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"Can you stop referring to ‘before’!" I snapped, unreasonably angry because everything he said reminded me that we had some kind of past. At least with Alistair, there wasn't really any past to talk about. Just that one night, and evidently, it hadn't been that memorable.
"I can't do that," he said sadly. "When you remember…" He didn't finish, and his voice trailed off. Ares glanced down at his lap, thinking hard. And it seemed like forever passed before he met my gaze with his pools of blue.
"The most important thing for you to know is that I'm here for you," he said softly. My heart leapt in my chest at his words. I wanted that. I wanted someone to be there for me. Alistair had said he was there for me, but it was like a lie slipped from his lips every second. I realized it now. I’d never trusted he actually meant anything. But when Ares said it…it felt like I could.
"I will always protect you. I will always take care of you. I will always…love you," he finally whispered.
My chest tightened and I felt a bit lightheaded, because I realized that my wolf was in perfect agreement with what he was saying. Everything inside of me was telling me he could be someone that I…loved. But what did that mean for Alistair? I’d been raised to know what a true mate was, and the horror that came when such a match was rejected. The Moon Goddess didn't take that lightly, her gift being thrown in her face, and it meant a lifetime of unhappiness and despair for whoever did that.
I bit my bottom lip as I stared out the window. It felt like that already though, didn’t it? This time with Alistair, ending every day wondering if this was really it, if this was what I was going to have to deal with for the rest of my life.
I was so confused.
"I have a mate already," I finally said, and his features seemed to pale. "And however miserable of a person he is, I'm not sure I can damn us both to a life of torture because of his personality flaws.”
He blinked, like it was taking him a second to understand who I was talking about. That was odd.
Finally he shook his head, looking almost…relieved? "Alistair rejected you, Rune," he said gently. My heart lurched in my chest…as did my wolf. “He held you as a prisoner in his home, and he abused you. Horrifically from what I’ve gleaned through our conversations. You escaped, and eventually I found you…and at one point, I’m pretty sure you rejected him right back.”
"You're lying," I whispered, my heart in my throat.
He stared at me sympathetically, and I hated it.
"You’re lying!" I screamed this time.
I didn't know why I was pushing back so hard. There was a rightness to his words, like my soul knew he was speaking the truth.
"Rune," he murmured soothingly, pulling me towards him. I began to beat on his chest, tears streaming down my face, and he just let me do it. He didn't even try to stop me until I was exhausted and I collapsed into him, my tears soaking his shirt.
"I'm so confused," I whispered. “I have no memory of anything but ‘before’. Then I wake up and there's a sadistic woman torturing me for no reason…and then I wake up again, and there's my mate, and he's trying to be nice. The whole time I'm there, things start to seem not right. Like the night he sent the woman he'd been sleeping with to do my hair and makeup for our first official dinner as a couple." I laughed bitterly at that, anger threaded through me at the thought of it now that I was weeks past the initial haze I’d woken up with.
"How would you feel if you woke up one day and you’d lost a whole chunk of your life?" A hitched sob slipped from my mouth, and he stroked his fingers through my hair and down my back, whispering a litany of reassuring words.
"I don't know what the truth is. I don't know why I’m okay with the fact he's in the trunk. I don't know why it feels like home laying against you like this," I confessed. He stiffened at my words, pulling me closer to him for a second before letting me go.
"Everything's going to be okay, Rune.” But there was a hitch to his voice, and I wondered, was he telling me the truth? Would anyone I meet in this new life I'd woken up to, tell me the truth?
I had a million more questions, but we didn't say anything for the next couple of hours as we went to…who knows where. I hadn't even bothered to ask him about it.
I somehow drifted off to sleep, and what seemed like just a few minutes later, I woke to him softly murmuring my name.
"What?" I asked blearily.
"I want you to see this."
I sat up, wincing at the bit of drool on his chest that joined with the tears that had soaked his shirt. He didn't seem to care at all though, which was oddly sweet. I was sure Alistair would've had something to say about that.
When I glanced up, I gasped, because it seemed we were about to drive right into a lake. On the other side, there was a magical looking waterfall that soared at least ten stories into the air. The color of the lake was crystal, you could see right down to the pebbled, sandy floor of it, and it seemed, even from here, that glitter and sparkles were emanating out of the waterfall.
It was like I’d stepped into some fantasy realm.
"Where are you taking me?" I gasped, even as we neared the water.
"Don't be afraid, it's not what it looks like. It's just protection I've put in place to protect my town and people," he explained soothingly. His eyes were dancing with happiness and there was a broad grin on his face.
"Your town?"
"Yes, Galeru. My one good thing…until I met you."
