The Smallest Mate

Chapter 8: Awkward

POV: Aiden

I watched as Lyra trotted up the stairs and out of sight. Damien was close at her heels. Once she was out of sight, I pulled out my phone and sighed. Ten messages and four missed calls from Callie. This was not something I was looking forward to. Once again, Damein was right. It could have been a told-you-so moment for him. Not that I would give him it. I swallowed the lump in my throat. This should be no big deal. Callie and I had only been seeing each other for about a week. Sure, she had been by my side nearly the entire time, so it felt like longer, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal. She was a she-wolf. She understood what the mate bond entailed. I quickly re-dialed the number that was called. She picked up on the first ring. "Aiden baby why have you been ignoring me!" she wined. I cleared my throat. "I found my mate Callie" she was silent. "Did you hear me?" I heard her voice break on the other side. "Are you going to reject her?" I let out an irrated growl. "No, she's my fated mate Callie. You know she is your Luna." Callie stayed silent for a while. I thought perhaps she was going to hang up. "When are you coming home? We can deal with this in person," she insisted. "No Callie. It's over. I don't want you to make things difficult for her. This never happened between us. Understood?" I could tell she was crying on the other end of the phone. "Come on now Callie, it was never that serious anyway." this only made her sob harder. "Maybe to you Aiden. I don't just give myself so freely to just anyone like you do." honestly her words stung a bit but she was not wrong. "If you think your going to be able to keep your man whoring from your mate you have another thing coming!" She snapped angrily before I could say anything or really process her words she hung up. I had a bad feeling that this was not going to go over well when I returned. I mulled over in my head whether to warn Lyra. She was already so hesitant about me, I could tell she wasn't fully invested in our mate bond yet. I didn't want to tell her for fear she would not come with me. It would be easier for me to explain everything once we were home, I'd be able to handle it there.

I rushed over to the guest room that I shared with Damien. We hadn't brought a lot so it didn't take me long to get all of that around and taken out to the car. I pulled the car up to the front. Lyra was the heiress to this pack, chances are she had a lot of things and I didn't want to make a bunch of trips to the car garage. Once I had gotten the car in place and all of Damien and my things stowed, I made my way up the stairs to go see how the packing was going. I bounded up the stairs eagerly, coming to her room. I almost knocked, but she was definitely expecting me. I swung the door handle and didn't see either of them. I walked in to where I could see the closet and saw the two of them sitting in the bottom of the closet. A suitcase next to them, all I could focus on was their hands touching. They weren't holding hands but it seemed that he was lingering and I did not like that. "DAMIEN" I growled. He jumped as if broken from a spell. "You can go." I said low with a warning tone. "Of course, were almost done here anyway." Damein bowed his head and slipped past me. I headed over to the closet door to see he was right. They only had a few more things needing to be packed in there, everything that couldn't fit in this suitcase was in a box packed neatly sitting on her bed. I helped her up. Pulling her to my side and inhaling her scent to calm me down. I shouldn't be too mad at Damien. It looked like the touch was innocent. I just didn't like the way she looked at him. "I can carry your things. If you want to finish up here, I'll be right back." With that, I turned on my heel, grabbed the box of things and headed back down the stairs to the car. I saw Damien leaning against the car nonchalantly. "Hey I'm sorry about-" before he could finish, I cut him off. "No worries dude, I know you were just helping her. I'm just touchy with my mate, you understand." He looked pained at my words and I realized they may not have been the best choice, but he nodded anyway. I ran upstairs again to help Lyra. I took her suitcase in one hand and her hand in the other. I had to keep reminding myself mentally to slow down. She didn't walk nearly as fast as I did. Once we got to the car, I helped her in the passenger seat and I moved to the driver's side. Damien got in the back passenger side. I turned to both of them. "Ready to head home?" Lyra looked nervous and Damien still looked guilty. I would hate to admit it but I was also feeling nervous. Callie's words weren't sitting well with me. I felt like I might be walking into the lions' den.

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POV: Damien

I followed Lyra up to her room. She grabbed a box out of her closet and pushed it against my chest. The air in the room was heavy and awkward. "Just hold this while I gather my things." She said. I held the box and stood in the middle of the room. Like a tornado, she gathered up things, placing them gently in the box. She started with her vanity, grabbing her make-up, brush, curling iron, straighter, and a bunch of other girly things. I wasn't sure what they were. She stopped holding a picture in her hands and looking down. Suddenly she started crying and I panicked. If Aiden came up here and saw his mate crying on my watch, I was dead. "Hey hey what's wrong!" I looked over her shoulder to see it was a picture of her family, close, and smiling at the lake. "Look, I know going to a new place is gonna be hard but were really not that far. We are directly south of your pack." she looked at me with confusion. "That is not why I'm crying." my stomach flipped as we made eye contact. Her blue eyes clouded with sadness made me want to reach out to comfort her. I didn't dare. "I'm crying because my family doesn't love me anymore. All because the moon spirits thought it would be funny to give me a rabbit out of all animals. I mean prey animal really?" her voice broke and she began to sob.

I stood awkwardly and I reached out a hand to pat her back. I didn't know what to do or what to say. After all, this was all news to me. Did Aiden know this? Why didn't he warn me? "It's alright. I'm sure they still love you, they were just probably in shock, as I'm sure you were. They will come around. " I tried to reassure her but I honestly didn't know how. I started to move in tandem with her, helping her pack her things. Once the room was packed up in a box, I set it on her bed and we headed into her closet. She grabbed a suitcase and we began to put her clothes in it. Once we were nearly done, I felt her small hand touch the back of mine. "Hey," she said, her voice low. I looked up to meet her gaze and felt a lump in my throat. She really was beautiful and she was looking at me with so much longing. Was I seeing this right? I couldn't be she was my Luna, My alphas mate. I wanted to break eye contact but I was drawn in. "Thank you for what you said." she spoke softly and sweetly. I nodded and we sat in silence for a second, locking eyes. I couldn't bring myself to look away. The air was thick with tension.

All that tension was immediately cut by the waring growl from my Alpha. I didn't even have to look up to know it was him. I pushed myself away quickly. Bowing as I passed, I darted out of the room. I made my way down to the car where I leaned over and took a deep breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Why did I feel so guilty? What was all that? I would have to keep my distance from Lyra at all costs. There was something there between us and I quite liked my head attached to my shoulders and not ripped off and thrown across the room as Aiden would do if he thought I was innapropriate with his mate. I shuddered at the thought. No, I would just avoid her until their mate bond was solidified. I'm sure once she was officially mated all this weird tension would go away. I waited near the car for them to come down. I slid into the back seat. I stared out the window. There was a weird vibe in the car. We all seemed nervous. At least the ride there wouldn't be too long. Ajax was begging to go for a run to get out of the angst when we got back. I was looking forward to that.