* double update, I'm having a bad day and I hope this will make someone's day a little better*
EROS
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Young Seb asked for the dozenth time today. In his defense, I had been asking the same question for the last few hours too, and to be honest, I did not know the answer. "You just broke up with Crystal, Man. Your morale is still fragile, your emotion is a mess."
"Dude, you are being too much." I rolled my eyes at him, trying to shrug off his comment. "You should sign up and become the pack's psychiatrist or something." I picked up my motorcycle's key from the small coffee table by the door and headed to the garage.
Seb was still in my tail, letting out an exasperated sigh as if I was exhausting him, and perhaps, I was. But there was no use in giving it another thought, not when Xyrra was probably already on her way. "You will regret it if something happened and you couldn't turn back time."
"Aren't you the same person who told me merely a few days ago that," I put on my helmet and locked it securely before continuing, "I was making a huge mistake by letting her leave with that dickhead?"
"I am," replied Seb, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "But I didn't think you'd break up with Crystal over a small matter and then went to meet Xyrra only two days later."
"It wasn't just a small matter, Seb, and you know it," my reply was close to a growl.
Crystal had arranged a dinner with her parents and I had accidentally blown it. She has been pissed about it, accusing me of always prioritizing Xyrra over her although it wasn't exactly like that. When I was five years old, my uncle died because of food poisoning. I knew people would raise their eyebrows, and some would even laugh about it, so I kept it a secret and didn't tell anyone about his cause of death. Only a few members of our family knew about it. Then on the night that I was supposed to have dinner with Crystal's folks, I learned that Xyrra'd had food poisoning so I told Crystal and his family that I needed elsewhere and left. Even her folks seemed to understand but Crystal, however, was beyond mad.
So two days ago, I thought I was returning the favor by setting up a meeting between Crystal and my momma. Lunch instead of dinner. My momma loved cooking and it had been a while since I had lunch at home since most of the days I had to help with pack meetings, younglings' training, and other pack businesses. Crystal seemed to be happy at first and everything was doing well. My momma was happy to meet my mate for the first time. They both chatted and at some point, my momma even told Crystal about my embarrassing childhood moment. Then everything turned sour when my momma brought out the food. It was a simple homemade spaghetti bolognese. Obviously, unlike Crystal's rather posh family, my momma and I have always lived modestly, but it didn't make it okay for Crystal to insult the food that my momma had prepared for us.
Young Seb could easily call it a 'small matter' but I could not. If she insulted my momma then she was insulting me too. My momma had gone through so much, she had given birth while she was only nineteen, then after my father had died, she had to raise me all by herself. People could call it blind devotion but I was being filial to my momma, the one person I loved the most in this world. The one person that I must protect no matter what.
I could still remember reading a letter from my father when I was fifteen, telling me to take care of her. He had died ten years then and I found a letter addressed to me in his journal while trying to hide some cigarettes from my momma in his drawer. Until now, I wasn't sure whether my father had known that his end was coming or not, but his letter vouched that he had. Another downside of being in a mafia family was that the danger always lurked in the corner, waiting to bite us in the arse.
"Okay, fine. I suppose I'd be angry too if my mate said that my mom's dish tastes like shite." Seb walked closer to me, putting one hand on my shoulder. "Just-" he sighed, shaking his head, "don't do anything irreversible, okay? You love Xyrra, so I bet when you finally wish to start a relationship with her, you want to be serious about it. You want your heart and emotion to be in the right place. Don't just make her your rebound, Man."
"I won't," I told Seb then flipped the cover of my helmet. "I'm leaving now. If anything happens or if Leonidas is asking for me-"
I haven't finished my sentence but Seb already took a step back and finished it for me. "Yeah, I know. Not a word about Xy to him." He shoved his hands into the pocket of his gray jumper. "Though you do know that if he's forcing it out of me, I can't fight him. I mentally can't. He's the Alpha, Er. If he's using his Alpha's aura then I wouldn't have a chance to hide the truth from him."
"I know." My right hand gripped the throttle tightly then started to roll it, and the engine roared louder. "I'll be back before that happens." Then I pushed up the kickstand and went off.
It had taken me about forty minutes to get to Xyrra's house, twenty-five minutes earlier than usual although the traffic was quite normal. A thought creeped out inside my head, telling me that I had managed to come early because I had been missing her, but I shoved that thought away because whether I liked it or not, Young Seb had been right. My head was a mess and my heart was not in the right place right now. I shouldn't start something-anything- with Xyrra right now.
I heaved a small sigh and then parked my motorcycle out in the front before walking toward the porch. I sat on the small steps, placed my helmet next to me, and waited for her to come. I pulled out my phone and sent her a text.
I'm here.
To my surprise, the door behind me swung open, and before I could react, I felt two arms enveloping me in a hug. My whole body froze. This was not the first time Xyrra hugged me, we have hugged each other numerous times since we have practically been growing up for the last ten years together, yet this time, it felt different. I was not sure what it was. And when she finally took a seat next to me, pushing my helmet away, and looked up to meet my eyes, I knew that whatever she wished to ask me, I would do it in a heartbeat. The expression she had on her face nearly broke me.
My hands rubbed her arms up and down as I tried to calm her down. "What happened?"
"It doesn't matter." She shook her head and forced a smile. "How are you holding up? I heard about your fight with Crystal."
"I'm fine. Though I hope my momma will feel the same anytime soon too."
"I'm really sorry, Er." She patted my shoulder.
"It is not your fault. You weren't the person who called her dish tasteless and asked if you could order takeout instead." I shook my head and tried to bring the subject off me and to her. "What happened?" I asked again.
She looked at me disapprovingly for a second but eventually, she answered me, "I need your help."
"Anything," I assured her. All I wanted was to shed that sadness away, to make her feel better.
Xyrra bit her lips, looking a tad hesitant. "I need you to help me seduce him."
* * *
"W-hat?" I was not sure I had heard it right the first time. She could not possibly be serious, right? I knew I had told myself earlier that I would do absolutely anything for her but that did not necessarily mean that I would seduce another man for her. And right now, I was in such a predicament because I did not know how to tell her I didn't want to do that or reason with her. "Um," I cleared my throat and scratched a spot in the back of my head even though it was not itchy, just to lend myself some more time. "I, um, I honestly don't think that I'm his type, Xy. And I despite the fact that the Greek God after which I'm named could possibly do that, I don't swing that way."
This time her eyes widened in confusion for a split second and the next thing I knew, she was holding her stomach and laughing hard on the hardwood floor. She shook her head and wiped a small tear at the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I should have said it more clearly." She bit one side of her cheek for a moment as if to prevent herself from starting to laugh again before saying, "I mean I need your help to teach me. I want to be able to seduce him."
I snorted. "Why would you want to seduce Ryker Cromwell? That dickhead is better to be left alone." I did my best to keep my tone neutral which was proven to be not an easy thing to do.
She looked at me disapprovingly for a second but eventually, she answered me, "I've told you before that I want to get my revenge. While I was in the North, I learned that the rumor you told me the other day was right. His grandfather has given the company to someone else and right now, Ryker is trying to get me to become his Luna just so he could get his hands on his inheritance and his family's empire. He still wants Alana despite the lies and the act he was trying to pull."
"So you want to play along with him and make him fall for you for real so you get your revenge on both Ryker and Alana," I guessed, trying to understand her point.
Xyrra nodded. "Yes. I want to make him leave Alana for real and then break his heart." She closed her eyes for a brief moment and let out a deep sigh. "I know it sounds cruel and it's risky but he did this to me first, Er. Everything that happened, my dad's leaving, everything happened because of him, because of what he has said in that bloody wedding."
I held her hand and gave it a good squeeze. Thanos really had chosen the worst time to leave. He should have at least given her some explanation. Seriously, how hard was it to write something down and leave it for her to read? I suppressed my anger, knowing that there was no point in being angry right now when what had been done had already been done.
She dropped her gaze to our adjoined hands and said, "I am not experienced, Er. I don't know how to deal with guys. Even if I know, my experience is limited to high school boys."
My jaw tightened. Deep down, I knew that she was right. Thanos actually had scared most of the guys who tried to get close to her. He only allowed Brett after I had talked him into letting her live her life and that included having a boyfriend.
When she finally looked up, her brilliant eyes met mine and I knew it would be hard to say no to her. Especially when she was looking at me as if I was the only person in this whole wide world that could help her. That I was the only person she had left. "He's ridiculously out of my league, Er. I need your help."
"What do you want me to do? Do you want me to give you some pointers or something?" I swallowed the lump in my throat, knowing that I would be torturing myself if I was to tell her what she needed to do in order to seduce him.
"Teach me how to be irresistible, Er. You've gotten tons of ladies before you met Crystal. Some even called you a reformed playboy when you finally committed but those experiences are still there. You can teach me," said Xyrra, urging me while I was still stunned by the fact that she has been aware of my rakish behavior this whole time. I have always thought that she hasn't. After all, I've always steered clear of her friends and classmates.
"But Xy, you're already perfect just the way you are right now and if he doesn't fall for that," I shook my head, letting my eyes move over her beautiful figure as she stood before me in her fragile state, "then he's more of a dickhead than I thought he was. All you have to do is simply be there, talk to him."
But instead of agreeing with me, she rolled her beautiful eyes at me. "That's really vague, Er. Being me isn't enough, it won't be. I need to be someone better — someone, with experience. No guys want a plain girl who doesn't know what to do or how to please a man."
"Whoa whoa!" I frowned and hoped she didn't mean what I thought she meant. "Are you willing to go that far?"
"Sex is a part of the seduction, is it not? It's one of the things that would make him want me more, what will make him fall for me." Her cheeks blushed beet-red and she shook her head. "I mean that's what usually happens in those movies about no strings attached and whatnot. The two characters start hooking up and then before they know it, they fall for one another."
I really wished I could tell her that it was highly possible for someone to fall for her without having to bed her. That it was possible for someone to fall in love with her just by looking at her eyes, chatting with her, and watching her smile. That it was possible for that to happen without having to even kiss her, that just being with her was already enough to make someone fall for her.
Ares, who has been quiet this whole time, awfully took this moment to snort and say, 'Are you talking about yourself or what?'
I told Ares to shut the fuck up and he grumbly left. "Are you really comfortable sleeping with a stranger, well, with him?"
"I wouldn't know, would I?" She giggled nervously and started fidgeting with the charm bracelet that I'd given her on her fifteenth birthday. "I mean, I've never done it before."
My eyes widened in disbelief. "You've never been with anyone before? How can that possibly be?"
She rolled her eyes and withdrew her hand, slightly wounded. "I don't just open my legs for every passing man."
"Of course not," I quickly said, mentally kicking myself. "It's just that you're so beautiful. It comes as a surprise to me. And you were dating Brett for a while so I thought you've done it."
"I'm not even sure I was in love with Brett," she said silently and I frowned, wondering if I previously had mistaken the signs and thought that they both had been in love.
Ares sneered, 'Maybe she dated him because you encouraged her. Well done, Wanker.'
Before I could return Ares's snide remark, Xyrra pulled my attention back to her. "Er, are you going to help me or not?"
I deeply sighed, nodded my head then turned away from her, watching the broken cobblestones on the ground. "I don't know, Xy. I don't really like this plan. What if you fall for him?" My voice was tight despite my attempt to sound natural, to keep my emotion in check.
"I won't." Her voice sounded so sure yet I knew her for a long time now that I could hear a sliver of doubt there.
Turning my head, I met her eyes once again. "Are you sure?"
Her face looked appalled as if she was truly offended that I even doubted her. "I just have to tell myself over and over again that this man was the reason my life turned upside down, that he was the reason my dad left."
That didn't sound good or convincing enough but I didn't want to upset her further. "Okay, fine." I took a deep calming breath. "I will help you."
* * * * * * *
Is anyone here rooting for (friend-zoned) Eros? I do hope at least one person does ...