AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“OK baby, that’s quite a bit to unpack there. First, you were and are perfect. I’m the one who doesn’t deserve to have found you. I hope I was good enough for you. Second, I’m no angel and for sure no virgin. I’ve lived a lot of years and there have been a few men and women here and there, but you are it for me. I’ve never, and I mean never, experienced anything close to what I experienced with you. You are my mate. If you’ll have me and I’ll protect you with my life and by extension of family, my brothers will do the same. You only need to ask.” With a wink, “Let's discuss the ‘I read about it'. I need to hear these stories and fantasies.” I felt the shiver run down my spine and thought to myself‘Yes, yes we will.’
“How are you going to protect me? You know who my family is and apparently you guys were hired to finish me. They will not stand for you not following through. I mean, I wasn’t kidding when I said that I could pay double what he was offering, but not until my birthday, then I’ll have the money. I mean, you’ll have the money. If you’re my mate, then you’ll own everything of mine, omegas aren’t allowed to own anything, their alpha owns it all. Only unmated omegas can own their ‘dowry’ I think that’s the right term. Until they find a mate. Poppy intended for me to reach 25 and leave the country to go somewhere where I could legally be free.” It was so easy to talk with my mate. I was telling him things I would have never thought I could say to another person out loud. Myron, I mean Teach, and I spoke at lengthabout so much, but there was always a barrier to complete trust that just wasn’t there with Mako.
“Well, that can still be your plan. I mean, to move somewhere with your money where you’ll be safe and free. You aren’t required by law to be my mate.” The rejected look in his eyes hurt my soul. He dropped his arm from my shoulders and pulled away from me. My body shivered as I felt an instant chill. “I think you took what I was saying the wrong way. I can’t and won’t force you to be my mate, and I understand why you would turn me away. I’m not good enough for you. You’re pure light and I’m walking darkness. I try to be good, and true, but there are times I’ve done things that go against that.” He rose from the bed and took a few steps away.
“Mako.” He wouldn’t even look at me. It appeared he was counting the fibers on the rug on the floor.
Holding his hands up to stop me “No, Theo, I’ll head downstairs and let you shower and get some rest. You’ve had a rough few days and you need to heal completely. I will ask that you make an appearance tomorrow for church, I mean, our club meeting. We’re going to vote on the best way to handle your family to ensure your safety while making sure everyone else in town stays safe. I’ll send Owen up in a bit to check on you and see if you need anything.” He turned his back to me and began walking out of the room to his front door. I heard him mumble, ‘I love you,’ just as I fell sideways onto the bed sobbing.
As the latch on the door slid closed, I cried out, “You… I need you!” Apparently, he didn’t hear me.
Chapter Fourteen
Theo
I never got upand showered. My body was incapable of moving beyond the uncontrollable crying I’d been doing. I don’t know for how long. My nose and eyes burned, and my throat felt like I’d swallowed sandpaper. I think I fell asleep at some point, but I wasn’t sure.
I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, running the last few days over and over in my head. Pleasure I never knew could exist in reality and now pain that made me wish I were dead. The only words I could manage were riddled with moans and pain. “I’ve ruined it. I ruined it all. I need him, I love him, and he thinks I rejected him. I hurt him so bad. See… proof that there’s no way I deserve a mate.” Were the main things rolling off my tongue over and over between the myriad of things said to me by my family. I guess I proved them right, yet again. I truly was worth nothing on this earth beyond the money in the trust. No wonder they wanted me dead. Eventually, I would ruin everything. I justproved it. I had an alpha ready to give me the world, and I threw him away carelessly.
As I lay there contemplating the easiest way to disappear and make everyone who ever met me happy, a light knock came from the front door of the apartment. I got up, moving as quickly as I could while still bundled in the blanket without tripping over my own feet, hoping Mako had returned, and grabbed the knob of the door, pulling it open. I was met with the wide-open shocked eyes of Owen, fist raised as he was going to knock again. “WHAT THE FUCK? What did he do to you, Theo? I’ll kill the bastard if he lay his hands on you.” He turned to head back down the hall towards what I assumed were the stairs. I grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room and slammed the door shut.
“NO! You can’t. Mako did nothing to me.” Then a much lower mumble, “Not anything I didn’t want, anyway.” Well, that wasn’t completely true. I pushed him away without thinking and he never gave me a chance to explain. “I lost him. He thinks I rejected his mate claim. I hurt him, Owen.” A mask of anger came over his face as he glared daggers at me.
“Explain.” He finally spoke. “And it better be good. If you hurt our President, then you better have a damn good reason for hurting the best fuckin man I know.”
So much for becoming friends with the ‘Leader’ of the omegas and women. Now he hated me just as much as Mako did. “I, um… can we sit down while I explain?” I turned and headed to the sofa, hoping he would follow me and at least listen to my explanation. “It was a mistake. He took something I said and didn’t allow me to explain before he jumped to conclusions and decided I was rejecting him.” I just shook my head, still not fully comprehending how this all happened.
“What did you say? How could something like that be misunderstood? Rejecting your mate is serious business. You only get one, Theo. You’re it for him. Neither of you will everfall in love or feel any kind of attraction to another person. If you rejected him, you’ve doomed both of you to a shitty life.” He shook his head at me.
“What? How do you know that? I mean, I know that it’s like that in romance books, but that’s all fiction. Fantasies of fated mates, forever love and destined souls written to make the heart race and… well, you know.” There was no way all that was true, was there?
Owen gently patted my hand. “Oh honey, all those ‘fantasies’ are based on legend, not complete fiction. Sure, some are exaggerated, like ‘if one dies the other follows’, ‘forced bonding’ or ‘mate link telepathy’, but most of the rest, yeah, true.” The patting stopped, and he was rubbing his hands up and down my upper arms, trying to relax me.
“But I wasn’t rejecting him. I was just talking. He’s so easy to talk to. I guess I rambled a bit, and he took it the wrong way.” There wasn’t anything he was going to say to make me feel better except to tell me that Mako was on the other side of that freaking door waiting for me. “How do you know this, anyway? You can’t be any older than me, not even Myron said anything about that. He just agreed that Mako was my mate.”
“OK, first, who’s Myron? I didn’t see anyone, but the guys come into the clubhouse.” His eyes were darting around the apartment.
“Oh. I guess it’s Teach now, but I know him as Myron for a few years now. He was my tutor a few years ago until father fired him.” I supposed it was time to tell someone my entire story. Maybe Owen could make Mako understand. “I’ll tell you about my life, if you agree to tell me about mates. It’s not something I was taught.”
“Huh, Teach is an actual teacher, who knew.” And he huffed out a laugh. “It’s almost suppertime and Mako, Bear, and Teach went for a ride right after he came downstairs. He looked upset,but you really can’t tell all the time just by the look on his face. He just said to check on you and make sure you had whatever you wanted before he walked out the door with the guys. Looks like you could use a friend with an ear more than anything right now but let me call Bethie and have her bring up some food, so we don’t starve. I got a feeling it’s gonna be a long night.” Pulling out his phone, he made the call. “Bethie? Yeah, food for both of us. Is there any of that ice cream left in the deep freeze?” He looked at me as if asking if I wanted it. I nodded my head enthusiastically. “Yep, bring the ice cream too and tell Mako to bunk with Bear tonight, OK? Yeah, I know, I know. I’ll explain to him in the morning.” With that, he hung up the phone. “Now, talk.” So, I did.
By the time I finished with opening the door for Owen, it was dark outside and all sound in the clubhouse ceased to exist. I stared at the front door, willing Mako to walk through. “Aww honey, I heard the guys come back about the time you were telling me about Gavin taking you out on a bar crawl. He won’t be in tonight. He’s crashing in Bear’s room.” I felt crushed by the sadness. “Nope. He needed to stay gone tonight. You both need time. Neither of you have ever been in any kind of relationship, and you’re not even familiar with the concept of genuine friendship. This misunderstanding could have been avoided if both of you had experience and he wasn’t so down on himself.”
“What do you mean ‘Down on himself’? He’s perfect, attentive, kind and oh goddess, so hot. I mean HOT! There’s no reason for him to be down on himself.” I guess I had a lot more to learn about people than I ever realized.
“Nope. Not like that. The man is convinced he’s goddess’s gift to the masses for some things. Like loyalty, protectiveness, seeing the best in people and stuff like that. He took me off the streets without blinking an eye and showed me what a family was all about. He is down on himself and feels unlovable. I don’tknow everything and even if it did, it wouldn’t be my place to tell, but he’s had a few people come in and out if his life that only wanted him for what he could do for them. The only people that he’s ever trusted completely were his Pops, grandfather and Bear. They’ve been friends since they were kids. I don’t know the entire story, but supposedly, those two were thicker than thieves when they were younger.” Well, that made much more sense.
Taking another bite of ice cream and moaning as the spoon left my mouth, I almost choked at the look on Owen’s face. “Honey, you moan like that for Mako, and he’ll be a pretty little bow wrapped around your finger.” He started fanning himself. “That was hawt! I mean H.A.W.T!” That made me giggle like a schoolgirl, and I felt the flush from my face to my chest. Then embarrassment set in.
“Umm, I appreciate it, if it was a compliment, but umm…” How do I finish that?
“Nope sweets. It was meant as a compliment. I’m not in the least bit attracted to you. Even if you weren’t with Mako. You’re not equipped enough for me. I love me some alpha cock and unless you’ve got a knot hidden in there,” he said, pointing at my blanket. “Then you haven’t got what I need.” His laugh was infectious.
“You like knots too?” I gasp, realizing what I said. That made Owen laugh even harder. “I mean… umm… you know?”
“Oh honey, I know, trust me and as much as I would LOVE to hear about Mako’s skills and knot, it’s best you don’t go into detail. For both of our sakes.” He looked at the ceiling and licked his lips, saying to himself, “I’ve been fantasizing about it for years now.” Before I could control it, a feral growl escaped my throat. “Cool your jets there, Ace. I’ve never and I will never. BUT… if you had any doubt that he’s yours, at least in your heart and soul, you just knocked that down like the tower of Babel.”We both giggled at that. He was right. Mako was mine, and the next time I saw him, I’d make sure he knew it.
“OK, your turn. Start talking, mister.” It was Owen’s turn to tell me about mates.
