You know, perfectly normal reactions to life’s struggles.
Maybe the humans have it right. Well, not completely. They’re still partial to racism and follow weak leaders because of their bank balances. Don’t get me started on the oddity that is their lack of community. Yeah, humans are weird. But therapy has made such a vast difference for Emily, and short of involving witches, I’ve got no other ideas for saving Ryan from his current insanity.
I’ll go to the witches if I have to. But they don’t allow you to simply pay for their services. No, they require a debt, and they always collect. Almost exclusively something you don’t want to give. Witches are a last resort, and if I can get Ryan to accept a chosen mate, I won’t need to involve them.
I press the palms of my hands against my eyes, trying to relieve the near-constant sting.
This has to work. I can’t lose him, too. I just can’t.
Chapter Forty-One
Luca
This better go well. I left Sofia after she marked me, when every fiber of my being wanted to stay connected to her. There’s only one thing that will be worth walking out of what has become our home.
I force myself to breathe steadily as I walk up the dirt path toward the cabin crouched at the edge of the forest, right on the border of Lunar Eclipse territory. The wood is weather worn, even though it was only built after the rejection. There’s clearly been no maintenance since.
I ball my fist and knock hard. My wolf presses forward, restless, pulling at me to turn around and go back to where we belong—back to our mate, the one we left behind hurting and alone.
I can hear him inside, but he ignores me. I haven’t seen him in years. Not since he moved out here. Fuck, I used to look up to him so much. He was this powerful alpha. And then he fell apart.
“I’m not leaving until you talk to me. Either let me in or come out to me,” I call through the door. Footsteps scrape across thefloor. A sigh, heavy enough to carry years of regret, sounds out from the other side of the door, and it takes another minute before he finally opens it, but there he is: Elliot Rivera.
He’s so similar to Ryan, it’s uncanny. He’s older, of course, with gray streaking through his dark hair. His skin is a little darker, he has a beard, and he’s maybe an inch or two taller. But otherwise, it’s like looking at a future Ryan.
A future that Ryan won’t get to have unless he takes a chosen mate.
“What do you want, Luca?” he asks. His voice is gruff from disuse, stripped of anything resembling warmth or affection.
“You need to come back. Be a part of the pack again.”
Elliot scoffs, already turning his back. He swings the door shut, but I jam my boot into the frame before it latches. Stepping inside, I take in the environment. It smells of dust, whiskey, and old smoke. The air is thick with isolation and a lack of care.
“Ryan and Sofia need you.”
“What good is a washed-up, rejected alpha to them? They know where I am if they want to come by.”
He slumps into a chair by the fire that isn’t lit, staring at the floorboards like they might swallow him. Like he wouldn’t put up a fight if they did. He’s nothing of the alpha who used to throw us in the lake when we were pups. We’d always end up coughing and spluttering when we landed in the water because he had us laughing so hard.
“They were too young,” I snap. “Ryan was way too green to take on all of being an alpha, and Sofia—fuck, Sofia was still a kid. She deserved a parent to show up for her. And you know it.”
His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t reply. Maybe this was a mistake. But still, I need to try. What kind of mate am I if I don’t do everything I can to make Sofia happy?
“I’m Sofia’s mate,” I tell him, and that gets a reaction. His eyes snap to mine, and he raises an eyebrow. “I’m her fated mate, and she hasn’t been ready to accept our bond.”
“That's why you smell like her?”
I pull my shirt to the side to reveal my new mark. “She marked me, and I accepted the bond. But she isn’t ready to accept me fully.”
“Guess you can blame her mother for that one.”
“Yeah, and I do blame Rose. But I blame myself too. And you.”
Elliot’s gaze narrows on me, but he doesn’t say anything else. Which I’m taking as a good sign. He hasn’t told me to get lost either. Fuck it, go big or go home. I pull out a chair from the dining table and park myself in front of my mate’s father.
I tell him all about Sofia’s struggles with abandonment, how I fucked up by trying to distance myself when I felt she was too young, but I was already feeling the bond. I tell him about how I’m working on earning her trust and that she’s coming around. But that I don’t want her to have any regrets.
I tell him about Ryan and the impending moon madness. Elliot buries his face in his hands and sobs about that one. I can’t blame him. Part of the reason Ryan is struggling with madness so youngis because he was thrust into his role as alpha so young and without a mate to help balance him.
