Ridian’s POV
I couldn’t decide which was brighter, the stars or the moon. The moon didn’t seem bright as usual. The stars, on the other hand, were at their brightest. As I lay on the hammock and stared at the illuminated sky, cold wind blew against my skin. I liked the cold, it gave me something to feel.
It had been two weeks since I had sold of my own mate. Who even does that? Apparently fools like me do it. In a fit of rage, I had made a decision that was starting to cost me my peace. And yet, I didn’t even want her.
The weeks had passed by pretty fast since I had spent most of the time buried in work which included fighting off angry rogues who had injured me in several places, but had not been able to kill me. Instead, I was able to send all of them to hell where they belonged. How dare they come and claim the territory that had been owned by my pack and family for hundreds of generations.
Because of their lack of purpose in life, rogues like causing trouble for no important reason and I can’t stand it. We who live in packs have a lot of things to deal with. There’s no time to play stupid games with idle beings.
Life was slowly returning to normal, as normal as it can be when you have a mate that lives miles away, a mate your body desires but you can’t access because you made a stupid decision in a heated moment. Someone once said you should never open your mouth or make a decision when angry. That person was right. If I had just waited for some time to cool down, Cilla Markle wouldn’t be miles away from me. I wanted to hate her but I couldn’t. Sometimes, I even worried about her safety which annoyed me to no end. I wanted to forget that I had a mate and live a normal life without her.
The moon goddess was truly a woman, no one could argue against that. She was also crazy. Why would anyone bind two people so strongly? It was forced love. Only a woman would try so hard to force things.
My emotions were all over the place. The only person that made me feel better was Kelly. She had stayed at my pack because of her sister. Sandy had run off with some vampire to Europe, something which annoyed their father very much. Kelly was scared of facing him alone since she would end up bearing the punishment for her sister’s transgressions. I was glad she had stayed. Without her by my side, life would have been harder.
Even my mother seemed to notice my constant irritability. I was moody and angry most of the time. It was not strange for me to feel like that but people seemed to find it so. I guess it was because they had grown too used to the side of me that Jane Willow had brought out in me. I was sure all of them wished she had stayed and married me. I would be the alpha they had all fallen in love with.
My relationship with my mother worsened because I assigned part of the blame to her. She was the one who had fuelled my anger that morning. My sister Camilla didn’t even bother about me. She was too busy teaching handcraft to the young girls she had taken under her wing.
Going back inside, I sat on the sofa and began to think about the future. A knock on my door woke me up from my reverie.
“Come in,” I yelled.
The door opened. A maid stood there. “You have a visitor, sir. Should I let her in?”
“Oh come on,” a familiar voice said and a beautiful smell wafted into the room as the sexy Samantha buck walked in.
“Sam,” I said as I stood up.
Her smile widened as she came and hugged me. “It’s been a while, my dear.”
I placed my hands around her. “Welcome to my humble abode, mi lady?”
She laughed as she pulled away. “Humble? Please.”
We both sat down. “How are you doing?”
“The question, is how are you doing? I’ve been hearing rumours.”
“What are they saying now?”
“Many things but all I understood was that you’re not doing well.”
I sighed. “Really, so you came to make me feel alright.” I reached out and tickled her waist. “You’re going to achieve that.”
She chuckled. “No. forget about that. I came to talk. I know that this can be fixed.”
“Do people know the cause of my sadness?”
“Well, everyone assumes that it’s all about Jane Willow running off with her mate, but I know it’s more than that. I haven’t told anyone your secret and I don’t plan to. What you told me last time really stuck. Life is not all about simple pleasures like sex. It can be so much better with other things. I have realised that one of those things is friendship.”
I barely have any friends since all I do is have sex whoever I come across. And that’s why they can’t see me as something more than a sex object. I have also been seeing other people as sex objects. But when you asked me if I found that kind of fulfilling, I told you it was what I was used to. I thought that’s all people wanted from me, and that it was the only thing that could make me happy.”
She shook her head before continuing.
“I have been thinking and experimenting. I’ve realised that people sometimes see us the way we present ourselves. Change starts with us. I want my life to be different, and better. I need friends. You sounded like you needed a friend so I decided to start with you. Let’s talk, share our dreams, our fears and our plans for the future. Let us do other things other than sex. Maybe it will work and we shall see some fulfilment. Maybe it won’t, but we won’t know if we don’t try.”
“Who are you, and what have you done to Samantha buck?” I asked the woman in front of me. “That’s the deepest I’ve seen you be. This is really impressive. I didn’t know what I needed other than to return Cilla but I think you might be onto something with this friendship thing. The only real friend I have had in life was Kane and as we have grown up we have become so different and drifted apart. Maybe I need to make new friends based on our adult experiences. You sound like a good candidate because we understand each other really well. Let’s do this!”
“Yes!” Samantha said, standing up.
“Where are you going, friend?” I asked.
“To the kitchen. We need some wine, to celebrate.”
“Sure.”
I was feeling better already.
This version of Samantha was a breath of fresh air.