Chapter 98: A Bottle of Wine and a Crisis

MAYA

“Are you okay?”

Maya lifted her head from her arms, her gaze meeting Alex’s as he walked towards her. He was always a head taller than her, but her petite five-foot frame felt even smaller as she sat on the ground.

“I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

She pursed her lips, then released them. ~He’s going to make me ask, isn’t he~? His smirk gave him away. Maya didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, but her curiosity was too strong.

“Him?”

“Olivia’s got him all hooked up and connected to a bunch of stuff. She was fixing him up when I left.”

Maya brought her hand up to her face, scratching her cheek. “That’s good, that’s good.”

He was still alive. ~But I knew that~. Of course, she knew that. She knew it just like she knew he had been buried there. But she refused to dwell on that. It was pointless.

“Want to talk about it?”

She scowled. “Talk about what?”

He erupted into laughter before plopping down on the chair next to her. “Maya…” He rolled his eyes. “Maybe the fact that your mate is in there, barely alive? That could be a good starting point.”

“Why?” She reclined in her chair, letting her head hit the wall behind her. “I don’t know him. If he survives, he survives. If he dies… well, that’s that.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

“It’ll be over and done with. I’ll know I had a mate. I won’t have any expectations, I won’t go searching for him. I’ll be free from all that. So, it doesn’t really matter.”

Perhaps she’d grieve for a bit. She wasn’t sure. She didn’t know anything about this stuff. Maya had always known she had a mate somewhere, that she might find him someday.

She didn’t anticipate it would happen ~like this~. But there was nothing she could do about it now.

Getting upset wouldn’t change a thing.

“I find it hard to believe you’re okay with this.”

“Well, you better start believing it.”

Alex sat down next to her, letting out a sigh as he settled in. “It’s okay to feel something, you know.”

She tilted her head to the left. ~Ouch~. “You’re right. I do feel something. I feel like this pack has a history of bad luck when it comes to mates.”

Maya turned to face Alex. “No offense, but I didn’t want a disaster like you had with Olivia.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed and a low growl escaped his lips, prompting her to quickly raise her hands in defense. “Hey, hey, I love Liv like a sister. But you can’t tell me that was a walk in the park.”

A normal story, a normal mate. That seemed like too much to ask for.

She didn’t even know who he was. Why was he in this situation? Whose side was he on? Was he a weakling who got taken out? Or a perpetrator who got what was coming to him? She had no idea.

“He might be a bad guy.”

“He might be.”

She nodded, resting her elbows on her knees and propping her chin up with her hands. “Then what?”

“We’ll handle it.”

“This is ridiculous.” She let out a sigh. “Maybe it’s better if he dies.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Wouldn’t you have been happier if things were simpler with Liv?”

“Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I wish I hadn’t found her.”

Maybe that worked for him. Maybe he believed that everything happened for a reason.

She didn’t share his optimism. She was a realist. She knew that life didn’t always go as planned. The fact that she found her mate in this situation was proof of that.

Life could be cruel.

She wouldn’t cling to hope. She wouldn’t expect the best.

“We’ll see, I guess.” She cleared her throat. “What about the others? The other bodies?”

That was something she could do, something she could focus on. Regardless of who he was, of what he represented, something terrible had happened. Something violent and deadly.

“We didn’t uncover much. We set fire to the area. Left a campfire in the center.”

“Trying to make it seem accidental?”

“Just in case. We’re not sure who’s responsible. I haven’t spotted a pack around here in ages, except for when that asshole… ~you know~.”

“You mean when that asshole attempted to abduct Liv and make her his breeding machine?”

Feeling the heat of Alex’s gaze, she forced a smile onto her face. “Or that thing we avoid discussing.”

“The point I was ~aiming~ to make,” he growled, teeth clenched, “is that we need to tread lightly. If he regains consciousness, it might help us narrow down the possibilities and figure out what transpired.”

“Why do you think he’ll be honest with us?”

“He might not trust me or be willing to talk. But he should trust ~you~.”

~Perfect~. Now she was expected to play detective with him. ~Assuming he survives~.

“This isn’t how I imagined this would go.”

“And how did you envision it?”

“I’m not sure, maybe during a full moon? A heat? A handsome stranger would appear… we’d have passionate, wild sex in an open field. Something along those lines.”

Alex rubbed his face, a chuckle escaping him. “I didn’t anticipate my mate being a werewolf-hating-former-human-turned-werewolf.”

“I’m telling you, we’re cursed.”

He placed a hand on her thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Try to get some sleep.”

“Sure thing, ~Daddy~.”

He raised an eyebrow and she cringed.

“I mean, I said it… then I heard it…” She smacked her lips. “Don’t—I don’t need to know if this is a new thing between you and Liv. I’m good.”

“No, Livy has different fetishes.”

“Yeah, I’m good. Please leave. Go not sleep with your child and your mate.”

“Last I checked, I was the Alpha. I’m supposed to give the orders.”

“And you did, now scram.”

He laughed, his chest vibrating with the sound. “He’ll pull through.”

“What makes you so confident?”

“Because anyone destined to be your mate has to be the most stubborn bastard to ever exist.”

Alex succeeded in drawing a burst of laughter from her. ~He wasn’t wrong~.

“Then he’ll be back to normal by tomorrow,” she retorted.

“I better not find you here tomorrow.”

“Duly noted ~boss~.”

She watched him leave, her fingers shaking. It was from fatigue and the digging. It had nothing to do with the man on the other side of the wall. She would be okay, regardless. If he died, he died.

He had no one else. That’s why she remained here.

Besides, Olivia would leave eventually. Someone would need to watch over him. He was her responsibility. Kind of. Sort of.

Yeah, ~just~ her responsibility.

That was her reason for staying.

No need to get involved or attached.

***

“I brought wine and, ~and~, you’re topless.”

Maya froze in front of the door she had just flung open. On the other side, Olivia was seated in the gray recliner, nursing her baby. ~Talk about bad timing for a girls’ chat~.

She waved her brand-new bottle of red wine. “You’re making getting drunk uncomfortable.”

“Oh, good,” Olivia responded with a smile. “Because I can’t drink.”

“Why not?”

Olivia’s eyebrows shot up before she glanced down at the baby currently feeding at her breast.

“Right. The whole breastfeeding thing.” Her shoulders sagged. “I need to find a new friend.”

“Hey!”

“Until you’re fun again!”

“That doesn’t make your comment any less offensive, you know.”

“Hey, hey. I’m the one in crisis here. I don’t have to be polite.”

“Maya,” she started, eyes narrowed. “You weren’t even nice when ~I~ was in crisis.”

Maya dismissed her with a wave. “That’s because your crisis wasn’t a real crisis. It was more like you being a dumbass instead of acknowledging and accepting what was right in front of you. ~My~ situation is much different.”

Olivia had a say and control over her problems. Maya did ~not~. That was the key difference.

“~Thank God~ you’re my friend. I can’t imagine what you’d be saying if I wasn’t.”

“Ah come on, you know I’m right. You were an idiot. But I love ya anyway. So, see. I ~am~ nice.”

Maya flopped down on Olivia’s bed, the bottle firmly in her grasp. If Olivia wasn’t going to drink with her, then she’d do it by herself.

She had done it before. Thank you, screw-on caps. She twisted it off, allowing her to take her first big gulp of alcohol.

“One of us might as well have fun.”

“You know, you don’t ~have~ to be okay.”

She let a sigh of exasperation slip her before she screamed. “And ~you know~, I don’t have to ~not~ be okay either.”

Why was everyone all up in her business about this? “We’re not all damaged, or have trauma—we’re not all desperate. I don’t know him. I haven’t had a single interaction with him.”

Another gulp.

Everyone needed to stop looking at her as though she was about to fall apart. ~She wasn’t.~

“Would it be nice if my mate didn’t die? ~Sure~. We all expect to find our mate. We all wait for it. Did I think it would be ~this~ shit show? No, I didn’t.

“Would I have rather had a normal situation? Of fucking course. But I can’t change any of this. I can’t go back in time. I can’t prevent him from being buried in the ground.”

She snapped her head in the direction of Olivia, who was staring at her with sad eyes. ~God~.

“I can’t change it. It is what it is. It’s not like I’ll die alone and miserable. Some people never find their mates. It happens. It’s not that big of a deal. I can still fall in love, have sex, do anything else I’d like to do.”

Whatever that was. Whatever ~it~ was she wanted. She would figure it out.

“This is what was dealt to me. I’ll deal with it.”

“Okay.”

“Good.”

“Then we’ll talk about something else.”

“Finally.”

Despite that, Olivia smiled at her as she leaned back into the recline, the child still suckling at her breast. “So, then, should we talk about the graveyard you all walked into?”

“It was messed up, Livy.” She had seen bodies before. She had seen blood, but nothing like that.

“I don’t think the carnage left behind after your attack even came close to it. Alex ripped those fuckers apart… and it wasn’t even as bloody.

“The way someone tore those bodies apart. It was fucked up. That person… or those people… they need a fucking shrink.”

“That bad?”

“Worse.”

It both turned her off from doing scouting rounds for a while and convinced her they needed to do more. She had no desire to see another asshole pack wrecking their house and attempting to claim their territories.

It had barely been two years. Could they get a damn break?

“Waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“Like him dying?”

“That’s not what I was talking about.” He wasn’t dead. She could feel right where he was despite not being on the same floor as him. “I thought we were talking about something else.”

Olivia smiled at her. “I think no matter what we talk about, we’re gonna circle back to this. You know, I never saw you as someone who avoided ~dealing~ with a problem.”

“I’m not avoiding,” she replied in an ushered voice. “I simply do not see the point.”

“Did you check up on him?”

“Nope.”

“~Maya~.”

Damn. She was pulling the ~bossy mommy~ voice.

“Alright, Alex already pulled the concerned father act on me, I don’t need you to add on to it with the mommy act. I got it. I’m fine.”

“You can’t be fine.”

“Why can’t you? You spent ages avoiding Alex. Why should I have to do anything?”

“It’s not the same.”

“You’re right. It isn’t the same. You were behaving like a total fool, while I know what I’m doing.”

“If you’re just here to take potshots at me, why bother talking to me?”

“Because it makes me feel good, and as my friend, you should want that for me.”

“So, you feel good at my expense?”

“Yes.”

Olivia shut her eyes, gently shaking her head. “I’m too worn out to argue. If belittling me makes you feel good, go ahead.”

“~Thank you~.”

“But I think seeing him would make you feel better.”

“Nope.”

Maya couldn’t fully recall his face. It had been smeared with dirt when she saw him. It was better this way. The fewer memories she had of him, the better it would be if the inevitable happened.

She hadn’t asked for more drama and more issues. This could have taken a completely different turn.

If she hadn’t stepped in for Olivia, she wouldn’t have been there. Maybe no one would have been. Then eventually, he would have surely died.

And she would have never met him. She would have never known her mate had been out there and died. She would have waited forever. Closure was much better, even if he ended up dying. Yes, this was better.

A loud, shrill scream filled the room, jolting her out of her thoughts.

“Sorry, he’s tired. Let me put him down and I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

She could wait here alone. It wasn’t an issue. She had her bottle of wine that was waiting to be consumed. She could stay by herself.

Alone.