Chapter 192

Six hours later Victor came knocking, he’d be driving over with Saul, Rico and I. “How’s your girl?” he asked as I closed the door behind me. “She’s fine, Mylene?” “Wants me to buy her something,” he chuckled, “She wanted to come but I told her I’d be busy with meetings, she’d end up sitting alone in the room.” I nodded, Chelsea had wanted to come, but there was no way I was bringing her here… too many Alphas in town, the safest place for her to be was home. Little did she know though, Wolf and fifteen of his men were nearby in case of anything. Despite having such a large pack, Wolf never attended these meetings; he said he had a crew, not a pack. We rode the elevator down, getting in the car. “Now, that we’re alone, what’s going on? Your mate?” I asked once Saul started driving towards Lake Grasmere; the Elders had a large estate used mostly for Summit Meetings. He sighed loudly, and I took the time to look at him, really look, and while he was clean, his features were horrible. “What happened?” I repeated, normally Victor and I spoke frequently, three times a week almost. Running his hand in his hair, “You already know we are the only wolf pack in Chicago,” I nodded. “For work, I have the office in Michigan and nine months ago, when I was there I met a girl,” he starts, but I already know this can’t go well, at all. “It was by pure accident, but she just drew me in completely, I thought she was 100% human, but for precautions sake I told her that my name was Rosco. The more I got to know her, the deeper I fell; I mean she is my perfect match man. She was in school at MSU and she knew that I lived in Chicago. I told her that I had no family that it was just me and I could only visit her when it fit with my schedule. So for months, I’d only see her for five or six days a month.” “Oh god,” I groaned, “Tell me you didn’t?” I said hoping I was wrong. “I was supposed to visit her but she said that her roommate and her were going on vacation, so she wouldn’t be able to see me.” “So is – was she your girlfriend?” “Yeah, I fucked up. I never told her about Mylene or Art. We’d talk for hours, somewhere along the line though, I started saying things, pretty much just planning a future with her, kids, getting married, and it just… it was so easy-” he stopped abruptly. “I love her. It was easy to plan with her, and it wasn’t much about the sex at all, we didn’t for a while, talking for a good minute before it happened. Before we made love she tried to tell me about some things she had tried to hide, wanted to come clean about something, but I knew I was lying so I told her it didn’t matter. I’m not sure what I thought I was doing, but I knew it wouldn’t go anywhere and eventually I’d have to break it off but –  she came clean though, told me my secrets were my own, I had thought she was 22 years old, but she set that straight, she told me everything about herself but two things. It – it shocked me because for those six months, she hadn’t lied not really, not like I did.” He said shaking his head. “Being away from her was hard, even my wolf liked her, I mean it was hard, he even hinted that maybe she was our mate and I toyed with the idea because she told me her family was dead, she was really on her own and identified with me on that being lonely part. Knowing she was alone, I even toyed with the idea of turning her, since she had no family, just her roommate. She told me that she never had sex, fooled around with one guy but-” I nodded, “I get it.” I said, actually welcoming the distraction, so I wouldn’t just teleport home. “Well she had a roommate; they both moved to Chicago, she wanted to surprise me. Because she has to let our pack know she’s around she scheduled a meeting, which turned into dinner to meet everyone. Turns out she had classes with Gia and everything. All I knew though, was that we had a new rogue that wanted to join the pack, so you know how Artemisia and I act around my folks and Mylene?” I stared at him blankly, “I told you that shit would bite you in the ass.” “Well Emily – that’s her name – was there and when Gia turned to me towards the room I smelled my mate before I even saw her. My wolf was screaming at me crazily, “mines.” Still holding Arts hand and Mylene, she turned around; Gia went right on to introducing Art, my wife and our twelve year old daughter.” “Fuck shit!” I said my mouth dropping open. “You have no fucking clue, she got pale as hell and I just… right before my eyes I saw the light in her eyes just die out. To make matters worse, Gia and Art start telling her stories of how we met, fell in love and got married and have been-” “And you never said to yourself, cut the shit, come clean about your fake marriage, confirm that Art is your ex-wife?” “Mylene was there man!” “You could’ve sent her to another room.” He just hung his head. “Then it hits me… Gia had called, told me about her. Said she moved here for this guy, she’s sure that he’s her mate, but he’s human, and she hadn’t been able to tell.” I remain silent, not sure how to reply to this, he was in the wrong, but so was she, how did she not know he was her mate for sure… how had he missed it? Unless she was 15 or something, or hadn’t shifted yet. “She stayed for 10 minutes, holding her daughter, left deathly pale. I called, texted, even got her address. Went there after dropping Art and Mylene home. Her building manager said she left not taking much with her, that she wasn’t looking too good.” “I’m sorry man…” I said but honestly, that seemed pointless and I wasn’t sure if he deserved my pity. “Don’t feel sorry for me just yet…” he said angrily, “there’s more.” “How could this get any worse?” I looked at the man in front of me, tears in his eyes already forming; I’d never seen him look so devastated, not even when he married Art, knowing he didn’t love her. “Two days later, I nonchalantly brought her up to Gia and she tells me that she can’t understand what happened. When she met Emily, Emily said she moved closer to her boyfriend because she found out she was pregnant. That – that she was so happy. Told Gia a bit about this guy. How he was all alone, and now he’d have family, his baby and hopefully he could love her daughter as well,” he finished leaning his head back. Despite how dark the car was, I could see the silent tears, the hurt and anger and I bet they were mostly for himself. “Okay… it could get worse…” another stupid response on my part, but I asked the one part that confused me. “How did you two not know you were mates?”