"Eros, it's me. Xyrra."
The man who was standing right in front of me looked every bit like my best friend and yet, at the same time, he didn't. Although he looked like Eros Adler, I couldn't put my finger on what was different about him, but I just didn't feel like he was Eros.
"I don't know you and I don't know who this Eros person is," said the man, frowning. My hand was still holding his wrist, but I quickly released it as his gaze moved towards me.
"Xy." Miles came closer, stealing a glance at the man before focusing his attention on me. "Maybe you got the wrong person," he muttered in a low voice.
"No, I've grown up with Eros. I know what he looks like." I stared at the man, giving him a once over, then my eyes landed on the brown shirt he was wearing underneath his black blazer. His clothing was familiar to me. He'd once left them behind at my house when he'd had a sleepover. My mind instantly recalled what had happened before. "I can prove it. That shirt you're wearing. At the back there's a white spot. It's because when you left it at my house, I was using a whitening detergent for my clothes and it splashed on your shirt which caused the discoloration."
The man frowned, but he took off his blazer. As he started pulling the shirt over himself, Miles acted fast and caught his arm. "Dude, what are you doing? Are you trying to get in trouble or something? People are watching."
Eros shrugged his shoulders without care and proceeded to take off his shirt. "I have nothing to be embarrassed about."
In his defense, Eros was right. His toned, lean body with muscle and hard six packs certainly would attract praise and not mockery. I tried not to look, but with him standing only a mere foot away from me, it was proven to be quite an impossible thing to do. So I focused my gaze on his shirt instead and sure enough, there was a blotch on the back.
Eros looked up and met my eyes. His blue-green eyes widened. "You're right." There was a look of wonder in his eyes, then he blinked and it disappeared. "This is just a coincidence. It doesn't mean anything."
"Are you serious?" I took a deep breath and tried my best to calm myself down. He could be having amnesia and here I was, being impatient with him. "Okay. I know everything about you. What you like, what you don't like. I know all the injuries you've gotten during your childhood because I was there with you when you got them." I took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Our eyes were still locked on one another and for a few moments there, I honestly thought I saw Eros. "Do you really have no idea who I am?"
"No." When he answered, I could hear the honesty in his voice and the truth in his eyes. He truly meant what he'd said. "My name is Ares."
"Wait, Ares is his wolf? You're Eros's wolf, right? I remember Eros mentioned you once when I came to the North with Ryker." He tried to pull his arm, which only made me hold him even tighter. "What happened? Where's Eros?"
"I've told you before. I don't know who Eros is."
Miles turned to me. There was an odd look on his face. "Xy, are you sure Ares is your friend's wolf?"
"Yeah." I nodded. Miles grimaced, so I asked, "Why?"
"That doesn't sound good, Xy." He turned to Eros and narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to see something that I couldn't. "I've heard stories before, but there have only been two cases and both are in neighboring packs, so I've never witnessed it."
"What are you trying to say?" I glanced anxiously at Eros/Ares. Whatever it was, I knew it couldn't be good.
"It's like rabies or mad cow. People said that it's a disease where the wolf would overpower the human and take over the body. If Ares here is truly your friend Eros's wolf, then it's possible that he has killed Eros."
Feeling offended, Eros/Ares took a step forward. "I didn't kill anyone," he said in a low voice, barely above whispering level. Even when he was pissed, he knew that it was best not to draw attention to us. "And I don't know about Eros either. I'm done listening to both of you." He jerked his hand off my hold and started crossing the road.
The pedestrian light had turned red and Eros/Ares received some horns from annoyed drivers. I watched his retreating back as he cut through the crowd and wondered if this was the right thing to let him go. I knew using magic in public was unfeasible, but I couldn't shake off the thought of using it to bring back Eros. There was no way Ares would kill Eros, right? Although Miles had said that there had been two cases, he himself had never witnessed it, so it was possible that this so-called rare disease wasn't even real.
"Hey, are you okay?" Miles placed his hand on my shoulder..
"No."
"It's possible that he's just another person who looks like your friend. Or maybe he's your friend, but he lost his memory." Miles moved to stand in front of me. His eyes were filled with genuine concern. "Hey, come on. We'll find your friend, okay?"
I let out a sigh and gave him a small nod. Miles led me back to my motorcycle, and on the way, he offered to take me home. He probably knew that I was in no condition to drive. Yet my stubborn mind refused to let someone take care of me, so I told him that I'd drive carefully.
"Or you could come to the party with me," said Miles once we stopped by my motorcycle.
"Seriously? You're very tenacious."
Miles laughed. "Well, I tried."
I weighed my options. It was either going home to a very quiet house where Dmitry was being too quiet that I wouldn't even know if he was in the room and Ryker would lock himself in his office and if by any chance I happened to catch him outside the comfort of his office, he would pretend I didn't exist. Gosh, I really missed Trish! Thank goodness she'd be back next week.
The more I thought about it, the more going to the college party with Miles sounded more appealing. There was no parental figure back at the pack house, so there was no one who would try to reinforce the curfew. Plus, Ryker was too busy ignoring me that I doubted he could even tell that I wasn't home. Even if by some miracle he could, he wasn't my dad, so he couldn't tell me what to do.
"Fine." I took a deep breath and put down the helmet I was about to use. "Let's go to this damn party."
Miles was grinning from ear to ear as he opened the car door for me. "You're gonna love it. My friend Ben always throws the best party."
Once I was in his car, he closed the door for me and then walked around the hood to get to his own seat. I put the seatbelt on as I watched him entering the car and settling in behind the wheels. My mind wondered if this was a good idea to come to this party with Miles. It probably wasn't the wisest, but after what had happened today with meeting amnesia Eros/Ares, I doubted anything weird would happen again.
***
It was easy to find the house where the party was being held, judging from the music blasting from it. There was a couple on the terrace, openly making out as if they were in their own place and not at a party. A guy and a girl openly drinking beer from plastic cups by the door seemed to recognize Miles.
"Miles, you came!" said the guy with dark hair and darker eyes. "I thought you're gonna bail on us for this chick you said has been driving you nut."
Under the light above us, I could see Miles' cheekbones reddened a little. "I was working."
"Right," drawled the girl with a knowing smile. She caught the sight of me as I stood behind Miles and pointed her jaw towards me. "Who's this?"
Miles moved away, giving me some space to step forward. "This is Xyrra." Then he turned to me and introduced his friends. "This is Rusty and Ashley."
"Hi," I greeted them. We talked for a bit. Most of the time I was just listening to them talking about sports and school while learning a bit more about Miles. Thus far I'd gathered that he was majoring in business administration and that he'd gotten in here through scholarship. It appeared that Miles was also the goalkeeper of their university football (soccer) team. The other guy, Rusty, was also on the team, and Ashley was his girlfriend, who was also on the cheerleaders' team.
After a while, we went through the door. On the inside, the house was crowded and loud, with smoke hanging in the air and alcohol flowing freely. Several people offered us drinks, and some girl even invited us four times to play beerpong, forgetting that she'd already spoken to us on the first three. I regarded it all in amazement. The party was more or less similar to a high school party until I accidentally stumbled into a room upstairs and came to a full stop when I realized its inhabitants were half-naked. Miles apologized to them, pulling me out. "They're playing poker," said Miles once we were walking to the back of the house where the kitchen was located.
"Naked?"
Miles glanced at me, his lips twisted into a mischievous smirk, and in his eyes, I could see a dangerous glint. "Strip poker." Then he leaned forward and his voice dropped into a whispering level. "Wanna play?"
"No, thank you," I replied silkily.
"Coward," he muttered, but from the humor in his eyes, I knew he was joking.
We helped ourselves with some drinks. Miles, being a responsible driver, only drank a can of Coke. I indulged in a glass of gin and tonic. I figured it wouldn't hurt. Despite my previous claim that I was a virgin when it came to alcoholic beverages, the gin and tonic that I'd had back at the club about four weeks ago hadn't actually knocked me out. I had to thank Ryker for coming to my rescue that night, yet realizing that he has been ignoring me the past few days, I decided not to.
I shook my head. Instead of thinking about Ryker, I should be having fun at this party. In a swift motion, I finished my drink and reached for the bottle for another fix.
"Hey, slow down," said Miles with a frown. He put down the bottle I was holding and linked her fingers through mine. "Why don't we dance, hm? I still remember that you still owe me that dance."
He was referring to the dance back at the Halloween party. Upon knowing that Miles was Alana's younger brother, I ended the dance with a lame excuse — of needing to go do something. He'd shouted back to me as I'd been walking through the crowd, saying that I owed him a dance.
"Fine." I rolled my eyes and let him lead me to the living room, where most of the furniture had been pushed back in order to make some space for the dance floor. He spun me around and then tugged my hand, pulling my body closer to his. "Just one song, okay," I told him. I still remembered what I'd said to Ryker. I didn't want to give Miles any false hope. This whole soulmate thing — albeit I didn't believe it, it was real for them, or at least they believed it to be real and the last thing I wanted was to break a girl's heart like what Ryker had done to Alana. Perhaps at the end of tonight, I should tell him that all I wanted — all I could ever be — was to be his friend, and hopefully, he would understand. Even though I'd only known him for a short while, Miles seemed to be a genuine and good person.
"Or two," said Miles with a grin. His breath was fanning my forehead and I tried my best not to take a step back. "Or three, just to make it a good number."
"One." I gave him a pointed look and his smile faltered a little, making me feel bad. "Anyway, how did it happen?"
"How did what happen?"
"How did you choose this university?" I asked, both because I was curious and because I wanted to change the topic into something light. "After living your first sixteen years in the North, you must be thrilled to know that you could finally explore the world. I know some people would choose to go to America or even somewhere far, like New Zealand or Australia. So why do you choose here? There must be something special about this place."
"There isn't." He let out a sigh, and I started to feel that this might be a bad idea to choose this question. "Believe it or not, I actually love this country. I love it here. I wouldn't even mind if Alpha Ryker suddenly decided that we need to have our own university back in the North. I'm pretty sure I'd be the first to sign up." Miles inhaled a deep breath, then sighed again. "But my sister makes it difficult for me."
"How's so?" I frowned. I envisioned Alana as someone capable of hurting others while remembering the dream where she killed Ryker's brother or an older Ryker. I knew she could. Yet I still remembered how fierce she had been the other day when she'd tried to protect her brother. "She's your sister, right? So she surely wants to aid you in every way."
Miles gave out a harsh laugh, shaking his head. "Have you met my sister?" he scoffed. "The only person she cares about the most in this world is herself. You can see how she's pretending to be a saint back in the North. It has been like that since she got it into her head that she would become our future Luna. She doesn't care about me and in those instances where she does, it's probably because she wants to protect her own secret."
My interest was piqued at this point. I leaned forward, keeping my eyes locked with his, as I asked, "What secret?"
Miles remained quiet and I could tell that he would not tell me, which was understandable. Why would he tell his sister's secret to a stranger he'd just met a week ago? No matter how much he hated his sister, she was still his sister.
"It's fine." I gave him a reassuring smile. "You don't have to tell me. I was just asking for the sake of asking."
He nodded. But when I thought we'd dropped this subject, he leaned forward until his head was next to mine and his lips were next to my ear. "I can tell you, but you have to promise me that you'll keep this a secret." Despite everything else, I found myself nodding. "My sister had an abortion."
I jerked back, eyes widened. Alana had had an abortion? When? Was it Ryker's kid? Did Ryker know? I had so many questions in my head and I tried my best to keep my mouth shut.
As if he could read my mind, Miles's hand slid up and rubbed my back softly. "Don't worry. The father is not Ryker. He wouldn't touch her. He's not that kind of person."
"Even though he used to party a lot, live vicariously, and collect women?" I couldn't help the sarcasm in my voice. I could still remember what Eros had once told me about Alpha Ryker Cromwell.
"He used to be like that, but he and Alana have been friends. I've heard about his, um, adventurous life after he left for university, but when his brother died and he was forced by the circumstances to go back here, he no longer did that. To be honest, I think he's changed drastically." Miles shrugged. "Understandable, considering the role he has to take."
"If it's not Ryker, then who was the father?" I whispered to myself.
Miles, who had heard it, shook his head. "I don't know. I never asked, but when she went to the clinic, the clinic insisted that she have to have one person responsible for bringing her home after the whole process is done."
"So she brought you," I muttered.
Miles nodded. "I know she's no longer with Ryker, but please don't tell anyone. My sister," he let out a sigh, "she's been through a lot these days. I don't want to add more burden."
"I'm sorry." I could not help but feel guilty.
"No." He shook his head. "Hey, don't be sorry. I know my sister made you the villain, but I know you're just another victim of this cruel fate. I've born knowing about this whole thing, what was expected of me and what would happen. But you didn't. You lived your life just like how you've been living your life and then one day, everything's changed and you were being introduced to the world you never thought existed." He pretty must have just summed up my whole experience. Miles lifted his hand and brushed my cheek lightly. He gave me a small smile. His eyes were kind. "So don't feel bad. Don't apologize, because none of this is your fault."
For the first time, my chest tightened. I thought that no one understood how I felt. Everyone seemed to have their own agenda. Eros, with the whole secrecy and his effort to hide things from me. Ryker with his wish to acquire his birthright and got his family's business back by using me. Yet here he was, Alana's brother who should be hating me for ruining one of the most important days in his sister's life. Instead, he understood how I felt. He knew that I was just another victim, like the rest of them. I didn't like victimizing myself, but no one seemed to realize that I had never wanted a soulmate or been dragged into someone else's relationship. Nor had I ever wanted to have a sadistic werewolf father who had chosen to abandon me where I'd needed him the most.
My chest tightened even more, and it was harder for me to breathe. I was about to tell Miles that I needed to go outside when the light bulbs above us started to explode one by one, almost at the same time as each breath I took. I looked down and saw my hands were oozing with those red smokes.
Looking at Miles's widening eyes, I could tell that he knew that something was not right. And the worst part was he knew that I was the cause.
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A/N: heiyo, tomorrow is my birthday :DD so I decided to publish this long chapter as a gift to everyone! hope you enjoy this as much as I do! and don't worry, next chapter will be coming very soon!