Therapy for the Supernatural

9

They stop at the hotel long enough to pick up the lunch and a couple of small bags their wolves can carry their clothes in. They are easily able to divide the lunch into the two bags and still have room for their clothes.

Once they get to the location they shift and take their packs and run. 

Cheryl hadn't run like this for some time. She'd avoided going back to the pack for monthly runs whenever she could. She didn't feel like she was really a part of them and add in the bad memories from Eric and of course Matt's pursuit of her and she just didn't like going.

Her wolf  was more than thrilled to finally be let free. She only held back because she didn't know this area at all and didn't want to inadvertently trespass onto claimed territory.

Eric lead the way and took them to a spot he'd hoped they'd like. Once they get there Cheryl comes to his side and looks around. She lets him know that it meets her approval without changing back.

Eric on the other hand does change back. After getting dressed he talks to her. "I'll stay here, but you are welcome to roam. This is national forest and no pack has a claim on it for more than twenty miles in any direction. I'm here if you want company, otherwise I won't bother you."

Eric tells her this but can't take his eyes off her coat, it's beautiful. He's not sure he'd ever seen her as a wolf before. Her wolf is more silver than white and is spotted like shadows are playing on her. "You're beautiful," Eric can't help but let the words escape. How'd his wolf not want her?

His wolf is whining again, he's wondering the same thing.

Cheryl gives him a startled look then takes off into the forest.

"Good job, Eric," Eric tells himself. He can't believe he just scared her away. This whole dating thing is a long shot anyway. No mate that's been rejected has ever been accepted later by the rejecter.

He has to fight the howl of loneliness that wants to come out. He made his bed and now he has to live with it.

His wolf whimpers at his thoughts. He is the one that made it so that they are all suffering.

Eric turns towards the sound of leaves brushing and twigs snapping that's coming his way. He relaxes when he sees Cheryl coming back.

"You weren't gone as long as I expected." Eric tells her wolf. Cheryl comes up to where he's sitting and works her body underneath his hand as she lays her head on his lap.

She whines a bit, "Do you want me to pet you?" Eric asks unsure of what the whine meant.

At Cheryl's yip Eric starts petting her and he feels her sadness lessening. "You are too good for me. You should just forget about me and find someone else." Eric tells her lost in his own pained memories. 

Cheryl tenses under his hand then pulls back and sits up. Shifting she gets dressed before facing Eric. "If that is what you want then we can go back right now." Cheryl says hiding how she feels about his words.

Eric gives a bitter laugh. "What I want, no. What's best for you, yes. Honestly I don't know how you can possibly stand to be around me after what I did. You deserve someone like Alpha Matt. You shouldn't be wasting your time on someone like me. I hurt you, I have no idea just how bad I even hurt you."

"You want to know how bad it hurt? Every time you were with another female it felt like hot knives stabbing into my heart. It was excruciating. When the pain would subside it always amazed me that I wasn't bleeding to death.

"It was damn near impossible to hide the pain from my parents." 

Eric faces her, "Why did you? Why didn't you tell them? Then they would have confronted me and I would have known or they would have had you reject me and I wouldn't have hurt you more. Why didn't you tell them?" Eric is crying his own tears now at the pain he caused her.

"Because I didn't want you to get hurt. My father would have killed you!"

"I would have deserved it! I did deserve it! I deserve everything he could have done to me, I deserve everything you wish to do to me now. I wish you had, I wish I had known. I thought I was saving you from pain, the pain of rejection. Had I known that would have been better I would have done that! I never wanted to hurt you. I just wasn't ready to settle down yet." Eric is too agitated to sit still.

He starts pacing and running his hands through his hair. "I'm not good enough for you, Cheryl, my past actions clearly show that. I don't deserve this second chance and I know it. I'm not entirely sure why you are giving it to me.

"I should have died three years ago when I first cheated on you. If I had then you wouldn't have suffered nearly as much. Why the fuck are you giving me this chance?"

Cheryl lets him talk and only when she's sure that he's done does she go up to him. "I gave you this chance because I believed you when you said you didn't know. It isn't something we are taught. Your wolf knew and should have kept you from hurting me, but your wolf seems to despise me for some reason."

At her words his wolf whimpers in pain, Eric doesn't say anything though. He happens to agree with Cheryl. His wolf would have told him if he hadn't despised Cheryl and her wolf. His wolf let him hurt their mate out of spite.

"Perhaps I'm giving you this chance so that you can prove that you are more the person I thought you were when I had a crush on you all those years ago." Cheryl says nonchalantly. 

Her words might not have meant anything to her but they act like a shock of electric current running up Eric's back.

"You had a crush on me before we were mates?" Eric hadn't even really noticed Cheryl before they were mates.

"Oh, yes, for the longest time. But I never thought you'd look at me twice, I knew I wasn't your type. That's why when we found out we were mates I was even more shocked than I think you were."

Eric goes over to her and falls rather than sits back down. "Will you tell me a bit about it?"

Cheryl gives him a bit of an embarrassed laugh, "Why do you want to hear ancient history?"

"Please?" Eric begs her. He wants to know more of his ex mate. 

"Very well, if you wish. You know that I was overly smart, that I skipped several grades?"

"Yes, the only vague memories I have of you before finding out you are my mate was that you were awful young to be in the same classes as me."