Despite the Alpha's veiled threats, she had been able to return home to Ryan, and Rain sat at their small kitchen table, staring out the bay window into the woods and breathing in the calming fresh air. Her mate was bustling about the kitchen, moving pots and pans and filling two plates with what looked like a delicious meal. She tried to focus herself on the scrumptious smell of the food, but she was lost in a sea of swirling thoughts.
As if in answer to this, Ryan broke the silence with a groan. "I can hear you, you know."
She bowed her head in regret. "I know."
"You want to ask me about her, but you're afraid," he sighed as he set another pot aside and began to plate their steaming pasta. "Just ask, Rain. Anything you are thinking right now is far worse than the reality of it all."
"So just tell me," she frowned at her plate of spaghetti then. "Who is she?"
"She was my childhood sweetheart," he stated as he tossed himself down into the chair beside her, passing her a napkin and a fork. "She was a member of this pack from birth; she was one year younger than me, and I knew her our entire lives. She was beautiful, absolutely stunning, just like you."
She stared down at her hands in her own lap and blushed faintly. "And?"
Ryan swallowed a mouthful of his food, then wiped his mouth slowly. "She was born infertile and unable to give me pups. I didn't care, and I asked my father to pair us together anyway, and he refused. We fought for several years, until, ultimately, Aria was sent to another pack."
Rain took in a slow breath, and then allowed it to escape her lungs. "Just like that?"
His face was stony as he glanced down at his plate to avoid her eyes. "Look, Rain, I loved her. I would have given the world for Aria. I begged my father to allow me to mate with Aria. I offered to step down as Beta, hell, I even offered to take Aria and disown the pack, become rogues. She didn't want that, but I would have done anything to be with that girl. I loved her with every fiber of my being."
"So, what about now?" she asked and those were perhaps the scariest four words that she had ever had to ask someone. The fear that he was still in love with another, that he might one day reject her for this other she-wolf, it turned her stomach and made her want to weep. She had grown so attached to him in such a dramatically short time; as dangerous as it sounded, Ryan had become her the very center of her world.
He had the grace to look hurt. "Rain, she's gone. My father grew sick and tired of my begging for Aria and rejecting every other she-wolf, so he signed a treaty that sent her to the Left Foot Pack in Florida. She was mated to someone else, and last I heard she was happy and had a beautiful little pup."
Her eyes widened at this. "But she was infertile!"
"Miracles happen every day," he winked but it felt forced, and somehow tragically ironic. "Speaking of which," he began the question and then simply let those words hang in the tepid air between them.
YOU ARE READING
White Lightning
Werewolf[Ongoing Serial Novel][Werewolf] [MIW] In our world, for every female pup born there were five very eager and wanton males waiting for her to turn of age. Some packs considered their females to be ripe at sixteen, but my great-grandfather had establ...
