MATE AND HIS LOVER 5

8. Maybe he was right

"Happy Birthday!" I give Perry a bad portrait of her I drew and a bracelet as gifts.

The party is lively and festive. I see her cut the cake and give the first slice to Rick. They look beautiful together. Unconsciously I glance at Cole and Bianca.

After the cake cutting, the drinking, eating and dancing resumes.

I move through the crowd like a ghost looking for a place to settle in when a hand grabs me and takes me with them.

It's Perry. She's crying. She takes me upstairs where the others can't hear us.

"What happened?" I ask her. She shakes her head in tears.

"Is it Rick? Did he hurt you?"

She cries more.

"He can't keep doing this to you," I say to myself and turn to leave to confront my brother when I seem him coming to us. "What did you do to her?" I ask him.

"It's not your business," he says.

"How's it not my business? You're my brother. You can't keep mistreating a girl like this. What did you do?"

The answer to that came in the shape of another girl who rushes in after my brother. My brother quickly, and wisely, sends her away.

"You hooked up with a girl on Perry's birthday?!"

"I didn't know today was an exception," he angrily says.

I get angry, too, but not at him, at Perry. I turn to her. "You know what? He's not at fault here. You are. You are the one who wants to be with him in spite of all this. Why don't you just leave him?"

"What the fuck are you saying?" Rick says, turning me around to face him.

"What's happening here?" We hear Cole's voice say. Cole is here with a couple of his friends. Someone must have told them about the trouble brewing upstairs.

I turn my attention back to Rick. "Didn't you tell me you'll let her leave you if she wants to?"

"Yes, if she wants to. Not because you told her to."

I look at Perry, to know what her decision is. She looks at me with guilt. She can't leave him. She won't.

I leave the room. I don't want to be in the middle of their drama anymore. When I reach for my car door outside Cole turns me around. "Is this what you do?" he says, "First you leave, then make others leave their mates?"

"I didn't leave you because you were cheating on me. Rick is hurting her."

"No, you left me because I loved you," he says in anger.

My breath stops at my throat. "Cole, I—"

"Never mind," he says, "I'm sorry for stopping you. You can leave."

He turns to go back but I hold him by his hand, making him face me. Even this much touch brings back some memories. My hand moves on its own and rests on Cole's cheek.

He kisses me instantly. And I kiss him back. I'm reacting to his touch like a pianist playing a melody from muscle memory. There's no thinking. Everything just happens.

But soon he breaks our kiss and moves away. "Why?" he says, "Why are you doing this? Does it feel good to know that I'm still in love with you? Will you feel better if you realize I'm still stuck in the past while you'd moved on? Why do you keep coming before me?"

He leaves without waiting for answers, not that I have any.

On my drive back home his questions keep coming back to me. Maybe he was right. It does feels good to be wanted like this by someone. But I can't bear the consequence.

No matter how much lonely I feel, I can't become his mate forever. I can't become this pack's Luna.