Real Mates
*~Hunter's POV~*
Damon paced back and forth between some trees. Swearing up and down at Josh for something while his face turned red. "What is taking him so long?" He sighed.
"Well we did just kind of leave him with the guy that bullied him for years and gave him a gun. I think he'll be just fine, Damon. And if not, we're here to control the situation." I said sitting down on some random log. I was trying my best to come to terms with it myself.
Damon glanced at me for a moment. "How are you doing this?" He asked after a while, "I mean, you really must not care about anything."
I looked up at him before slowly getting up and walking over to him.
"I don't care? That's a new one. I don't care." I started, "I'll let you know that I care and worry about him, way more than you think I do. I have things that I can't say or do around him, or you for that matter."
"Me? What do I have to do with anything?" Damon asked.
I laughed bitterly at him, "Oh really, Damon? You know what you have to do with this situation." I sighed and leaned against a tree. Damon looked ashamed of himself. "You know, I would have never thought of a cover up quite like yours. I mean, pretending to hate him when really your in love with him and are trying to 'protect' him. How fucking poetic."
"Hunter, look, I never meant to harm you or anything. And I really didn't want to harm Alex." He started and I laughed some more at his claims, "All I want you to know is that whatever happened between Alex and I is done, okay?"
I rolled my eyes and looked at him in disbelief. "Alex said that too. And I wanna believe you guys, I do. But I know better. I probably know too much." I was trying to hold myself together but I was already tearing apart at the seams. I just didn't understand why Curse would do this to me. Just tell me that my mate isn't really mine and just let me live with that for the rest of my life.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Damon asked. And I couldn't hold back anymore. I could feel the tears sliding down my face. I was so disgusted by my own brother right now. His voice. His naïveté. That he doesn't even realize how much I wanted to hate him right now. But I couldn't because he didn't know. Damon came closer to me, his face mixed up in confusion. "Hunter, what does that mean!"
I choked back my sobs the more I squeezed my eyes close as the pathetic mess of tears streamed down my face. Everything was so fucked up. This whole sistuation was fucked. And I was exhausted. Emotionally, mentally, and even a bit physically. Why did I even try to act like I could handle this? Why did I even have to? I was done with listening to their claims because I knew they wouldn't keep them.
I don't blame them. Why would Alex want me anyway? He's mated to my brother. My stupid and confused brother. They've already been together once. Why not just go back to old patterns of Damon and Alex with me hiding in the shadows. Why should I even try anymore – there was no point. I had no point. I was mateless. I probably don't even have a mate. Who else if not Alex? There was no body else. There can't be anybody else. So what's the point of hiding it? I might as well tell Damon. But I don't know how to tell Alex. He'll probably be happy. "Your right." I whispered. "He's not my mate."
"What are you talking about?"
"Alex! He's not my mate, okay! You were fucking right!" I cried out. "He yours, Damon. Yours." Now the tears were too much to stop. I just couldn't do this. I couldn't bottle things up like this. But how else am I supposed to stay Alpha like this? A sobbing, broken, crying mess. And the things that constantly race around in my head make everything worse. Not even touching on Gift and Curse.
"Hunter, that doesn't make any sense. He can't..."
I stared at Damon's blurry face before taking my hand and hitting him upside the head. I was getting tired of this. Of him.
"Think Damon!" I growled at him. "God, you know, sometimes I feel as if I'm talking to a wall. That you've pretended that you don't know anything so long you've started to believe it. JUST FUCKING THINK ABOUT IT! USE THAT IMPOSSIBLY THICK SKULL OF YOURS AND PUT IT TO USE BECAUSE I'M FUCKING TIRED OF YOUR SHIT." I screamed.
I was too tired and stressed to even keep my emotions at bay anymore. This whole situation was frustrating and illogical. I mean, giving Alex a gun? And the fact that he just magically knew how to perfectly shoot a weapon? His alpha powers? What else could make this worse?
And then we heard it. The bullet shot. It rang in my ears and rattled around my brain. The sound was sickly and my heart seemed to get tighter in my chest. Then a second shot was fired and I doubled over as a sharp shooting pain went through my body. Tears pushed out of my eyes and my breathing was shallow. My vision was blurry and darkening. I could see the red mist taking up the forest floor.
"Hunter? Hunter, are you okay?" Said Damon's voice, but it sounded so far away and distanced. It was like I was drowning and burning at the same time. Wanting to scream out in pain but trapped by the water filling my lungs. And that gun shot still ringing in my ears. But it too was becoming drown out by dark laughter that could only belong to Curse.
He came into my shaking view and clapped slowly. His laughed louder than ever. His cold red eyes on fire. The ground around him setting a blaze.
"Well, well, well, aren't we just so happy about Alex's new talent?" He smirked.
"What ... did you ... do?" I growled out in panting breathes. And I think Damon replied but I didn't much care at the moment.
"Oh, it's not what I did. It's what Alex just did. I mean come on, everyone has a mate. Even you. If it's not Alex, and Molly's gone, and I defiantly could not have made a new person, that narrows it down to one, unfortunately dead rouge werewolf; Josh." Curse laughed.
"You fucking bastard! I'm going to kill you!" I said, gritting my teeth. Once again, I vaguely detected Damon's presence as he held me back.
Curse smiled, "Don't worry, you'll get your swinging chance. But for now just feel the pain of your mate dying. And by the person you claimed as yours and thought was your mate. And I know it hurts, Hunter I do. But that's my favorite part. See that look on your face as it dawned on you who your real mate was and see those beautiful tears of yours run down your face as your insides twist and burn and kill every last one of your hopeful fibers." He laughed. "And I get to memorize this face of yours to help me get off." Curse said. His eyes turning into actual fire as his leaned in close to my face. He smirked one last time and then burst into red mist and faded away.
I let out a cross between a frustrated groan and a sobbing screech of pain. And I pieced the puzzle together just before the world went dark; Alex had just killed Josh, my real mate, that Curse had hidden from me until now because he wanted me to feel the absolute and pure pain of losing my mate.
• • •
I woke up in a dimly lit tent and groaned at the source of light. My body felt weak and sore and in pain. And so did my heart. I couldn't move nor did I want to. I felt like dying. I felt like nothing. Absolutely nothing. My thoughts were dark and cold and barley there. I could not phantom happiness of any kind. Their was a figurative weight on my chest that kept slowly crushing my insides. Moving at the rate of a snail. Stretching the pain over and over again and again.
I was crying and I didn't know why.
The tent door opened and someone came in. I couldn't tell from the blurriness of my current vision but I couldn't be bother to think about getting up right now.
“Hunter?” a soft voice that I once use to love asked. My eyes opened wide and stared at Alex. And now I knew why I was crying. Because of him. Because of Alex. The only thing I could see when I looked at him was death. The death of Josh. The death of my mate. He smiled at me as if he couldn't tell that I wanted him to leave. “How are you feeling?”
My answer never came as he looked at me with concern. I flinched away from him when he tried to touch me. I was shaking, terribly so. And I wasn't cold or scared. I was angry. My wolf had only one thought right now: revenge. Avenge my mates death. To kill Alex. But the little slice of humanity in me said no. That I couldn't kill Alex. That would be wrong. But the longer I laid there with him the stronger my animal instincts would grow.
“Get... out...” I said quietly.
“What?” Alex asked shocked.
“Get, out.” I said a little louder. Alex got up but didn't leave. I sat up in and looked at him. “I SAID, GET OUT!” I screamed and shoved him out of the tent. Damon appeared and helped Alex up as I was finally able to stand on my own two feet.
“Whoa, Hunter! Are you okay? What the fuck are you doing?” He asked holding Alex behind him.
I growled at him before taking off into the woods. I was running away. Moving passed the trees that twisted and bend and made their little arches. I was running towards the lake. Trying to escape my thoughts and people and everything.
A/N: Josh.... was Hunters... mate! O.O I really don't think I can say anything more that just: How are you feeling right now? Until next time my lovlies! Pick is of Hunter.