My Forbidden Mate

Chapter Five- Regulations

ALESSANDRA’S POV

Fiance. Affianced. Engaged. Betrothed.

No matter the word used, the meaning was the same. Aaron was promised to someone else. Someone who could understand those inhuman urges and alternate lifestyle I would fail to. But I wished I hadn't left under such circumstances. After all, we were friends and yet we left as if we were enemies. It set my heart to tremor in twinges of pain as I stalled getting out of the car. Knowing once I did, everything about Aaron would have to be left behind. Again.

"Thank you for the ride, Mister Ronan." I graciously thanked his uncle as confidently as I could before he turned to face me.

"Alessandra? If you use some wolfsbane it will help the wounds. But a very small amount because it can make you sick." He offered a small vial of what he spoke of.

"Thank you."

"I am sorry. For everything. But it is better this way. I hope Aaron hasn’t misplaced his trust in you…" I nodded. The words I needed to hear to validate that sense of reason was enough to pull me to my soles. Even if my heart would take a minute to get the memo, I understood this was what had to be done.

Walking back into the trailer was as quiet as to be expected. The drug fused rage of Troy had now just become welcome silence as I moved myself about the damage left behind. Wincing to the wounds still left behind from that night, I struggled to move quietly as I happened to pick up a nice portion of the beer bottles and pieces of foil left behind by his immoral indulgences.

"Aless…" I tensed to the feeling of weight on my heart to his tone speaking my name.

"You came back to me…"

"You should get to bed…" He wore the side effects of his vices. A wonder he has survived another dive into its siren's call.

"Help your brother, won't you?" He teased as I helped him to his feet.

"You know I need you, right? You wouldn't leave like mama because you're good…you're good…" My tears were present before I was able to relieve the weight he put on me as I set him on the bed. He was unconscious immediately as I returned to clean. Daybreak creaking its way through the blinds left ajar before I found refuge in my room.

"Aless?!" A voice pulled me from my slumber. A handful of minutes at most that weren't spent in tears. From Troy. From Aaron. My pillow was still freshly wet to remind me it hasn't been long.

"Alessandra Madelyn!" As if this tone wasn't enough to validate this, the way she spoke my name was enough to identify who came to wake me.

"Why aren't you answering your phone?" She asked as I looked at her with borderline annoyance. "Troy let me in before he left. Anyway…phone?" I searched my bed for it before realizing I was without one. It's location either in the woods or back with Aaron.

"Aless?"

"I'm sorry…" I rubbed my eyes.

"s**t…what happened to you?!" She sat on the side of my bed, taking hold of my arms.

"I went running last night." I lied.

"Running? Since when do you run?!"

"I fell down…but I'm fine."

"The woods are dangerous! There's wolves!" I fought to grin. If only she knew…

"Are you sure you're okay?" I nodded. "Okay..then you need to get dressed…"

"What? Why?"

"Because apparently there's some meeting on campus we all have to be at." I groaned. College. "Mandatory…"

"Can't you just take notes for me?"

"Babes, it's mandatory. Can't screw with your perfect grades…come on. I plan on living with you when no job decides to hire me."

"What are you talking about? You have a job…"

"You and I know that isn't gonna last. Come on, sunshine. Up and at 'em." I grinned at her phrasing before eventually following her to my kitchen.

A slim truck riddled by rust from rain and age supported us both as we made our way to campus. My body set beside her in the commons as the sheriff and the dean took the attention of everyone as I focused on my wounds. Wondering if they would scar physically as the emotional lacerations were certain to.

"Nothing like having your dad at school…" Conrad teased slipping beside us. Our trio now completed as we listened ahead. But my focus only came to one line in particular.

"It's explained that you are to proceed with caution…But any wolves can be terminated on sight. There will be some classes given for safety and-" My body stilled. Of the handful of "wolves" I knew, only one has been so cruel.

"Goddamn,what happened to you?" Conrad asked, deeply concerned.

"Apparently she's a track star now and goes running at midnight and falls down and loses her phone and doesn't call anybody." Laurie explained with upset.

"Well guess you won't be doing that anymore." Not that I wanted to see Aaron again, but maybe he should know about this. But I knew it was simply setting myself up for torment.

"Just humor me?" Conrad pushed his protein bar in my face. A construction of oats and chocolate chips that I took behind my lips with a grin.

"Happy?"

He waited a moment, almost to see if I’d have some allergic reaction, before nodding with a breath of relief.

"Very. Now about my birthday…" I trailed off in my thoughts before being reprimanded for such things.

"Guess now with the curfew in effect, everyone will have to stay over." Conrad added as he nudged me.

"Yeah…" But all I could think of was Aaron. If he came back, for any reason, maybe even to return my phone, it could get him killed. And he had a right to know.

Following an ineffective day of pointless lessons to a career I would never be granted in opposition to those who rivaled me with experience, I struggled to make a decision while trying to find enough exhaustion to sleep. But everything within my body pulled me into an unsteady rest beneath my sheets. The once comforting lavender comforter was now a weight as distressing as the anxiety forming in my chest.

A sudden shift in the foliage made outside my window positioned me upright. Ever since the night Aaron left me, his goodbye an echo in my memory, every shuffle made had reignited a hope he would return. Even now, despite the reasons I loathed his dishonesty or excuses, I was desperate to see him again.

But instead, the breakage of the trees outside my window came from a figure more frail than what I memorized in our short time together as having been his. Broad shoulders and inches over six feet having been minimized. For a moment, I thought to turn back to my side and ignore whatever drunken girl stumbled her way into the park as it wasn’t exactly uncommon. But as I attempted to do this, she came to light just before I turned.

Maisie.

Aaron’s betrothed was moving to my window. A hand at a desperate clutch at her neck as she stumbled onto her knees. I was swift and quiet moving beyond Troy’s room, the sound of Slipknot coming from a speaker threatening to quit with how he abused it, like most things. He would not hear me as I met her in the backyard, a hatred I should have for her paling to worry as she was trembling and wet with perspiration.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” Was all she repeated as my eyes widened, her voice made weak by her wounds.

“What happened to you?”

“I’m sorry…” She faded in and out of consciousness as the wound upon her throat was enough to cause worry. Ronan’s words reminded me of how I may be able to help her. Despite mythos, I directed the wolfsbane from the pocket I kept it in so Troy didn’t take it in one of his drug hazes, and applied it to her wound. It took only a moment for her to heal before my eyes. Cauterization closed over the exposed muscle as her breathing slowly returned to normal as she rose.

“We have to get you out of here…Where’s somewhere safe?”

“A-Aaron…” My heart clenched. I guess I would have to see him one last time. Surely this would be easier. I would be able to offer a proper goodbye. By doing the right thing…

Guided through the woods as I escorted her weight supported over my shoulders, I kept her conscious up until the final steps to the cabin door. I had fantasized about being here again. Only those visions were only a dull ache to what could never be. This would be my farewell. An excuse to see him one last time.

The second the door came open, relief came to his face before he saw Maisie.

“I..I need your help…”