Chapter 13

How could he say that? I thought we both felt the same thing… I truly believed he wanted the same thing as me.

“The goddess literally told you about this in your dream,” I reminded him, slowly losing my temper. How could he not want this? Our wolves were practically begging us for this to happen.

“Yes, but I want more time so we can figure all of this out,” Roman rolled his eyes and walked away from me.

“All of what? What do we have left to figure out?” I walked after him and pulled him over to look at me.

“Tallulah, it wasn’t meant to get this far so fast,” Roman sighed, resting his hands on his hips as he looked at me.

“So fast? We’ve known for months already, and we keep sneaking around and making out and all,” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I knew there was a bet, but you can’t tell me you haven’t developed real feelings here,” I mentioned, poking him in the chest.

“Tallulah, there are real feelings. But, I don’t want to get mated yet,” Roman took my hand in his, trying to use his smooth voice to persuade me but I knew better than to fall for it.

“Damn it, Roman, you know I’m going into heat again and you still refuse this without giving me a reason,” I groaned, pulling away from his touch.

“I don’t want to mate with you yet, understand? This should be consensual and right now I don’t want to see you so go,” He growled at me, making me flinch a little.

“Fine, you fucking asshole!” I yelled back at him, I slammed the door shut and went to my own room, taking deep breaths to calm down.

“Why doesn’t he want us?” My wolf whimpered; her sadness affected me deeply. Not to mention me dealing with my own sadness. It wasn’t just my wolf that felt rejected.

“I warned you he can be an ass, but you kept convincing me otherwise,” I replied, rolling my eyes. I couldn’t believe I followed her into this blindly.

“There has to be more to this right?” She asked, reaching for answers, hoping this was all a misunderstanding but I knew it wasn’t. She did too, but she tried not to face it.

“He probably only did this for the damn bet, genius,” I rolled my eyes, wiping away the tears with the blanket.

“What happens now?” She asked.

“Chin up, we just go back to normal. Which will be a lot easier if we can be on the same page,” I shrugged, trying to lock away my feelings. I had enough to deal with already.

“Same page?” She wondered.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a few seconds, “Screw a mate, we don’t need one and especially not Roman Sterling,” I smiled looking into the mirror.

Roman’s POV

After Tali left my room I began packing my bag. I didn’t plan on going back to the pack this weekend, but I really needed to clear my head plus I got an invitation to some party from Skylar. I took the car keys and went ahead and informed uncle Tristan I’d be heading home for the weekend.

~~~

When I arrived home it was around 7 PM. I let out a groan when I noticed I forgot my set of keys at the castle. I grabbed my bag and got out of the car, I noticed none of the cars were in the driveway or garage. I really hoped someone at home else I’d have to visit the office for mom or dad’s keys. I walked up to the door and rang the bell, ”Hello? Anyone home?”

I noticed the lights in the hallway were turned out, the light shone through the tiny open space of the curtain. I grinned when I heard the locks turn and the door open and saw it was Tessa.

“Romie!” She pulled in for a big hug, I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

“You just opened the door without checking who it was,” I lectured in a playful manner, entering the house. “Do you know how dangerous that is, missy?” I asked, locking the door behind me.

“I know your annoying voice, idiot,” Tessa sassed back, rolling her blue eyes at me.

“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be?” I raised a brow at her, walking to the living room, and fell down onto the soft couch, my bag on the ground next to me.

“What are you doing at home?” Tessa asked, lowering the volume of the TV and turning to me. “I thought you’d be spending the weekend at the castle,” She concluded. That would’ve been the plan, yeah but it was before the princess decided to spoil the mood...

“Yeah, but I decided to come home and spend some time with you instead,” I replied, a grin on my face, and reached over to pinch her cheek. They weren’t as chubby as they used to be but that never stopped me.

“Is that the truth?” She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes on me like mom would do when she tried to extract the truth.

“Not the full truth,” I mumbled innocently.

“What's the full truth, Romie?” Tessa sighed, uncrossing her arms and laying back on the couch as well.

“I just wanted out of the castle plus I heard there’s a party and I might go there, clear my head a little,” I told her, mostly telling the truth but keeping away some parts of it, especially the mating part.

“Is the program hard?” She wondered, tilting her head a little to the right.

“Well it sure isn’t easy,” I sighed then chuckled trying to cover it up. It was a choice I made, I wanted to be prepared to take over good and be an even better leader to the wolves than my parents if that was even anymore possible.

“It’s okay, you can do this,” Tessa patted my shoulder and got up.

“I know, thank you. Where are the others?” I smiled and got up as well, following the youngest Santoro to the kitchen.

“Mom and dad are still at work, Theo had a football game tonight so he’s probably out celebrating, they should all be home soon,” Tessa explained, taking out two pudding cups and handing me one. I thanked her quietly.

“I see… What were you up to? How come you never go out?” I asked, taking a spoon from the drawer and turning to face her. Theo always went out; I wonder why she never did so. Then again I wasn’t exactly around during the last five years of her life.

“I do go out, just not as much at night,” She defended herself and explained the situation.

“Nighttime is the best time to head out,” I got a spoonful of pudding.

“I know but it’s just a matter of free time for everyone in the group,” Tessa explained, throwing some crushed sandwich cookies into her pudding and mixing it up before finally enjoying the pudding.

“Understandable...” I mumbled, frowning as I watched her sweeten the pudding more. Her life, not mine. “ So what were you up to?” I asked, curious to know what she was doing other than raising her blood sugar.

“Oh making dinner, usually they leave money if they can’t make dinner, but I get to keep the money when I don’t order in,” She explained, leading the way to the pantry and looking for something.

“They don’t?” I wondered, with me, I couldn’t remember if they did. Then again I did always order food.

“Well they never took it back,” Tessa looked at me, shrugging, shoving a spoonful of pudding in her mouth.

“Nice, So what were you making?” I asked, looking around, and saw a bag of chips I’d be coming for at midnight when I needed a snack.

“I don’t know yet, any suggestions?” She raised a brow at me. I looked around at the options and saw a box of Fettuccine.

“Fettuccine alfredo,” I suggested picking up the box and handing it to her.

“Italian, I likey,” Tessa smiled and exited the pantry with me following behind her.

“Well, we are Italian after all,” I chuckled and closed the door.

“Mm-hmm, well let’s get to it then,” She smiled and threw away the empty pudding cup.

Tessa and I started to make the pasta, somewhere along the way we decided to make the box cake we found in the pantry as well. Whilst the cake was in the oven we were busy making the paste on the stovetop. By the time we finished, I went upstairs and took a quick shower, and got ready for the party. I put on a blue button-up shirt and put on some black jeans. I combed my hair and put it in a man bun then headed back downstairs to have dinner with Tessa first. I didn’t want her to have dinner alone plus the party didn’t start till 10. Whilst we were watching the tv and eating our dinner, the others came home.

I spent a few minutes with them then decided it was time to go to the party and parted from my family. The cooking and baking helped me forget everything that was on my mind and just enjoy the time spent with Tessa. Now Tali was on my mind again, was she not happy with what we currently have? Why would she want it to come out now? I didn’t want that… I wasn’t sure how I felt about her, she was younger than me. We practically grew up together and all we did was fight then but somehow I saw her like family… My parents saw her like family. It confused me, should I be with her even when the goddess had planned for us to be together? I was scared of what they’d think of me, I knew she was my mate since I was eighteen. She was thirteen then, I had to try and get far away from her to avoid the small sparks I felt. I didn’t want to constantly be careful around her and I didn’t want to overcome like a groomer somehow… This was all so confusing. I let out a groan and leaned against the steering wheel, taking deep breaths, and finally decided to put my thoughts away and go and enjoy the party.