Talons

Chapter 64: The Cheated

Rhea's POV

After my brother confessed that he has been under a lot of pressure, I folded and forgave him. He took me back to the pack territory that night, and I got to stay in the Packhouse with Ducky and Emma.

Mike called me several times while I was gone, but he insisted that we only talk on camera. In one of our calls, I showed him the strawberries being harvested, and he begged me to bring him some, which I gladly agreed to.

I’m now carrying two giant bags filled with freshly picked strawberries because there is no way I will bring Mike fruit from the farm, and not bring some for Brent and Brice. I also packed some to take to his mother, who has been asking me to move in with her after I graduate, which doesn’t sound too bad.

"Where’s Mike?" I ask, putting the bags down on a desk in the study hall.

"He will be here soon," Brent says, while Brice investigates what I have in my bags. The bruising on my face is still visible, but Jamie is back, and she helped me hide it.

When Mike comes into the room, he looks haggard and there is an ice pack bandaged around his shoulder. 

"Bro you reek, have you been drinking?" Brent is the one speaking, and I stare at Mike, wanting him to make eye contact with me, and when he does my heart sinks for him.

"What happened?" I ask, trying my best not to panic. Mike is a quarterback; if his arm is injured his career may be ruined. 

"Derrick got a little too aggressive on the field," Brent says, and I can sense a bit of anger in his tone. I know that Derrick is an omega. He may not be as strong as a wolf, but he is definitely stronger than a human.

"Mike?" I whisper and he gets up and walks out of the room. I chase him, and when I catch up, I see that he is crying.

"I don't know what to do B. I've given everything to this sport, I have nothing else." My wolf starts whimpering for Mike, and I fight back the urge to cry.

"How bad is it?" He shakes his head and pulls me into a hug, burying his face in my neck.

"They don't know. The MRI showed a tear in the ligament, but I want a second opinion. I'll repeat the MRI when the swelling goes down."

I pat Mike's back and pull away. Anytime he hugs me for too long I start to feel uncomfortable, and while it isn't as bad as it was before, it's definitely still there.

"I have a cream to help with the swelling. Do you want me to bring it to you?" Mike wipes his face roughly and nods at me. "You can leave, I'll tell coach Jim you still weren't feeling well."

"Yeah but, you won't get paid for me," Mike says and I frown. The man is clearly not in a good headspace, yet he is thinking about me and I admit that I'm moved.

"Mike, do you want us to start over?" I ask, and he looks up at me as if I'm offering him gold. "Then get some rest and come back to my room around six. We can talk about it, and I will give you the balm for your swelling."

Mike's POV

I have never been more eager to have a conversation with a woman in my life. If football doesn't work out for me, B is my ticket to not being a bum.

I don't know where B is in establishing her business, but I know from coach Jim's words that she should be all set up soon. I don't plan on using her for money, I will do whatever she wants me to do, I just don't want to end up like my old man.

I knock on B's door, and she opens it with a beautiful smile, but the bruises on her face make me frown. 

I know that she said her brother had nothing to do with her being hurt, but the fact that he didn't see a problem with an eighteen-year-old boy physically fighting his seventeen-year-old sister is all I need not to like him.

If I marry B, I will make sure to protect her from her family, even if it means that she and I can't live on their land; I'm willing to start from scratch with her.

I sit in a chair and B asks me to take off my shirt. She shows me the weird jelly looking stuff that she plans to rub on my shoulder and then she tells me that she made it herself.

I can't pay too much attention to what she says after that because the feeling of her small and smooth hands kneading at my injury is pure bliss.

I fold my hands in my lap, trying to hide my boner, and B stops what she is doing to sit on a chair near me.

"Mike, I don't want to be hurt," she says. "People seem to think it's okay to say and do bad things to me and I'm supposed to just be okay with it. I don't want that from you." I nod, hoping I can keep that promise to her. 

"We will start off slow," I say. "I know that I messed up before, but now that we are a thing, I won't be that stupid again." She nods and I go to take her hand, but she shifts it into her lap.

"Will you tell me what happened with Ashley?" She suddenly asks, and I feel my heart rate increase. I tell her the story, and she looks down, clearly not happy with my confession. "But it's over now?" She questions and I lift her hand into mine. 

"I shouldn't have led her on the way I did, but I'm not a stupid teen anymore. I won't do that to you. I'm willing to wait until you are ready." I see B flash the smallest smile, and I hope I won't have to eat the lies I'm telling her.

My father told me that girls like B tend to marry the first man they have been with, and if I'm careful, that man will be me. With the way she looks lately, I won't be embarrassed by her, and if football fails me, she will catch me.

Rhea's POV

Aside from his drinking, Mike and I have been good. He has been patient with me, keeping a respectful distance, he doesn't bring up how hard it is to wait for me, and other than when I rub the ointment on him, he is pretty much back to his old self.

I opened up to him about Colton, but I didn't give him a name and I told him that my extended family has never really liked me.

I figure that a pack is like a family, and he now understands why Lark wasn't as harsh as he could have been. In Mike's mind, the omega who attacked me is a distant cousin.

It's been two months since I have started to apply the balm on his shoulder, but he has only just convinced the school to approve a second MRI. He tells me that he feels fine, and I genuinely hope his MRI was misread, but two experts have agreed with the imaging, so the chances are slim.

I have been taking care of Mike in the time he has been going back and forth with the school. It's amazing how quickly he became a non-factor in their eyes, and he’s even been cut from the paid students I tutor.

As for his drinking, it has gotten him into a fight once, he has been found passed out in the dorm halls more times than I remember, and he is falling behind in his classes. With just over a week left of school, we had to work double to make sure he didn’t fail anything.

Today, I plan to tell Mike that as long as he and I are together, he won't have to worry about his future. I have thought about it, and I like Mike enough to take our relationship to the level I know he wants and needs, even if he hasn’t said anything.

As soon as Mike opens the door to his dorm, he picks me up and swings me around. Planting kisses all over my face that make me flinch for some reason.

“Babe, guess what?” I force out a smile, trying to ignore how uneasy I feel. “The image was misread!” My eyes go wide, and I earnestly hug him in a way I never have. “We need to go celebrate.” Mike disappears into his room, and I’m left standing in the common area of his dorm.

Someone enters, and I smile, thinking it's Raul, Mike’s roommate, but I come face to face with Ashley instead. She is holding Mike’s room key, which is also his student ID. There is no way she would have it unless he gave it to her, and the smile she is wearing tells me my answer.

“I told you b*tch, he has always been mine, and he always will be.” I take a deep breath and start to walk away, but Ashley reaches out and snatches the necklace off my neck, making me react without thinking. 

I punched her in the nose and the only reason I stopped at that was because of my name being shouted by Mike, startling me out of my anger. 

“B! What did you do?” He screams, going to check on Ashley, who is holding her face while crying. Mike’s shouts draw a few of his teammates who live in the neighboring suites, and he and I now have an audience. 

“She-” Mike cuts me off.

“It doesn’t matter. You are bigger than her.” My face drops, Ashley is taller than me, which means he is talking about my weight. I glance up to look at the faces of the guys who are now staring directly at me, and I run out of the room.

Sylvia is whining in my head, but I don’t have comforting words for her. Everything Mike has been saying to us is a lie. He was being patient with us because he was getting what he needed from Ashley, and all the time and effort I put into him now feels like a slap in the face.

I run into my room and slam the door behind me. I have never cried over a man, not even Jack, but Mike has deeply hurt me.