Her return

Chapter 28

Riley's POV:

It's been five days since the last time I saw Alec and it's been torture!

Well, I think calling it torture would make me a horrible person and somewhat a liar.

Six days ago, Alec and I came to my parents to have dinner so my family would meet my mate. Because Alec would leave me here to spend a whole week with my family to catch up and bond. We talked about doing this every month but so far it's been five days and I miss Alec terribly. I am seriously thinking of doing it in just three days.

I remember that at first, my family was behaving awkwardly, not able to stop themselves from bowing and referring to him as "your highness", but later I told them that it would be as if they were calling me "princess" because after all, I am mated to the crowned prince. That seemed to encourage them to try harder and at the end of the night, my dad was showing Alec his collection of bikes that I totally forgot and I was all over them drooling like a kid in a comic book store.

I wanted to ride every single one, especially dad's favorite, 1974 Laverda SF 750. Dad almost got a heart attack, saying that they were a collection and not for riding. I almost had a meltdown, how can he have all these ancient beauties and not brag in front of everyone in a good ride? I was perplexed, but they were dad's so there was nothing I could do, until he told me that during the weekend we will go on the lookout for my own, which had me jumping all over like a kid with a sugar overdose.

Even Alec hid before I could explode his eardrums or fry his brain looking and commenting over bikes on the multiple magazine dad have stored from every bike launch.

At least I could touch those.

***

I kept myself busy with all the activities my family planned for me, but there were times that I wished that Alec would be here with me, or just hug me, and when it was time to go to sleep, it was when I missed him the most. So the second night at my parent's house, we would talk on the phone until I fall asleep and Alec wouldn't disconnect the call which I thanked because when I woke up alone in the middle of the night, his soft snores were what lulled me back to sleep.

So, at the end of today, the fifth day, I just wanted to lay on a couch and watch Netflix and chill. I was all over the place these past few days and when I wanted to rest, either my mom or dad would pull me up to go somewhere.

I went shopping with my mom and my brother's mates. I went on runs with my brothers and they tried to teach me some fight moves but in the end, my lazy ass would sit in the dirt and watch them kick each other's asses. I spent a whole day in the car with my dad going from place to place looking for bikes for me which I found at the third place we visited but he wanted to add at least one more to his collection and ended with two more when the night started to make its presence.

Then my dad had a BBQ with the whole pack to celebrate my return and I literally spun all over to be hugged and welcomed by everyone. Even mom and dad's friends took their time admiring how big I got, while crying and admiring that I was mated to their prince, saying that they couldn't have asked for a better Queen. I had to hide my panic when they mentioned my future as their Queen.

Last night we spent almost all night burning marshmallows in the fire, where my family would talk about themselves, so I would know more aspects of themselves from what I've learned from them over the other days with them. Though at some point, memories would arise and they would laugh at memories that I wasn't part of and that saddened me to the point I had to excuse myself saying I was tired and went to bed to cry alone.

Now I couldn't stop staring at the pictures of them as a family during these past eleven years, when I was gone, and I could feel my heart hurt for all those moments I missed with my family. It made me feel like a total stranger in my own home and it was harder to look away.