Beaten, Bruised, and Kissed

Chapter 31

"We are all mistaken sometimes; sometimes we do wrong things, things that have bad consequences. But it does not mean we are evil, or that we cannot be trusted ever afterward." Alison Croggon

Tiana's pov

I feel my heart thumping in my chest as fast as my mind is running through everything from these past few years. So many questions come to mind. How will my family react? What will happen once they know the truth? Will they be mad? Will they kill Ryder?! Will we get billed extra per murder if hotel management finds out or would it like a combined cost type of thing? I feel the room spinning around me, a never-ending spiral.

I glance over at Ryder as he's collecting his thoughts before he speaks. His shoulders are slumped with his right hand nervously running through his slightly greasy hair. It's obvious this vulnerability is uncomfortable for him. Even with everything he's done for me I still struggle when seeing him squirm like that.

"I'm confused as to what's going on here," Zakia sighs after a while of silence.

"Look, this isn't easy for me to say, okay? There's a lot for me to say, so I need you guys to save your reactions and such until I'm completely done," Ryder states, still avoiding eye contact with everyone, looking down at the place where his mother laid dead less than a day ago!.

"I will do what I can to keep the peace, Ryder," my mother reassures him, sending him a warm smile that went unnoticed by him as he continued to stare intensely.

"I'm sure you all remember the night we had our first shift," he sighed as he began, briefly checking to see us nod in response. "Well, something you don't know is that night Tiana and I discovered that we are mates." Everyone looked shocked, some even had mouths ajar.

"How is that possible? You've never so much as hugged let alone been affectionate in front of anyone. How could you keep this a secret for so long?" my mother looked at me with a hurt expression as this secret stepped out into the light for the first time. "It's not her fault Mrs. ( last name )," Ryder interrupted to defended me.

"Then who should we blame?" my father asked, leaning forward to intimidate him with his alpha energy. Amanda rubs Conlans' shoulders to calm him down.

"Let the boy speak," she says in a breathy, soothing tone to my father. He leans back and covers my mom's tiny hand with his and nods at Ryder to continue.

"As you know, my mother was a bitter witch. She's always had a grudge against humans for hunting and killing her and her family in a past life. Somehow she found out Tiana was my mate before I really knew and began poisoning me with this opposite emotion potion. I, of course, didn't assume my protein shakes were tainted so she got away with this for years. When I was under this spell, I felt hate and anger when I should have been consumed by love and happiness with Tiena," Ryder looked at me for a moment. "All my mother did was put me under a spell. Everything else is my fault and I struggle knowing that now...with all that anger and hate bubbling inside me so intensely for a long time...I just snapped. I was in pain and I wanted the hurt to stop and somehow I knew harming her would end my personal suffering for a small moment," Ryder admits.

The men in this room were not happy to hear this news. As soon as the words left his mouth, my brothers and father stood up, towering over him, growling aggressively. I jump up and force my body to stand between my family and Ryder and without taking a second to think, I begin defending Ryder.

"You guys need to calm down. It's okay to be angry, but he can't tell you the rest of the story if you rip his head off," I state with my arms angled back to further protect him.

"I don't care what he has to say! He hurt my daughter so he must die," my father grumbles dramatically. My brothers cheer in agreement.

"He's not hurting me anymore, but he was for years and none of you noticed or said anything. I don't care if you want to kill him, you will sit down and listen to what he has to say. This is what I want, so you guys are going to do as I say...You owe me that much," I firmly stated causing the boys to settle and quiet down. My father gave Ryder one more death glare before sitting down again.