Linked By Fate

Chapter 9

"Why won't you talk to me?" Riley asked.

"I don't really have anything to say to you?" I shrugged.

"How are we going to settle things if you won't speak to me? I played your words over and over in my head, but I don't get where any of that came from. Well, except for the bit about me choosing Julie's feelings over yours. I may have been wrong about that, but for the rest of what you said, I am clueless." He looks at me, waiting for me to say something. "So this is how it's going to be? You're going to ignore me after accusing me of using you as a replacement for Julie? You think that low of me?"

Okay, he had me there. I did not think that, but I was in an emotional state at the time. I felt like he was abandoning me for her, so I lashed out. "Look, if there's anything I am sorry for, it was to say that. However, I still feel that you're not sure of how you really feel about me. You went from being her boyfriend to my mate without even a grace period. Just jumped right in with both feet. Is it not uncomfortable for you?"

"Why would it be uncomfortable? Fate's choice for my mate was you, my best friend, a girl I've known since first grade. They don't make mistakes, so I was more than happy to jump right in. Do you regret it? Is that what's going on?" Riley questioned me.

Before I could block my feelings from filtering through our mate-bond, he felt them. "WTF? Really?"

"What do you want me to say, Riley? You want the truth, fine. Yes, I regret it and I'll tell you why. Before the Fates destined us to be together, I was your best friend and that was all I was. You never saw me as anything more. Even before you started your relationship with Julie, you were messing around with whomever would give you a chance. All I could do was sit in the background and watch you give yourself to every chick that opened her legs for you." He flinched at my words.

"Hey, don't blame me because no one was asking you out or that you were known as being the ice princess who wouldn't give a guy the time of day?" The moment the words left his mouth, my eyes welled up and my heart ached like he had slapped me. "Sweetheart, I'm...." I stop him with the raising of my hands.

"So that's what was said. Yeah, it's true, I never gave a guy the time of day, because they weren't the guy I wanted, they weren't you. The one my heart cried out for, always ached for, was you, my best friend. Knowing you'd never see me that way, I pushed the feelings deep down inside until they became a distant memory. Having you in my life as my best friend was better than not having you in my life at all. If I had confessed to you and you'd rejected me, it would have broken me, so I made the hard decision to keep quiet. Julie knew how I felt, though. Call it a girl's intuition, but she could see my true feelings for you even when you couldn't. That's why she hates me being around you. What she did not understand was that the feelings weren't mutual. You did not want me until fate stepped in, making us fated mates." I turned away from him as the tears continued to fall from my eyes.

"Don't do that," he yelled as he hugged me from behind. "Don't block me off like that. I hate that feeling. It's like part of me is missing."

Shaking from the pain and anguish I felt, I sobbed openly. "It hurts so bad to hear you say that. I don't know if it's your true feelings for me or if it's due to the mate-bond. It's hard not to know what's real and what isn't. I can only say how I feel."

"If that is the case, how can I know if your feelings for me are real? How will I know?" Riley pointed out.

Pulling away from him, I walked over to the closet that was in the living room to retrieve a box I had placed there when my parents were still alive. Inside were my old journals and lover letters that I had never given to him. I added my last journal when we were here during the summer. Turning, I handed the box to him. "Any and everything you want to know is in this box. Once you're done with it, you may do with the contents as you wish." Heading upstairs, I gathered up my things, calling Xander to pick me up.

While Riley was so engrossed with the contents of the box, I snuck out the backdoor to make the two-mile walk to the end of the driveway where Xander and Alex were parked. Alex jumped out the passenger's side to grab a bag out of the back seat. "I'm gonna stay here with Ri so that you can go home without him coming after you. Xander is going to crash at your place until we come back tomorrow night. Use the time to talk to him, release the pain you've been holding on to. He always said that you were in love with Riley,though you tried to hide it. I never noticed until school started back this year that I finally saw it for myself. You're mates, bound together for the rest of your lives, so you can't hide from him forever. Take this time to get yourself together and think about how you're going to move forward."

Hugging me, he whispered, "You're not alone, Cooper. You haven't been, not for a long time. We have your back."

Wrapping my tail around my leg, I slid into the passenger's seat. "Thanks for coming, Xander. It just hurts too much to stay here." As we back up to leave, I hear Riley calling my name. Looking up, I saw him running down the driveway, but Alex rushed to meet him, stopping his movement. "Get me out of here please." I cried out as a sharp pain slammed into me out of nowhere. The further away we drove, the more painful it got, until I blacked out.

Warmth surrounds me as I wake from my slumber. The pain had been so bad that I'd done nothing but shower, eat a little fruit, and stayed in bed. So the last thing I remembered was reading a text from Alex that ensured me that Riley was doing the best he could do. If I was in pain, then he was in pain. But right now, there is no pain from the mate-bond. Inhaling deeply, Riley's sugary scent fills my nostrils. He's home and I am wrapped in his arms. Snuggling closer, I let myself bask in the warmth that I've always associated with Riley.

The change in his breathing let me know that he was awake. It's been eating at me to apologize. We have school in a few hours, so we are around each other all day, partners in all our classes, so things can't go on this way. However, I can't get the words to come out of my mouth. Tears began to roll down my face. Trying to move away so I didn't wake him up, I found myself engulfed in his embrace. Lost to the sorrow, I cried out my anguish and all the hurt I felt that I caused to my best friend, my mate.

He doesn't speak, he just lets all his feelings filter through our mate-bond. All the love, hurt, pain, sadness, and joy, he shared it all with me. So in return, I shared my own, letting him know that I was sorry for hurting him, but that he still meant the world to me.

Lifting my face to his, he stared into my eyes. I see that he is crying as well. We are both vulernable to what is happening between us. Our feelings are so raw, so unguarded, that it's overpowering. "Kiss me" I whispered, and he did in a slow, gentle motion. The kiss was filled with all that he could not express verbally. Following his lead, I let my feelings go and embraced the moment for what it was, loving my mate.

Everywhere our bodies touched, it felt like little sparks of fire spreading across my skin. I was heating up in a good way. My heat cycle has not gone its full course. Desire floods our mate-bond as his lips graze the skin of my neck. "I want you, Cooper. I need you so badly. Please, please let me love you , make love to you."

Licking my neck, then rebiting the claim bite he had already put on me, something snappped inside of me, like all of our emotions clicked together to become one.

"Do you feel it, Cooper, my love for you? All that I feel for you? You mean so much to me and there is no life for me without you. We are going to have problems like any couple does, but don't run from me, from what we have. It hurt so much without you next to me. There are a lot of things that we need to talk about and we will. But right now, I need to be inside of you, claiming what is and what has always been mine." Riley whispered in my ear as if he was scared someone would hear him. "Can I love you Cooper? Will you let me love you?"

Rubbing my body against his to ease the tingling sensation that had erupted throughout my entire body so that I could even feel it on my scalp, I begged him like I had never begged for anything from anyone. "Riley, please love me. Love me forever, never let go."

Clothes were thrown on the floor or across the room somewhere as Riley proceeded to love me in ways that I had only ever read about in books. Our mate-bond multiplied so much that I could not tell where he ended and I began. Finally, a true connection has formed. All we had to do was make ourselves vulnerable to each other fully.

"I love you, sweetheart. I love you." Riley moaned as he made love to me.

"Oh, baby, I love you, too. So much, Riley. I love you so much." I cried out as he took to the heights beyond the heavens.