Read about the Multimedia in the A/N at the end before listening, please!
***
"Well, what do we do?" sounded the voice of Jackson Smith.
"Yeah, she's really starting to scare me," chimed his shadow and twin, William Smith.
I sat and listened to my brothers' worrying. Honestly, it pained me to hear them so distressed, yet there was nothing I could do about it. All I would end up doing is hurting more innocent people.
My cursed phone lay like a cold rock in my unmoving hand. As I sat Indian style, facing the blank, white, bathroom wall, all I could see was the dripping, crimson blood of Blaze's victims. Or, you could call them my victims.
I never knew how psychotic a person could be until I received the photos shortly after Blaze hung up the phone. As I sat on my knees in the cold bathroom floor, receiving picture after picture, I could feel my sanity leaving me.
To get straight to the point, he sent me pictures of his torture victims. The image of their desperate faces and battered bodies will never leave my mind. How their eyes were filled with pain, sorrow, and pleading. Not to mention, how the women and men of all ages lay beaten to a pulp on the floor of a concrete basement. Written alongside the photographs was an ominous message that stated, 'If you come back to me, I won't kill them'.
I suppose nothing good can last forever. Something evil will always swoop in to ruin it and there is nothing you can do about it.
Finding Adrian was my retreat. He gave me hope and made me believe that I could have a happily ever after. Yet, it was all lies. He'd never leave his wife for me and I was stupid to believe he would. Nothing good could happen to me. Blaze had made sure of that.
The door burst open and hit the wall with a loud bang. Not flinching, I knew who it was by their scents. Mother and father had come to visit their broken child.
It was quite touching, really.
"What wrong with her?" came the hoarse whisper of my mother.
They were now all crouching over me like a hungry flock of vultures. Yet, they definitely didn't have the same intentions as a flock of vultures would have; they wanted to help me. The only person who had ever helped me was Ricky and he shouldn't have. None of them should have been trying to help me. If people had continued to not help me, then none of this would have happened and everybody would have been relatively happy and safe.
It was for everybody's own good.
I suppose the best thing to do in this situation was to pretend that nothing was wrong. Pretending that nothing was wrong was easier and I hurt less people that way. They don't have to suffer like do and that's good.
Of course, I'd have to return to Blaze. That was only fair because it's my fault that all of those innocent people were being hurt. That was only fair because I was the one who ran away from my problems.
That was only fair because I was the monster.
Turning my head and keeping a blank face, I looked into the eyes of my mother. They were filled with pain, despair, and a bit of surprise.
"What?" I said softly, my lips curving into a small smile in attempt to reassure the crowd of people.
"What do you mean, 'what'?" she said, a helpless look on her flawless face. "You were spaced out for three hours. We would have been here sooner but we were caught up with the Cardings."
Oh yes, the Cardings. Adrian and Adriana hadn't visited me yet. They were probably too busy with their couples stuff. Not that it mattered, anyways. There was no way that Adrian and I could be together now that Blaze had made his intentions clear.
After all, what was I to Adrian, anyways? I was nothing more than a play toy; something that he could mess with for a little while and forget about when he got bored with it. That was all I would ever be to anyone. I was too caught up in the mating emotions to realize that he would never want me more than he'd want Adriana.
"I'm fine," I said, lies spewing out of my mouth in oceans.
"The Cardings, Ricky, and Samantha should be here to visit you soon and I've called the Royal Doctor to check on you," said my father, taking a hold of my chin and forcing me to turn my head to look at him. "You need to tell us exactly what happened for us to understand why you're acting this way."
"I'm not acting anyway. I'm fine and you have nothing to worry about. In fact, tell the Cardings, Ricky, Samantha, and the Royal Doctor not to come."
With a sigh, my father ran his fingers through his hair and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. A look of concentration and thought was present on his stressed face and I could picture the thoughts running through his head. He'd have nothing to stress over or worry about when I was gone. I was the reason for these feelings so once I disappeared, so would they.
"If that's what you want-"he began, yet was cut off by another loud bang of the door.
This time, I jumped and turned to see what happened. Unfortunately, a panting Adrian stood at the door. His beautiful brown, curly hair was wildly disorganized, his breaths were heaving and quick, and his eyes were filled with panic.
Why couldn't the world leave me alone? I was much better off on my own. Other people were much better off without my presence, as well. It's not like I was the most pleasant person to be around, anyways so why did everybody insist on being around me?
Adrian ran over and knelt next to me. Taking my face in his hands, he inspected my face for answers.
"What happened?" he asked with pain evident in his voice.
Looks of confusion crossed over everybody's face. They didn't understand why Adrian would care so much after knowing me for one day, even if I was his Princess. Yet, soon, realization was clear and they understood Adrian's reasons for his feelings.
My head was spinning at this point. He kept sending me mixed signals, leading me on, and making me believe things that he shouldn't. He shouldn't make me believe that he was going to be with me if it was clear that he wouldn't. He shouldn't make me fall in love with him when he was in love with another woman. It wasn't fair and I'm tired of things not being fair.
"You're mates," my father broke the screaming silence with the thing that everybody had been thinking.
Adrian solemnly nodded, still looking for any signs of injury on me.
Before I could voice my thoughts on the situation, three more people entered the room. It was, of course, Adriana, Ricky, and Samantha.
Immediately, Adriana ran to Adrian's side. I had to hold back a growl as she ripped him away from me to plant a long kiss right on his lips. During their spit exchange, I dug my fingernails into my palms to keep myself in control.
"Baby, why did you run here so fast?" said a still out of breath Adriana, rubbing a hand down his muscular arm.
That should've been me. I should've been the one to comfort him and love him no matter what the situation was. Yet, I wasn't and I was never going to be because you could see the love in Adrian's eyes shining clear- Love that wasn't directed to me.
Breaking out of their love filled daze, Adrian turned back to me. Shifting to turn to me, he caressed my cheek with his rough, yet strangely soft hand. Tingles and sparks lit up the path, causing me to close my eyes.
I was so frustrated that I wanted to cry. Again I say, it wasn't fair for him to blatantly love another woman right in front of me and then act like he really loves me just seconds after.
"Honey, what are you doing?" Adriana asked, confused.
Adrian was unresponsive until she laid a neatly manicured hand on his shoulder. He sighed and turned his head to look at her.
Embarrassingly, I was tempted to whimper when his hand left my cheek.
As if he sensed this, he gripped my pale and cold hand in his perfectly tan one to reassure me in a way. Adriana questioningly looked at our intertwined hands, raising a perfectly plucked, golden eyebrow. Giving my marble-like hand a squeeze, he turned to look back at Adriana.
"Adriana, there's something I have to tell you," Adrian said, a serious and sorry look on his face.
"What is it?" Adriana said, a worry flooding her crystal blue eyes.
"Lana is my mate."
And I guess you could say that that was when all hell broke loose. Yet, I've been through more to know that what happened next was definitely not hell.
***
:) Please read-
Multimedia-
This song is pretty explicit so if you're sensitive to that kind of stuff then please don't listen to it or look up a clean version of it.(: Yet, that aside, I adore this song. It may seem too 'hard' for some people with certain tastes but it perfectly describes Lana's feelings in this section.(:
Yay! Thank you all so much for reading my stories. Before No Mate of Mine got semi-popular, I felt like I was just writing without anybody really liking, appreciating or reading my work.
So, thank you to everybody who's read No Mate of Mine. It makes my day to see everybody's reviews and funny comments. Also, thank you for all your constructive criticism. I'm so glad I have people giving me good comments that help me improve rather than people who insult my work.
I wish I could dedicate to this to all of my fans. I have 29,406 reads and 715 votes on No Mate of Mine! I never thought that any of my books would make it this far and I want to thank you all.
I'm sorry if my updates aren't as frequent or long as you want but I'll try to adjust them to what you want. Please leave comments so I know if you're having any troubles understanding things or if you notice a few errors in my writing.(:
Thank you and love you,
Kendall