Athena's Human Mate

Chapter 43

After dinner was finally finished, Athena hurried home, hoping Roman wouldn't follow her. She swapped the pillow he slept on last night with the one she hugged on before collapsing into bed, inhaling his scent. Waves of sorrow crashed over her, unable to contain the emotions she cried herself to sleep.

Roman walked the trails through the snow that the wolves made, pondering all the events of today and since he met Athena. He stopped when he heard footsteps approach him, a sliver of hope that it was Athena died when he saw Charlotte.

"Hi Luna, can I talk to you?"

"You are talking to me."

One corner of her mouth raised in a smile, "well, here goes nothing then. You need to forgive Alpha for making you her mate." She was nervous about talking to him, but enough was enough and it was time someone knocked some sense into him. She never thought it would be her, but apparently it was.

"What did you say?" Everyone thought he was her fated mate but the way she said that seemed to point in a different direction.

"I know she chose you as her mate, not the Moon Goddess, but in my opinion you're the one She should've made Athena's fated mate."

"She told you this?"

"You're kidding right? She never tells anyone anything, and I bet it's one of the things you're mad at her for." She let out a short laugh.

"Then how do you know?"

"Thomas Black told me the night he raped me. Goddess, I never thought I'd be able to say that out loud. Thanks to you, most of us can say his name without fear."

"He told you what exactly?" Roman wasn't sure where she was going with this.

"He said not to bother telling her he raped me because she was his mate and would be at his side in a few minutes. He said she would take his side and treat me like the nothing I was." She blinked to stop the tear from falling.

"She didn't though."

"No, she found me and took me to the hospital. Never once did she look at me in disgust or blame me. She promised to make him pay for hurting me. I believed her. No one else knows Thomas was her mate. I don't know how you became her chosen mate, but I know you're angry about the fighting thing and you need to get over it. Did you really listen to what everyone said about you today? She got you as her mate, but we got you as Luna. I know fighting professionally was important to you, and you had to give it up because your the Luna. Imagine for a moment if she hadn't made you her mate. You've helped everyone in this pack in one way or another. Think about all the good you'd miss if you weren't her mate."

Charlotte took a deep breath, praying she was doing the right thing. "Athena has trust issues."

"No kidding." He found that out the hard way.

"It's not her fault, she's never had anyone in her life that she could trust."

"She had you, her best friend, and Emma and any number of people. What about her mother? She didn't trust her either?"

"No, because she couldn't. She doesn't truly know what a best friend is. You don't understand. Her father controlled EVERYTHING she did. She had to distance herself from everyone in order to protect them from her father. He's the Alpha, one command from him and no wolf can disobey, they would spill her secrets in an instant, whether they wanted to or not. Her mother, Luna Michelle, is a kind hearted wolf, but she bends easily to Ryan. The only one he couldn't command was Athena. He hated that, he would ridicule her at pack meetings, belittle her existence every chance he had. None of the other wolves our age picked on her or anything like that, but no one wanted to be seen as her friend."