Chapter 20
RILEY.
“Do you love her, Riley?” She asked me without looking at me, and I knew the answer right away.
“I don’t,” I answered coldly, not really liking this conversation at all.
“Liar.” She hissed at me.
“I told you I don’t lie.”
“Then tell me about her.” She tilted her body in my direction, her eyebrow raised as she mocked me with her eyes.
“There’s nothing to tell. She’s part of the past, Nadia. Let it go.”
“I want to know everything about her.”
“What’s the point? She’s gone.”
“I want to know everything about her! Don’t make me say that again.”
“What the fuck for? I didn’t ask you about your past. Or anyone in your life. So can we just move on...”
“Because I have nothing to tell you! I never had a man in my life! Oh, I have! I forgot! Let me tell you about him! This man saw me when I was seventeen, and he was forty-five years old! And he decided he wanted me as his mate! That evil man would visit me every time he could, and he would look at me like he was undressing me every single time!”
“Stop, Nadia...” My voice came out desperate.
This was exactly the reason why I didn’t want her to find out who Andrea was.
The evil man in her story was me, in Andrea’s.
And telling her what I did to Andrea would only remind her of her own life.
I didn’t want her to end up loathing me.
And I never wanted to be accepted by anyone as much as I wanted Nadia to accept me.
“My uncle would force me to hug him, and I would do my best every time not to vomit or pass out whenever I had to because I hated him. I despised the way he smelled and how his skin felt on my skin... “
“Stop!” My grip on the steering wheel tightened. It was getting harder to control the car. I just wanted to grab her and hug her to make her stop talking.
She was making me feel so fucking small and dirty right now. Everything she was saying about this man mirrored what Andrea must have felt about me.
So tell me, how could I tell her about Andrea without her hating me or, worse, calling me evil?
“I couldn’t do anything until I was 19. It was only then that I was able to sneak away whenever I knew he was coming to visit me.
And every time I came home after that, I would receive a slap or a beating from my uncle.
But I was okay with that. The pain and the bruises were better than being wrapped up in his arms and being abused by his eyes! ”
“Nadia, please... Enough. You don’t need to remember those things.”
“No, Riley, I want you to know everything about me the same way I want to know everything about you. If you want to make this Alpha and Luna thing look real, I have to know what I am going against with this. “
“Just trust me, Nadia. I will fix everything. No one will call you by another name except your name.”
“And how about the picture in your room? Will it stay there?”
“Picture?” My forehead creased in confusion until it dawned on me the one I had on my bookshelves. It has been there for years, and I never thought about it after the full moon because I was too busy looking for her or moping about her.
“Was it Andrea in the picture with you?”
“I will throw it away once we’re home. I didn’t know it was still there.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Is it Andrea in the picture?”
“Yes.”
“Who is she to you?”
“Nothing. She’s nothing to me now.”
“Why do I feel you are hiding something from me? Tell me why you looked like you’d seen a ghost when Stella mentioned her? Why? Because it still hurts? Just fucking tell me, and this conversation is over. I just want to know if I’m already crossing boundaries or not.”
“Can we fucking stop this conversation? It’s pissing me off already!” I slammed my palm on the steering wheel, and her body jolted in response.
“Stop the car!” She yelled almost immediately after.
“No!”
“Stop the car!”
“I said no. We’re going home.”
“I said, stop the fucking car or I will jump out!” She snarled at me before she opened the door beside her. It was now slightly open, and if I based it on the expression on her face, she would undoubtedly jump out of it.
“Fuck! Wait, I will stop the car. Then we’ll talk.” I told her, in a calm manner. I was fucking terrified that she would jump out before I would be able to stop the car.
I slowed down and parked the car while she took off the sling bag she had on and her shoes.
“What are you doing?” I grabbed her forearm, but she just shoved my hand away and stepped out of the car.
I growled before I jumped out of the car and followed after her as she walked towards the forest line.
“Nadia, what the fuck are you doing? Where are you going? Come back here!”
“Go home, Riley! I will see you at the packhouse!” She yelled without looking back at me.
I grabbed her arm and swung her around to face me, gritting my teeth as I leaned my face closer to her. “Do you think I would let you go on your own? You don’t even know how to get back to the packhouse. Now get back in the car!”
“I don’t want to see you right now.” She pushed my hand away again.
“What do you want me to do so you’ll come home with me?” I brushed my hand over my face in annoyance.
This was fucking annoying already. I was so close to just grabbing her and hoisting her up on my shoulder, but I was trying to be patient with her.
“You can beg and cry, but I won’t still come with you. Now get lost!” She snarled at me before turning around and launching forward, shifting into her wolf right before my very eyes.
And I fucking couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The she-wolf in front of me, springing away to the other side, was too fucking beautiful. Her fur was gray, melting into white towards her paws, and she was definitely bigger than a regular she-wolf.
I knew it. I smelled it on her. My mate is not an ordinary female. She must have Alpha blood in her. Not pure Alpha blood like Alba or Alia. But definitely from an Alpha bloodline.
I snapped myself out of my own thoughts when I couldn’t see her wolf anymore.
Fuck!
I went back to the car and turned off the engine before closing the door and sending a mindlink to my Beta to send someone to pick up the car at the location I gave him. I then took off my shirt and placed it in my mouth before leaping in the air and shifting midair, letting my wolf, Hunter, out.
Hunter would be the last one I wanted to face Nadia right now because my fucking wolf kept losing his mind whenever Nadia was around. But I needed him to track her faster. He seemed to have a nose just for her because he could sense her even from a great distance.
And I was right. In just a minute or two, I could already see Nadia in front of us. She was definitely heading somewhere further from the packhouse, and this just irritated me. She was so careless. She could be in danger because of her outburst.
It didn’t take long before Arrow sensed us. She stopped in her tracks and turned around to face us.
Hunter stopped as well and was about to growl at her when Arrow did it before he could. My fucking wild wolf lost his fucking tail and raised a white flag. Instead of growling at our mate, Hunter slumped down on the ground and whimpered, surrendering to Arrow.
And my beautiful Arrow couldn’t hold back her anger. She lowered her head and started licking Hunter, and I couldn’t help but smile internally at their interaction before Nadia’s emotions came surging in through our mate bond. She was pissed off at her wolf.
From the looks of it, our wolves were angry with each other’s humans, but they could never be angry with each other. In the end, they ended up playing and flirting with each other—rolling, licking, and sniffing each other out.
And as much as I wanted to talk with Nadia, I let Hunter have his time with Arrow. I contented myself by watching them while waiting for Nadia to shift back to her human form.
I wanted to mindlink her, but I didn’t want to disturb our wolves. So I just stayed quiet until Hunter shared a thought with me from Arrow.
Nadia was jealous. With Andrea.
My heart jumped over my chest at the thought of my mate harboring feelings for me, but it didn’t change the fact that I was still not ready to tell her about Andrea yet. I didn’t think she would be able to accept that part of me knowing I was the same as the man she was running from.
But I wanted to give it another try at winning her over.
‘Can we talk now?’ I finally sent her a mindlink when Hunter told me that he and Arrow were ready to give us back control.
‘I’m shifting back, but tell Hunter not to hurt me.’ Her voice sounded scared, and I found it adorable.
My wolf might be upset with her, but he would never hurt her unless he marked her again.
In an instant, Nadia shifted into her human form in front of my wolf, naked.
A low rumble reverberated from Hunter’s chest, and it made Nadia move back, but before she could turn around to run, Hunter laid down on the ground once more and lowered his head, whimpering as he looked at Nadia.
A smile curled on her lips as she moved back forward and kneeled in front of my wolf. Hunter wasted no time and started licking her legs up to the mound of her private part.
“Hunter, stop…” She giggled while I was trying my best to take the control away from my fucking wolf. He wasn’t making it easy for me.
She cupped Hunter’s face and rested her nose on his snout while looking directly into my wolf’s eyes. “Can you give me Riley back?”
Hunter whimpered before he pulled away from Nadia, only to grab the shirt that I had taken with us, handing it to her.
‘Smooth move, Hunter. Now I won’t get the chance to touch her naked body.’ I sneered at my wolf.
“Thank you!” Nadia smiled at him and kissed his head before she pulled the shirt over her body.
And as soon as Nadia was already covered by my shirt, it was only then that my wolf gave me back control and I shifted at once.
The smile on Nadia’s face was replaced by pain as she darted her eyes away from mine.
“Nadia…”
“You’re naked, Riley.”
“You’ve seen me naked.”