Summa Alpha Prophecy

Chapter Four

RAYLEE POV

I get back to the house and my mind is racing. As I walk in the door, Maz immediately asks me what’s wrong. “Huh…oh hey Maz nar, it's nothing.” I say whilst heading over to the kitchen to help her.

“Sure doesn’t look like nothing. Did the guys do or say something?” she probes. I decided I might as well tell her. Maybe she can tell me I was just getting carried away.

“Well, when Jada and I were walking back, we came round the corner of the barn and I walked straight into Corey…again, and he caught me…again, but he didn’t release me straight away like last time, this time he said and I quote “Are you always this clumsy or do you intentionally do it so I can catch you?” and I said nothing, I just pulled away from him and walked off, I’m just so confused, was he joking or was he serious?” By this time I’m rambling and Maz is smiling.

“Told you, girl, that guy likes you.” My brain was spiralling out of control and I needed to take a few minutes to myself, so I asked Maz to keep an ear out for Jada whilst I grabbed a shower.

I stood in the shower for quite some time trying desperately to sort out what was going on in my head, but nothing became any clearer. I decided I needed to talk to Corey after dinner and just set things straight in my head. With this plan in mind, I pull myself together, throw some clothes on and head out to help Maz dish up dinner.

I immediately spotted Corey and Tate sitting at the dining table, both looking at their phones. I sneaked past and into the kitchen.

“You good?” Maz asks with concern on her face.

“Yeah, I’m good, I’m gonna have a little chat with him after dinner if you wouldn’t mind watching Jada again, please?”

“Yeah, sure thing darl, now help me dish this food up so we can get this show on the road.” she says with a wink.

Dinner goes fine, although slightly awkward between Corey and me, but we all make small talk, and it goes off without a hitch. They stood to leave, and I grabbed Corey’s elbow. “Do you have a few minutes to chat?” I asked nervously, not making eye contact.

“Um yeah sure, Tate, you go on ahead.” we waited for him to leave, and I led him out onto the porch. I sit in one of the wicker chairs out the front and stare at the floor.

Corey sits in the chair opposite me and before I could say anything he said “Look Ray, I’m sorry if I said anything to upset you earlier, I was just messing around, I’m really sorry.” I sighed before answering.

“Listen, I don’t know what this thing is that’s going on between us and I just need to get things straight in my head…What, if anything, do you want from me?” I finally make eye contact with him and all I see is confusion.

“What do you mean, what do I want from you?” he asks quietly.

“Well, I mean we only met today and, yes, I’ll admit I think you're gorgeous and I feel some kind of connection, but I don’t understand it and I don’t think I’m ready for it. I’ve just come out of a twelve-year marriage. My ex-husband was always unstable and I felt like I was always walking on eggshells if I upset him or if he had another episode. You see he has a mental illness and it severely affected our marriage as much as he denied it. I am broken…and I don’t know if I’ll ever heal…I can’t believe I told you all that and I don’t even know what you want from me” I sighed heavily after my ramble. I looked down at my hands. unable to look at him.

He is quiet for what seems like hours. He finally cleared his throat.

“Look Ray, I’ll admit I do like you and I know we only met today, but I too, feel a connection. I’m sorry about your marriage and I don’t want to add to your confusion. How about we just start as friends and see what happens?” he reaches forward and grabs my hands in my lap, his hands are warm and funnily enough, I don’t feel awkward about that.

“OK, friends…that definitely takes the pressure off.” I said, looking into his eyes. He squeezes my hand and smiles at me, but I notice it doesn’t quite reach his eye. He stands and goes to leave.

“Do you have to go right now? I mean, can we get to know each other a bit?” I asked him. He stops and turns hesitantly.

“Um yeah sure if that’s what you want…” he turns fully around “I’d like that.” he adds, strolling towards me and retaking the seat opposite.

COREY POV

My heart nearly broke when she pulled away from my hold and walked away without saying anything. “Mate doesn’t want us, why doesn’t mate want us?”

My wolf whines in my head, he’s an incredibly strong Alpha wolf... But just like me, he is heartbroken by her actions.

“I don’t know Conri, I wish I did.” He just huffs and retreats to the back of my mind.

I finish off my work and go to find Tate before we head to the ranch house for dinner. I’m kind of dreading going given Raylee’s earlier actions, but I drag myself there nonetheless.

I was sitting in the dining room when I heard her come down the hall, not sure what to do, I ignored her and stared at my phone. She thinks she is sneaking past us, but of course, being werewolves, both Tate and I know she is there.

“What’s that about? I thought you two were getting along great.” Tate whispered. I fill him in on our interaction and he too has no idea. “sorry man that had to hurt having your mate just walk away like that…”

“You have no idea man, now my wolf is moping and I’m left not knowing what to do” He just nods and goes back to his phone as Maz and Raylee enter the room.

Dinner is fine, if not a little awkward, but Raylee seems to be OK. This just makes me even more confused, but I don’t let it show. Once dinner is done, Tate and I both stand to leave when Raylee grasps my elbow and quietly asks if we can chat.

After Tate heads to the bunkhouse, I follow her outside, she leads me to a small wicker table and chairs and she takes a seat. She stares at the ground. I sat in the other seat and proceeded to apologise for what happened earlier, still unsure what I had done wrong.

She tells me she thinks I’m gorgeous, which has my wolf suddenly all puffed up and then she asks me what I want from her. Now I’m even more confused, it must have shown in my eyes as she launches into an explanation about her marriage and how she is broken.

This hurts me to hear and Conri is somewhere between enraged at how she was treated and having had a husband, to being sad that she thinks she’s broken.

“Just tell mate about us, tell her we love her and will never hurt her. Mate isn’t broken, she just doesn’t have us.” I have no idea why wolves see things so black and white, but I certainly have no intention of dropping the werewolf bomb just yet.

I tell her I like her, that I’m sorry about what she has been through and that we can just be friends. Then I take her hands, sparks shoot right up my arm and thankfully she doesn’t pull away.

She agrees to be friends. Thinking that was the end of our discussion, I stood and began to walk away, but she asked me if I had to go. She wanted to get to know each other. My heart leapt in excitement like I was gonna turn down the opportunity to spend time getting to know my mate, even if it’s not in the way werewolves usually get to know their mates…on a more intimate level.

I sat back down in the chair and after a few quiet moments, I decided she must want me to talk.

“So I’m guessing by your accent you're Australian?” I figured starting with the easy stuff might help loosen her up so we could get to more personal questions. She smiled.

“Yes, that’s right, born and bred! This is the first time in my forty-three years that I’ve left Australia.” She grins excitedly. Wow, my mate is older than me by thirteen years. Not that it bothers me particularly, but I'm still a little shocked. “Where were you born?” she asks me.

hmmm, I guess we have started with the personal stuff already, but then she doesn’t know about my life, so here goes nothing.

“Actually, I have no idea where I was born…” she looks at me confused.

“How could you not know where you were born? Didn’t your parents tell you? Isn’t it written on your birth certificate?” This girl sure does talk fast.

“Woah slow down, OK, so here’s the thing…I was raised in an orphanage. Apparently, I was just found on their doorstep at a few weeks old with just a blanket and an envelope with my name on it along with a note saying I was to open the envelope at sixteen. I didn’t even know my birthday until I opened the envelope…” Now Ray looks like she’s gonna cry, ugh I gotta lighten the mood. “It’s May 21st, in case you’re wondering.” I smirked at her.

That seemed to do the trick. She suddenly got excited. “No way…me too!” Huh, so we share a birthday. “But I bet I’m like twice your age…how old are you?” she asked.

Well, here goes nothing. “Um, well I just turned thirty last birthday.” She stares at me not saying anything for a while, she then scrunches up her face.

“That makes me thirteen years older than you.” She sighs and checks her phone for the time. “Anyway, I should go get Jada settled down and ready for bed. It was nice getting to know a little about you and maybe we can chat again sometime.”

I suddenly feel like she’s shutting me out again. Obviously, my age threw her, but I decided to just let her go.

“Yeah OK, well I guess I’ll see you at breakfast. Goodnight Raylee.” I said and once more got up to leave.

She didn’t stop me this time, but as she opens the door she yells over her shoulder “Goodnight, Corey.”

Heading down to the bunkhouse, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat defeated. I thought we were making some progress and then she just shuts me down again.

Yeah, the age gap shocked me at first, but mostly because I didn’t think she was that old. She does not look her age. I get to the bunkhouse and find Tate sitting on the couch, apparently waiting for me.

“So how’d it go?” he asks.

“Well, after we sorted everything from earlier, which turned out she likes me but has just come out of a long crappy marriage and doesn’t have the capacity for anything more than friends, she asked me to stay so we could get to know each other a bit. We asked each other a few questions and when she found out my age, she shut me out again. I mean she’s only thirteen years older…” I’m pacing around the room at this stage as I’m feeling edgy.

“Geez I’m sorry man, you seem like a great guy and you deserve to be happy. I hope for your sake she can get past it all and accept you as her mate.” He says genuinely. I plonked on the chair across from him and realised he had a small bag next to him. I c**k my brow.

“Going somewhere?” He looked at the bag and back at me a little sheepishly.

“Um. Actually, I was gonna sneak back to the pack to see my mate. We found out just before I took this assignment that we are expecting our first pup and I’m really missing her…sorry man, I feel like I’m rubbing salt in the wound.”

“Nar it's fine, go! Just be back by work time so I don’t have to think up some excuse.”

After Tate leaves, I take a shower to try and relax my tension. It helps a little, but I know I’m going to struggle to get to sleep tonight. I grabbed my phone and headed to my bunk; I lay down and put some music on…after a few restless hours, I must have drifted off.