Page 10 of His Mate's Curves

“Taken care of?! You talk about her like she’s a burden, so why don’t you treat her like one. Why don’t you tell her that you don’t want her.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but she’s gone now. Actually gone, she’s banished. I told her to leave and never come back.”

She looked up at him for the first time, “You banished her?”

“Yes. She’s gone. For good. She won’t be back ever. She interrupted our day. She’s a low-level and not allowed to do that. It was way out of line,” he pleaded with her to believe him.

“Why didn’t you tell her before? It would’ve been so much easier for us. How am I supposed to trust you when you won’t do what you say?”

A tear began to fall from his left eye, “You’re right. I should’ve done what I said. Lukas told me that they were getting together. That they were happy.”

“Well, he was wrong about that,” she assumed from her behavior.

“I guess so. I didn’t realize how much she liked me. I thought it was just a crush.”

“You kissed her. I told you that she was bragging about it. You had to have felt something for her or told her something to make her think you were interested.”

He sighed in confusion, “She pulled me in for a kiss. I didn’t know she was going to do that. I didn’t tell her anything. We were just friends. I thought about her for a mate but knew it wouldn’t work out.”

“You considered her?!”

The anger rose inside of Darya, she was a fiery woman, and today was no exception. If she had known that Hanalei was an option for Andreas, she might not have said yes to marrying him. If he had told Darya that she was one of a few choices for him, she wouldn’t have gone on that first date.

His words seemed to fail him as she ran off while he tried to explain himself. Andreas kicked himself for speaking such strange words. He didn’t mean that she was an option for his mate. She was really an afterthought, nothing to him. Hanalei was considered for a minute maybe, no more. She wasn’t Darya. She wasn’t who he wanted. He ran after her, yet again, but he couldn’t find her in the woods. It was getting foggy, and the clearance wasn’t great. He decided to go back towards the camp and hope she returned soon so he could explain. Maybe she just wanted some time away.

And away she went, far into the forest. Sprinting, unsure of if Andreas was following her. She really hoped he wasn’t. She was praying he wasn’t on her tail to speak with her again. It seemed like every time he spoke, he messed up his words and hurt her feelings. It was a big mess. She was embarrassed, ashamed, too uncomfortable to return. She found a spot surrounded by large bushes with soft soil that she kicked around as she thought. She stopped there in hopes of talking herself through the relationship she thought she had.

“You know when he first met you,” Lukas appeared from the brush around her. She jumped as she thought she was alone, “he told me everything about you. He rushed home to let me know that he found someone beautiful.”

“Lukas, I’m not in the mood to talk about Andreas with you. You’re biased. You’re his best friend. You can’t convince me of anything. Plus, what do you know about love? Didn’t your love just interrupt my wedding?”

That one hurt him; he was upset, but only for a moment, “Yes. I just thought you should know how he talks about you when you’re not around.”

“How does he talk about me?”

He grinned as he sat beside her, “He told me that he found someone beautiful, that no one could match it. Before you went on your first date, he spent the day preparing everything. It took hours. He spoke to your mom. He went to the ice cream parlor to make sure they had your favorites in. When he got home that night, he told me about your trip up to his spot. He’s never even taken me there before. He’s never shown it to anyone. He speaks very highly of you, even if he has trouble saying it to your face.”

“He told me he considered mating with Hanalei. I mean, how can he recover from that? How can I trust him after all that he’s done for her and with her?”

Lukas rolled his eyes at his friend’s ignorance with women, “He talks too much, too honestly. He did consider Hanalei, but only for a moment. She loved him, she really did, and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He considered marrying her so she could be happy. Now, he’s ruined that happiness for her so that you can feel safe.”

She nodded along, “I guess so. But why can’t he talk sweetly to me like he did on our date?”

“When he’s trapped, pressured, backed into a corner, he can’t talk his way out of it. He gets nervous, he tries to say things that will help the situation, but they usually backfire. He wants to tell you, but I don’t think he could when Hanalei was here. It’s good that he banished her. It was the right thing to do. She was out of control. He was too nice to tell her how he really felt about her. If she was here, he wouldn’t be able to talk to you. He’d be too busy trying to explain himself. Give him a chance.”

She looked down at herself, thinking about everything Andreas had done for her. She started to feel a little ungrateful for his compassion after noticing how much effort he had put in to make their relationship work. She was trying, but she hadn’t noticed that he was too. She needed to go back and explain to him how much she loved him. He deserved to get the same thing that she wanted. They needed to explain to each other.

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