The Beast and His Tamer

Chapter 17: Betrothing or Fate?

"What?" Rhett asked, stunned. He had just realized that he was his mate, and finally come to the conclusion that he could try and convince him to stay. He thought that he had gotten pretty far with that the night before. It was obvious that Sebastian had enjoyed what they did, even though it really wasn't much. He didn't want to take it too far.

He was wondering why the man was so eager to squirm out of his grasp. Sebastian had been avoiding his eyes the whole morning. At first, he thought that he was just embarrassed by what they had done. He seemed innocent enough. Rhett wouldn't be surprised.

If he were being honest with himself, he wasn't too sure about this realization himself. He knew now that this man was his mate, but it was difficult wrapping his head around the idea still. All he knew was that warmth of his kiss felt like its own cure to his ailment. He always felt good around the man, and now his fears about Sebastian being his mate were coming true.

He shouldn't have expected anything less. Fate never wanted him to have an easy life.

"Betrothed," Sebastian said again, giving him a sad smile. "I'm already promised to someone else, basically."

"Who?"

"That's a good question," the brunette sighed. He walked off a little ways in the direction that Rhett could only hope led to the werebear. "It's honestly a long story."

"Can you just tell me?" Rhett sighed. He was getting tired of trying to push things out of him. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he just found his mate and it was a male. Sebastian was a whole can of worms that he was not expecting to open. There was still so much to figure out of the man. The more he talked, the less he really spoke of himself. He really just remained a mystery to Rhett, even with the time they spent together.

"The Dubois family are full of traditions," Sebastian started, nervously holding his arm. "And we always try our hardest to keep them alive. Some traditions have been abandoned over time, like not allowing for gay marriages, but many of them are still the same."

"And betrothing is still a common tradition that your family still practices?"

"Unfortunately," he gave him a shy smile. "I was promised to someone in the Fidalgo family. It was so that they could keep the peace with them. Beast Tamers can cause so much drama between families. Marriages are usually the best way to squash them and keep the lineage of Tamers going."

It sounded more like forcing someone to be miserable the rest of their life. Rhett didn't like the idea of a forced marriage. It just seemed like they were going to spend the rest of their life with someone they didn't really love. He was glad that werewolves had mates at least. Forced marriages hadn't been practiced in their race for a long time because of that. Although they did have surrogates to keep the lines going.

"So, you're promised to a woman?" Rhett asked, keeping the pace with him.

"Not exactly," Sebastian chuckled again. "You see, I was supposed to. But then I had to come out to my parents that I didn't like women romantically when I was fourteen. Then that started a whole fiasco."

"I see," Rhett said, trying to make sense of all of this. "So why are you being forced into a marriage if you aren't going to keep the lineage going?"

"It's a bit complicated," Sebastian told him. "My parents had already promised that I would marry one from their family. They just started looking through the Fidalgo family to see if they could find the proper suitor for me."