Memory Lane

“But... but..." Georgie shakes her head, her eyes filling with frustrated tears. By the way, she hasn't looked at me yet, "I am NOT ready for something like this. I haven't gotten over Ash yet, I don't want someone else."

Ohhhkay. Noted.

"I'm deeply sorry for your loss, Georgette, but life moves on,” my aunt says, lifting a hand to stroke Georgie’s face, “You are destined for happiness. The Moon Goddess wants you to be loved, you deserve it. And Cain's wolf will love you with all his might… He has loved you for a while now, actually.”

Huh?

"What does that mean?" I ask, frowning in annoyance and embarrassment. Why is she airing my business like that?

"Your wolf loved her already, Cain. It's really straightforward, actually," she says with an eye roll, making me feel even more embarrassed because she’s right, "I know this must be confusing for both of you, but it's just life. You two can talk it out later, okay?”

“Yes. Later. There's a hundred people waiting outside," my mom says, looking very stressed out, "Let's all go out and have this party. Then we can figure out what to do."

"Yes, that seems fine," Georgie murmurs, swallowing and fixing up her long, red dress, "I need some time to fix my head and then we can talk about this, Cain, ok?”

I'm surprised she's talking to me since she’s still refusing to look into my eyes, but I say yes anyway and we all get ready to leave.

Except my father grabs my arm when I try to go out and forces me to stay behind while Georgie and her father walk out.

"This bond changes a lot of things, son," my father says with his serious voice that makes my skin crawl in dispair, "You have to marry her.”

“Please, don't,” I stop him, "It's been two seconds since I arrived and I don't need this shit yet. Let's try to pretend this didn't happen.”

"Fine, but we will talk about it once this is over,” he warns as we walk out too.

During my welcome party, I’m completely checked out.

My old friends and family try to talk to me and of course I'm instinctively polite and I’m trying to make some conversation, but I'm not mentally present. My head is only on Georgie and this bond between us.

And how weird I feel about it. This whole thing is unbelievable, I never considered having a fated mate. Not for a single second.

I always imagined that Justin would be the one to find his fated mate, since he’s always ‘the one’ for everything important. And it's not like I'm traumatized by that, I'm really not. Quite the opposite.

Justin has been my savior all my life. Him being ‘the one’ was always a good thing for me. He was the good one. The responsible one. The serious one. The one who used to go to all the events in other packs with my parents, the one who fixed whatever went wrong, the one who was always available and reliable.

So that gave me the opportunity to be the other one. The brother who has fun and has an easy life and no one cares too much about. So, I always thought: Justin will be the one, he will find his fated mate one day.

But now everything is upside down.

Justin lost his mind and left. So, apparently, I’m 'the one' now. And I don't fucking like it.

I force myself to eat something, but the only thing that makes me survive these three hours are the drinks, so I reach for a new glass of champagne for the twentieth time when a hand stops my arm. I furrow my brow and turn to the person who did it.

Georgie.

My heart races again, my wolf melts, and my pants get tighter. All I want to do is carry her and take her to my room, which is wild because I never thought of her that way… at least not since Asheron came into the picture.

Perfect fucking Asheron.

"I think that's enough alcohol, Cain," Georgie mutters and returns me to the present, where she's trying to stop me from drinking, as if she owns me, "You're starting to get messy.”

"So?" I ask, ignoring her grip on my arm and taking the glass to my lips anyway, "I can do whatever the fuck I want."

"Fine," she snaps before walking away, clearly unhappy with me.

The way I want to leave the glass and run after her to apologize and have her happy is extremely bizarre. I have to squeeze my eyes shut to force myself to stay here and not do that.

God, what the fuck is this? I don’t like it. I haven’t felt like this since… Ugh. Fine.

I'll get this out of my chest just once: growing up, I was in love with Georgie. Like, stupid in love.