Come What May
Chapter 16

My mate came back to the room after an hour. I got up from bed and walked towards him. He understood that I have to talk to him and he pinched the bridge of his nose closing his eyes.

Excuse me? I’m not that irritating.

I was about to speak up when he cut me off.

“Not now. I’m very tired and want to catch some sleep.” He said tiredly and went towards the closet to take out his night clothes. He then walked towards the bathroom.

Well, I will not bother him, he did look very tired. I went inside the closet and changed into my night clothes. Yes, I arranged my clothes in his closet because he won’t let me out of this room. There are guards positioned at every corner of the castle. It feels so weird.

The security is tighter outside the castle. After the incident with my parents, my mate didn’t want to take any chances. He even ordered to set up many security booths at the lands that come in the way to reach the royal territory.

My mate will assign me personal bodyguards. When Ryder told me all this, I was shocked. Those creatures are a threat to everyone then why am I treated like this?

Ryder said that there are many things that I don’t know. He always talks in riddles and dodges my questions. He always says I will know once the time is right. When will be the right time?

I got back and laid down on bed. My mind wandered towards Ryder. I’m worried about him. I will ask him again tomorrow.

The bathroom door opening brought me out of my thinking state.

My mate came out freshly showered, his hair still wet.

Should I dry his hair with the towel? Stop it Berry! What is wrong with you?

He got himself comfortable on the bed and covered his himself with the duvet. My heart rate picked up. I didn’t even think about this before. WE ARE GOING TO SHARE A BED!

I looked at him and my mind kept chanting only thing.

My Mate! Mine, mine, mine!

“You need to calm down.” My maid said suddenly.

“Umm, What?” I asked confused. Why did he say that? What did I do? Why do I need to calm down?

“I can hear your thoughts, mate.” He said with sly smile.

Holy Goddess! Kill me now!

“W-What?” I asked him embarrassed. Of course he can hear my thoughts! He marked me! I can’t even think anything now. This is not fair. I’m not a wolf so I don’t know how to put up the barrier to prevent him from reading my thoughts.

I looked here and there, I was not able to meet his eyes. I don’t know what is happening to me. whenever he is close to me either I feel so shy or I feel like a possessive jerk.

“You-You always hear my thoughts?” I mustered the courage to ask him.

“Look at me.” he said instead of answering me. I hesitantly did.

“I choose not to hear them most of the time. I heard this time because your thoughts were quite intense.” He told me with a smirk on his face. I like him being expressive with me. I hate it when he has that cold stare on with no expressions on his face.

“Ok.” I mumbled. He chuckled at that. This the most beautiful sound in this whole world. I looked at him through my lashes, trying not to be obvious about it. I was adoring his smiling face. I averted my gaze when he noticed me looking at him.

“I won’t pry again, no need to be embarrassed.” I could feel his smile through his words. I couldn’t help but smile at that. I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling like an idiot showing my teeth.

“I’m going to sleep. I’m tired.”

“I uhh, I want to ask something.” I just wanted to know what is wrong with Ryder, then he can rest as much as he wants. I will even prepare a soup for him when he wakes up. I mean I can prepare food for him now. Everyone knows he marked me. I can prepare food for my mate.

“Ask.” He says after heaving a heavy sigh. Please just answer me, mate. I’ll let you sleep then.

“What happened to Ryder? Why was he so sad?” I asked. I hope he doesn’t get mad at me. we already had an argument when he accused me of wanting to be with Ryder. I ended up being marked. It’s not a wise idea to pick up a fight with this short-tempered Alpha King.

“I can’t tell you.” He answered straight away. Wait, what? So, he’s not angry? WOW!

“Why?”

“It’s not my place to tell you anything. It’s his business.”

“So, he told you what happened?” WOW Berry, You’re so dumb.

“Yes.” He looked at me like I’m stupid. It’s like he wants to say obviously I know. That’s why I’m saying I can’t tell you.

“Then why can’t you tell me?” I pushed him for answers. Just tell me already.

“Because it’s not my place.”

“But you know the reason.”

“So?”

“So, I should also know.”

“Why so?”

“Because I’m your mate.” I folded my arms. He shook his head and covered himself completely with the duvet and faced the other side muttering something like she’s so annoying sometimes. I wanted to punch his back but decided against it. I will talk to Ryder myself tomorrow.

I will never complain about anything in my life if this is how I wake up everyday. Okay, this a bit too much but I felt immense happiness when I opened my eyes and found myself in the arms of my mate. We cuddled during our sleep. I was enjoying the pleasurable feeling of having his arms around me, my head laying on his chest.

I wanted to trace his facial features with my finger but I held myself back. He has been nice to me after the marking but I’m still not clear about what we truly are. I don’t know that we share something romantic. He is my mate and I love him but I’m not clear about what he feels for me.

Will he accept me? Or will he push me away again because of that curse? I don’t have the courage to bring it up to him. He is being nice to me and I am happy with that right now. I don’t want to lose this too. I’m so scared that he will be back to his crude self again if I bring it up to him.

He stirred in his sleep and unknowingly tightened his arms around me. I wouldn’t dare to complain because I was enjoying this closeness way too much. He was deep in sleep, he must be really tired. I decided to get up. After struggling for fifteen minutes trying to get out of his hold without waking him up, I succeeded and got up.

After brushing my teeth, showing and dressing up, I decided to go downstairs and prepare breakfast for my mate. As soon as I opened the bedroom door, I saw our chef standing outside, he was ready to knock the door when I saw him. He bowed his head towards me to show respect and I smiled and nodded at him in acknowledgement.

“My Queen, I wanted to know when will The King have his breakfast? I’ve already prepared it for him. He daily eats by now.” Right, he must be wondering if he’ll have breakfast or not.

“He is still asleep. He will eat once he gets up.” I told him. He bowed again and left. Here goes my plan of preparing breakfast. Urgh!

I had my breakfast and decided to search for Ryder. It is high time now.

I don’t even know where his room is. Oh God! What should I do now?

Garden! Yes, I should search the garden. I wasn’t disappointed. There he was, sitting all alone in a bench with a gloomy expression on his face. It was quite weird. A man so sad in a colorful garden. A garden full of life.

I walked towards him and sat on the bench at his side. He looked at me and my heart crumbled when I saw his broken expression. His eyes were glistening with tears. I threw my hands around him and hugged him with my dear life. He returned the hug and started sobbing.

Oh no! he’s crying. Why? What happened? Ryder is always so cheery and energetic, what made a man like him cry?

All these questions were swarming my mind but I decided not to ask anything right now. I just held him as he sobbed in my arms. My heart broke every time he let out a gut-wrenching cry.

It took a while for him to calm down. We sat in silence for a few moments. Then I decided to break the silence. I need to know what’s going on.

“What is happening Ryder?” I finally asked him. He closed his eyes as if just thinking about it causes him pain.

“I found my mate.” The tears started to stream down his face again.

SAY WHAT?

Why is he sad then? He didn’t want a mate? No, this can’t be true. There must be another reason.

“But, that’s a good thing, right?” I asked him.

“My mate..”

“Yes, your mate what?” I encouraged him to speak.

“I- I kind of- I kind of rejected him.”

“What? Why would you do that? Are you cra- Wait, what? Him?” I wanted to make sure I heard right.

“Yes, my mate is a male.” He answered. It took me a moment to digest this information. No, it’s not like there is something wrong with his mate being a male, it’s just that it was quite unexpected.

“Why did you reject him?” he shouldn’t have done that. His poor mate. I feel bad for him.

“And when did you meet him? Did something happened that made you reject him? And, and, what is his name? how does he look like?” I rambled. I was curious and wanted to know everything.

“Control yourself Berry.” He chuckled lightly. I gave him a sheepish grin. Finally, I saw a little smile emerging on his face. He was thinking about his mate.

“His name is Charlie Wilson. He is from your pack. I met him when we went for your parents’ funeral.”

“Really, wow!” I smiled, excited.

“Yeah, when I saw him.. I was so shocked. I never expected my mate to be a male. I have been with many females in past but I never had any interest in males. So, when my mate turned out to be of same gender as mine, it came as a shocker to me.” he breathed heavily and continued.

“He is just eighteen, you know. He looks so delicate, small and cute. But I behaved like a jerk to him. I couldn’t accept that I am mated to a male. I told him to never show his face to me again.” I gasped at that. Oh Ryder, why did you do it?

“He must be heartbroken.” I muttered. A tear left Ryder’s eye. I feel bad for him too. I just wish they can fix everything up.

“And do you know what the worst part is?” he asked bitterly.

“I did it after mating with him.” WHAT?