Predator

10.

At Gigi and Gerald's house after being informed that Neela was home, Gerald had a heavy heart. He just couldn't shake what he saw in Neela's eyes and in her memories. It was fear, sadness, torture, mind-numbing pain. How could ryan do that to his mate? The whole family knew of Ryan's curse but everyone thought that it would get better if he were to find his mate, or he'd at least know how to control it. Gerald felt burdensome and deep remorse for the suffering human.

The whole situation made him remember the stories that Gigi would tell him about Damien and Rin, Damien's mate and the mother to all of his children. When they first got together, before Damien knew that she was his mate, before he even knew about mates; he was terrible to her.

Damien had just recently gained his powers when they met, so his hormones were raging; he was hot-headed. His anger was so corrupt that he would get into many fights which prompted him to be kicked out of school. Damien would still go back to the school everyday to hang out with his friends who were also newly turned.

When Rin first started school, she was six years old. By that time, Damien was 16. Since their first time meeting, Damien always had Rin's attention. When he turned eighteen years old, prime mating age, Rin then gained Damien's attention as well. Rin was eight at that time.

Damien and his siblings were all used to being in abusive households. Their father never laid an un-loving finger on his children, their mother was a different story. Damien was a product of his childhood, he treated Rin so horribly in the beginning. He regretted it all, but he couldn't take any of it back.

"My love, are you okay?" Gerald was interrupted by his thoughts when Gigi spoke to him. "Yes, my love, all is well," Gerald lied through his teeth to his wife. "The weather is nice today," Gigi spoke while getting out of bed and standing in front of their colossal window that was right next to their bed. "How about taking me for a walk later today?"

"That sounds wonderful," Gerald came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, "but first, there is something I must take care of alone."
Gerald knew it would be wrong to just let the abuse of Neela to continue, he couldn't allow that sweet and innocent girl to end up like how Rin did.

After kissing Gigi and their five children goodbye, he made his way to the vehicle outside their estate to drive to a far away place. It felt wrong but he knew that these were the only people who could help a man like him in a situation such as it.

~~

Back at the Soptic estate, almost all of the boys were working besides Caleb and Ryan. Caleb was hanging out with some of his cousins at their house, while Ryan stayed with Neela, of course.

Neela was doing missed schoolwork while Ryan sat beside her, reading, occasionally helping her with a problem, and holding the paper still while she wrote. The two were content with their time spent together like this but Neela had a burning question on her mind.

"Haven't you already marked me?" While looking down at his mate, Ryan raised his eyebrows, which made his eyes widen, then relaxed his eyes again. "Where has this question came from?" Ryan tapped Neela's shoulder to try and get her to focus on her homework once again, but that didn't work.

"While we were at the hospital, they asked if you marked me again. Isn't the X scar your mark?"

"No, angel," Ryan tapped the couch cushion next to him, telling Neela to sit next to him. When she did, Ryan took a hold of her scarred hand with his gloved one. Ryan still had the weird feeling and didn't trust skin-to-skin that day. "That mark was more or less for me. It just helps you feel more connected with me, you can hear my thoughts, feel what I'm feeling, a lot of things. You could've blocked it, but I didn't have the heart to tell you how to. You were in so much pain and so scared, I just wanted you to feel how happy I was with you to give you some comfort."

When Neela looked back at those times, she could remember feeling slight butterflies in his stomach when he was around; she could only describe it as the smallest feeling of euphoria. "What's the new mark?"

Ryan squinted his eyes in deep thought until he came up with the perfect explanation. "This new mark is a lot different. It would give me a new power or two, I would finally be able to heal you myself, it would bring you and I a lot closer, it would be hard for the both of us to control urges, it would make us inseparable."

"However," Ryan continued, "it would be very painful for you considering an amount of my essence would have to enter your blood stream. Whether we both cut ourselves and put the body parts together or even injected it into your vein."

"I-does that have to happen soon?" Neela asked with worry evident in her voice. Neela and Ryan both knew she went through too much pain caused by Ryan. "No, don't worry. We both have to want it and I'll wait forever for you."

When Neela smiled was when Ryan smiled and they were both genuine. Ryan had noticed that Neela was overall a lot more happy living with Ryan and his family. It only took nine months for Neela to trust them all and to be honest, Ryan and the rest of his family thought it would have taken a lot longer.
Ryan felt like he and Neela finally had the life they both deserved. All the pain and suffering was worth it, if he was always able to go back to Neela, it would always be worth it.