Filed To Story: Their Bullied and Broken Mate by Teri Petry
The sad part about all of this is, I don’t want to hurt Melian. Sure, I get tired of hearing about how sad her story is and I can’t really stand anyone else here, but the target is the twins, and unfortunately, she’s an innocent bystander in all of this. Ryder feels the same way, but his hatred for the twins and their family stems from way back. He won’t tell me what it is, but it’s festered in him for years. I want to talk to Mel about it all, but how do you approach someone and be like ‘Hey, I don’t want to hurt you, but supposedly your mates and their family are evil bastards who deserve to die, according to my lover and his brother.’? You just don’t. So in all of this, the goal is to make sure she doesn’t get burned in the process. Not going to happen though.
They are fated mates. They hurt, she hurts. When Eric was killed, the pain was intense. I thought I was losing myself, no matter how much I hated him. I think it was the hatred that helped me get through it quickly. The love I feel for Ryder I’m sure also contributed. I went into Maddix’s room and he was sitting in his crib with his favorite stuffed animal. It’s a little turtle that was given to him by Rebecca when he was born. She has called him turtle since the first time she laid eyes on him, and the two of them have a special bond. I truly wish I could have taken a different route, but when I fell in love with Ryder, my path was chosen. I just hope that it doesn’t cost me my son. I picked my boy up and carried him into the living area.
I changed him and sat him on the floor to play while I fixed his breakfast. My mind kept drifting off to thoughts of just taking him and running, but I knew it was too dangerous. Callum would track us down and kill us both. Not to mention Ryder would be crushed. There was a knock at the door and the nanny let herself in. I greeted her, and told her about the meeting I had this morning with the Alphas. She said it was fine, because she had planned a play date with Trinity and they would be outside playing. I told her to make sure that she bundled both kids up because the air was chilly in the morning now, and she promised she would. I kissed my son on top of his head, and left to go to Ryder’s room. Half way down the hall I ran into Melian. “Hey Mel, how are you feeling?” I asked her. Something about her aura felt off, but she replied that she felt great. She was heading down to eat, and then go for a run. I found it odd she was alone, but shrugged it off. Ryder was waiting for me outside his door, and I asked if he had seen Mel. He nodded his head and said that they had been talking briefly and that she had just left. He took my hand and led me to the Alpha’s office. My heart was beating out of my chest, and was nervous about what Loki did or didn’t hear. Ryder knocked on the door and the alphas yelled ‘Enter’ in unison. We walked into the office and Loki motioned us to sit without even looking up at us. This can’t be good.
“Sit down, please. I explained to my brother about our by chance meeting last night. However, there is one thing I couldn’t explain fully, and that is why you both were out there whispering in the dark at 4am. I heard the conversation, and it had me a little confused, but this is your chance to explain everything….in detail. Leave nothing out! We will know if you are lying.” Loki said in a cold tone.
Ryder and I glanced at each other and he spoke up. “Alpha’s, you deserve to know the truth. Before everything happened at Mystic Shadows with the Council, Jenna and I had started having an affair. She was miserable with her mate, and wanted to escape and reject him and the pack. I left ahead of time to make arrangements with my brother for us to live there, and by the time I got back to get her, everything and everyone was gone at Mystic Shadows. I admit, I lied about how I left the pack. I was afraid that I would be imprisoned for abandoning my pack when it was in trouble.”
Loki looked at him with narrowed eyes and leaned forward on the desk. “So, you are telling me that you went to visit your brother, in your car that you said the council seized, to make arrangements with your brother for you to take someone else’s mate and make a run for it. Is that correct?” he asked. “Ye…yes Alpha Loki.You are correct.” Ryder replied. Loki plopped back into his chair and kicked his feet onto the desk and looked at his brother. “Hear that Liam? What do you think? Is he telling the truth?”
Liam only smirked while pulling his hair up into a bun. “To be honest brother, I think it is the biggest crock of shit I have heard in a long time. I think ol’ Ryder here is a lying coward. Tell me Ryder, who is your brother and what pack were you planning on taking dear Jenna here to?” Liam scoffed. Ryder’s anxiety was becoming evident as he started to stammer over his words. I couldn’t take it anymore and blurted it out. “His brother is Callum Star. Daniels is just an alias for him. His brother is Alpha Callum Star of the Dark Star pack.” I quickly gasped and covered my mouth. Ryder’s head instantly dropped because he knew I had just completely ratted us out. Both alphas were now kicked back in their chairs with their feet on the desk.
The demeanor of their faces and auras quickly changed, and we were super fucked. Liam sat forward and slammed his fist on the desk. He looked at us with hatred in his eyes, and said, “Here is what’s going to happen. You are going to play along with Callum. You are going to give him whatever information we give you to give him. If you refuse, or plot another way to get information over to him, I will kill you myself. Are we understood? There is no negation to these terms. I also want your cell phone. The only communication you will have with him will be through recorded landlines. You will have a guard with you at all times! Oh…..stay away from our wife!” We handed our phones to Loki because Liam had stormed out before we could answer. I definitely regret my decisions.
Let Them Go
*LIAM POV*
Can I wake up one day without a bunch of bullshit? Truthfully, I need a vacation. Tonight is our Luna ceremony and we will induct her, Jason and Rebecca and the kids into the pack. We were also going to induct Jenna and Ryder, but things have definitely changed. As an alpha, I have to hear their side of things, and can’t just go by what I hear, even if it’s from my brother. I promise you though, one wrong word and I will kill them where they stand and clean up later.
On top of this news, he lets me know that he came clean with Mel about his little trysts with Lisa. She seems to be handling that news alright, but knowing her she is wanting to rip his balls off. Other than having a conversation about her plans for the day, I haven’t really talked to her much about the situation. She wanted to let Ruby out for awhile, and I was cool with it as long as she took someone with her. I linked Timmy to see if he could send one of our best out with her, and he said to send her to him when she was ready. He would go with her himself. I was relieved by that because, honestly, there was no one better to protect her.
I thanked him and disconnected the link. Mel said she was going for breakfast and I told her to go straight to Timmy when she was ready to let Ruby loose. Loki and I both kissed her goodbye and went straight to our office. We were working on pack paperwork when Jenna and Ryder decided to show up. We called them in and both put on a pissed off front. The only thing is, it was definitely not a front. Once they entered, Loki commanded them to sit. I hadn’t heard him use his alpha tone in a long time, and it kind of scared me a little bit. I internally chuckled and let Loki start. He made sure they understood they were going to tell the truth, and if they didn’t, they would be dead. Ryder started to explain, but I guess his mistress got a little impatient. Not only did she out him as Ryder Star, Callum’s brother, but she also told us whatever else we wanted to know. She sang like a little songbird. I told them that they were to turn their cell phones in, and would be guarded at all times. Then I walked out. Now that I am away from them, knowing my mate is out running in the woods, I wish I could have thrown them in the cells.
House arrest is about all we have right now since the explosion, but our construction crew were working around the clock to get the cell house rebuilt. I went out to the garden to just sit by the fountain for awhile. I always think better when I’m out here. The running water in the fountain would soon be turned off with the winter months coming, and I wanted to enjoy it while I could. I lay on one of the benches and the sound of the water soothed my thoughts. That is until I caught the sight of movement outside of the corner of my eye. I sat up to see if I could catch it again, and sure enough, there they were, Ryder and Jenna sneaking into the woods. They either had mountain-sized balls or were just purely stupid. I’m going with stupid.
I followed them from a distance. We were about a mile in the dense forest before I heard them talking. “Dammit Jenna! I told you not to speak to them unless they asked you questions, and then you played dumb. You couldn’t do that one simple thing for me, could you? I have got to get news to Callum somehow about the ceremony tonight. I have no way of doing that now. FUCK!” he screamed at her. She slightly cowered and said, “Stop yelling at me! I’m sorry, I panicked. Why can’t we make a run for it now? No one is watching us, or they would have already stopped us from coming this far. Think about it.”
This tramp was as dumb as she looked. Definitely gave blondes a bad name. I could see the wheels in Ryder’s brain turning, and he asked about her son. Would she willingly walk away and leave him? Surely she didn’t think we would let her waltz back in there to get him. She paused for a moment and got choked up. “I…I don’t want to leave him Ryder, but we can’t stay here. If they find out what we have already told Callum, they will not hesitate to kill us. My anxiety is killing me, and when I get anxious I can’t stop what comes out of my mouth. This isn’t a choice for me anymore, and I know she won’t let anything happen to her nephew. It’s the twins he wants. He needs to leave the rest alive. He just has to….” she trailed off.
Ryder started to pace and he finally agreed to her plan. He was pissed because he had let his brother beat him near death for the ruse, and now just a day later he was going back without anything of value. I debated whether or not I would let them go, but after getting a link from Timmy that my girl was home safely and getting ready for the ceremony, I decided to let them go. Let them report back to Callum, because after we got the ceremony out of the way, we were heading to Dark Star. They were as good as dead when they returned there empty handed, and Callum and Lisa’s time was up, and we were the collectors of their flesh. Once they left, I turned and went back to the packhouse. I needed to clean myself up and I was ready to just not think about what was to come for a little while.
I linked Loki and told him to meet me in my old room, that we had a change of events that I needed to tell him. 3 hours until our ceremony, and I couldn’t wait.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.