Reaching You

Chapter 35: Paige

I ran to my mate's side as I noticed his dark eyes. I threw my arms around him and burst into tears. "I'm sorry I left you alone. I was going to return. I'm sorry I hurt you." I blubbered, tears streaming down my face. After what seemed like forever, I feel his arms encircle my waist and he pulls me onto his lap. He buries his nose in my neck and he sniffs my scent. I watch as his dark eyes slowly return to grey. Relieved, I shower his face with kisses. I pull away to look for any injuries on his face. As I do so, he cups my face in his hands and kisses me deeply. We pull away and I look into his grey eyes. I needed to tell him how I felt. "Ryder, I'm in love with you," I said, my heart pounding in my chest.

Silence fills the room before he slams his lips against mine and sparks are tingling down my spine. He pulls away and I see the vulnerable look in his eyes. "I love you," I say, as he wipes away the tears on my cheeks. Suddenly, I'm hit with frustration. I angrily slam my fist against his chest. "Why didn't you read my note?" I say, pointing to the note which was miraculously intact on the bedside table. He looks dumbfounded at my mood change. He gives me a sheepish look and rubs the back of his neck. "You, stupid stupid man. If I didn't arrive in time! I-if anything happened to you, how was I supposed to cope?" I say, frustrated that I was crying again. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

He kisses me again and holds me close to his chest. "I love you." He says, looking at me with amazement. "Stupid-" I started, only to be shut up by his kiss. He smiles against my lips and laces his fingers through mine. I gasped as I noticed how bloody his knuckles are. I push him off of me, ignoring his complaints. I run to the bathroom and open the cupboard to find the first aid kit. I dash to his side and take his hand. He lazily pulls me onto his lap and buries his face in my hair. I disinfect his right hand and reach out to his left one when he pulls it away. I look up and glare at him to see his grey eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Say you love me again." He says, looking pleased. I blushed and shook my head. He was being a child. He pouts and holds out his hand. I disinfect it and my eyes well up with tears as I recalled the sadness in his eyes when I entered the room. "Stop crying. Please, sweetheart." He says, his voice soft. It only makes me bit my lip to stop myself from crying. So I look up at my mate. "I promise you. I'll never leave you even if you grow sick and tired of me." I state, with a smile. He grins widely and kisses my nose.

"I'll never grow tired of you." He whispers, playing with a strand of my hair. Someone clears their throat and we turn our heads to see Chase nervously hovering near the door. "Sorry to interrupt but what are we going to do with this room?" He asks, reminding me of the state of the room. I giggled as I looked at the room or at least what was left of the room. Ryder's cheeks turn pink with embarrassment. "Chase, can you get the repairman. We'll start cleaning up." I say, getting up from the floor. Chase nods and leaves the room.

I start picking up the broken bits of furniture when Ryder's arms hug me from behind. "I'm sorry about the mess. I'm sorry I scared you." He mumbles. I shook my head in exasperation. I turned to face him and smiled. "We had a lot of memories in this room together. But I guess it's time to make new ones as real mates this time." I say. I squeal as he suddenly scoops me up into his arms and tosses me onto the tattered bed. He showers me with kisses, beaming. I get up and we start cleaning up the room. By the end of the day, the room is cleared of stuff and we move our belongings to another guest room in the packhouse.

Chase calls us down for dinner. I slip my hand in my mates and we walk down. We look quite the mess. My hair was in a messy bun and Ryder's shirt was covered in debris from the ceiling that he broke. Ashley chuckles as she sees us. Ryder leads me to the table and pulls out a chair for me. I smiled and sit down. Chase and Louise grin as they see us. "I was so scared, man! You were a monster. I thought we were all going to die." Chase says, settling in his chair. I smiled and nodded. Ashley burst out laughing, making us all burst out laughing except Ryder who looked embarrassed. "By the way, I saw the note Paige left. Drama queen!" Chase says, wiping tears from his eyes.

Ryder grumbles before starting to eat. "Who knew big bad alpha was a whiney baby for his mate?" Louise claims, teasingly. I held back a giggle. I placed my hand on his thigh and kissed his cheek before I dug into my food. Ryder's lips curl into a smile and say, "The past is in the past." Chase facepalms himself and starts eating. When we eat, I felt his eyes on me and I felt so happy. Today was a mess but it marked a new start. I recalled my mother's words. Two imperfect people cannot make a perfect relationship. In all seriousness, we were severely flawed but I grinned at my mate.

Never would I run from him again.