He Will Be Mine (New Horizon Book 1)

Officially Over

Matt

It was difficult to get out of bed this morning. I woke up to Aly still holding me and Tyler curled up on my other side. It felt warm and safe, and much more inviting than where I know I need to go.

Unlike usual, I don’t want to put it off. Seeing Jessica with that other guy is an image I’ll never get out of my head. It feels like there’s a hot poker searing through my brain and my heart that maybe I can put to rest if I get some closure, or at the very least maybe I can relieve some of the burden I’ve been carrying around by finally ending things like I should have done weeks ago.

So, here I am creeping out of my room first thing Sunday morning, not caring if Jess will be hungover when I get there. I need to do this now. Besides, we have finals this week. I may not get another chance before everyone leaves.

I walk the two blocks to her place, not trusting myself to drive right now. I linger outside the door to her first-floor apartment for a moment, building up my courage and steeling my resolve. I think again of her hair dangling over the side of the bed as some other guy was all over her and know I’m doing the right thing. Who am I kidding, I knew it was the right thing even before that happened, but now I’m angry and hurt on top of it.

I knock and wait for someone to answer the door, but there’s no response. I didn’t want to have to do it this way since it feels wrong somehow, but I pull out my key and unlock the door to let myself in. It’s eerily quiet inside the apartment and I wonder for a moment if nobody came home last night, but then I find Jess in her bed. She seems to be the only one here. Good. That will make this easier.

I reach out and shake her shoulder to wake her.

“Get up. We need to talk,” I say in a voice I don’t even recognize. It’s harsh and raspy.

When she rolls over, I gasp and unconsciously step back. Her nose is swollen and bruised, and she has a black eye. There’s a crust of blood around her nostrils indicating that she was still bleeding when she went to bed. Well, she obviously had quite the night. For some reason, though I am a little curious what happened, I don’t care enough to even ask.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she insists, her voice a bit strange as well, then rolls back over like she’s done with this interaction.

“Fine, we don’t have to talk. You can just listen,” I concede, the rage boiling within me again, but I fight it back and keep my voice level as I tell her, “We’re done, Jessica. I’m done. I want my grandma’s ring back, and then I don’t ever want to see you again.”

“Don’t speak to me as if this is all my fault, Matthew,” she spits at me, whipping her body around to face me. “I’m not the one who demanded a break and then ignored his fiancée for a month. You can’t treat me like I mean nothing to you and then get mad when I do exactly what I said I would. I told you I wasn’t waiting around forever.”

“A month isn’t forever,” I begin to argue, and then realize it isn’t even worth it.

If there’s anything I’ve learned about Jessica, it’s that the worst thing you can do to her is stop paying attention to her. I’m sure she feels every bit of what she says she does and will never see reason. I could try to argue that it hasn’t even been a whole month, but what would be the point.

“You know what, nevermind,” I shift my train of thought. “I’m not going to argue any of it with you. If you were done, you should have told me. Now I’m telling you.”

I spot the soft green velvet ring box on her dresser and pick it up, flipping it open to see the ring inside. It’s there, and it’s really all I care about at this point. I start removing my key to her apartment from my key ring as she gets up and starts shrieking all kinds of insults and arguments at me, but I’m just not even interested in listening to her anymore. It’s obvious she doesn’t care about me and would only be trying to preserve our relationship for her own selfish reasons, so I just ignore her.

I place the key on her dresser where the ring was and then leave, making my way through her apartment, dodging the onslaught of verbal and physical attacks as if she doesn’t even exist. Once I reach the door, I open it and step into the hall, closing it in her face. She is, of course, not happy about that and tries to keep following me for a distance but seems to give up once I reach the door to outside. She’s not wearing enough clothes to come after me, and I say a silent thanks to the universe for that.

Once I’m outside, I feel this bizarre mix of grief and relief hit me like a ton of bricks. I make sure I’m far enough from her apartment that she won’t be able to see me before dropping to the ground and letting it all out. I don’t even care that the snow is soaking through my jeans, or that my ass is frozen as soon as it touches the ground.

After my meltdown is finally over, and I’ve cried so much that it feels like I’m out of tears, I make it back to my apartment to find that no one is there. I check my phone to find not only concerned texts from Aly from last night, but also a text from her to let me know that they went to breakfast and invite me to join. I appreciate her care and concern more than she could ever understand, but I’m not feeling very social this morning, or very hungry, so I politely decline.

The timing of this whole thing with Jess is horrible. I still have a paper to write today and was hoping to get in some studying for my exams tomorrow, but now my brain is stuck in grief mode and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to focus on any of it. I decide to pack up my bag anyway just in case I get over myself in time to get some work done at the library, but in the meantime, I’ll be at the nature park. If there’s any place that can restore my peace and sanity, it’s there.

-

-

Aly

When we get back from breakfast, Matt is still gone. My gut is telling me he’s at the nature park because that’s where he goes when he needs space or privacy. Part of me wants to give him that space and focus on finishing up my final papers, but mostly I can’t handle the idea of leaving him alone when he’s upset. He may think he wants space, but that’s because he doesn’t know I can help comfort him.

“Just go,” Tyler interrupts my thoughts.

I’m sitting on his bed supposed to be listening to him, but my head and my heart are with Matt right now. He needs me more, and Mari is restless with wanting for our mate.

“Go?” I ask, wondering if I heard him right and what he meant by it.

“Yeah. I have a feeling you know where Matt is and want to be with him, so go. He needs you.”

Not only has he read my mind, but he doesn’t seem upset about it. He’s been just as concerned about Matt as I have, same as Trevor and Meredith. Matt was pretty much all we talked about over breakfast.

“You’re amazing, Tyler,” I tell him for probably the hundredth time. I crawl over him and give him a kiss, then hurriedly collect my things and head out to find Matt.

“I know!” he calls after me.

I toss my overnight bag in the backseat next to the backpack I brought “just in case” I had time to tend to my schoolwork, but I never touched it. I’ve always been the sort of student who treats homework as more of an afterthought, low on the list of priorities. My grades have never really suffered from it, so I have no motivation to change my habits anytime soon. At least with it in the car, it remains an option wherever I go.

Matt’s van is parked in the lot at the nature park, as I expected. I pull in next to where he is parked and notice that he isn’t in there. He must be out walking around already. I get out and take a good sniff to catch his scent, Mari chiding me about how she would be better at this. True, but terrifying him with a big black wolf doesn’t seem like the best way to soothe him.

I follow his scent across the open areas of snow-covered grass, not bothering to stick to the paths. A little snow doesn’t bother me, not when it’s the quickest way to my mate. I find him near where he once followed me and stole my clothes when I came here to let Mari out. He’s leaning up against one of the trees staring off into the distance. I can’t be certain whether he has noticed that I’m approaching him, at least not until he reaches out for me when I get close enough.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he tells me, pulling me close and burying his face in my hair to inhale my scent. I hope that it calms him, but I don’t actually know how it works for humans, if my scent is any different to him than anyone else’s.

“I was worried about you,” I admit, squeezing him closer.

After a few moments of soaking each other in, he pulls his face back to look at me.

“I’m okay,” he assures me. “Just distracted and feeling kind of all over the place. I was hoping it would get better after I went to see Jess and officially broke it off, but it really hasn’t. It feels more final, though, so I guess there’s that.”

“So that’s officially over then. Good. She proved she doesn’t deserve you.”

“Yeah, I know. I was already leaning that way, but last night was a hell of a wake-up call. There’s no more lying to myself after seeing that.”

“Yikes, I’m so sorry you had to see it. I was hoping that maybe you had just heard of it or something.”

He purses his lips together. “Nope.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, Meredith apparently punched her in the nose and told her off,” I inform him as I give him another reassuring squeeze.

He actually chuckles at that, which is a relief to hear.

“So, that’s how that happened. I had wondered, but also didn’t care, so I never asked. I just told her we’re done and left.”

“I’m proud of you. I know that must have been hard.”

“Yeah, but in hindsight, she actually made it easier. She made the decision for me, and it was very clear-cut at that point. She wants to blame me, of course, but I know better. Your mom and I talked about something like this, and she helped me see that it’s okay for me to have needs and ask for what I need. I don’t feel bad about that.”

“Good. You shouldn’t. I thought what you’ve been doing with the break and taking a moment to think things through was incredibly mature of you. She’s the selfish jerk here, not you.”

“I know. But it does feel good to hear you say it.” He smiles down at me, the strained sort of smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. It’s a start, though. “Thank you so much, Aly, for always supporting me. Even when you were calling me out on the dumb stuff I was doing and thinking, I know it came from a place of caring for me. So, thank you.”

We pull away from each other and he takes my hand. Then we leave the trees behind and stroll aimlessly through the park just talking and enjoying being together. In time, he has fully transformed from grim and miserable to seeming livelier and even smiling real smiles occasionally. Eventually I start to worry about how long he has been out in the cold and suggest that we head back to our vehicles.

“I kind of don’t want to leave here and go back to reality,” he says once we’ve made it back to his van. I had attempted to pull my hand away and give him one last goodbye hug, but he won’t let my hand go.

“I know. Me either, but time is ticking. I don’t know about you, but I have some last-minute homework I should probably get around to.”

“Same here,” he admits with a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. We should go.”

We don’t though. We stand there together for a few moments, not saying or doing anything, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

“What are your plans over break?” I ask finally, probing for whether he would be interested in a visit. I’m told finals week is pretty busy and I expect we won’t see each other much before we leave, so now is probably my last chance.

“Just heading home to my family. My grandparents will be visiting at some point around the holidays, too.”

“Sounds nice.” I’m chickening out, not wanting to invite myself over and impose on any of his special family time.

“What are you and Tyler doing? Is he going out to your place again?”

“Yeah, at some point he wants to come out, but I’m not sure when. I was thinking of going to visit him at his mom’s, though it’s all up in the air. I haven’t even asked.”

“Would you be interested in coming to visit me?” he asks timidly, then hurriedly adds, “Tyler can come too. He’s been there before, last summer around when we went camping. And Trevor and Meredith live right by me, so we can all get together.”

“That sounds great, actually. I’d love that. Thanks. Just text me the details when you work it out with your family.”

“Yeah, sure. I, uh …” he pauses, awkwardly attempting to scratch his neck like he usually does, except his coat is in the way. Too cute. He’s been a lot more comfortable around me lately, so I don't see him do that as much.

“I’m sort of wondering if I could come visit you, too,” he finally forces out, looking at the ground instead of at me.

I feel bad not offering it to him in the first place, but I don’t even know if he would be allowed since I haven’t told him my secret yet.

“Yeah, uh, I’ll have to check with my parents before I can promise that,” I answer, feeling guilty when the look of hurt crosses his face. I know he worries that I like Tyler more than him, and I suppose this isn’t helping with that.

“Yeah, okay,” he says, recovering his smile. “Just let me know. I’ll see you, Aly.” He finally drops my hand and starts opening the door to his van.

“Matt, wait,” I say as I grab his arm to stop him from leaving just yet.

I don’t want to leave it like that, with him feeling disappointed that I don’t like him enough to have him over. I intend to come clean right then and there, but then I second-guess myself because he has already been through so much this weekend and we need to focus on finals now.

“I want you to come. I swear I do. I just have to convince my dad to let you, and I promise I will do everything in my power to get him to say yes.”

I’m not sure how we’ll make it work, a clueless human in the midst of a pack of werewolves, but right now I don’t care.

“I thought I was the guy your dad approves of? If he let Tyler come, there’s no way he’d say no to me, right?”

He does have a point. I can’t argue with that.

“Good point. He really did not like Tyler,” I laugh as I remember how stoic and grumpy my dad was when he first came. “I’ll be sure to play that angle. I really will let you know what he says, and I do want to come visit you.”

“I look forward to it,” he tells me with a smile, then leans down for another hug and kisses my cheek.

Quite honestly, me too, and not just because it means I’ll get to see him. I’m curious about these parents he always talks about being so in love that they have inspired him to seek out a forever relationship of his own. I want to see where he lives and meet the rest of his extended family and have him show me the place he grew up. I also want to bring him home and see how he reacts to the way I live. Maybe that will help me work up the nerve to tell him the truth and figure out once and for all whether he is the one for me.