Chapter Thirty
RILEY
“I can’t believe he still visited my mother; he promised me he would let her live her life.” I said to Thane, exasperated.
“She knows nothing about him; that’s all that matters.”
“What if he makes her remember? I don’t want him to come between what she has with Gabriel.”
“Think about it this way. For almost two decades he left her; maybe he thought he was trying to protect her, but that revelation is bound to leave her heartbroken. Do you think she would simply fall back in love with him like it had been all those years ago?”
“I think not. At least I wouldn’t.”
“Exactly.”
A maid walked in with a tray of food.
“Wait.” I called, and she paused. “Pricilla?”
She turned to me, and it was indeed Pricilla.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“To deliver the food.” She said like that wasn’t obvious.
“You may leave, Pricilla,” Thane says to her, and she gives a bow before dismissing herself.
“She’s one of the maids now?”
“Yes.”
“How did that happen?”
“I think she genuinely wants to be a better person. I didn’t believe her at first, but now, maybe she was being truthful. Axel’s death had impacted her… positively.” Thane says with a small shrug.
“And what if she has other plans?” I asked; I never really liked Pricilla very much.
“I thought about that too; she is currently under watch, but she doesn’t know that
yet.”
Everyone deserves a second chance, so I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt.
The garden had become one of my favorite spots in the pack. I stood there; the soft breeze blew through my hair.
I thought about Ethan, my son; we were finally going to be a family.
“Nice spot.” A female voice called. I would recognize that melodious voice anywhere. Isabella joined me, standing by my side. “You know Thane wanted me out of this pack because of you? I had managed to find one of the smaller rooms on the last floor.”
I gave her no response; I had come here to enjoy the beautiful view, but of course she just had to interrupt that.
“Also, congratulations; no one told me you’d delivered the baby.”
“Don’t you have any other places to be, Isabella?”
“No, I wish I did, but here, I have literally nowhere to go and nobody to talk to. Also, would you please not tell Thane that I spoke to you?”
I snorted. “You really are in no position to ask anything of me.”
She turned to stare at me; I was visibly taller than her by some inches. “I am here to apologize.”
“Are you really?”
“Yes, I am. I’m sorry for trying to kiss Thane. You were right, actually; I had been gone for a long time; things can’t remain the same.”
“Apology accepted.”
“Really?” she asked with a smile.
“Yes, really.”
I waited for her to leave, but she didn’t; it was clear she had some other thing on her mind.
“I’m curious to know how you met Thane.” She said and there was not a trace of jealousy in her voice. “I mean, it might be strange considering I was his mate…”
2/3
Chapter Thirty
“If you want to know, then I will tell you. The initial plan hadn’t been to fall in love. He had showed up at my pack and It had been at a point in life that I felt like flag, up; I had just lost my child, my mate rejected me for another woman, and my mother was a slave, indebted to the pack. I wanted to run away, but I had nowhere to go, and so I was willing to do anything to escape the godforsaken place. I was supposed to pretend to be his mate for six months, and that’s it, but I guess things took another turn.”
“I know what rejection feels like; I was rejected by my own family. At some point they got tired of me; I was nothing but a liability to them, and it was clear that I would die in the end; all those who had the sickness never survived it.
I like you, Riley, a lot.”
“You aren’t bad either; we could have been friends if you weren’t trying to take away the love of my life.” I admitted.
She laughed at that.
We were silent for a few minutes before she spoke up. “You know it doesn’t have to be that way–we don’t have to be enemies because we love the same man; we could create a solution to that.”
“What solution?” I asked.
“We can both have him.”
