Page 15 of The Wolf's Bullied Mate
To say I was interested in RedRuby would have been an understatement.
She continued.He abandoned my child and me when I told him I was pregnant.
My finger hovered over the keyboard on my phone, but I held myself back, seeing she was typing more. Fury burned in my chest. What a piece of shit her ex was.
I thought we were mates, but… he never wanted to mate with me. And after he abandoned me, the pack turned on me, too. Everybody said… I was worthless. That I didn’t deserve a mate.
Finally, I put my fingers on the keyboard and typed,Don’t cry.
How do you know I’m crying?
I can feel your pain, and it makes me want to kill every single one of the people who made you suffer.
You don’t have to do that.
Then what can I do for you?
I just appreciate you talking to me as if I’m an equal. Please don’t ever stop treating me like that.
I won’t. I swear.
After that conversation, RedRuby opened up to me more. She told me about the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her pack and parents. Gradually, I got a full picture of why she had signed up for the arranged marriage agency. I could feel that sharing the truth with me about her suffering eased her heavy heart. Once all the bad things were done, said and laid out in the open between us, our conversations turned lighter.
You like tinkering with old electronics?She asked me later, once I was home in my garage fixing yet another broken radio someone from the pack brought to me with pleading eyes.
Yes, these radios mean a lot to the people who give them to me for fixing, I wrote.I like to see them look at those devices with love. I like the sight of their faces full of joy and relief when the memento of their grandparents plays music again.
That sounds wonderful.
And it makes me good with my hands, I joked.
That’s… a good side benefit.I could feel how shy my flirting made her.
I wanted to see the deep blush on her cheeks. Would her freckles stand out more when her skin was red? Did the redness extend to her ears and her neck? I wanted to kiss a trail down her hot skin, all the way down to her chest, then her stomach, and…
What are you thinking about?!
I chuckled when I saw the panic in her text.How it would feel to show you just how good I am with my hands. And my lips, too.
That’s… uhh…
I laughed out loud. She was so adorable when she was embarrassed. These were just simple texts between us, yet they had so much personality. I could guess her emotions perfectly, even though neither of us was using any emojis.
Do you enjoy teasing me this much?she asked after a pause.
I do, I simply replied.
Meanie, she wrote.
That’s an adorable nickname you have for me there.
***
Over the next two weeks, our conversation continued with light flirting. Slowly, she started responding to my advances with careful flirtations of her own. She was so unsure in her advances that I couldn’t help but find her cute.
I’d had special women in my life before. Much like RedRuby had commented, as a beta, I had my pick of women from my pack. None of them, however, had ever been as easy to talk to as my dating app conversation partner. None of them had ever made me so excited to tease and flirt with them. None of them had ever made my heartbeat quicken like RedRuby did.
Slowly, I realized that RedRuby could be a potential mate of mine, perhaps my fated mate. I felt a connection to her, the likes I’d never experienced with anybody else.
