It's been one week since I have arrived here. Since I last saw him. Living away from him has never been an easy task, but the fact that now we were living under the same roof and on the same floor was even worse. I have rejected him but can still feel the mate bond. Diana told me it was because the rejection had to be from both sides, and Reed never rejected me. He accepted it and fled.
I know the bastard did it on purpose. Diana, on the other hand, had a more respectful approach. She told me he saved me from the pain of being rejected, which I hardly doubt was his slightest intention.
The pain of the rejection was much worse than the pain of my first transformation. And now, living under the same roof, knowing your mate would probably be in the next room was nothing more than torture. Reed kept his distance from me from the first minute I entered the castle.
He would leave early in the morning before I would be awake and come late at night. He would send Asher to check on us. The castle acted as a distraction for the first few days, but eventually, everything got boring. Diana and I bonded fast. We would talk about each other's lives for hours. She was like a sister I never had, or if given a choice, I would definitely trade her for August.
She is so young but exceptionally wise for her age. She is a kind and happy soul and always smiling. I could not imagine her life in her coven. She told me so many things about her coven, and none of them sounded good. How they practiced black magic and used her powers for their own greed. How her coven was in an alliance with the Oracle.
Every time I tried to ask her about my future, she would either change the topic or seem somewhat hesitant and tell me that the future was very uncertain. It changed every time based on our decisions. Sometimes I felt she was hiding things from me about me.
I closed the last book and kept it aside. Diana was still reading some cliché rom-com.
"Okay, there should be a library somewhere, right?" I asked, getting up from my bed. Diana looked at me from her book and narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"If you think you could get some information about Reed or the Oracle, then I am sorry, but you are wasting your time. There's nothing that could help you," she said and again concentrated on her book. I huffed and rolled to her side. She always knew what I was thinking; well, most of the time.
"Sometimes, I think Reed has kept you here to keep an eye on me," I said, pointing two fingers first at my eyes and then hers.
Diana put her book aside and looked at me exaggeratedly. I tried my best not to smile, seeing my tactic was working on her.
"What do you want to know about the Oracle?"
I shook my head and suppressed my smile. "No, not the Oracle. About Reed," I said innocently.
She looked taken aback by my answer as if she had not considered it but soon recovered.
"Well, I shouldn't be the one to tell you about Reed's past," she said, fidgeting with her fingers.
My eyebrows furrowed. "Why not?" She bit her lip and looked past me as if seeing something. Her eyes fogged over for a second and returned to normal in another.
"Please tell me, Diana, I want to know about him. I have heard so much about him, but they were rumors. You lived with him, you have seen him, please help me," I pleaded. After a moment of silence, she stood from the bed and walked out of the room only to return with a beautiful pendant in her hand.
She put the pendant in my hand and recited some incantation in a foreign language. The pendant glowed brightly, illuminating the whole room, and soon returned to normal.
Diana opened her eyes. "You wanted to know about Reed's past. When you are alone, best at night, put both hands on this talisman and say Anochti porta (Open the door). You will get your answers." I put the talisman in my side pocket and hugged Diana. She smiled, but this time it didn't reach her eyes.
"Take my advice. You are not prepared for it. Don't do something you will regret," she said, returning the hug. I nodded; Diana was a good friend, but Reed was my mate. I wanted to know every aspect of him even if it ruined me for good. Why didn't he want me? Why did he ask me to reject him and then not complete the ritual? In short, EVERYTHING.
A knock on the door interrupted my train of thought. I looked at Diana. It was noon, and Asher had already made his visit for the day. "Speaking of the devil." With that, Diana again concentrated on her book.
I sprinted to open the door. I straightened my posture and tucked the loose hair behind my ear. I nervously opened the door, and there he was, standing in all his glory. He was half-naked, and his jeans were hung too lowly. I gulped audibly and shamelessly drooled over him. He cleared his throat, and I blushed crimson before stepping aside to give him excess to his own house.
He muttered something incoherently and walked inside. It was the first time I saw him like this, naked, half-naked. I examined his well-sculptured body.
He had faint scars scattered across his chest and arms. He had a tattoo starting from his neck and finishing just before the hips. It appears to be a tribal one. There were fifteen shapes of the moon, the crescent on the top, and the full moon at the end. The tattoo was subtle but beautiful.
He quickly went inside and wore a black shirt, much to my dislike. He was too handsome for his own good. I was so lost in checking him out that I had not sensed when Diana stood beside me. She had changed her clothes and was holding a bag. She smiled knowingly. "Reed?"
Reed looked at her tiredly. After all these days, I had gotten to know some things about him. No matter what, he always listened to Diana. "I have to go to the neighboring village for my herbs, I will be late, and Esma will probably get bored alone in the castle, so I was thinking, why don’t you take her to grab some lunch outside and gave her a tour of your pack?" I was more shocked than surprised by listening to her. She didn’t even think to ask me first. It was not like I was complaining, but nobody ever asked my opinion.
Reed sighed deeply but nodded. Diana kissed his cheek and quickly hugged me. "Remember what I have told you," she whispered, and with that, she closed the door behind herself, leaving him and me alone. Diana had already opened a window for me. Now it was my chance to get him into talking. I wanted to know his perspective first before I made my choice to use the talisman.
Reed said something under his breath and retraced the same path he’d come a few moments ago but stopped before touching the handle.
"Grab the keys to the car." I quickly sprinted towards the living room where the keys were. It was taking everything to stop me from grinning like an idiot. Reed locked the door and denied the keys when I tried to give them to him.
"You drive. I will tell you the directions. I have to do some work." With that, he opened the passenger door and sat inside the car. I doubted if it was because of Diana's kiss or he really was trusting me after all. She was a witch. I quickly sat in the driver's seat and pulled on the seatbelt. Reed was already lost in his phone, typing away god knows what.
"Just drive straight for two miles until you see the diversion," Reed said, still typing in his phone. I nodded and turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life. I put my feet on the gas pedal, and soon we were on the road.
I was surprised to see the view outside. Every house, every road…they were all very different from our pack or any other pack, in architecture, luxury, everything…so different yet the same.
People were looking at us amusingly, most likely me. I looked back to see pups running behind the car to catch it. I slid down the window and waved my hand. Reed looked through the rearview mirror and shook his head. I swore I saw him half smiling.
"Your pack is so different from what I have heard from the rumors," I blurted out. He stopped typing and looked at me from the corner of his eye.
"Appearances can be deceptive," he said and again diverted his gaze to his phone.
I rolled my eyes and continued driving the car. This was the longest I have seen him talking. He always talked in riddles. He was like a puzzle. But it was too late. I had made up my mind to put all the pieces of this mysterious alpha together.