Chapter 2
1219 Words
"Ahem."
The elder clears his throat, and they turn their attention back to him.
"Shall we continue?" Ruby's heart drops, and her face breaks into a sweat.
She expects Logan to say something to everyone about yesterday, but the only words she hears are ones telling her to pick up the ring.
"Oh," she mutters and places it on Ryder's finger.
Ryder takes the other one and puts it on hers, then everyone cheers.
That instant, Ruby feels their mate bond and becomes extremely guilty.
Not only has she cheated on her mate, but the other person is his brother.
A kiss on her forehead by Ryder brings her out of her thoughts, and she smiles awkwardly, then steps down with him, smiling at everyone.
Ryder's smile is sure charming, just like his brother's, but she feels nothing at the moment.
She thinks she is supposed to feel attracted to her mate and love him, but she doesn't feel anything like that.
Maybe because she is too nervous about her deed.
"So happy to have you as my brother-in-law," Pete says, holding a glass of wine for Ruby.
She takes it and drinks the whole drink in a hurry, stunning them.
"I guess she is too excited to get married," Pete chuckles and stares at Ruby. Ruby nods in agreement with him and grabs another one nervously.
"Where did you run off to last night?" Ryder says to Logan, who has just joined them, and Ruby swallows down a lump.
"Did you go to the bar again?" he wants to know, but Logan won't say anything, and his eyes flicker past her.
Ruby wonders for a second if he doesn't remember her or if he is just pretending and plans to tell his brother later.
"I will take off now to meet with my friends since there isn't much to do here," he finally lets out a word and goes away before Ryder can stop him.
"I had no idea you have a brother; how old is he? He should be getting married soon," Ruby asks anxiously, and Pete casts a skeptical gaze at her.
"Sister, Logan is younger than me," Pete tells her, and her heart suffers another hit.
"Really? But he looks much older," she says, grinding her teeth.
"He is almost eighteen; his birthday is in a week," Ryder answers. Ruby hears the sound of thunder in her head and gasps with her mouth open.
He is underage!
"What is wrong, sister? You look like you've just seen a ghost," Pete asks, concerned, and Ryder also fixes his gaze on her.
"It's nothing, nothing. I'm just a little tired," she dismisses their concern.
"I will like to rest early," she tells them, and Ryder calls George to take her to the room where she will be staying while he continues to attend to the guests.
Ruby pulls off her clothes in the room and quickly lies in bed, thinking about her action and can't believe she slept with a high school teenager.
Who is also her brother-in-law.
What a disaster! She exclaims, rolling on the bed countless times and thinks of what to do about her situation.
She can't just reveal the truth to Ryder when they haven't known each other well, and she has heard about his temper.
He wouldn't let it go easily if he finds out, and it might affect the mission between them.
Revealing the truth is not an option then. Even her brother wouldn't side with her on this.
Ruby concludes and closes her eyes as her head starts to ache, but a painful groan from a distance disturbs her, and she gets up to check.
"Logan?" She mouths, surprised to see him in the house and watches him transform quickly to his human form. Ruby tries to fathom her head around the appearance of his wolf that she saw and stands holding the door.
"What are you doing here?" he attacks, in an upset tone.
"Your wolf is powerful," she says, getting over the shock, but Logan rolls his eyes.
"None of your business, leave," he answers coldly again, and Ruby wonders if he is not the same person from last night.
"Sorry," she apologizes and turns to leave, but pauses.
"Ahem... about what happened at the bar..." she starts and trails off. If anything, she needs to let him know that she is not always like that, and she did that with him because she wasn't aware of his age and identity as Ryder's younger brother.
"What bar?" Logan replies, and stands up.
"Huh?" "Are you dreaming?" he says again and picks a ball from his desk.
"We met last night," she voices, but he stares at her with a confused and clueless gaze.
"He doesn't remember her?" Ruby wonders and scratches her hair. "Move out of my way if you have nothing to say," Logan tells her and pulls the door open.
"Leave my room without touching a thing," he adds before disappearing in front of her, and Ruby heaves after he left, perplexed.
There is no way he doesn't have the memories from last night. The face, voice, and name are the same, and his touch is visible on her body.
Ruby wonders if he does stuff like that so often that he doesn't bother to remember who the ladies are, but...
His scent is still on the clothes she took off this morning.
"Ruby, get out first," she says to herself and shuts his door closely, then returns to her own room.
"Is he pretending not to remember everything?" Ruby thinks as she falls onto the bed once more and exhales loudly.
Annoyed by how indifferent he treated her, Ruby feels like an i***t and drifts to sleep while thinking of what to do.
The gentle tap on her shoulder wakes her up a few hours later in the night, and she grumbles with complaints.
"Ruby," Ryder calls again, and she slowly opens her eyes.
"What are you doing here?" she mutters, and Ryder chuckles silently.
"This is my room," he whispers back.
"Huh? Did I go into the wrong room earlier?" she questions, her eyes getting clearer.
"No, you didn't. This will be our room from now on," he reveals, and Ruby jumps up on the bed.
"What? Why?" The words pop out of her mouth faster than a second.
"We are a couple. It's only right for us to sleep together," he tells her, but Ruby gives a different interpretation to his words.
"But...I don't want to sleep with you," she blurts.
"I don't mean it that way. I just think that staying together like this is going to help us get close faster," he explains.
Ruby sighs, wishing he had asked her about it before making the decision, but she knows that he is right.
Since they will be spending the rest of their lives bonded together, she should adjust to him faster.
"I will sleep on the floor until you are comfortable," Ryder says, with a wry smile, and gets another blanket for himself.
"Gooodnight," he says, as he closes his eyes to sleep, and Ruby feels sorry, but she definitely can't sleep with the elder brother after doing the same with his younger brother.
"Goodnight," she replies and falls asleep again.
- Writer
