Mates 10
Chapter 10
FREDA WHITLOCK
“Me neither,” Lyra spoke with a softness that almost melted my chest. Seeing her through the phone
was different from seeing her physically and I had just realized that. I had missed her. Her
comforting scent, her warm hands, her sweet embrace.
I could not wait to hold her. I had been lonely and even though I had Francisco, there was only so
much that he could do and understand.
“How’s dad holding up? Think he can see me tomorrow?” I asked Lyra as I packed my hair into a
loose ponytail and sat in front of the phone. She smiled at me. “You’re going to be here by
tomorrow?” She asked with a smile. “Noon, if my calctions are right,” I spected.
Her smile widened into a grin and I smiled right back. “He’s going to see you anytime,” she
reassured me and I nodded. “You better get some rest. You have to be here by noon tomorrow,” she
winked and I smiled as I hung up.
I nced over at where Cisco was lying down. He had had his fill of dinner and dessert and I had
read him a story about a princess that had been hidden away for years.
He had said he liked her and he would like to meet her. It has hurt my heart to tell him that she
wasn’t real, but he was already asleep by the time I hade up with a reasonable answer for him.
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I took a deep breath andid back in the small bed. It was significantly lessfortable than the
one I hadid on at the previous motel. But that was okay, because I doubted I would actually be
able to sleep from how anxious I was.
The anxiety was choking the breath out of me and I was trying so hard to hold on to life and
strength, but I was failing. I was failing badly.
I bit my lip and looked up at the wooden boards of the ceiling. It was the most beautiful thing in the
motel.
That was a little annoying because I had paid more for this motel than the previous one and it hadContent is property of N?velDrama.Org.
turned out to be c**y.
I shook my head.
My thoughts were spiralling and I was trying hard to settle them on the little annoyance I felt
because the motel was **y. But they kept drifting to my home pack. To my step mother, to my
sister… To Kaiden.
I buried my face in my hand. How was he going to react to seeing me? What was he going to say?
How would he react to seeing Francisco?
Would he be mad that I had kept a child from him for almost six years?
I shook my head at that thought. He had no right. He had absolutely no right, and if he dared to get
annoyed with me, I was going to tell him that.
No…
I did not want to see him. I did not want to see him for any reason. I did not want to see him, or my
stepmother, or anyone at the pack. I missed my sister and I still loved her, but a part of me resented
her for all she had taken from me, so I did not want to see her either.
I just wanted my father… My father and Lyra. They were the only true family I had back then and
they were the only true family I had had in all these years.
An overwhelming wave of grief struck me and I blinked rapidly to stop the tears that filled my eyes.
My father… He was dying. He was leaving me behind with just two people in the world.
He had done a lot for me. The most I could do for him was stay with him till he took hisst breath. I
wanted him to know I loved and cared for him. I wanted my face to be thest he saw so he would
feel all the warmth in the world.
My life was aplete mess. I sat upright in the bed, too inconvenienced by the bed toy down
comfortably, and too pained emotionally to force myself to sleep. I could not do it.
I was a waste. I was a twenty six year old woman whose life hade to aplete standstill, and
was on the verge of ruin because of a mate that did not want her or love her.
I had tried. I had tried to hard to be stronger, to be better. And I had failed multiple times. I had
disappointed myself a hundred times.
I bit my lip hard with a frown, because this time… There was not a single way I could fail. I did not
have the luxury of failure or the chance to disappoint myself. I had lost all chances to disappoint
myself.
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Because I was going back to the ce that had once been my home and I had to be strong, I had to
be a better version of myself no matter what happened or what I faced. I had to show every single
person that had hurt me in one way or the other that I was over the pain they had caused, and they
could not hurt me anymore.
Iid back in the bed and stared up at the ceiling with that very thought in my mind. I chanted it like
a mantra and sometime in between, I fell asleep.
*** *** ***
“Guess what, baby,” I grinned as I drove past a sign that boldly said ‘Wee to Brookbacke’.
“What?” Francisco asked. My eyes were on him through the rearview mirror and I watched him look
up at me from the iPad with curiosity.
I grinned, ignoring the way my heart thumped heavily in my chest.
“We are almost there,” I squealed. A smile touched his lip and he forced himself to hide it. “You said
that yesterday and the day before yesterday,” Ciscoined and Iughed.
“I know baby,” I admitted with a smile. “But we’re almost there for real this time.” I promised.
“I’ll see Aunt Lyra? He asked with excitement that touched my soul and I smiled at him. “You’ll see
grandpa too.”