"Sure," I said.
"What if one of the other alphas had approached you?"
That was unexpected. I shrugged. "I've never thought about that before."
"Would you turn them down?"
I didn't know where this line of questioning was coming from, but there was something urgent in Red's tone that made me seriously think about the answer.
"I'm not sure," I admitted. "I think it would depend on the person. Part of the reason I wanted a mate was because I wanted to raise a family, so if I chose an alpha for a partner, we would need outside help. But I guess it's not a deal breaker for me."
Read was tight-lipped, hiding his reaction behind another wall. He was like a trapped fox, cornered in his den. I was disappointed that he thought he couldn’t open up to me, but I hoped that after hearing the rest of my story, I might coax him out.
"Sorry for interrupting," he said. "Go on."
"Where was I… Oh, right. Ryker." I sighed. "I should've taken his enthusiasm to be with me as a sign. Or in this case, really huge red flag. Things were okay at first. They weren't awful, but I wouldn't describe them as amazing either. It didn't take long for him to show his true colours. It started small, like Ryker joking about me belonging to him to the rest of the Treachery. At first I didn't mind, but then it started to rub me the wrong way. He would get mad if the other guys wanted to spend time with, or hell, even talk to me."
"What the hell?" Red said. "Who acts like that?"
"Ryker did. It started getting so bad that he would have full-blown meltdowns if I wanted to go anywhere without him, even on a hunt or casual fly over the forest. In my efforts to please him, I started bending to his whims. I stopped going out for fear of admonishment." I scoffed at the memory. "Not like staying home in the nest with Ryker was much better. He got nasty, picking on my faults and comparing me to the other alphas in the Treachery."
By now, Red's expression had twisted into outrage. If he was in his fox form, I'm sure he would have been bearing all his fangs.
"I started to grow defeated,” I said. "Breaking things off with Ryker didn't even feel like an option. If I did, where would I have gone? The other treacheries wouldn't have accepted me, and I didn't want to be alone." I gave him a grim smile. "Maybe if I'd known there were mixed species packs out there, I would've tried harder to fit into one."
Red put a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Well, I'm glad you stumbled onto this one. It's one of a kind."
Just like you, I thought.
“So what did you do?" Red asked.
I inhaled a deep breath and gazed out into the open sky from under the lip of the alcove. The star-streaked night expanse was a reminder that I was safe now, no matter how badly the memories made my chest ache.
"I asked myself a serious question," I said. "I was afraid of being alone. But was it worse to be alone, or to spend the rest of my life being put down by someone who didn't love me? The choice made itself and I snuck out in the middle of the night, vowing never to return."
Red gazed into my eyes. I noticed that he hadn't removed his hand from my shoulder and that he gripped me now gently. "That was really brave of you."
I sighed. "I only wish I'd left sooner."
"Hey, what happened to not lingering in the past?" Red asked with a smirk.
"You're right." I shook myself off. "What's done is done. Now we only have the future to look forward to.”
It took me a mortifying second to realize that I had saidwe, notI. But Red hadn't seemed to notice my slip-up.
"Did Ryker ever want kids?" Red asked.
"No. When he first told me, I was disappointed, but now I know it was a blessing in disguise. If I'd had kids with him, things would've been a lot more complicated. But he made it very clear when we first got together that he wanted nothing to do with them."
Red attempted to hold back a smug grin, but he was failing, much to my amusement.
Meeting this unique pack had opened my eyes. What Ryker and I had wasn't love. I saw the way the couples interacted with each other here, how much they doted on their children, and how each member of the pack was respected and valued. The thought of leaving them behind gave me a pang of homesickness in my chest.
But that didn't make sense. This wasn't my home. Hell, I'd only been here for a few weeks.
"Orpheus," Red said softly. "Thanks for telling me all of that. I know it's not easy to dredge up your past, especially to someone you barely know."
I stared at him. The man I saw in front of me was no stranger. I felt like I'd known him my entire life, even though he still hadn't told me whatever secret weighed him down so heavily.
