Fighting her instincts to protect her freedom

Chapter 25

Fighting her instincts to protect her freedom - Chapter 25

After some thinking about her situation with Sebastian, Ariel decided not to tell her parents about her bond mark. She felt happy about her decision until her parents called her, quite unexpectedly, on Sunday evening.

- Ariel?

- Oh hey mom.

- Don't 'hey mom' me, why didn't you tell me you were mated?

- Huh, because I'm not.

- But you have been marked.

Pause. How did she know?

- You can stop lying to us Ariel. We saw a picture of you on the GoldenFire facebook page.

Facebook! She had forgotten about that! She should have removed any tags of her but of course she hadn't even thought about it.

- Mmm yeah, I'm marked, but not mated. We haven't made it official yet.

- But it's going to be soon right? When were you going to tell us you were getting married? Were we even going to be invited?!

- Married? We're not getting married! And we are not completing the mating yet. I'm not ready. Mom you know me!

- What?! I thought you'd stop with these stupid notions when you found your mate!

Great, if her mother was mad at the thought of not being told that her daughter was mated, she was even more outraged by the fact that Ariel was as stubborn as ever and wasn't planning on getting mated or married anytime soon.

- Well, you were wrong. I found him last year, but he waited an entire year before marking me, because he knows I'm not ready to jump into a serious commitment without having time to...

- You are crazy! You met your mate and you made him wait for a year?! Why did he do it? Wait, is there something wrong with him?

- No! He's perfectly nice and smart.

- Then what's the problem?

Ariel sighed. Hadn't she already explained this before?

- There is no problem, I just need time. I'm..

- 'too young'. You're insane, that's what you are. I was already pregnant when I was your age.

- Well, I'm not you!

Ariel hung up the phone so violently, it shattered into pieces. 

She was furious. Beyond furious. Why was it so hard for her parents to understand that she wanted to control her life and not let fate dictate everything? She went to her bedroom with her eyes filled with tears. 

....

The next day she went to the University with big bags under her eyes. She hadn't been able to sleep properly. As she was arriving to her classroom, she saw Sebastian waiting for her next to the door.

- Hey Seb! What's up?

- Oh, hey Ariel. What happened? Are you OK? You look tired and... Sad. I tried to call you last night but you didn't answer your cell phone.

- Oh, yeah. I broke it. My parents saw our picture in the GoldenFire facebook page...

- Oh. And they weren't pleased to know the news that way, huh?

- They weren't pleased to know we weren't mated yet or that we weren't planning our wedding already.

Pause.