My Forbidden Mate

Chapter Six- To Mend A Heart Is to Mend A Soul

Aaron's POV

I should have been focused on Maisie. Not the way Alessandra wrapped her hair in a temporary ponytail to expose her neck. The faintest scent of sweat and vanilla pulling my attention from that of blood and its iron spilled before me. Not the way her lips came apart to draw my peripheral vision from any strength I managed to use to think of anything but how soft they must be so full and tempting. Not the way her chest rose in the unsteady breaths she made as she observed Ronan attending to the wounded girl before us. And not those thoughts that developed as a plague through my mind. Devilish thoughts that reminded me that I was more beast than man.

“Will she be okay?” Alessandra’s sweet voice broke the silence as I was finally allowed an excuse to look at her. My eyes raked over every detail of her expression as if to accommodate the fact I couldn’t act on admiring it for myself. In this moment, I wish Ronan would refrain from answering, using that annoying stall he made when he disagreed, just so I had this excuse for another endless moment in awe.

“She will need a lot of rest…and a lot of food…but because of you,” I raised a brow to what sounded as a preparation for beratement. Instead, he seemed to swallow his words, “She will be…” He finalized as he continued to wipe the blood from Maisie’s alabaster skin.

“What happened to her? I mean…Was it the same person who attacked me?” She asked as it was now Ronan who offered me that look of warning, as if to consider my words carefully. The same a sibling gives to their brother or sister when ridiculed for misbehaving and meant to keep quiet. But I was no child.

“We have those who hunt us, Alessandra.”

“So other humans know about you?!” I nodded slowly as Ronan clenched his jaw.

“Here,” I made another justification for my hand on her person as I set it at the perfect arch of her back, hearing her breathe in the slightest breath of surprise and then ease, as I led her to the closed in porch at the back of the cabin. She made me greedy with the time I could spend with her. Time-a gift that was more a curse to us all.

“There’s a select group of humans that know about us, yes. They prefer our fur for their version of a black market. Our marrow for their meals because it gives them strength. But our blood…gives this high…it…enhances things.”

“Like strength?” But as I slowly shook my head, details of mischief somewhere in my expression, her own altered to the realization of a more carnal explanation.

“Oh…” She chuckled silently, her hands on the railing overlooking the treeline. Her eyes falling to the touch of winter in the late Albuquerque night, not exactly finding an anchor in anything but the darkness that seemed to taunt and calm us both to the same extent.

My grip now set on the railing to match hers, a fateful rest that beckoned me closer to her. Her soft skin was a mere taunt to what could be easily pulled to me. My peripheral vision caught her making note of this before hearing her swallow in nervousness. Her pulse against her throat was enticing to me as the sound of her breath attempted to steady. But in the moment I decided to act on it, she withdrew from me and paced the small diameter of the porch.

“I should probably go…” My mind reached within the desperation to find any reason for her to stay. A coming storm maybe I could lie and claim I smelled, despite the fact the night was more clear than that of the tension between us. Maybe the fact that it was too late. But either way, Ronan would be the one to be taking her home as I knew if I had, I would convince her to stay. By any means necessary. The man I became on the verge of necessity was my biggest fear. I could hurt her, not meaning to. I would rather throw myself back to that slab and willingly give my life than ever be the reason she was in pain. For that, because I cared, I slowly nodded to keep from making it difficult.

My steps followed behind her as I reached for the door, her body turning to surprise me as we stood chest-to-chest. Too close for the proximity I fought to keep from ending this way. How easily I could have slipped her away from Ronan’s sight and to the cherry exterior, her leg around my waist as I made her body chill in the ways I could only hoped she had imagined until now.

“Can I ask you something? Before I go?” I agreed as she hesitated as if reconsidering her question, playing with the sleeves of her shirt a moment too long and extending the fabric. A consistent nervous tick whenever she was uncomfortable. And dammit, it was adorable. Innocent. Mouth-watering.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” My silence made her continue, “About her being your…mate..” She struggled to find the word as I battled to accept it. I looked over my shoulder to find Ronan shaking his head to have eavesdropped once again. But even if he didn’t agree to my expression of honesty, she deserved the truth. Especially if this was to be our final goodbye. I wanted to end on good terms this time.

“It’s…difficult to explain…” I confessed as she accepted this for only a second.

“I wish it wasn’t…” This secondary comment made her eyes rise to me as if she was as close to breaking as I was. Somewhere between tears and desire, a simple embrace of mutual forfeit and submission on the tips of both of our fingers.

“Aaron?” Ronan called, interrupting a moment that could and should never be, but one I didn’t want to end.

“Maisie’s awake…” He explained further while pulling the glass doors wide enough for Alessandra slip into, which she did quickly, as if I frightened her. My stomach twisted as I followed behind her, well aware I could be a reason for her nightmares. I should be. It had to be that way.

“Can you drink?” I asked while pulling the mug to her lips. My hand came to her back as the other pulled a section of her hair over her shoulder as I could hear the change in Alessandra’s breathing. And if even for just a moment, I swear that I heard her heart break. For that, I kept my compassion minimal.

“It’s gonna be alright, Maze, You can stay here tonight…But tomorrow, we’re talking to your aunt about your security.” Her eyes widened as she shook her head with conviction, explaining why through a coarse voice left by a failed assassination attempt.

“I left on my own…” I boomed over her, easily towering over her as she hung her head in shame.

“What? Why?” Her eyes directed to Alessandra, who stood on the very edge of the cabin between the living room and the kitchen, her arms wrapped around her chest in uncertainty.

“I had to know…” She explained, fiddling the details made up of her dress. The same emerald the Vinsant pack wore since the conception of time. Rebekah’s influence wore well over the poor girl. But I wouldn’t have to ask her to continue as she would do that all on her own.

“I had to see her to know why you risked it all for a human…” Even if the word was often more a curse to Alessandra’s kind, it was spoken in more sorrow from Maisie’s lips. Almost as if she compared herself and felt as if she fell short. Maisie was beautiful. Vivacious. Creative. But she was nothing more than a member of my pack I needed to protect. A responsibility I never wished on anyone. Especially Alessandra. This is what showed in the anger behind my tone. Something I’m sure Alessandra read as amorous care. But the only love I had for Maisie was the same she had for me, familial.

“You could have been killed. If not for Alessandra, you would have been!” I lowered to her, hands on either cheek as I forced her attention to me. “It’s too dangerous out there right now. You can’t leave on your own…” She submitted to me with a slow bow of her head.

“You need to come with a warning label, kid…Any girls seem to need medical care after you-” My scowl made Ronan keep from finishing his joke as he turned towards the kitchen, “How about some steak to fix your protein imbalance?” Maisie nodded as I saw Alessandra turn away at the raw slabs of meat pulled from the freezer. It was difficult to remember the contrast of how something so foul could be so enticing by a single shift of instinct and need.

“I’ll take you home.” I offered, clinging onto that last moment I would get with her.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea, Aaron?”

“If something happens to Maisie, you need to be with her. Besides, I’ll only be an hour.” He was reluctant, but agreed, as he knew he was fighting a losing battle. I ignored the way he looked at us with such scrutiny. But certainly I could control myself long enough to keep from ruining my vows and the expectations made of me for a life I wanted nothing more than to be free from. For her. But fate had intertwined my destiny long before I could even speak, making me settle for the happiness I found in any shared moment with her.

The silence between us felt like sand through my fingers. Even if I could gladly sit this way, knowing she was at my side making me as ecstatic as if she was in my arms, I knew I was wasting time between us. But there wouldn’t be enough time in any day to explain all the things I wanted to say.

“Those hunters,” She began, the quietude becoming too much for the ceaseless questions in her mind. “Did they follow her because she came to me?” Guilt was heavy in her tone. Something I necessarily needed to rectify as I pulled somewhere between a pair of backgrounds I knew from memory.

“They’re always there. They usually don’t go that deep in the woods because they know it would be stupid…But they lace their arrows in mercury. It’s poison to us. Makes it so we can’t transition…”

“So not silver?”

“Silver is more…sacred to us. It isn’t a weakness. We use it for ceremonies…”

“Like you will with Maisie?” I wasn’t sure if she meant to say this out loud as the second it left her lips she turned away, as if ridiculing herself for doing it.

“It’s…”

“Complicated?” She answered for me, annoyed, but too sweet and worried to show it. But I could only nod.

“She’s really nice,” Her words surprised me, forcing my eyes to jar in her direction. “And sweet…and she seems really…good.” She fought through these words. To any untrained ear, it would seem she meant them. But I could hear the slight rise when she spoke certain letters, seducing the very consonants and vowels to bend into believability as she repressed the honesty beneath.

“She is…” Alessandra turned away from me, tears at the ready to brim her eyes, as she managed to wipe a few that escaped in what she thought had been subtle enough

“You deserve to be happy.” She explained as the car came to rest in front of her trailer. I wish I would have taken a few ‘wrong turns’ on the way, but I knew it would only delay that painful inevitability. Even now, I thought of conversation topics to keep her with me. But again, I almost preferred to tear off the bandage instead.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” The words left my lips from desperation alone, “I didn’t want to lie to you. I wanted to protect you from this…This world isn’t as black and white as everyone thinks-”

“I stopped believing it was when I learned werewolves existed.” The corner of my lips threatened to pull into a grin, but guilt kept it a weak rise and immediate fall. “It is nice to know not all of them are…It’s nice to know there’s someone trying to do good…”

“They won’t hurt you again. As long as you stay out of the woods…” She hesitantly lifted to nod as I reached across the car. If I was forced to do this to protect her, I would have one final moment with her that wasn’t veiled with distance and deceit. I would have something real.

“I won’t let anyone ever hurt you again…” As her eyes met mine, she moved closer to adjust.

“Technically it’s me who owes you a favor this time…so if you ever needed to know a good coffee place or lack thereof…” I smirked, slowly nodding.

“Not much of a coffee drinker, but-” Her eyes widened.

“Right, of course…you probably drink like…” She stopped herself.

“Just never liked the taste. And it keeps me up too long…I have a hard enough time sleeping as it is…” I confessed mindlessly as she looked at me as if she understood. I wondered if she suffered that same insomnia that came in being separated. The ones where my visions disguised themselves as dreams that manipulated my mind into believing I was with her and she was with me. Such visions have worsened since I saw her again.

“What you did tonight…I’m appreciative of…but…you can never do it again, Alessandra. You have to stay out of the woods…” She looked towards the location in which I spoke before turning back to me, even closer.

“You sound like granny warning the red riding hood…” Her voice was shallow, almost a whisper, as she fell into this same gravitational pull making up both of us.

“But you’re the wolf…The irony…” She expressed a weak laugh as my hand moved before I could order it away. Brushing her hair behind her ear, all to read her expression more clearly. Just one inclination she wanted me closer and I would have a reason to prove I was more wolf than complacent man. The windows would steam and the seat would wear beneath her in every motion made over it. Indents and claw marks left behind. Just one sign, Alessandra and I could have put us out of our mutual misery.

It was somewhere in a new silence that we had become too close. If not for the set of headlights suddenly pulling into the rocky driveway, I was almost certain I would have consumed her. Wholly, without regret. But as they shone to us, she retracted and everything about her altered. That softness I nearly had at my fingertips stiffened into uncertainty.

“Tell Maisie I’ll be wishing her well?” But as she tried to leave, I caught her hand.

“Who is that?”

“My brother’s friends…” Her heart raged against her chest. “Thank you for the ride-” Before she could offer me this mutual salutation and gratitude, I was opening her car door.

“You don’t have to walk me-”

“You’re shaking like you’re on the verge of frostbite, I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re okay.” I began to step to the trailer, the door left open by a lone brick. My eyes came to source each and every one of those set in the small living area of the trailer. One more decrepit and deranged from the last. But one in question whose heart raced a bit too quick when he saw Alessandra. My eyes focused on him in a narrowed line.

“We have rules, Aless!” Her brother, blonde and too high to even keep focus for more than a second, spoke unintelligibly at her. My hands immediately into fists as I remembered the way he spoke to her that night. If only he knew of the ways I could make him suffer for it.

“This is Aaron-”

“Don’t care. As long as neither of you break anything or bother me, ‘tsall good…” He reclined back in the chair, taking a hit from the vulgar bong.

“Still too much of a goody to hang with us? Come on baby, you miss me-” That lustful friend of her brother’s asked as I mentally refereed to him as deadmeat with the way he eyed her. Every inch of her skin was assaulted by such a gaze and my jaw clenching as I was pulled into her room.

“Just use a f*****g condom! God knows I don’t need to support you and your bastard baby! Be smart for once in your life and at least let him f**k you without me having to deal with the consequences!” She closed her eyes tightly to abandon the tears, wiping away a few that escaped, before turning to me.

“I’m sorry…”

“Why are you apologizing? Why are you here, Alessandra?” She was taken back by my question. Despite the fact she had a small living space, it was heavily decorated with the details of her life. Friends and hobbies I envied not being told of. Instead, our discussions came from my origin and that of who lived and died. She deserved better than that. And perhaps this was the chance I had to rectify that.

“I live here-”

“Why not on campus?” She narrowed her eyes, questioning how I knew this, before I motioned to the books on her desk beside her college sweatshirt and schedule marked off of coming classes.

“I got into the community college on a scholarship. I can’t afford it…” She offered, wrapping herself in that hold I wished to correct into my own. Instead, I hesitated before looking around her room.

“I’d offer you something to drink, but Travis only ever has beer…” I feigned interest in her before hearing ‘deadmeat’ talk about her with vulgar taste. The positions her body would take him. The way she was ‘growing into herself’. How she would feel if he ‘showed her a good time’. My jaw clenched. Even if I could never touch her that way. I would be damned if someone like him would even be allowed the thought to use with the company of his hand. The idea made me enraged.

“Aaron? AARON?!” She widened her eyes as I took a bag-the same bag she used the night she ran, throwing items of importance in the center, before taking her hand.

“I’m not leaving you here…”

“I’ll be fine..” Her voice was shaky, trying to be confident for words she didn’t believe, once she couldn’t guarantee wholeheartedly. That was the last bit of convincing I needed.

“Alessandra-”

“I’ve lived here my whole life…I can handle it…”

“I’m giving you five minutes to meet me in my car…or I will drag you out that window myself.” I leaned down to her. “I’m not leaving you with them…” I moved from her room and back through the trailer where deadmeat stood before me.

“Thought you’d at least last long enough to consider her, man…” I slowly nodded, taking hold of his collar.

“You so much as look at her ass, I’ll leave you as shrapnel in some junkyard nobody will give a s**t to look into. I’d be doing a service to the community…One less deadbeat drug addict…” I forced him out of my way and back to my car, some cheap and meaningless comment spoken at my back as I returned to that driver’s seat.

Knuckles white. The only comfort was a vision of how soothing the blood of deadbeat would be across them if he ever looked at her again. Easy fix, Aaron. She wouldn't be alone with him. Ever.