5
1510 Words
REBECCA
“You knew.”
For a minute, no one dared to open their mouths.
A tense silence had fallen over the room - and I didn't know who looked more uncomfortable, whether Izzy and Reiner or Wayne, trapped between the two fires.
That whole thing was absurd - I mean, you couldn't know beforehand who someone's mate was, but ... somehow, Izzy and Reiner knew I’d be his.
And they hadn't told me anything.
Well, truth be told, Izzy had said over and over again, jokingly or otherwise, how much she hoped her brother and I would get together ever since the morning when she’d caught us on the couch, but ... it didn't mean anything. Or so I’d thought.
She should have told me - and even more than her, Reiner should’ve. It was his responsibility, and he had washed his hands of it. He had preferred ... what? To text me sometimes, keeping me around, until the bond snapped into place?
“It's not like we knew,” Izzy murmured, her gaze downcast as she fidgeted with her hands. “It was more a … rather solid suspicion ...”
“A rather solid suspicion about my own life you decided to stay silent about,” I growled, feeling anger and disgust mount inside me.
What kind of friend are you?, I hissed, using the mind link - and only because I wanted that conversation to remain absolutely private. You thought I might be your brother’s mate for five months, and not only did you say nothing to me, but you also had the nerve to make jokes and ... arrange this whole evening? You made me wear that dress for ... for what? For him? To make sure he had something pretty to look at?
I felt nauseous. This ... this new revelation made Izzy's behavior so much worse, her actions much more severe. It was one thing to try to get her brother and me together, but if she knew that I was destined to be his mate, that I'd inevitably wound up to be with him ...
He knew, and I didn't. I was the one dressed and dolled up and with an approaching heat that had been sent out to that ball without a clue to begin with.
Izzy’s eyes filled up with tears. No, of course not! It was just … I thought …
You thought what? Tell me, Isabelle – I really want to know what your f*****g brain concocted!
It must have been him, I realized. His presence, him being in the pack house, must have been what had triggered my heat, making it come sooner – my wolf must have felt, on an unconscious level, who he was to us, and our biology had done the rest.
Izzy was studying medicine. Werewolf medicine, at Lunaria’s University.
There was no way she didn’t know.
You knew I’d get my heat tonight. You knew his presence would trigger it, because you knew I was his mate, I hissed, fighting back tears of heartbreak and disappointment. You wrapped me up in that dress. You made a gift for him out of me.
Becky …
You treated me like a f*****g w***e!
Isabelle’s face dropped, and I struggled even harder to keep the tears at bay.
Betrayed – that was how I felt. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters – Isabelle, after Wayne, had been my best friend for the longest time. She was the closest thing I had to a sister – and discovering that not only she’d kept such a huge secret about my own life from me, but that she’d wrapped me up like candy for her brother to unwrap … that she’d used me for Reiner’s benefit, for his pleasure …
It disgusted me. It made me feel dehumanized.
And humiliated. So awfully humiliated – even more so because both she and Wayne had been there when I’d lost control over my heat and literally jumped on Reiner.
She knew that might happen. And she'd done nothing to prevent it. She'd basically encouraged it.
“Becky, please, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, you must …”
“Why don’t I bring you back to your place” Wayne said, stepping in and between me and the two siblings. He might have worded that phrase like a question, but his tone left no place for arguments. “You need to rest”.
I nodded – feeling loud and clear the need I had to leave that room, to go somewhere I felt safe.
Somewhere I could be just Rebecca – not someone’s mate or gift.
“No one goes anywhere” Reiner, though, intervened – speaking for the first time after that dreadful silence. He was standing up, now, his stance relaxed but imperious, dominating. “Wayne, Isabelle, please, leave us alone. I need to talk to my mate”.
“I’m not leaving her with anyone,” Wayne snapped back. “Your sister drugged her, you dumb f**k, and all you did ever since she woke up was give her a headache. Not to mention that you, too, knew about the bond and didn’t tell her jack s**t. Surely a winning mate behavior”.
Wayne should definitely not have said that.
It was common knowledge that provoking a newly mated male was not the smartest idea ever: Wayne himself, when he’d mated with Ravi just a few months prior, had been jealous and basically an asshole to everyone but him for weeks.
And Wayne was a rather submissive male.
Provoking an Alpha … was basically asking for death.
As soon as those words left Wayne’s mouth, Reiner’s face transformed, going from a controlled and calm expression to a grimace of pure, uncontrollable, animalistic rage: a red halo circled his irises, and his canines elongated.
Before anyone knew it, he had let out a roar and thrown himself at Wayne, ready to maul the male who’d dared to oppose him and take away his mate.
Yeah. As if I’d let him do that.
“Don’t you dare touch him,” I hissed, stepping in front of my friend and letting out my wolf – just a bit, to show him I wasn’t kidding nor f*****g around.
Reiner growled back, furious at my refusal to submit and obey him, and tried to move past me to get to Wayne, who, in the meantime, wouldn’t stop for the life of his to taunt him.
“I said don’t,” I insisted, this time shoving him back when he got a bit too close to my friend for my liking.
“Stay out of the way, Rebecca,” he hissed. “This is a matter between …”
“Wayne is my friend and he was looking out for me, something you should be grateful for – or not, mate?” I hissed.
“He just …”
“Shut up” I growled. “You have no right to talk to him this way or attack him – nor when he’s the only one in this room who has done nothing but act with my best interests at heart”.
A low, warning growl vibrated in his chest – the sound of an Alpha not being happy that his mate was challenging him.
He was struggling to control his wolf.
A small part of my brain that wasn't overcome by anger registered that might turn out to be a problem.
“I’m leaving, now,” I said sternly.
“You can’t. You’re too weak,” he heaved. “You’re still under the drugs’ effect”.
I squeezed my hand in a fist, trying to keep my anger down. How dared he …
“Becky, please, listen to him” Izzy pleaded. “It’s not safe for you to leave, you’re not okay …”
Okay. Now I’ve had enough.
“SHUT UP!” I screamed. “You two have spent the last five months lying to me – lying about my entire future life. You have no f*****g right to tell me what to do. You’re both assholes. If I want to leave this place, then I f*****g will! How dare you feel so entitled to …”
“I am your mate!” Reiner screamed back – his voice more wolf than human. “I won’t let you leave! You’re in no condition to!”
“This is not up to you to decide!”
In a hurry, I began to walk towards the door, with Wayne shielding me from Reiner.
NO!, my wolf howled inside of me. No, we can’t leave!
We must, I insisted. They’re liars. They used us. We cannot stay here.
We can’t leave mate!
“NO!” Reiner bellowed. “REBECCA, STOP!”
WE CAN’T LEAVE!
Powerful, dominant Alpha pheromones suddenly filled the air – and a deafening, terrible roar shook the foundations of the pack house as Reiner lost control and shifted.
- Writer
