Alpha Ryland

Chapter 19

I'm wrapped up in a heavy blanket, enjoying the warmth on the sofa I'm sitting on. Ryland sits beside me when he comes back with his sister. They were talking in the kitchen when I woke up from my nap. I had woken up near lunchtime, and then I went to sleep after lunch and woke up after dinner. Ryland takes a seat beside me and his sister is sitting in front of us. She smiles and starts, "So how are ya feeling, Maura?"

I smile at her, "Good!" I feel much better compared to how I was when I arrived. I don't remember passing out or time passing while I was asleep, but I remember some things. "Before I woke up, I remember..." I unintentionally touch my lips with my blanket when thinking about what I felt. "Nevermind." I try to ignore it but she won't drop it.

"Something on your mind?" She asks, "Or your lips, maybe?" She scoots closer and watches me after glancing over to Ryland. I shake my head but decide to answer her anyways, "Well, I just remember feeling better all of a sudden. I don't know much of when I passed out, and I don't know how many miles Ryland had to walk with me on his back, but I do know that I felt better when something touched my lips. I think it was medicine, maybe? I felt better before I had the medicine, though." That's the weird part. I don't remember swallowing the medicine, if any, before I felt better.

Abbigail smirks at Ryland, "Why don't you answer that question for her, Ry?" I look at Ryland and he is glaring at her. When he looks over to me, he goes back to his normal, unemotional state. "You fell unconscious after trying to stay strong with walking more than you should while sick. I had to carry you for a few days back here."

I blink a few times at him, not registering the fact that he was probably suffering that whole time. I wish I could turn back time and stayed awake to walk longer. If I was sympathetic to him before when he carried me for a few miles one night, I feel awful now! "Really!? I'm so sorry!"

He shakes his head and puts his hands out. He opens his mouth to say something, but gets cut off by his sister, "Ry, tell her about why she feels better." She wriggles her eyebrows at him and his face lightens a shade, but tries to quickly cover it up, "You feel better because Abbi ordered a doctor over to give you medicine. And, don't worry about it. I got you to a destination by carrying you in the cold before, so it wasn't any different."

I think he's covering up how hard it was so I don't see that he was struggling, but if he doesn't want me to feel sympathy, then I will give him gratitude, "Thank you, Ryland. For saving me." His sister pipes in, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Ry!" She complains, "How did you administer the medicine?"

I look over to him, "Yeah, how did you? I was sleeping the whole time." I am a little curious about how he did that. He crosses his arms and glares at his sister again, then looks at me, "I had to give you liquid medicine instead of a pill. Much easier to swallow by doctor's orders. Oh, and you don't have to thank me. I was the one that put you in all of this trouble, so I deserve no praise for getting you out of it."

His sister sighs and sits back in her chair in defeat for some reason. I nod at Ryland, but I don't fully agree with him, "You didn't get me into any trouble, I got myself into this mess." He slightly smiles at me but then it is swiped off his face when his sister sits back upright, "Hey! How about you tell her about what you did for sleeping so she didn't freeze!"

I look expectantly at Ryland and he looks at his sister, "Really? Are you doing this on purpose?" I look back at her and she's nodding her head enthusiastically. He sighs and looks back at me, "I switched up our patterns; walked at night and slept during the day."

It makes sense to me why he did that, so I don't know why his sister is trying to get him to talk about it. I probably had my blanket on while I was sleeping the whole time, but I don't think that alone would have kept us both warm. Maybe he turned into his wolf to sleep in the snow?

"UGH! You're NO fun!" His sister complains and gets up from the couch. She walks to the kitchen, leaving us both alone. Ryland facepalms and lays back into the couch. This must be some weird sibling rival thing I learned about.

I turn to Ryland, "Did you give her the vial yet?"

He looks at me and a lightbulb goes off in his head, "Oh! No, I forgot. I was... preoccupied while you were sick. I'll do it now." He gets up and starts to run to his room but stops and turns to me, "If my sister returns before me, you should know that she is a habitual liar and you shouldn't believe anything her psychopathic brain tells you." I give him a 'thumbs up' and he starts to run again to his room.

His sister does come back in before him with hot cocoa and smiles at me. I don't think she's psychopathic, he is making something up because he is trying to hide something from me. If he doesn't want to tell me, though, I don't need to know.

She hands me a cup and sets Ryland's down on the table. She takes a sip of her own and then smiles at me. "You look a lot better than before. Tell me," She positions herself in a comfortable position on her chair and sets the cup down, "how do you feel?"

I smile at her, "I feel a lot better compared to yesterday's almost comatose state!"

She shakes her head, "No, how do you feel." She emphasizes the word 'feel' at the end. I scrunch my eyebrows and tilt my head, "What do you mean?"

She looks around the room and leans her head in close to me, "Do you feel a mate bond?"

I frown at her. Did Ryland tell her about me not having a mate, and now she wants to talk about it? I hated telling him, so he should have known I don't want to tell anyone else. "No." She nods her head, slowly, and then leans back. Ryland walks in and takes a seat next to me with the vial in his hands.

"Abbi, I got this for you." He holds his hand out but doesn't open his hand to show her, "Well, actually, we got this for you." He looks at me and smiles. He reveals the vial and she looks confused. "This is a mating serum! Once you use it, you and Logan will be mated together like a regular relationship! No more guessing about how it feels like. You can finally get what you wanted!"

She smiles at him and then starts laughing. Me and Ryland are confused, but laugh with her. She has a big giggle fest until tears come out and she fights through it. "Oh, Ry! You silly goose!" She wipes the tears from her eyes, "Is that why you left the house?" She sighs and shakes her head, "You remembered that I wanted a mate bond with Logan, which is great! But you forgot that I don't mind not being naturally mated with him. We loved each other despite the odds."

She takes the vial from him, "Since you went through all of this trouble getting it, I will use it later. Thank you for your troubles." She beams up at him and he smiles back. Ryland cared about her so much that he would go through all of this with me to get it to her, and she accepted to use it even though she doesn't need it.

How are they both so kind, yet when I met Ryland, he was so mean? They continue to chat about some things while I finish my hot cocoa and snuggle up again on my side of the sofa. I nod off again to sleep, leaving myself for whoever wants to take care of me if I don't wake up in time to go upstairs to bed.