Chapter twelve
Jason’s eyes wandered to the arm wrapped around my waist before they looked at Ryder. Oh god, judging by the glare on his face directed to Ryder, I could tell he was going to go all protective-older-brother mode.
“Grace,” My dad says being the first one to speak. “Can you explain me why the king told me you were hooking up with Ryder?”
Huh?
“I thought you were smarter than that and waited for your mate,” Mom says, disappointment in her voice.
“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on them. “Ryder is my mate.”
“Why hasn’t he marked you yet then?”
“I was just kidnapped by rogues!”
“Are you sure you were? We were looking all over for you! Who knows? Maybe you left the territory to get a good fuck with Ryder!” Dad’s angry voice yelled.
I gawked and suddenly felt irritated that my parents don’t even believe me.
“Enough!” Ryder yells, his tone matching my dad’s. “She’s my fucking mate, okay?”
“No she isn’t,” Ryder’s dad says. “She’s just another one of your whores that want the title of the queen.”
“She’s not,” He growls, his eyes turning yellow. I rubbed his arm and hoped that it would calm him down a bit. I was a little hurt that the king just called me a whore.
I see my Dad walking towards me. He grabs my arm and yanks me out of his grip. I let out a shriek of surprise at how rough he was being.
Ryder bared his teeth and made a move to grab my other arm. “Don’t touch my mate!” He yells.
Ryder’s dad comes over and pushed him, causing him to let go of my arm. “She’s not your mate!” His dad yells at him. “Don’t even lie to me! You expect us to believe she’s your mate when she comes out like that wearing only your shirt?! How do you think that looks to us?!”
“She was attacked by rogues!”
“Bullshit,” He says, gritting his teeth. “C’mon, we’re going home. I thought I would have a nice time visiting you on your birthday but so far, you’re only pissing me off, Ryder.”
“I’m not leaving without my mate,” Ryder yells at him and struggles out of his dad’s grip. The only thing stronger than Ryder was his dad, so far.
“Alex, grab your mate. We’re going on the private jet right now,” I hear the king say. I was trying to get out of my dad’s grip but he only pulled me harder and soon, we were into a car. I made a move to get out but Dad put child lock on me.
I see Ryder being pushed somewhere and he makes eye contact with me. Oh god, he was leaving and going back to his real home without me. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“Dad,” I say in a pleading tone to him while he quickly drove off away from the forest. “You have to believe me. I wasn’t hooking up with him. He’s my mate!”
I noticed Jason was sitting next to me and my mom was in the passenger seat. My mom looked angry and Jason wasn’t facing me so I couldn’t tell what he felt. But, I’m sure all of them were listening to me.
I felt tears of frustration coming out.
“Dad,” I say, the panic in my voice was clear. “Please talk to me. Please tell me you believe me.”
“Grace,” I hear Jason’s voice say. I turned to look at him. “Just stop talking.”
“No,” I say roughly. “I’m not just going to stop, okay?”
“STOP,” Dad yells. “Grace, you are giving me the fucking worst headache ever. Just STOP TALKING.”
“I could’ve been killed by rogues if he didn’t come and save me!”
“And you pay him back by having sex with him?!”
“No, dad! I didn’t have sex with him!”
“But you were planning to! I heard your conversation! He asked when you were planning on paying him back and you said soon.”
“That was for something else though!”
“Grace, just shut up,” Dad says in his beta tone, one of the two tones that could command me to do anything.
I didn’t talk for the rest of the car ride. Not because of his beta-commanding tone, but the way he was treating me. How could my family do this to me? How could they not believe me?
We arrived at the house in a few minutes and dad unlocks the car. I sullenly got out, not even wanting to talk to them.
I went upstairs and slammed my door, burying my face in my pillow and cried my eyes out.
I hear somebody enter my room but I didn’t put a thought to it. Why the hell do they care? I felt the bed dip. I wiped my tears and turned away so that they don’t see me.
“You know dad’s just trying to protect you right?” I hear Jason say.
“From who, my own mate?” I laugh bitterly.
“Nobody believes he’s your mate because he came a few days ago and you’ve shown no acknowledgement of him at all.”
“If you couldn’t tell, I’ve gotten really good at acting from the past few days.”
“So you were just acting it all out? No wonder you were so interested in him when I told you about him. How did you find out? How did he find out?” At least my brother believed me. I sighed and got up. I think I looked like a mess because Jason’s eyes widened.
“How about you go and take a shower and then we’ll talk about this later?” He says gently and ruffled my hair.
I swatted his hand away. “Stop making my hair even knottier.”
I glare at him when he chuckles before giving me a kiss on the head and went out the door.
I get up and go and take a shower. When I looked in the mirror, I was glad that Jason told me to take a shower. My makeup was smudged, making it look like I had dark circles under my eyes and they were all swollen and red from crying. My hair was knotty and gross. I don’t understand how Ryder could even look at me and call me “Beautiful”. I was anything but attractive right now.
I should’ve known he was lying.
Trying not to cry again, I went in the shower to get clean.
When I was finished, I was really tempted to wear Ryder’s shirt again. It was the only thing I had left of him right now and his scent calmed me down. I was even thinking about running away to him but my wolf thought it was an absurd idea.
She obviously didn’t take the news of being separated from Ryder really well…
I checked my phone and found a bunch of missing calls and text messages. They were all from my family. They must’ve been really worried when I was missing. It wasn’t my fault that I got kidnapped though. And they thought that I was hooking up with Ryder.
I received a recent message from Lily. It was sent five minutes ago.
Lily: “We’re on the plane right now. I asked Alex if we’re ever going to go back. He said no. :(”
I decided to reply back.
Me: “What about your clothes?”
She replied quicker than I had expected to.
Lily: “The king asked if my parents could send it over. I was thinking if you can go and help them since they probably don’t know what to bring.”
Me: “Alright, I’ll go over tonight, if I can. How’s Ryder?”
Lily: “He’s really upset with what happened :/”
Me: “Where is he right now?”
Lily: “In the bathroom I think. He hasn’t come out ever since we went on the jet.”
Me: “Oh…”
I felt really unhappy when we were separated. I can’t imagine how Ryder must’ve been feeling.
I heard a knock on my door.
“Can I come in?” I hear Jason say.
Realizing I’m only in my bra and underwear, I quickly reach for Ryder’s shirt and put it on.
“Since when did you knock?” I asked while reaching for a brush to comb my wet hair.
I sense him roll his eyes and the door opened. He came inside and shut the door, staring at the t shirt I had on.
“Are you in love with that shirt or something?” He teases with a cheeky grin on his face.
I glared at him. “I am not. I just threw something on quickly.”
“Why? It’s all dirty and stuff, especially since it’s white.”
“Well, if you haven’t known, I like the smell of Ryder.”
He shudders in disgust. “That’s gross. I’ll never understand you mates.”
I scoffed. “When you find her, you’ll understand.”
“Whatever you say baby sis,” He shrugs, “So how about you explain to me about what went on with you and your mate?”
I went to open my mouth to speak but I heard my mom’s voice say, “Kids, time to eat breakfast.”
Then I suddenly realized that it was only 10 in the morning and I was awake all night and all morning.
“C’mon, you must be starving,” Jason says.
I faked a yawn and said, “I’m tired. I was up all night trying to save Lily from the rogues that kidnapped us. You go on without me.” Honestly, I didn't really want to see my parents right now.
He looks at me strangely. Okay, so if my parents heard that I was tired, they’d probably think I really did hook up with Ryder last night. So, that could be why Jason’s looking at me strangely. He didn’t say anything though. He just said “okay” and left.
I really didn’t care what they think though. It’s not like they’ll believe me anymore.
I plopped down on my bed and sighed. My heart started hurting when I thought about never seeing Ryder again. What if he goes back to his home and he finds other pretty girls? What will I do? How would I feel? I’m already sad enough right now.
I heard that he lived all the way in California. I was in Massachusetts right now. How can I handle it when he’s so far away?
I pick up my phone and called Lily. I wouldn’t expect her to pick up though because the plane probably took off.
“Hey Lily,” I say when she did, which surprised me.
“Hey,” I hear Alex say.
“Oh Alex.” I realized that he picked up her phone. “Where’s Lily?”
“She says she’s going to get Ryder out of the bathroom. The private jet won’t take off until Ryder sits down and puts on his seatbelt on. He’s locked himself in there for thirty minutes.”
All of a sudden, I hear a crash in the phone.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Shit,” Alex says. “Ryder’s dad just broke the bathroom door down.” I hear him walking somewhere. He was talking to someone now and I couldn’t catch what they were saying. I sat up from my bed.
“What about Ryder? What was he doing in there?” I'm sure he could hear the worry in my voice.
“Uh, Grace…” He trailed off, ignoring my questions.
“What?”
“Ryder isn’t in there.”
Suddenly, I heard somebody tapping on my window.