Alpha Ryland

Chapter 16

"So," Ryland pokes at the fire and looks at the rising flames. It's warm by the fire outside, and the heat on my cheeks from Ryland glancing at me is making me even more hot. I had taken a small nap on him and woke up startled. He had a slight blush on him and let go of me, getting up from the seat to tend to the fire. "About what the fortuneteller said earlier today." He turns to face me and I follow. Here goes nothing. "Is it true?"

I take in a deep breath and close my eyes, "Yes." He nods and I take it as a sign to continue, "I wasn't always like this. I had a chance to find my mate, but I was robbed." Old, horrible memories flash in my head as I recall the story to him, "I had a best friend who tricked me into believing he was my mate. He stole a few months from me that I will never get back. I found out he was cheating on me one day and he denied it. Turns out he found his real mate that day and was trying to pick between me and her."

A tear threatens to fall from my eye, but I blink it away. "That night, he ended up with a vial from my father's laboratory and spilled it on me. He had planned to strip me from my mate so that I stayed with him. How pathetic." I scoot closer to Ryland unintentionally. Maybe this bad memory is making me scared and I automatically moved to safety?

"He made me mateless for the rest of my life. I'll never know what it feels like to have a mate. I'll never know who the guy even was. I don't even know if he is still connected to me or not." All these questions will be left unanswered.

Ryland looks at my tear-filled eyes and places his hand on my thigh to comfort me. "I didn't know any of this. I feel awful now. I shouldn't have said what I said to you in the past." He had always assumed that I had a mate, granted I never told him I didn't, and made fun of me for it.

"Why do you hate people with mates so bad?" I ask him, "Is it because you don't have one? I don't but I don't hate them."

He retracts his hand and looks into the fire, "I thought I would have a mate after being tested. A few years ago, I was able to find her, but I was secluded in my area. After a while of not looking, I decided to go look for her when my pack was alright on their own for a while. The feeling of her disappeared a few months back. I then decided to test myself again to see if I was a mateless just in case. Turns out that I was. Something happened to one of the tests to make it wrong, or something happened to her. I went into a major depression. My wolf hated me for a while." It was my turn to place my hand on his knee.

He looks over to me and gives me a weak smile, "I wanted a mate but couldn't have one. I'm jealous of people who can have one but choose not to be with them for superficial reasons." He places his hand over mine and looks back into the blue tipped fire.

After a while of not speaking, he says my name. I didn't think I heard him right so I ignored it as my imagination until he speaks up again, "Maura?" I look over and he is staring at me, "You don't hate me for having this vial, do you?"

I look at his pocket and cringe, "I don't hate you, I hate the product. Why would someone ever want to give up their mate?" He nods and takes out the vial.

"This is different, remember? This one is to make the mateless find a mate. Bring two people together." He looks back at me, "I stole this for my sister because she loves this other mateless guy in my pack and I want to make her happy. If I can mate them together, she'd be the happiest girl in the world. At least one of us would be happy, then."

I watch him as he admires the vial that I hate. How does he know it does that? How does he even know it works? I ignore my suspicions so that he remains happy. He must really care about his sister. "I didn't know they created a mate serum. I've only seen a mateless one." He looks at me but this time has a hint of sadness in it. He feels awful that my mate was taken from me by this chemical. He's holding something that changed my life.