Lessons in Love

Chapter 20: Private Conversation

POV: Beta Ben Westlake

Riley and I had texted a bit later in the evening. It was mostly us trying to get to know the other. We knew we would have the real conversation in person. Despite the late night, I was up at 5 a.m., wide awake, and ready to start my day. I stood in my bathroom, staring at the faded bruise on my jaw. It was healing normally, but I saw the yellowish tinge on my skin where my father had hit me. Riley was too observant, I thought. She was going to notice it. Maybe it was better that she did. It would create a natural opening for me to explain why we needed to hide our matehood.

I puttered around the suite for as long as I could. I made breakfast, changed my shirt three times, and did nervous laps of pacing around my living room, trying to figure out how to tell Riley that I was afraid all the time. I looked at my watch. I still had 45 minutes before I was supposed to meet her, but I couldn’t stay home a minute longer. I decided to go for a walk, maybe clear my head.

The morning air was crisp, and a low fog clung to the fields. I breathed in the smell of ripe apples and smiled to myself as I made my way past the small strip of shops on the main street. I looked in the windows and wondered what kinds of things would catch Riley’s eye. I tried not to look too hard at the pub. I’d have to go in there and pay my father’s exorbitant debt later. The greenhouse lights flickered on, and Hannah popped her head out to say good morning and let me know my plants would be delivered this afternoon.

I wove my way through one of the orchards and circled back around to the street my parents lived on. Mom had spoken highly of Riley at dinner the night before. I liked that mom liked her so much. Mom had gone so far as to tell me I’d been given the perfect gift from the Goddess. I had smiled at that when she’d said it. I smiled still as I reached my mother’s front door. But she had disagreed with me about hiding our matehood.

“You are a much more appealing choice for Alpha of this pack than your father or Marcus. Riley will make you stronger than you already are, and she is already endearing herself to the community. You saw her at Rusty’s today.” My mother had said over dinner. “I think it will make it hard for anyone here to deny you the role. Marcus will see that, too. I bet he’d end your father’s reign immediately if he knew you had a mate as confident and strong as Riley.”

“And,” she had continued. “A mating after the war is just what this pack needs. New blood, renewed hope, the timing is impeccable if you ask me.”

It didn’t feel impeccable to me. It felt wrong, dangerous. I caught the scent of my mother’s hydrangeas and remembered Riley had said how much she liked them. I stopped and snapped a stem off that had a full ball of the little white flowers and continued on toward the schools. It didn’t take long for me to reach them. I still had 15 minutes before Riley was supposed to meet me. I sat on the steps, trying to organize my thoughts.

I had no more settled on the step when I got Riley’s scent on the breeze. I looked up to find her walking toward the school, ringing her hands, and mumbling to herself. She was as nervous as I was, I thought, taking a bit of comfort in that. She must have caught my scent because her head snapped up, and she came to a startled halt. She moved slowly toward me. Even though she’d locked her emotions down, I saw her shoulders were tense, and her back was a little straighter. She was worried about what we had to say to each other.

“Hi,” she said softly as she reached the front of the school. “Can we talk inside? We need somewhere private.” She was having trouble making eye contact with me, and that made me more nervous than I already was.

“How private? The bunker is soundproof.” I suggested. She nodded and waited for me to go inside. She stayed about ten steps behind me as we went through the gym and down into the bunker. I turned the lights on as she came down and immediately started pacing.

“Are you okay?” I asked. She nodded but continued to pace. I tried to wait patiently for her to say what was on her mind but wasn’t able to handle the silence. I stepped forward with my hand outstretched to her.

“Don’t touch me!” She barked, her eyes wide and fearful.

I froze. I wasn’t even breathing. My mind was racing with all the reasons she had to be afraid of me. Even though my mouth was getting dry and there seemed to be no air in the room, I blurted out the first thing I felt she needed to be reassured on. “I won’t hurt you.” I whispered.

Riley looked at me a little confused. “I know that.” She said, like I’d stated the obvious. Her cheeks flushed suddenly. “Is that for me?” She asked, pointing to the flower in my hand. I’d all but forgot I was holding it.

“Yes,” I held it out mechanically. Riley moved toward me and took the flower from my hand. She twirled the stem, sending the ball of flowers rushing underneath her nose. She moved to one of the benches and sat down.

“I’m sorry,” she said, with a smile. “I’ve been practicing this for an hour, and it’s still all jumbled up in my head. I didn’t mean to startle you. I just think we need to have this conversation before we decide to do anything else with our matehood.” She said.

I grabbed a chair and put it about ten feet in front of her and sat down. “I agree.” I said with an awkward smile. I saw her eyes narrow on my jaw before she snapped her gaze to meet mine.

“I’m fine,” I rubbed the bruise absently. “It’ll be fully healed in an hour or two.”

“Who hit you?” She asked, gritting her teeth.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I’d lied about every bruise I’d had since I was eight. I opened my mouth, “Riley, it …”

“It was your father, wasn’t it?” She growled.

“We should focus on us.” I said calmly, looking down at my feet. I wasn’t ready to go there. I heard her take a slow, deep breath.

“Okay, but Ben,” she paused, waiting for me to make eye contact, which I reluctantly did. “I’ll move on from this, but you need to tell me what happened.” She said. I gave her a sheepish smile and nodded. “Well, I want to know if you found it odd at all how we found each other.” She said.

“A little,” I shrugged. “I didn’t think it could happen like that, off a letter or any object for that matter.”

“Right, and then without meeting, we started to feel each other’s emotions.” She added.

“Right,” I didn’t know exactly where she was going with this.

“That’s just it. It isn’t right.” She rubbed her forehead and squared her shoulders. “Ben, I think we’ve been cursed.”

POV: Riley Campbell

He stared at me for a moment and then started to laugh. “A curse?” He laughed more. I sat stiffly waiting for him to realize it wasn’t a joke. I dropped the guard around my emotions and let him feel what I felt. He immediately stopped laughing.

“Whoa, hey, wait,” his tone became soft and concerned. “You’re really scared about this.”

“I’m sorry,” I felt a lump in my throat and wanted to pull the walls back up around my feelings, but it was too late. I was feeling them, and there was no going back. I knew he felt it too as he gripped his knees, trying to keep himself in that chair. Worse than my own feelings were his. He was so afraid and angry.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“No,” I admitted. “But the alternative is a power bond. It’s way more likely that we’ve been cursed. Power bonds are incredibly rare.” I told him everything I’d found so far. The more I talked, the angrier I felt him getting. “I don’t know who cursed us, but it occurred to me that it might have been my mother. She knows a couple of witches, and she kept telling my father that this posting would be good for me to find a mate. I have my sister looking for the gemstone at home.”

“Gemstone?” He questioned.

“Curses are always attached to a stone. It glows when the curse is coming to fruition. That’s what a friend of mine told me. She said the curse can be broken, but she’d need to come here and take a look at our auras to determine if we really are mates or not.”

Ben was silent as he stood up. He started pacing the room, mulling over all the information I’d given him. “So, best case scenario, we’re expected to solve some divine injustice and the worst case,” he swallowed like the next part was stuck in his throat. “We’re not mates and will die if we try to reject each other.”

I sighed and nodded. “That’s how I understood it.” I felt so guilty. He had seemed so sure of us, even if he had been nervous about being mated. He was so angry it was hard to stomach as he paced back and forth.

“This is not your fault.” He growled. “I feel your guilt, and I promise you, you have nothing to feel guilty about.” He gripped the back of the chair and dropped his head forward on his shoulders, growling the entire time. “He did this.”