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“Thanks.” It was all I could give him without breaking down all over again. Why couldn’t they just keep their space?
“It's not what you think, though,” he started. “By the time I managed to track you down, you had a whole business established and a new life. I’d have approached, had this conversation, but you were happy and I was afraid to ruin it.”
“So instead, you did it here, mid-competition. Is me failing also on your agenda?” He looked horrified at the thought and cursed.
“Of course not! I told Lance it was bad timing.”
“Why would you even look for me?” I questioned, redirecting the conversation back to his original point. The admission had shaken me. I never considered that they would have tried to find me. Maybe it was silly for me to assume no one would come after me or care. Knowing that he tried…well, I didn’t know how to really feel about it.
“Let's just say that Lance needed a whole lot of help getting back on his feet,” Calvin admitted. The question was on the tip of my tongue. Every fiber of my being wanted to ask what happened, how he could be okay with all of this, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want to know. The last thing I needed was someone to tell me that I was expendable and never really mattered. Or even worse, that something or someone else mattered more than me.
“I'm not going to tell you his details, nor am I going to beg on his behalf, but I am going to ask if you could show me enough respect to haveoneconversation with him before you leave. Just hear him out then make your decision on how to proceed.”
What the fuck was I supposed to say to that? Sure, I respected him, but this wasn’t an easy request.
As soon as the elevator opened, he walked out without another word. Calvin wasn’t the type to press me or argue. He didn't need my answer, he’d said what he came to say.
My feet felt like they were made of lead as I trudged my way to my room, wishing I had a bottle of whiskey and some chocolate to handle the insanity that was my life.
ChapterEight
Riven
The moment that my mate stepped in front of me, I knew something was up. El was always full of energy but right now, he was practically twitching with it.
“I talked to our mate,” he burst out, not needing any prompting to launch into his story. “Remember how you said you found Nyla crying? Well, now I know why.” He gripped his black and gray hair as he paced around, making it stick up at crazy angles. I will admit, he’d effectively piqued my curiosity.
Nyla was a puzzle to me and completely unexpected.
I simply sat on the edge of the bed waiting for more of an explanation. It was impossible to get answers from him when he was like this. Good thing I had the patience of a fucking saint when it came to my mate.
“That piece of shit left her at the altar. Like, wedding dress on, getting ready to walk down the aisle, and he didn't fucking show up.” He finally stopped walking then and stared me down, gauging my reaction.
Anger slammed into me with a force that I couldn't even understand. I barely knew this woman. Hell, I knew we were going to have issues the moment I realized who she was and that we were mates, but yet I was ready to tear this building down to find this asshole and force him to grovel at her feet, beg for her forgiveness, then toss him out on his ass.
El let out a chuckle as he took in my face, pointing at me before continuing his pacing.
“See, that's exactly how I felt. But Nyla made me stay and told me I didn’t need to go to jail for him. His dad is apparently some rich-ass lawyer, like that fucking matters to me.” He cracked his knuckles as he walked, looking every bit his animal in that movement. El was a force to be reckoned with.
This asshole’s dad may be a high-end lawyer but El also came from money and he wasn't afraid to throw it around when he had to. But it was rare that something prompted him to use it. In general, my mate lived like any average man. We were together for months before he even revealed it to me. And that revelation changed nothing between us, much to his surprise.
We were both closed off in our own ways, me by my own past and shitty family. But El took even longer to truly let me in. He gave only what he wanted to give and sometimes, it was like pulling teeth to get real answers out of him. After a lifetime of being used by people, you learned to keep your personal life to yourself.
“I guess that explains why she keeps running away and avoiding us.” I genuinely thought it was because of the competition or this rivalry between us. What was all in good fun and for the business for us, could definitely be interpreted differently by her. “This rivalry…I don’t think she’s as cool about it as we assumed. This is going to be complicated.”
El laughed. “That’s an understatement.”
Even in the brief interaction we’d had, I noticed that she's got a bit of a fiery temper and she’s fiercely independent. Ever since we realized we were mates, I’d done as much research on her as possible. She kept herself hidden from social media well, so all we had to go off of was the interviews we did here and the interactions we observed in that ballroom.
Jealousy slammed into me as I thought of her and her friend every time I looked over. He was freely given her smiles and made her laugh. Something I wasn’t sure I’d even get the chance to do.
“How the hell are we even going to convince her to give us a chance with her ex walking around? She’s going to have all that pain coming back. There was no way something like that doesn’t leave emotional scarring,” I said. It was infuriating that some bastard was not only fucking up our chances, but hurting her in the process.
“I'm fairly sure the guy that's with her is her mate, but not ours as well. I’ve seen the way they act together, there’s no way that’s just platonic,” El added in.
That was always a difficult place to be in. Soul-bonded mates worked in strange ways and sometimes, it wasn't polyamorous, it centered around the woman. It seemed our group was going to be a mix of both and to top it off, she had been rejected by mates before.
“Have you seen those two interact? They might be mates but they're dancing around it. Not a single speck of PDA or touching like you see with most soul-bonded fated mates,” El continued on. “Even we can’t keep our hands to ourselves most days, it’s instinctual.” Seeing him this worked up had my mind already mulling over all of the information he’d just given me.
