If I Were Allowed To Love You

Twenty-Eight

"Then I should keep them up."

"Oh, I get it," he dramatically announced. "You are actually in love with me."

"I love my mate," Theo stated. "I'll only ever love my mate. There's no one for me but him."

"Except Ross."

Theo groaned. "What is your deal with Ross?"

"He's not your mate."

"You're right. My mate is in love with someone else, so unless he suddenly falls in love with me, I will be alone. Forever. Werewolves do this all the time when they're either rejected or lose their mate. Sometimes they'll be with other werewolves if they were close enough, but there is no werewolf I want to be with. I just want my mate. I can't have him, so maybe in a few years, if I'm still lonely and want a companion, then yes, I might be with Ross. But I don't plan to be with him anytime soon." He sighed. "Not unless something gives me a reason to."

The idea of Theo being with someone else pissed Lucas off. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because he knew that if Melissa suddenly had doubts, he would fight to be with her. He'd show her why he was the one for her. And Theo had to give up. He was forced to settle for someone else, and Lucas wanted him to fight harder. He wanted him to go out and tell his mate who he was and that he loved him. He wanted Theo to be happy.

But more than that, there was an internal debate. Though miniscule, it was still there. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that Theo shouldn't be with Ross, only his mate. And though he didn't know who Theo's mate was, it made him less jealous to think of Theo with his mate than settling for Ross. He was jealous, and Lucas hated the feeling. He had no reason to be jealous. He was in love with Melissa. He wanted to marry her. Yet he couldn't let go of the feeling of Theo settling with someone else.

^^^

"I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with hiding who you are, but I do feel that if there is something massive about yourself that you are hiding, you should tell the person you are going to date what it is so it doesn't come out as some big surprise later," Melissa stated. "I know the book is supposed to be about fear and how it can control you, but I know that if I were an ordinary human and I wound up dating a mythical, I'd want him to tell me before we got serious. I'd want to know what I signed up for."

"Did Lucas hide that from you when you first met him?" Ryan questioned as he pulled into the driveway of his house.

"No, but I do wish he would have told me sooner. He knew I was a mythical before I knew he was. He was there with me as I did my training," she said, "and one day I wound up blowing him off the side of a building. I was freaking out until his wings sprouted and he flew back up next to me. I thought I killed him for a moment." Her heart always raced whenever she thought about that day. The idea of killing her fiancé scared her tremendously. She placed her hand over her heart and sighed. "It was not the way I wanted to be told that he was a Moth Man."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Ryan frowned, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. "You should have been told properly."

"I guess he was just ashamed of himself. He thought I'd look at him differently for being part insect."

"I don't see a difference."

"I didn't either. At least not until one of the clowns played with my daggers and stabbed his arm. His blood is green and kind of chunky," she grimaced, and Ryan shuddered.

"How would he have a blood transfusion?"

"Moth people have the same blood as pixies and fairies, thankfully. It honestly explains a lot about the women's bathroom in high school," she laughed as she climbed out of the car.