He Will Be Mine

Chapter 3: Camping on the Lake

*** Alyssa's POV ***

On the drive to the campground, we all take the opportunity to properly introduce ourselves. In addition to Matt and Tyler, there's Trevor, who apparently has been best friends with Matt since they were little. That's relatable, as I have known Ryan since we were in diapers and I know what that sort of bond is like. Then there's Trevor's long-time girlfriend, Meredith, who also went to grade school with Matt and Trevor and has known them for a long time. And finally, there's Jessica, Matt's fiancée. They met her when they first started college. She lived in the same dorm as Meredith and I guess they're best friends now. And Tyler has been the guys' roommate since freshman year in the dorms. It's pretty cute and perfect how close and connected they all seem to be, other than the part where Jessica stole my mate.

That irks me to no end because I had the chance to get to Matt back when we were sixteen, before he even met Jessica. If my dad had just let me follow his scent, which probably would have led me to the same place we're currently headed to, things would be so different now. If he would have just let me borrow a vehicle and take a road trip to knock on the doors belonging to the people who owned the vehicles that matched that partial license plate number I remembered, maybe Matt would have been behind one of those doors. I was so close, and yet so far, and now he is marrying the wrong person.

But I suppose none of that matters now. Right now, I need to focus on damage control and getting him back. Sure, I never actually had him, but he has been very real to me for these five years, and in my head, very much mine and no one else's. I don't know why it never crossed my mind that he could be dating someone else. I guess I figured he was a werewolf, and hoped he was the sort of guy who valued having a mate as much as I do and was saving himself for me. I should have known, though, considering that I could smell him even though he was in a car speeding past me. If he were a werewolf, he would have smelled me too and come back for me.

Anyway, Matt's friends seem very curious about me. I guess I also should have considered that possibility and thought up some better answers for all their questions before meeting up with them.

"Do you live with all those guys?" Tyler wants to know.

"Why all the privacy? Sure seemed like those big guys were right there to kick us out. Are they like your security guards or something?" Jessica, of course.

"You're 21 and you have to ask for permission to go camping? Doesn't that get old? Why haven't you moved out?" Trevor.

Interestingly, Matt stays pretty quiet for the whole ride over there. Either he isn't all that interested in me, or he doesn't want his fiancée to think he is. I wish he would be a little more curious and try to get to know me, but I guess talking to his friends means he at least hears what I have to say.

I do my best to answer their questions without giving away too much. I tell them my family belongs to a private religion and are pretty strict about it. Then I explain that our leaders all live together in a big house and many of our congregation live on the property or nearby. The extra security and need for privacy come from our history with thieves, vandals, and outsiders who just don't understand the way we live giving us problems.

I think I have come up with the perfect explanation for all the things they seem to find strange about me, and then immediately regret my decision when Tyler pieces it all together and interprets it in a way even I find aversive.

"So, you and your parents belong to a cult," he states with certainty.

Yikes. I don't even know how to dispute that, because that is exactly how I have characterized the way I live, and I don't know how to undo it without contradicting myself. I decide to embrace it instead.