Aries

Chapter 21

For a long time, I remained silent, not knowing what to do. Whatever Nash served me, I ate. The noodles, poha, pasta and a burger. While he was raving about Mina to Brent and Ant, Miguel gave me occasional long glances at me.

I brushed it off. I knew I was acting weird, but I could not help myself. What Ant had said shook me.

Finally finishing our meal, Brent cleared his throat and an awkward atmosphere got a hold over us.

Andrew lifted his head slowly and I could see his puffy eyes and the blue tinge that lined it. His eyes were bloodshot and his lips pale.

I frowned. I had been rejected, felt my mate mark and mate with another female on a Mating Moon night, and even I had not suffered as much as Andrew before me. Something else must have happened for him to be affected so much.

The only possibility was that he had mated with Nira, his mate and then was rejected. But then again, he was my friend, and if he had cared about me enough to abandon West pack now, why had mated with Nira knowing she was Harper's Beta?

Something was not adding up.

"What is it, Andrew?" I asked, finally finding my voice.

"Nira..." he swallowed. "I need to explain my story."

I rose an eyebrow. "Then please do."

He lowered his head. He had to. Had he not, I would be genuinely surprised. I was an Alpha, Ant was a Royal and Miguel was a Delta who was a shifter.

"After..." Andrew began. "After you were banished, I was a mess, Lyra-"

I growled. He was not my pack member to address me so intimately.

A thick scent of fear rolled off him and I was satisfied.

"Alpha," he corrected softly. "I was a mess, Alpha Lyra. That was when I found a perfect scent. I followed it to find my mate. Nira... she was a beautiful female helping a pup. I fell in love with her immediately.

"I had not realised she was from Alpha Harper's pack," he continued. "I thought she was our pack member who had come to see her Alpha's ascension. After all, how can I remember all those thousands of wolves?"

I nodded my head. I could relate. When we had been in West Pack, the pack gathered all its members once a year to see if anyone is mated within the pack. And seeing the vast number of people in our pack, reaching nearly half a million, I knew how it was to not know who was in my pack.

"She insisted that we mate and we mated that night," Andrew said with the barest hint of life on his face. "It was the best night of my life. Then the next morning I asked her who she was and... when she said, I died. She said she was Harper's beta."

"So you knew she was that close to Harper the second day itself?" Nash asked, aggressiveness rolling off him. He was pissed for his Alpha. "Still, you betrayed?"

"No!" Andrew exclaimed quickly. "I tried to avoid her, but you know how the mate bond is. I simply could not. We kept clashing and somehow ending in each other's arms. Then she confronted why we could not be together. It was then I told her who Lyra was to me."

"Who was she to you?" Ant asked.

He gulped. "My best friend. A girl whom I had a crush on. A girl whom I hoped would be my mate."

If I had been the Lyra before the rejection, I would have blushed. Now, I was pissed off. Irritated that he could see me like that.

Brent had a huge smile over his face that shrivelled when he saw the placid look on me. Had he expected me to run into his arms the second Andrew confessed this?