I woke up to a big breakfast next to my bed and a clean pair of clothes at the end of the bed. A note is on top of the tray of food and I guess it is Dylan. It says, "Good Morning! I have a big day planned for us! I thought about everything you said last night and agree with you. It is unfair to expect you to switch back over to me after being with someone else. So, I will make you love me again! See you soon."
I roll my eyes at his lame attempt at wooing me. There is nothing he can do that will make me love him like I did before. Even so, I decide to go along with it and not cause a big scene about it. I get ready and shower, putting on everything he laid out for me, praying that he didn't take pictures of me sleeping, and ate the breakfast. Breakfast was the first thing I did, of course. In the order of mates, it would be 1. Food, 2. Ryland, 3. Food, 4. Dylan.
Eventually, Dylan step into the room after a quick knock and smiles at me. I stand up from the bed, eager to leave the room. I'm wearing rather warm clothes, so I suspect we are going outside. He offers his arm to me and I take it, letting him lead me out of my own house. He is smiling the whole time, especially after we pass my parents. My mother gives me a sad smile as my dad remains emotionless.
We spend the day doing activities we used to do: shopping, getting sweets, taking pictures at cool locations, and getting lunch together. We went skating, played some games at a café, and some other stuff until it reached nighttime. Once it was dark, we headed back home and he took me to my garden. Throughout the day, I had given him little to no interest. He kept pursing me nonetheless.
"I had a great time. How about you?" He desperately asks. I shake my head with a sad smile.
"Things will never be the same, no matter what you do." I honestly tell him. He had been acting strong the whole day, but now I see his eyes shimmer with incoming tears.
He grabs ahold of me, desperate, and looks into my eyes, "Why can't you love me?"
"Because my heart belongs to someone else. It aches every time I am away from him. What you are doing only makes it worse." I explain to him. My chest feels empty and dull. My wolf no longer talks to me. My life is slowly fading from me and I can do nothing about it besides playing along with his game.
"I know what I am doing is wrong, but what else am I to do? This is all I know." He whispers, a tear escaping him. My emotions are running everywhere and I cry, tears rolling down my face. His eyes scan my face, his hands reaching my cheeks. His thumbs gently glide over my skin and wipes the tears off. "Shh. Don't cry for me." He comforts me and pulls me into a hug. It's so familiar and warm. My heart is aching. I know I do not have any feeling for him, but I am remembering times that I did. This hug doesn't compare to Rylands, though. I wish I was with him instead.
"I will make you feel better." He says, letting go of me and leading me back into the house. "You've always liked some nice, warm tea to cheer you up. Let's get you some, yes?" He glances back at me and I force out a smile. I do love tea.
He sets me down on a sofa and goes into the kitchen nearby. I look around the room and decide if now is the chance to run and try to find Ryland, but my house is way too big to be running around to find him. Plus, I don't even know if he is still in here or alive. Dylan soon comes back and tells me to take his hand. He doesn't have any tea, but I assume he just asked one of my chiefs to make it. I let him take me down a few halls and stairs until we are in my basement. My heart starts to pound more and more the further we go and it feels like shattering when he opens a certain door. There, in the middle of the room, lies Ryland with bruises and cuts all over his body. Only his jeans are still barely on him while he is chained to a post in the middle of the room. The silver chains keep him weak and defenseless, barely keeping ahold onto his life.
I gasp, putting a hand to my mouth and cry again. Who could be so cruel to do something like this!? Why would Dylan want to show me this!? Ryland opens his weak eyes and raises it up to look at me. My wolf comes back to me, urging me to run to Ryland. I know if I do, there will be major consequences. Dylan wouldn't just show me Ryland to be nice. No, he has a reason for this and it's not going to be good. Ryland's eyes widen and I see him trying to get up to walk to me, but he is too weak for even that movement.
"M...Mau-ra..." He manages to get my name out of his mouth and my body automatically moves toward him, only to be stopped by Dylan. My body shivers from my name and I want to cry. I've never done this much crying before!
"I want you to say goodbye to him." Dylan says. I shake my head and he gives me a strong glare, "Say goodbye now or never." I refuse to say goodbye. Instead, I shake myself out of Dylan's grasp and run to Ryland. I wrap my arms around him while he is stuck in one position, not able to touch me back. I feel his breath on my neck and I hold him tighter. My skin accidentally gets in contact with his chains, burning my skin on impact. I recoil away and look at the red spot on my arm.
"This is harmful to werewolves... Don't touch it." Ryland manages to choke out while looking at me with sadness in his eyes. I look at his red wrists and see that he had been burning from it for a long time.
Dylan walks up behind me and puts his hand on my shoulder, "Say goodbye now."
I shake my head, my eyes never leaving Rylands, "Never."
He pushes me backwards, clenches his jaw and stares at Ryland. He takes a step up to him and I follow, waiting to see what he is going to do and get ready to stop him if he tries to hurt Ryland any more than he already has. Dylan glares down at Ryland, "She is not yours anymore. Stop holding her back from me!" He kicks Ryland in the stomach and I grab his arm, pulling him back. He glances at my hand on him and then stares at Ryland with a smug look, "You know, I was her first. Her first everything." He grabs my hand and refuses to let go of it.
"I was her first friend, her first boyfriend, her first lover, her first mate," his smug smile grows wider, "her first kiss, make out, and the one to take her virginity. How does that feel, Ryland?" Dylan pulls me closer to him and kisses me on the cheek. I try to escape from his grasp, but fail. "While you were probably waiting for her to be your first, she was spending everything on me. I bet you feel awful."
I finally pull away from Dylan and glare at him, "Shut up!" Ryland looks disappointedly at Dylan and I back away from both of them, "Dylan shut up!"
He doesn't pay attention to me and continues to talk to Ryland. "I deserve her. Not you. You don't deserve her!" He looks back at the door we came from and the maid looks terrified. She brings the two cups of tea over to us. As she sets it down, she points to the cup that is mine and brings the other to Dylan. He is staring at me when I pick up the cup. I'm ready to down the whole thing, but I stop as I put it up to my lips.
Dylan's POV:
Maura stops to look at the liquid in the cup and I become increasingly worried. I had ordered for her tea to be spiked with the memory loss liquid so she would forget everything that happed these past months and be brought back to the times we were together. I walk over to her with anxious eyes, "Something wrong?" She surely doesn't know about it, since she hasn't been here in time to hear about it.
"None at all, just thought it smelled weird," she says with a passing glance to me. I wonder if she knows but then shake it out of my head. I smile and reply to her, "Drink. It will make you feel better."
The pest in the center of the room speaks up, "Maura, no!" I look back to her to see her put the cup down and I push it toward her again, "Drink." I don't care if she's suspicious or not, she will drink it.
After a moment of Ryland's annoying yelling and coercing, I get her to drink it. She drinks most of it until the cup falls from her hands. It shatters on the ground and I get upset for a short second, thinking that it won't work without drinking all of it. Her eyes look dazed, almost glazed-over, and I know that it must have worked. "Maura, honey, are you alright?" I ask her with a feigned innocence. She ends up saying she's okay but a little dizzy. I help her stand straight and tell her that I was the one responsible for the mess she made. No need to make her feel bad about breaking something.
Ryland ends up crumpling to the floor, devastated that his ex-mate now belongs to me. Not officially, yet, but she will be. She holds onto me like her lifeline when I tell her Ryland had assaulted her and I was punishing him for it. She looks disgusted at him, but tells me not to hurt him. I wondered if she still knew him, but remember that she was always a little soft-hearted when it came to poor rogues. I had to promise her I wouldn't kill him, but that doesn't mean I couldn't beat him near death.
We end up leaving the room, ready to mold her mind back to the girl I once had. Everything is just now starting to go my way.