moving slowly over her back, the motion coming naturally from taking care of Eloise.

Eloise had never blatantly gotten drunk around them before. She had recently turned eighteen and always tried to maintain that carefully polished image she had around the brothers, slightly spoilt and accustomed to being indulged, but never completely out of control.

Yuki was nothing like her. Despite all the hostility between them, the little wolf simply didn’t give a damn. She drank when she wanted, spoke her mind when she wanted and apparently had no problem turning Kaden’s expensive suit into a casualty of the evening.

Kaden’s gaze softened despite himself as he watched her suffer, and a faint pang of guilt settled in his chest. Why hadn’t he stopped her earlier? He had watched her drink glass after glass.

He had complained about it, warned her and even made his displeasure obvious, yet he had still allowed it to continue. His jaw tightened as he silently cursed Declan for indulging her. Somehow, the bastard had watched Yuki drink that much and still thought it was a good idea to encourage her. Kaden conveniently ignored the fact that he had been just as unwilling to interfere because of some imaginary boundary he had decided existed between them.

He cursed Declan for indulging her, and now he was stuck with the mess, conveniently forgetting he was the one who hadn’t wanted her drunk around someone else.

He didn’t want her embarrassing the Ravencourt name. That was the reason he cared. That was why he had been angry with Declan for allowing her to drink. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that he didn’t want to see her in this state.

At least, that was what Kaden kept telling himself. Those were the excuses he always reached for whenever he found himself helping the girl he had sworn to loathe. Duty. Reputation. Family. Responsibility. Anything was easier to accept than the uncomfortable truth beneath them.

The bond was gone. Kaden knew it was gone. Yet his body still seemed to have missed the message. He was repulsed by intimacy with others except hers. The realisation was too disturbing to entertain, so he shoved it aside. His brows pulled into a tight knot as he continued rubbing Yuki’s back and silently cursed Alexander for adopting such a reckless she-wolf. He blamed everyone except himself.

Yuki eventually retched until nothing came up except saliva. Her body sagged with exhaustion, and she slowly fell back onto the cold bathroom floor, immediately grabbing her head.

"My head hurts," she whimpered.

Something in Kaden’s chest tightened at the miserable sound. He immediately stood and crossed to the bathroom cabinet, opening it with a sharp tug. After rummaging through several bottles, he found a packet of hangover pills and a bottle of water. Kaden hardly ever got drunk, but whenever he did, he came to this villa, isolated himself and waited for the alcohol to leave his system. That was why he kept the pills here. He returned to Yuki and crouched beside her.

"Here," he said, holding out the bottle. "Take some water."

Yuki shook her head.

"Not to drink," he clarified patiently. "Rinse your mouth first."

She stared at him blankly. Kaden sighed and brought the bottle closer. "Come on, Snow. Just a little," he urged her.

Yuki reluctantly took a mouthful. "Don’t swallow it," he instructed, gently tilting her chin down. "Spit it out."

She leaned forward and spat into the toilet.

"Again," he instructed.

She rinsed her mouth several times, each time spitting into the bowl while Kaden patiently held the bottle. When he finally lowered it, he studied her face. Kaden silently swore never to let her get drunk again.