Seven years ago, he said he was almost finished with her. Only a couple of months later he broke my heart into a thousand pieces when he announced to everyone that he and Eva had eloped, and he had popped her cherry. He announced it in the bar in front of everyone giving me no heads up or inclination of what was happening. Ryan told us all he and his gorgeous wife were off to start a new life in Germany. He didn’t even make eye contact with me, he just acted like I didn’t exist or matter. He just sat there pulling Eva all over him, pawing at her and bragging about her.
Later that same night he came into my bedroom through the window, and we made love for the last time. I didn’t know it was going to be the last time but he basically called it a leaving present afterwards. I wasn’t sure if that was for me or him.
I point out the small photograph of him and Eva on their wedding day and Ryan scowls at me. “Not now, Mel, for fucks sake,” he snarls at me before placing the photograph face down.
Why did I have to fall for such a hard and hateful man?
*** Salma ***
I call the daycare manager and ask what happened with Summer after father of the year pulled his stunt. I am told that they can not discuss it with me because I’m not family. Are they fucking kidding me? I’m the closest thing to family both Eva and Summer have.
“You have seen me come and collect Summer when Eva has been late or unable to make it. I am worried for not only Summer but for my friend who has been missing since yesterday evening, almost 24 hours. Why didn’t you call me to collect Summer?” I am told that only relatives can be emergency contacts and the only details they had were Ryan’s and Eva’s mother. They will not discuss it with me further and they won’t speak to Ryan either after his disgusting display yesterday denying that Summer was his child.
I need help from my papa, he will have this sorted in no time, so I leave Ryan in his house and as I make my way to my parents’ home, I call my papa in his office.
“Hola chula! Me necesitabas?” (Hello cutie! Did you need me?). Why the hell is Alejandro answering the phone in my father’s office?
“Where is my father, Alejandro?” I ask him impatiently.
“Did he not tell you? He is out of town on business. I am in charge while he is away.” I snarl frustratedly at him, him and his smarming, arrogant ways.
“Cut the bullshit, is he there or not? This is important.” I hear the phone click so he has taken me off speakerphone, and his tone of voice changes too. Goodness, Alejandro Suarez is trying to help me!
“Lo siento! Dime cómo puedo ayudar?” (I am sorry! Tell me how I can help?). I am unsure of how much he can or will help me, but I don’t have many options right now; my friend and her child are missing and I need help to find them.
“Alejandro, you will really help me. My friend and her daughter are missing, I am worried, and I need help to track her.” He tells me to meet him as soon as possible at my father’s office and I start to get the distinct impression that I have underestimated Alejandro Suarez. If he comes through and helps me find Eva, it looks like he could win more than my admiration and loyalty.
*** Amber ***
I quickly change into my uniform and, despite Aiden’s warning, I secure a small knife to my leg, just for emergencies of course. I am trained in both Arnis, which is an indigenous Philippines Martial Art using sticks, knives, and blades and Tantojutsu, a Japanese warrior fight using knives. I trained at my brother's insistence so he could give me a leadership role within the pack because, as the younger daughter of an Alpha, there was no official role for me like Aiden or Preston. So, I did all the training Aiden insisted on and I became Aiden’s Lieutenant. Preston is his right-hand man, but I will always be his left.
I thought about asking Aiden if Preston could come with me but quickly changed my mind. It’s never been as awkward as it is between Preston and I right now. I don’t like it. I really don’t like it. I miss how things were between us when we first found we were mates. I was determined to not be impressed by Preston, I had seen him prior to our bond with numerous other women; hell, he’d even slept with my friends. I was not going to be another stupid woman to put out and then be unceremoniously dumped.
He was so sweet back then, and despite my protests I really started to love the attention and affection Preston showered on me. I wasn’t a virgin; I had a short and thoroughly unsatisfying fling with a young pack wolf when I was seventeen and I was afraid of Preston finding out. I wasn’t sure if he expected me to be a virgin and I didn’t want him to go back blabbing to my brother either.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~ Flashback ~*~
~~~ Seven Years Ago ~~~
“Please, baby, please let me take you on a day out.” Preston has been nagging me for almost two weeks to go out with him, ever since my birthday when we found out we were fated mates. I had wanted to reject him, that’s how frightened I was of being dependent on him, of falling for him. I knew as soon as I fell for him, he would leave, so if I didn’t fall for him, I wouldn’t care if he stayed or went.
“I have told you to shut up, stop shouting, I don’t want anyone to know, Preston. You promised if I didn’t reject you that you would keep this secret. You promised me.” If he promised me this and broke it, what else would he promise and go back on?
“Amber, please. There is no one around, please let’s go for a drive somewhere, let’s go for a swim or a picnic, we could even let our wolves go for a run together.” Oh no you don’t! If I let Lizzie, my wolf out, she will have us mated, marked and with pup by tonight.
“Ok, ok, we can go for a drive and a picnic, but I am not promising anything else. Just tell me where to meet you and when. And don’t make Aiden suspicious!” If Aiden finds out he will be delighted and will probably demand I both mark Preston and accept his mark too. I want this to be my choice and my desire to drive my decision on who I spend forever tied to, not some Moon Goddess I don’t believe in nor my domineering brother.
I go to the meeting point and for the occasion I have a white broderie anglaise summer dress on which pops against my ginger hair and freckled skin. As I walk towards Preston’s car, I hear him groan. “Ah, baby you look and smell divine!”
I scowl back at him, not trusting that what he is saying is true or if he said it in jest. However, when I look into his eyes, I see the lust, the admiration, and the desire right there. I squirm in my seat as the warm familiar feel of arousal dampens my panties and ignites my core. Preston leans closer as he sniffs.
“You’re torturing me, Amber,” he growls before smashing his lips against mine, gaining a shocked whimper from me before I submit to his charm. Oh, my goddess, Preston kisses like a god. I had fantasied about how it would feel to be kissed by Preston, but nothing could have prepared me for the raw yearning and passion that kiss ignites inside me.
“PRESTON!” I realise we are only a mile from the pack border, anyone could see us. “Stop it, not here, we’ll be seen.”
He initially looks angry, and hurt but then his wicked smile returns. “To be concluded at our secret location then, baby.” I involuntarily flush at his words, but inside Lizzie betrays me like the brazen, easy bitch she is. As she basks in the golden glory of the desire of our mate and chirrups in pleasure at the promise of more kisses, I start to feel panic. Panic that I want more kisses too, panic that I want more than kisses.
As we arrive at a small cottage, I wonder who we could possibly be visiting, but Preston explains that this belonged to his grandparents before they passed away and now it belongs to him. No one will disturb us here. It is perfect.
As I walk into the small hallway, Preston takes my hand and I relish the feel of our bond. The sparks immediately erupt across my palm but the tingles find their way throughout my body, settling in my tummy that starts to ache with apparent need.
Preston shows me around the house and then asks if I am hungry. I tell him no, because there is only one thing I desire now and that is him. We have a private place to explore this bond away from prying eyes and interference. I will get to know Preston outside of the pack, outside of our bond and I am looking forward to it. Until two weeks ago he was my brother's best friend and the future Beta of our pack. He and Aiden used to tease me, and when I was really young, they would both look over me to keep me safe and scold me if I got out of line.
Now he is standing before me telling me I am his mate, and he wants and desires me. But once he’s had me, what then? Am I expected to go back and act like it means nothing, or do I have to then accept his mark and be forever known as the Alpha’s sister or the Beta’s mate, not as Lieutenant Amber, my own person?
“Amber, I can smell your arousal, I want you so, so bad.” I shut him up by kissing him as hard and as passionately as he kissed me earlier. I want him too, I want to know how it feels to lay with my fated mate, maybe just this once.
“If we do this Preston, it’s just sex, I don’t want you to mark me.” I see the confusion in his eyes, and I think a bit of hurt too.
“Why? Amber I know you can feel this connection too, we are destined there is no point in fighting it. I am yours, and you are mine. But if you want to take it slow then fine, that’s ok, baby, we will go for that walk and picnic instead. I will wait forever for you to accept me because now I know you are the other half of my soul, no other woman could ever compete.” He kisses my hand, sending shock waves through my body. I want him even more now.
“I am just not ready to be marked yet, Preston. There is so much I want to do and be, I want to choose if and when I am marked and by who.” He slams me up against the wall, pressing his hard sculptured body in mine.
“I am the only person who is marking you, ok? I will wait, but there can’t be anyone else, Amber, promise me now and I will wait.” I feel the power in his voice, in his words and I just want to surrender. But I can’t. I want to be a strong independent woman, not a weakling who gets left behind.
“So can we see what it’s like then, if I promise there won’t be anyone else?”
Preston kisses all the way down my neck and back up to my ear. “If that’s what you want, then as soon as I hear the words, we can give it a test run. But not until I hear the words.”
“There is no one else, Preston. While we are exploring our bond, I promise there won’t be anyone else.” He kisses me and lifts me up at the same time and then completely shocks me by returning the promise I had just made to him.
“And I promise you, Amber, there will never be anyone else. I am yours.”
He takes me into a bedroom at the back of the cottage and I start to feel self-conscious. We are werewolves, we are often shifting in and out of wolf and human form. There is a good chance we have seen each other naked before but I never really took notice before. There was no reason to take notice. I wonder if he noticed me before.
“I can’t wait to see you, Amber, to feel you, to taste you!” I guess he didn’t! My core floods with desire and I decide to front this one out, I start to take off my own clothes really slowly. I am wearing panties and a bra and a summer dress, so this isn’t going to last very long but I like the thought of being in control of being naked. As I lift my dress over my head, I hear Preston’s intake of breath.
“You are a goddess, Amber. When did you become a woman? You were always a skinny little kid and now you are all grown up and beautifully perfect. How did I miss that?” In spite of myself, I flush at his words.
“You were always preoccupied with all the other she-wolves, Preston, you were too busy to notice me. But now I have your attention… Can I keep it? And for how long?” I look into his eyes as I reveal the thing that worries me most: Preston getting bored and leaving me for someone else.
“I don’t want this to be our first time, Amber, I want that to be special for you. I want to cuddle you and talk. I want to tell you how sorry I am for being so callous, I didn’t know, I didn’t realise you were mine and if I had I wouldn’t have acted like that, especially in front of you. Do you forgive me?”
I nod my agreement, after all I haven’t been an angel either.
“I’m not a virgin Preston, I’m sorry if that disappoints you. Please don’t tell Aiden.” He smiles at me as I make my confession.
“You think we don’t know? Your brother already knows, Amber, I already know, and I don’t care, that’s the past, this is now and the future. We both promise there will be no one else until we see what happens with us and that is enough. For now, as long as you give me a chance that is enough.”
I lay in the arms of the mate bestowed on me by the Moon Goddess and pray that Preston’s words are true, that he is true to me and to us. Goddess knows how I will ever survive his rejection now I know how it feels to be accepted by him.
~*~ End of Flashback ~*~