Page 12 of Unlearning

“What?!?” she screamed.

“Do youwantto wake the kids?” I hissed and that seemed to calm her a bit. “I have no idea what I would have done Hailey, it's God's honest truth. All I knew is that I wanted to be with you and Ben, but I had no idea how to go about it. In the end it all sorted itself out.”

She looked unhappy with this answer.

“Do you feel like your life is complete?”

“What kind of a question is that?”

“A good one, Brandon. Answer me. I am wondering if you are regretting not being with your mate.”

“I loveyouHailey, I love our family. I am happy. I don't need some mate bond when I have my one true love,” I gently kissed her temple.

“Have you seen her since then?”

“Never. She comes to visit her parents in the summer while we are in Chicago.”

“Who are her parents?”

“Her father is the pack enforcer, Fred Thompson. Her mom, Myra, works in the Alpha's office.”

“Our pediatrician's in-laws?!”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck, Brandon. Why haven't you told me any of this before? You should have told me. If I had known I would have... I don't know, I would have stepped aside, I would have let you be happy,” she blurted out.

“Now that is a lie, Hailey, and you know it.”

“No it is not! How would you even know!”

I sighed.

“Hailey, I can smell lies. I can smell fear, anxiety, arousal, anger even. It’s a shifter thing.”

She looked mortified.

“So you've known every time that I've lied to you?”

“Yeah,” I said tiredly.

“Even with the -”

“Even with the antibiotics, yes, Hailey. And I was over the moon. I was the happiest man alive. I wanted it all with you. And that hasn't changed.”

She looked away guiltily.

“Still, why haven't you told me before?”

“Well, before Ben's birth you had no idea I was a werewolf. And after you found out, it was just this huge information dump about the supernatural world and I didn't want to add onto it. And then one night you asked me about mates, do you remember?” she scoffed, of course she did. I’d lied to her that night.

“Well, I didn't want you to doubt our love. I didn't want this hanging between us. It may be cowardly, but our lives had already been disrupted so much because of me. Back when welived in Chicago, I bet you’d imagined our future differently. Since you couldn’t have that, I wanted you to at least have peace of mind.”

“Well I don't, not now. This is huge, Brandon. You have an actual fucking soulmate out there! How can I compete against that? I'm not even a werewolf like you guys! How can I ever stop worrying about you one day regretting this?” now she had tears streaming down her face and the sight was heartbreaking.

“Hailey, baby, please stop crying” I was begging, desperate. “I have no intention of leaving you, ever, my mate means nothing to me. I've met her and I chose you. I will always choose you. You are my life. I can never regret my family, I can never regret you and the life that we've built over the last decade. I've known and loved you for 10 years, Hailey, that's more than a third of my life. How can you compare that to 14 hours spent with someone I never even wanted in the first place,” I could see the gears in her head turning as she was looking at this from every possible angle.

“Oh God what are we gonna tell our kids!!!!” she screamed and started pacing the room, still crying. “They'll learn about mates here, right?” she was chewing on her index nail now, meaning she was really anxious. The worst thing was, so was I.

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