His question caught me off guard, but not because I didn’t know the answer. It was because I had totally forgotten Andrea, and everything I felt for her the moment Nadia stepped into my life.
I stopped in my tracks, and my Beta did as well. I tilted my head to look at him. My eyebrows raised as I opened my mouth to speak. “Andrea, who?”
He looked taken aback by my answer before both our faces tugged with a grin and we started letting out hearty laughs.
“Atta boy!” He tapped my shoulder twice before we started walking down the stairs again.
Chapter 17
NADIA.
My eyes fluttered openand I almost went into a panic when I realized the ceiling didn’t look familiar. My first thought was that my uncle had brought me to the man he wanted me to marry.
But then, the moment my body jolted up, Riley’s scent swirled around me and immediately pacified my nerves, and memories of last night and early this morning came flashing through my thoughts.
I clutched my hands against my chest and dropped my body back to the mattress, a wide smile playing on my lips as I let everything sink in.
He didn’t leave me this time. He was just at his office and he said we would eat breakfast together. My gaze went around his room looking for a clock until I spotted one by the bookshelves but instead of checking the clock, my eyes focused on a picture frame sitting beside it.
I shoved the blanket off my body and rose from the bed. I wanted to see the picture.
For some unknown reason, my heart started beating too loudly as I dragged my feet toward the bookshelves.
My intuition was right. It was Riley. This was what Riley looked like when I saw him six years ago. He was skinnier but already tall for his age. His sandy brown hair was longer, which he kept in a ponytail.
He was sitting on the steps in front of the packhouse and beside him was a younger female with wavy, hazelnut-colored hair. She looked younger than him, probably twelve or thirteen, but she was obviously beautiful.
Why do I feel like there’s something between them?
The female was beaming straight at the camera, but Riley was looking sideways, smiling at the female beside him.
Was that Andrea? Was he looking at her lovingly? I wish I could see his eyes so I would know. But despite not seeing the look in his eyes, my heart was already constricting in pain.
Is this jealousy I feel?I had never felt this way before like it was too hard to breathe and I just wanted to cry. But I couldn’t be weak. No Luna is too weak.
I tilted my head up and glanced at the photo in front of me before I took a deep breath. My hand raised from my side and reached for the frame, taking it down and laying it flat on the bookshelf.
This picture didn’t have a place in this room until I figured out who the female was and who she was to Riley. But as much as I was upset with the picture I saw in Riley’s room, I couldn’t be angry with him.
First, the female could be his sister or a relative. It just made me realize that I knew nothing about him. But then, I hadn’t even been here for 24 hours yet, so I shouldn’t have expected that he would tell me everything in his life in the time we had spent together.
Second, if that female was Andrea, should I really be upset? Or should I be thankful that she chose another Alpha and left Riley alone, giving me a shot of having him for myself? Because I was certain that if Adrea was still here, I’d be spending my days in the cell, or worse, back with my uncle, rejected and unmarked.
So maybe I should be celebrating that Andrea wasn’t around anymore. But I still wanted to know where she stood in his life now.
One day, I would ask him, but until then, I would try my best to just shove her off to the back of my mind. I was the one here with Riley, not her. And just as long as she wouldn’t show up here and stake a claim on him, I should be fine.
I stepped into the shower broken-hearted but came out of it with a clearer mind.
I had two months. And the odds were on my side.
While drying my hair, I was already thinking of grabbing some of his clothes again because I still had to pick up my clothes from the basement when I caught sight of my folded clothes on the couch.
I picked them up and saw a note attached to it.
They were from Riley. He was apologizing for the little brown burn stain on the back of my blouse because he tried to press it, but the fabric was toothin and it got slightly burnt. And the note ended with a reminder that he’d wait for me for breakfast.
I couldn’t help but smile as I checked the back portion. There was indeed a slight discoloration, but it was nothing obvious. Heck, he could burn it all and I would still not feel the least bit angry at him.
