Ridian’s POV
Once upon a time, a terrified, emaciated young woman stumbled into the Blackmoon pack’s territory. The young woman’s clothes were in tatters and she was incoherent. She may have been killed, but lucky for her, I was inspecting the pack’s boundaries. I instructed my warriors to take her to the pack house where she was cleaned up and allowed to rest. It took two days for her to return into normal functioning. Once she was able to speak properly, she was taken to the alpha for interrogation.
The young woman had quite the story to tell. Her whole pack had been vanquished by a group of rogues a few weeks back and she had been wandering around the woods, not knowing where to go and running away from the said rogues. She had come across other pack territories but had been driven away because they thought she was an evil scheming rogue.
She was indeed lucky to be accepted into the Blackmoon pack. In the beginning, I did not spend much time with her because I was busy and did not see the need to. I had a lot of things to do and a strange girl was not on the list. She spent a lot of time alone, anyway. She was grieving and coming to terms with everything that had happened to her. Occasionally, I saw her, wandering throughout the gardens, picking up flowers, sitting on stones.
She was not my type of woman so for a long time I was not interested in her. I had a whole harem of women willing to do anything to please me. They were so desperate, those little fools. They enabled my horrible behaviour and Jane Willow was disgusted by it. I remember the first time I spoke to her. She physically recoiled when I took some steps closer to her. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why she was acting like that, yet she had not seemed so scared the first time we met, when she had no idea I was a sex addict.
It was the first time I began to rethink my life, the first time I reflected on how I was living. I pondered on everything I was doing and quickly realised it was not making my life any better. Instead, my irresponsible actions were sucking the life out of me. I was not gaining anything but sleeping around with whoever was willing. I was ruining, not only my life but also my reputation.
At first, I had hateful feelings towards the woman who had seen me for who I was, and treated me with the contempt I deserved. I hated that she did not have blind respect for me as the alpha of my pack. But, with time, I realised she had actually helped me. I began to feel the need to change my bad ways and become a better person.
I spoke to her and she was frank enough. She did not like how I lived and wasn’t going to lie about it. She even informed me that I was free to send her away if I did not appreciate her honesty. She was brave, and that inspired me. I began to change my life, starting by sending away all the whores in my harem, and focusing more on the lives of the pack members I had sworn to serve and protect when I took over as the alpha.
Along the way, Jane and I found ourselves drawing closer to each other. I began to fall in love with her as she fell for me too. Before long, we decided to date and couldn’t keep our hands off each other. When I was with Jane, I did not care about finding my destined mate anymore. I didn’t want to know about that anymore. In fact, I wished I would never meet her so that Jane and I could be together forever. We were so happy together.
And then it happened, the worst thing I could have ever imagined. Before Jane, I always dreamed of finding my mate, thinking she would be the one to rescue me from my self-destructive behaviour. After meeting Jane and putting my life in order, I no longer wanted to know.
But life is not always fair. We don’t always get what we want.
My mate arrived, and in the worst way possible, in form of a slave. The first time I saw her, I felt angry. I remember feeling a pull, smelling a sweet scent. I knew immediately that my mate was in the area. Even before I saw her, I was disappointed. It didn’t matter if she was very beautiful, or her character was good. I didn’t want her, period. I wanted Jane willow, the woman who had stolen my heart without trying.
At that time, I didn’t know what to do other than ignore and hope Jane did not get to find out. As days went by, my feelings for that woman grew. I felt the pull towards her getting stronger. I wasn’t sure if rejection was a good idea yet. I needed time to get myself together.
Somehow, Jane found out. She was devastated and decided she would leave the pack because she couldn’t stand being around her. at first, she suggested rejection. Knowing how painful it is when a werewolf rejects their mate put me off. I didn’t feel ready for that as my pack was under threat from some powerful rogue community. If i was weak, my whole pack’s strength would be compromised.
When I did not reject my mate, Jane threatened to leave the pack and never return. I knew I had to do something to keep her around. I decided to marry her. I didn’t like seeing her so insecure because it brought out a side of her that I did not like.
When I proposed, Jane was joyful. I was happy as well. The woman who had pulled me through the darkest depths of hell was going to be my luna. What more could I want?
By that time, the desire for my mate had cooled down. It had never mattered what my body wanted anyway. My heart was the most important, and it wanted Jane willow.
Jane willow who disappeared on our wedding day without a word. I woke up, ready for the best day of my life, but it turned out to be a nightmare.
She broke my heart, leaving it in pieces. She ran off with her mate, after convincing me to stay away from mine. It hurt so badly, and there was nothing I could do about it, other than spiral back into the darkness she had pulled me from.
Worse, I had accepted my true mate in a fit of anger. I didn’t know how to deal with that.
So, I ran.