Page 2 of Unlearning

“I thought every little girl dreamed about her mating ceremony”, he murmured.

“You've lived with the humans for too long,” I laughed and he tensed slightly. “All I care about is the bite,” I said huskily and bit his bottom lip. He moaned, and I felt my pussy clench aroundnothing, desperate to be filled. Before I could fulfill my desires, he took me off of his lap and got up from the bed.

“I need a shower, it's been a long day,” he said without looking at me, and headed for the bathroom. Stunned, I sat on the bed, and shame reared its ugly head somewhere deep in my gut. I felt like a cheap hussy who threw herself at a male who didn't want her. It was wrong, all wrong. I had heard enough meet-cute mate stories to know something wasn't right. One of my friends found her mate at the mall and they proceeded to mate right there, in a public restroom. Another saw his mate for the first time at a pack barbecue and marked her right then and there. It was hilarious, they made out for a bit after the deed and then learned each other's names. But hey, that's wolves for ya.

After sitting there for who knows how long while he was showering, I decided to head home. I could take a hint, he clearly didn’t want to sleep with me. I grabbed my bag and my phone from the nightstand, waking up the screen to see what time it was, only to realize that it was not my iPhone. It was my mate's. And it had a photo of him with another woman as a screensaver. They were sitting on a beach somewhere, tanned and happy, his arms were around her waist and his chin was on her shoulder. She was nestled into his body and grinning at the camera, while he was looking at her with a heartbreakingly lovesick expression.

Some cold feeling started running through my entire body. I slumped down on the bed, my legs no longer able to support me. My cold numb fingers were squeezing the damn phone likethey were trying to choke the life out of it, and then it vibrated. I turned the phone around with shaking hands, and I saw a new message from someone saved as “Hailey <3” pop up:

We miss you <3

I needed to think. I needed to think. I also needed to breathe. I heard Brandon getting out of the shower and I started panicking. I left the phone where I’d found it and tried to act aloof but I still didn’t get up because I couldn’t trust my own legs anymore. My stomach was churning; I was going to be sick. I didn’t know what to think.

“Where are you going?” he asked as he exited the bathroom with a towel around his waist and his beautiful brown locks damp from the shower. He frowned as he looked at my hands gripping my bag.

“Oh, I was going to let you rest,” I lied, and he frowned again because he could tell there was something wrong. My heartbeat could be heard from three houses over.

“Babe,” he sighed and then shook his head. “Samantha. Look, I'm sorry. It's just... I have to go back to Chicago for a month. I still need to take my last exam and finish up some paperwork. It's gonna be hard enough on my wolf to be apart from you as it is, can you imagine being marked and mated?”

“We can go together?” I offered and could immediately hear how pathetic it sounded. Clearly, he would have offered if that had been what he’d wanted.

“I... I already quit my apartment there, I'll be crashing with different friends for the month, so it would be... complicated to bring another person in the mix,” he said, once again speaking truth with an undercurrent of lies in a way that made it impossible to distinguish one from the other.

“Okay,” I said meekly, “when are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning”, he said. “I only came today to sign my work contract and attend the party, and then next month, I officially start work here at the pack.”

He sat down on the bed next to me, looked through the window, and suddenly seemed so tired. “Please stay here tonight. We want to hug you and breathe your scent while we sleep,” he said, nuzzling my neck.

I kissed his neck.

“Sure”.

We got ready for bed in silence, each one of us lost in their own thoughts. He spooned me and fell asleep fairly quickly. I stayed awake for hours, wondering what the hell was going on with my mate.

CHAPTER 2

In the morning, I was woken up by the door closing. Brandon must have just left. The events from last night came rushing back to me. I didn't want to be insecure or paranoid, but I'd seen the photo with my own eyes. Okay, so he’d had a girlfriend. Maybe still had. But, surely, now that he'd found his mate, that was over, right? Was she a she-wolf? A human? Where had he found her, when? For a brief moment, I tried telling myself it could just be a friend, but even I knew that you didn't look at friends like that. If I was being honest with myself, it fucking hurt. I felt like my stomach was eating itself from the inside out. I needed to calm down and be rational about this. We were mates. We’d just found each other.

There was nothing more important than the bond. There was no “love” or lust stronger than the bond. He was the only one I would ever truly want and love, and the same was true vice versa. A few deep breaths and a shower later, I was ready to go downstairs to breakfast. I snooped around the room some more, but his phone was gone and there was nothing else that could be construed as incriminating.

Breakfast was a friendly affair. Almost the entire pack was present, and our friends and family were hugging us, congratulating us, and even teasing us about pups. Neither Brandon nor I were really there, and he didn't look at me or touch me more than he absolutely had to. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to do something about it. All I could think waswrong wrong wrong. The food I ate felt like too thick mashed potatoes that were difficult to swallow down. My friend Tom and his mate April approached us and Tom started teasing me:

“So the wait is finally over! I'm so happy for you Sam,” he beamed at us, and April winked at me and mouthed “later”. I put on what I hope is a convincing smile and intertwine my fingers with Brandon's. His hand felt like a limp cold dead fish in mine. The sparks were there, but in this state of mind they felt more like the ones you’d get from touching a wet toaster. After breakfast I walked him to his car and rested my back on the passenger door. Brandon stood between my legs and ran his hands down my arms.

“Are you okay babe?” he asked softly. The endearment rubbed me the wrong way for some reason.

I looked up into his eyes and for a moment, I stopped caring about the woman. This was my mate, mine! I grabbed his hair and drew his lips down to mine. He eagerly responded and as I felt his warm wet tongue enter my mouth, I moaned. One of his hands tightened in my hair, while the other grabbed my ass and pulled me flush against his body. We were frantic in our kissingand as he lifted me up against the car, I wrapped my legs around his waist while he deliciously thrust into my core – I could feel it all through my leggings. I moaned, I panted, I could smell our arousal everywhere around us and when I broke the kiss only to nip at his neck, he stiffened and stopped his movements. With his eyes closed, he rested his forehead against mine while we were still standing core to core. He exhaled loudly and chuckled: “Wow. This was... wow.”

I licked my lips and rubbed my nose against his.

“I'll miss you,” I said.

“I'll text you, okay?” he said and as I nodded, he gave me a brief hug and got into his car.

I felt cold and empty, and deeply unsatisfied. Sadness didn’t even begin to engulf me until I got back to my parents’ house. Once there, I called my big sister and left a message.

“Hey dr. Laney, how's med school? Your little sister misses you. I met my mate yesterday. He...” I huffed out a breath. “It wasn't exactly how I always imagined it would go. I'm kind of worried. Call me when you have time, I could use your sage advice. Say hi to Lucas for me. Love you!”

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