Chapter 4

WOLVES DON'T CRY 

Aiana's POV

I could still feel the pain as it radiated from my side as I slowly came back to. Jeremy carried me into the backroom of the bar, his strong arms handled me like I was something fragile. The dizziness hadn’t entirely left me, but the throb of my wounds made it difficult to focus on anything else. 

Thankfully everyone had left and he laid me down on a couch as he touched stayed on my skin for a second longer than was necessary. I could feel the warmness of his skin through my clothes, and even through the pain, that same unsettling, electrifying sensation ran through my body. Something primal. 

Something longing. It made me realize that I had occupied myself too much with loneliness and I haven't been able to get close to someone. Not like anyone cared to comw close to me anyway. Everyone seemed to think I was an outcast just because I was hybrid. And right now something that stirred deep within me in a way I didn’t understand—but at the same time, I did. 

Too well.

Jeremy disappeared for a moment and he returned back with a first-aid kit. How the hell did he know where it was? I wondered. 

 “Hold still,” he said and knelt beside me. “Let me take care of this.” he said. 

I nodded my head and watched him.The adrenaline from the fight was wearing off and my body felt like it had been run over by a truck. 

Gosh, my side ached, the sharp sting of my wound bit into me every time I tried to move and I whimpered in pain. 

Jeremy worked quietly, his hands moved softly and kindly against me, he was so focused and expertly did what he did so well that, that actually told me he’d done this more times than he probably would care to admit.

“You didn’t have to… save me,” I mumbled as I winced when he pressed a cloth against the gash on my side.

He didn’t respond at first as he concentrated on what he was doing. 

"I wasn’t going to let you die,” he finally said in a quiet voice. It was almost a whisper. 

It felt nice that someone was looking after me. 

I usually was the one who looked after myself......and sometimes, after others, like my mother.

I watched him carefully, the way his brow furrowed as he cleaned the wound, the way his jaw was tight. 

I could feel the tension in the air that was enough to light up a power house. And under everything, there was this strange pull, something that resembled an electric hum that had been there since I first saw him. It had intensified now.

“You’re good at this,” I commented as a way of trying to break the silence, while I ignored the cackling electricity. “Patchin’ people up. You a doctor or something?” j asked him. 

Jeremy didn’t look at me.

 “Something like that.” he muttered. 

I bit my lip as I felt uneasy. He wasn’t giving me much, and it only made me more curious about him. There was a mystery about him, one that, for whatever reason, I was desperate to solve. The longer I stared at him, the more my body reacted to him, my werewolf senses were heightened in ways I hadn’t experienced before.

 It was as if every fiber of my being was drawn to him, and I honestly didn’t know why.

Then, just as his hands moved to bandage me, he froze on the spot.

I frowned in both confusion and pain. 

“What is it?” I asked him. 

Jeremy’s jaw clenched and his eyes darkened. He slowly straightened up. I saw the way his nostrils flared and I saw something flicker in his dark eyes, something....... dangerous?

He locked eyes with me and started hard, as if he was searching for something. 

“Are you Lycan?” he asked me in a low voice that carried a sharp edge to it. 

And I felt my stomach drop.

Shit.

The air was now filled with a new type of tension, and this one was suffocating to say the least. I opened my mouth to respond, but the words wouldn’t come. Jeremy’s eyes bore into me as he waited—scratch that, demanded for an answer.

“How did you—?” I stammered, but I didn’t get to finish because cut me off. 

“Answer me. Are you Lycan?” he asked. His tone was harder and more insistent. 

I was panicked. What had me being a lyncan got to do with anything? My heart raced as I felt my throat tighten in my chest, the urge to deny it was strong, but I couldn’t. Not with the way his sharp eyes pinned me down,and definitely not with the way I felt my wolf stirring under my skin for the first time in years.

I swallowed hard.

 “I… I’m a hybrid.” I confessed. 

Jeremy’s expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes did. The intensity grew though and the silence that followed was quite deafening. I could practically see the gears as they turned in his head. 

He stood up straight and I could see the way his chest rose and fell. He was breathing hard, was it because I was lyncan? I wondered. 

It was in that moment that the strange and parasitic feeling I’d been feeling since I first saw him clicked right into place.

My dormant wolf—the part of me which I’d tried so hard to bury—was fully awake. More than that, she was responding to him. Had been responding to him all these while. 

To his wolf.

I felt it like a bolt of lightning that shot and coursed through my veins. 

We were mates.

That revelation seemed to hit me like a ton of bricks, and for a split second, everything suddenly made perfect sense.

 The reluctant pull towards him, the electricity, the way my body reacted to his presence. It wasn’t just mere attraction—it was the bond. 

The one thing I never thought I’d have, the one thing I’d given up on a long time ago.

I could see it in his eyes, too. He knew. He had to. He had to feel it, just the way I did. 

My heart pounded in my chest as both hope and disbelief surged through me.

Could it be possible? Could I really have found my mate after all these years? I wondered inwardly. 

But then, when I looked at him… I saw it.

The look on his face.

It wasn’t joy. It wasn’t even relief. And that definitely wasn’t curiosity.

It was dread.

Cold, hard dread.

Crap!

My heart sank as I watched this realization dawn on him it was way different from the one that had lit up my world just moments ago. 

I only just realized that, it was a curse, not a gift to him....Or so he made me think. He made me think that he didn’t want this. He didn’t want me.

I felt the hope which had only just a few seconds ago bloomed inside me, I felt the way it shriveled and died as I saw the truth written on his face. He sure as hell wasn’t happy about it. Not one bit.

“Jeremy,” I started, but my voice faltered. I was still weak. Plus, what was I supposed to say? That it was okay? That I understood? Because I didn’t. I didn’t understand how he could look at me like that—like I was something he needed to get rid of.

He stepped back from me as his expression changed from the one I could understand to an unreadable one now. 

“This complicates things,” he said quietly, more to himself than to me because I couldn't even hear him properly. “More than you know.” he said. 

I stared at him with my mouth dry and my thoughts spinned in circles.

 “Complicates? What does that mean?” I asked him. 

He didn’t say anything, but his silence was enough answer for me.

The pull between us, the undeniable bond that had ignited something inside me, was nothing more than a burden to him, I had realized. 

I felt my chest tighten and I winced at the double doze of pain now. I wasn’t one to get emotional, but damn it, this wasn’t how things were supposed to go. 

Finding your mate was supposed to be good wasn’t it?

 So why the hell did this feel like a nightmare?

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair frustratedly but he didn’t look at me.

 “I need to go,” he said abruptly in a strained voice. “We’ll… talk about this later.” he said to me. 

And even before I could respond, he was gone. He had left me sitting there, wounded and alone, with nothing but the bitter taste of disappointment in my mouth.

I had finally found my own mate but, this wasn't exactly the happy ending I’d always imagined.

Far from it.