CHAPTER 25
931 Words
AMERIE/JESSICA
CONFUSED AND JEALOUS
I feigned being tired to avoid staying with Nathan. The rest of the journey home was spent in silence, and as soon as we got home, I ran to his room.
He has come to check on me several times, but I pretend to be asleep, controlling my heartbeat—a skill I learned while at the Montana pack. It helped me on numerous occasions to escape Saul’s harassment at night.
The door creeps open, and Cara’s voice filters in. “I know you’re not really sleeping, sis,” she jumps on the bed and turns me to face her. “Gotcha!” Her eyes sparkle with mischief. “What’s going on between you and Nate?”
“Nothing,” I murmur, turning back.
“You can always tell me.”
“Have you had s*x with another person who is not your mate?”
“Whoa! Stop right there,” she pulls me back to face her. “Why the question?”
“He took me to a store and the woman…”
“Christabel?”
I nod. “She…”
“She’s a nobody, Jess. Just a one-time thing. People have s*x with no strings attached.”
“So, I can also have a one-time thing with a guy too?”
“What?!” she shrieks. “Why would you think that?”
“Since people can have s*x with no strings attached, I should be able to do so, right?”
“Oh goddess,” she smacks her forehead and rolls her eyes. “Did you tell my brother this?”
“Yes.”
“Jessica! What? Why would you?”
I don’t understand why she’s reacting like her brother. He did it without having feelings for those women. I should be able to do so too since I am not going to have feelings for those men.
“You never, ever, ever, ever tell your mate that, especially if he is an alpha. An alpha of one of the largest packs in the world.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Is this why you refused to stay with him? He’s worried and has ordered every unmated male to stay out of the pack house.”
“He did?”
“Yes, because he thinks you are going to do what you asked him about. Seriously, Jess.”
“I was only wondering.”
“Listen,” she holds my shoulders, looking deep into my eyes. “I know you felt somehow when he told you about Christabel and the others, right?”
My lips form into a pout. “I was told mates should wait for each other and not be with others. To be pure.”
“By that jerk Kizziah, right?”
I nod. “He always told his son.”
“He’s right, but it’s not a written-down law. The mate bond is great and all that, but we can make our own choices. Choose who we want to sleep with or be with for the rest of our lives.”
“So, I can choose someone else?”
“No!” she half-yells. “Yes…no…I mean…” she exhales. “What I am saying is that we can decide who we want to be with, but Nathan is your mate and you like him, right? He makes you feel safe and protected.”
“He does.”
“Then that’s enough reason not to want to be with other men.”
“But he has been with other women, knowing I was out there and would have continued being with them if he hadn’t found me.”
“Goddess help me!” she groans, falling back onto the bed.
“What if he leaves me and goes back to those women? What if…” I hesitate, sighing in confusion and despair.
“What if what?”
“What if he finds those other women more desirable than me? I am just a child and he’s a man with so much experience with women.”
“Jessica, stop imagining things! It would never happen. My brother has never brought a woman home. Not while we were growing up,” Cara groans out loud in frustration. “This room you’re in, no woman has ever come in here or slept on his bed.”
“It still doesn’t help me. Someone was there before me.”
“Oh!” she shrieks. “I get it now. You’re jealous that those women touched him,” she laughs, throwing an arm over my shoulder.
“Not only that, I am scared he will leave me if I don’t…”
“Stop. My brother would never do that. He almost went to war because of you, Jessica.”
I twiddle with my fingers as her words sink in. Yes, I am jealous and hurt that he has been with other women before me. I am his mate and I would have wanted him to be pure for me.
“Don’t overthink this and hold it against him. A lot of us do this,” Cara breaks into my thoughts.
“So, you’re just like your brother,” I wrinkle my nose at her in mock disgust.
“It’s because you were locked up, away from society, that you don’t know anything about this. Everyone does it.”
“I am not everyone.”
“Clearly.”
“But I can be like everyone since…”
“No!” she groans loudly. “Unless you want my brother to go on a murdering rampage.
- Writer
