AN AFFAIR WITH MY MATE

Stretched dreams

ELENA’S POV



After hearing Lukas’ voice, I was literally trembling. I regretted coming back home after I ran away, but I had hopes that my mother would fight for me to stay after I had told them how I was being treated. I realized that I had nowhere else to go besides home. I had the choice of running away from home and becoming a rogue or going back to my parents and making them understand. I felt that the only reasonable choice that I had at that point was to just go back home and make it work with my father. It was best if I asked her to forgive me for running away from Lukas and maybe we could all leave and find a place we could call home somewhere else. I knew that I was just stretching my dreams at this point, but I couldn’t bear the thought of being a lone wolf knowing that I had a family. Maybe if I showed my mother that I was brave she would finally stand up to my father and defend me. I longed for my mother to defend me and tell him that what they were doing was wrong.

Before Lukas called my father, we had been having a huge debate with my father and my mother. My sister didn’t want me to go back to Lukas and because of that she stood by me and helped me as I fought for my freedom. Tara was putting herself in my position and she asked my father if he would do the same thing to her. The real question, however, was why they had borrowed money from the most ruthless alpha and on top of that, it was more than they could ever even dream of paying. They knew they were never going to get the money that they had taken from him and yet they had allowed him to trick them into taking the money. Lukas knew what he was doing all along, he knew that my parents would never be able to pay him, and yet he gave them the money. I couldn’t understand how my father still couldn’t see that this had been a trap from day one.

“You see, now you have upset Lukas, are you happy?” he yelled at me as he threw the phone across the room after I handed it back to him.

”Dad, you need to leave her alone,” Tara said.

“Tara…which part of this man being dangerous don’t you understand?” he asked her “ We could all be in danger because of your sister. We if he decides that he no longer wants her and he wants his money instead?” he asked her and I rolled my teary eyes. I couldn’t believe that he was just admitting to selling me off in exchange for his debt being cleared.

“I can't believe that you are my father,” Tara said as she helped me up and led me out of the living room. We were going to our room and I knew that I wasn’t even going to fall asleep after Lukas promised me that he would be fetching me in the morning.

”Make sure you wake up early tomorrow because your mate will be here in the morning. Don’t do anything else that will endanger all our lives”, my dad shouted, as Tara and I made our way inside the room.

This was the worst night of my life and I had thought that nights in Lukas’ mansion were bad, but being back here was just the worst. Both my parents had made it very clear to me that they didn’t want me here. My mother was mute as usual and allowed my father to make all the decisions despite the fact that she could see that he was making bad decisions. She knew that what he was doing wasn’t right and yet she carried on as if she couldn’t say anything against the man. My father was actually exactly like Lukas now that I think about it. I can only imagine how being with him must have been for my mother when they first got together. I knew that he chose her for himself because she had passed the mating age and now the same thing was being done to me. Who said that I couldn’t find my mate at the age of twenty and why did this pathetic rule only apply to women? Why did they have to set such unreasonable standards for us females?

”Don’t cry Elena”, Tara said as I got into what used to be my bed and turned my back to her. She got into bed with me and hugged me from behind.

“I can only imagine what that man was doing to you,” she added.

”I don’t want to go back,” I said through my tears.

“I know, I know you don’t want to go back and I also think you shouldn’t go back. You must stand your ground and make it clear that you are not going anywhere” she said, and I sighed as I turned around to face her.

“ You know that I can't do that. If I stay here he will kill all of us”, I said "I can't just allow everyone to die if I can do something about it”, I added.

“Then run away and we will just say we don’t know where you are” she suggested, and I faked a weak smile. Tara was so innocent and she really thought that Lukas would leave them alone if they told him that they didn’t know where I was. He was never going to believe that.

“I can't do that, he will kill you,” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. “I have to face this like a grown woman”, I added.

“But you are still a teenager,” she said and I laughed “ That is too much”, she added.

“You have a strong fighting spirit, you see how cruel the world is and I pray that you keep that spirit so that you will be able to fight for yourself when the day comes”, I said.

“But I pray that that day never comes and that you never ever have to fight anyone for your freedom,” I said as I kissed her forehead.

”What do you think he will do to you tomorrow when you go back to him?” she asked me and I sighed. The truth was that I didn’t even know what to expect from Lukas. He sounded very upset on the phone but he didn’t shout at me. However, the fact that he had hung up on me made me very anxious because it made me think that he was very angry and my silence when I was with him on the phone might have just made that anger that he was feeling even worse.

“I will be okay,” I said.

“I have heard horrifying stories about that man and I am scared of you,” she said, and I shook my head.

“Just remember that I have to go back to him so that you can be safe. If I stay here, then he will kill you. I am doing this so that you can live the life that I didn’t get the chance to live”, I said.

“I can handle Lukas” I added, but deep inside I knew that I couldn’t handle the man. I was even sure that there was no man or woman in this world that could handle that man. Lukas was a very cruel man and there was no telling what he was planning for me in his cruel mind.

I had to battle with my tears throughout the whole night and, to be very honest, I didn’t get any sleep at all. I felt like I was a weakling waiting at home for Lukas to come and take me back to his mansion. I wanted to run away. I knew that the only way I could survive this was if I ran away on my own, but I couldn’t imagine living the rest of my life on the run and without my family. I was hurt by the decisions that they had made for me but I knew that they all loved me. Lying in the same bed with my little sister was what I missed the most and sharing secrets with her was another thing. I knew that if I ran away I would never get the chance to experience this feeling again.

I hated the position that my father had put me in but at this point, I had accepted that this was my life, and escaping this life would mean that I would have to cut my family off and that was just something that I wasn’t ready to do.