Filed To Story: Goddess's Design His Fated Mate (Willow & Reuben)
Wyatt blinked up at me, his captivating green eyes filled with curiosity.
Every day after returning from kindergarten, I’d serve them lunch, then they’d head off to play with the other pack kids. Typically, once they finished playing with the other children, they’d seek out Reuben. He’d indulge them in any game they desired then we would eat dinner, but today had been different. I hadn’t realized how quickly they’d grown attached to Reuben. When they returned from kindergarten and didn’t find Reuben in any of the usual places, they started missing him terribly, asking about him every few minutes.
Mia stood by the dining table, worry etched on her face. Reuben had collapsed in the clearing earlier due to significant blood loss. The doctors had tended to him throughout the afternoon, stabilizing his condition. He was now out of immediate danger but remained unconscious, and was resting upstairs. Of course, I couldn’t divulge the details of his injuries to the children.
“Daddy’s busy with work,”
I gently wiped both of their little mouths, while simultaneously managing a smile. “Now, don’t keep Aunt Mia waiting. She’s here to take you both home with her, hurry along.”
“Let’s go, kids! There are treats waiting for you in my fridge!”
Mia cheerfully announced. The children nodded eagerly and dashed towards Mia, excitedly waving goodbye to me.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of our little Alphas. You take care of the Alpha,”
she winked at me mischievously.
“Goodnight,”
I rolled my eyes, accompanying them to the front yard and watching until they disappeared from sight. Mia had proposed that the children spend the night at her place to steer clear of their inquiries and divert their attention from Reuben. Seeing no harm in the idea, I agreed to it.
Just as I was about to head back into the packhouse, a cluster of doctors exited a house in the distance grabbing my attention. If memory served me right, that was Oran’s residence. Mia had mentioned that Oran’s injuries mirrored Reuben’s, being equally as severe. I clenched my lips, feeling concerned, and opted to check on him.
Oran resided in a lavish house that exuded wealth and opulence. Truthfully, no one within the Emerald Bright Pack struggled financially. Specifically, Oran and Bix had both been born with silver spoons, inheriting numerous businesses and possessing significant wealth. They were billionaires in their own right. The door to Oran’s house was unlocked, but I refrained from knocking, not wanting to disturb Oran’s rest. However, my steps halted by the window of his bedroom, where I spotted Bix seated beside an unconscious Oran, sitting vigil. Despite bearing cuts and wounds Oran’s handsome face appeared serene while Bix’s countenance remained sharp like an irritated snake. I had heard that Oran lost consciousness in the woods during his search for me and Bix had brought him back on the back of his wolf.
Initially, I believed little had changed in the Emerald Bright Pack over the last six years. However, after overhearing the heated exchange between Bix, Oran, and Ella in the clearing that morning, and learning about Ella’s uncle’s involvement in their marriage treaty, I realized I had missed a lot. Oran’s fury over Ella’s audacious advances toward Reuben, coupled with the revelation that Reuben had set boundaries with Ella from the start. That despite them she still referred to him as her fiancé, confessed, and kissed him that left me bewildered. The complexities deepened with Bix’s evident dislike toward me. It was not like he liked me much in the past. Actually his personality was not that amazing, so he sounded rude even though he was a good person at heart. Even when taking all this into consideration I sensed that his reasons for disliking me now ran far deeper, it was something profound that I had yet to uncover.
Seeing that Oran’s condition was stable, I resolved to depart without drawing Bix’s attention, aware that he wouldn’t appreciate my visit. Yet, as I arrived at the front yard of the packhouse, I noticed Ella standing there, staring at the door. It seemed she wanted to go in but did not dare to. Our eyes briefly connected as I walked past her toward the door, treating her presence as if it didn’t register.
“I thought you’d fled,”
she suddenly murmured, her voice barely audible.
My hand paused on the doorknob as I turned toward her. “Why would I run away?”
I countered.
“I love Reuben and I kissed him too,”
she disclosed.
“That alone isn’t reason enough for me to flee,”
I responded, noticing the surprise in her eyes.
“Not enough?”
She took a step forward, puzzled. “Then why did you bolt that day when you saw us kissing? Weren’t you hurt?”
“I was,”
I began, slowly approaching her. “The kiss and your confession from that day will always linger in my memory. After all, it was disgusting. Though to be clear with you, never once did I consider running away no matter how much pain I was in.”
“Why?”
“You kissed and confessed to Reuben, fully aware that I was standing by the door of his office,”
I halted a hand’s breadth from her. Ella’s eyes widened, I had rendered her speechless. I had taken a shot in the dark, yet her expression confirmed my suspicion. Simultaneously, she didn’t know I had been among the trees, concealing my scent, and listening in to their conversation yesterday. Oran had said that Ella was forcefully shackled around Reuben’s neck and Reuben never gave her hope, making everything clear from his end. Those words were not ready to leave my mind.
“Let’s say I was aware that you were standing there, but you can’t disregard that I kissed Reuben. I know you aren’t one to willingly share your possessions. Once shared, you’d discard it and never look back. Reuben is your soulmate, now tainted by me. Won’t you feel tainted every time he kisses you? How can you not let him go now?”
she questioned.
“You seem to know me quite well,”
I smiled, but my eyes remained emotionless, “But not as well as you think.”
Without a glance back at her, I turned toward the packhouse, closing the door firmly behind me.
“Ella has changed,”
Ceri’s voice echoed in my mind.
“Or maybe I never really knew her at all,”
I replied to Ceri, she nodded.
Over the past few days Ceri had started conversing with me again, like she had in the past. I didn’t understand why, but she had become active in my mind. Having her back made me feel complete.
The packhouse felt so quiet without the children around. Filling a pitcher with water, I made my way upstairs. As I walked toward Reuben’s room, the realization struck that we were alone. Despite the doctors having tended to him, they left abruptly, leaving me to care for Reuben. However, they said he would be unconscious for a couple of hours and would need a lot of rest so I hadn’t entered his room since evening.
Cautiously entering his bedroom, I noticed the lights were off, and the moonlight softly illuminated the space but the bed was empty. Where could he have gone?
Scanning the room, my gaze fell upon Reuben seated by the window. His upper body was enveloped in bandages, concealing deep wounds and marks underneath. With a cigarette held between his fingers, his entire form glistened in the moon’s light, almost as though he were bathing in it, while his piercing green eyes remained fixed on me. Despite his injuries, he remained as strikingly handsome as ever.
“He started moving as soon as he woke up?”
I mused silently in my mind. An Alpha’s remarkable healing ability couldn’t be underestimated, especially his.
“Where were you?”
he asked, his expression inscrutable.
“I went outside to see the children off. They’re staying overnight at Mia’s place,”
I responded, stepping further into the room.
“Not now, but earlier. Why couldn’t we find you in the pack? Where did you go?”
As he inquired, I remembered a moment that he lost control, screaming my name. The intensity in his eyes lingered vividly in my memory. It felt as though, if he had caught me running away at that moment, my fate would have been to be tied to his bed, naked, and moaning a fate he had ominously promised me last time. “I went to pick berries for the children in the forest after personally dropping them off at kindergarten. I left a note for Mia on the living room table before I left the packhouse, but she didn’t notice it.”
I was aware that he had presumed that I had run away. When I had appeared before him in the clearing, he stood there, unmoving, stunned by my presence, not even registering the handful of berries I held. While I was terrified at the sight of his bloodied head, the cuts, the wounds, and the torn apart chest that incessantly bled. He had blacked out due to severe blood loss in my arms.
Approaching him, I gently took the cigarette from his hand and put it out. “The doctor advised against smoking or drinking until you’ve recovered,”
I stated in a calm tone.
Surprisingly, he remained silent, observing me as I placed the pitcher down and collected the prescribed medication from the doctors. Unfortunately, the table was positioned near the window where he sat, and I could feel his penetrating gaze fixed on me. Under the weight of his intense stare, my hands grew weak, and the silence became unbearable. I felt compelled to break it, so I inquired, “How did you sustain such severe injuries?”
“Some folks dropped by for a game,”
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.