I Will Walk With You

Chapter 4

 Dedicated to JadeHero330! Thanks for the amazing photo!!! It describes shows many emotions as you're looking at it! I love it!!

I sat and wait for Frankie to come back out. My mind is rushing with the events of today. I met my mate, her uncle is my Alpha, I yelled at him but I also stood up for her. I can't believe I didn't get scared and run away.

I've never been brave enough to stand up to anyone until today. I just hope nobody knows why I did it, especially Eli. He'll kill me for sure if he finds out I'm Frankie's mate and I didn't tell her. I would love to tell her honestly, I'm just afraid she'll hate me. She’ll hate me like every other person I’ve ever met.

I want to make her as happy as I can without her knowing I'm her mate. I can love her from a distance, right? It's not about how happy I am anymore; it's about how happy I can make her. I don’t even matter in this equation, at least not right now. Everything is about her.

"Are you ready?" She asked as she walked down the steps of the porch. I nodded my head and rolled in her direction. "We're going to walk the trail." She pointed to a clearing in the woods. At first everything was quiet, she didn't speak and nor did I.

"How did you end up here, Devlin?" She asked finally. "Why didn't you stay with your family, where you're safe?" I fought the urge to look at her and focused my eyes on the trail.

"I wasn't safe with them," I said. "I had so many people who hated me for no apparent reason. After what my sister did yesterday, I would probably be dead by now." I sighed.

"Is your sister like my brother or something?" She asked curiously.

"Not at all." I said. "Leah's sweet and very protective of me. She tried to fight anyone who so much as looked at me for half a second too long. While she was trying to make sure I was safe, she completely neglected her mate, Mark. He really loves her and he doesn't deserve to be put on the back-burner for me." Frankie sighed.

"I can’t wait until I find my mate," She said. "Since my parents died, Eli has been the only one there. He's been the one protecting me and taking care of me. Everyone thinks that just because I'm small I can’t take care of myself. I'm bigger in my wolf form but that doesn’t change anything because I have asthma and can’t run long distances."

"At least you can shift," I said. "I don’t get to enjoy any of the things werewolves do. I'm not strong, I can’t run, I can’t even protect myself or anybody else." She looked over at me. I didn’t look back; I just kept my head low and my eyes to the front.

"You protected me." She whispered. My chair came to a stop. I know what Sam was talking about when she said use my words to defend. I did stand up to Eli and I defended my mate. Still though, I only protected her from her uncle, not someone who will try to hurt her.

"Why did you do that?" She asked quietly. "You know he could have thrown you out or seriously hurt you." I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don’t care about any of that," I admitted. "I don’t think I can be hurt any worse than I've been in the past. The best thing he can possibly do is kill me and put me out of my misery." We started to move again after that.