You Rejected Me. Remember?
In Love With My Best Friend Chapter 22

Astrea

Smiling through tears of joy, I watched as the star-crossed lovers held hands. Sarah was a crying mess and although her mate wasn’t crying, we all knew that he was elated that he had found his mate. Their wordless gestures were heartfelt. I felt Leo squeeze me against him. I sighed. I would love to share the same bond with him.

I wiped my tears. We had to try and communicate with him.

“How are you feeling?” I asked him after giving them a few minutes.

“My body is in pain,” he spoke slowly. His lips tugged upwards slightly as he glanced at Sarah who was holding his hand, “but I’ve never felt so pleased. I have found my mate,” his smile widened. Sarah smiled back at him as she clasped her finger around his. He then looked at me and then frowned.

“But… how did I end up here?” He arched his brow. “I have never stepped inside such a beautiful place,” he glanced at the machines in the room. Wrinkling his forehead, he studied the tools.

“With a lot of complicated… equipment…” the creases on his forehead deepened

“Where am I? And who are you? How did you replace me? And why did you bring me here?”

Without waiting for an answer, he kept spilling out his queries. I was glad that he was enthusiastic about replaceing his mate, and at the same time, I understood that he had every reason to be confused.

Chuckling, “you have a lot of questions, don’t you?” I mumbled. “We found you in the woods. Can you tell us what you remember?”

He stared into space. His lips pulled into a thin line, he continued to think. I suppose he was trying to recall what had happened to him. His countenance slowly changed. He gulped as his eyes clouded with uncertainty. His lips parted as he glanced at me and then at Sarah.

“Umm… where am I?” He asked once again.

I pursed my lips. I wondered if he was worried about being chastised because he was a rogue.

“It is okay. We know that you are a rogue. But you are also our friend’s mate and I can see that both of you are excited about replaceing each other. We just want to know what you remember,” I spoke as carefully as I could.

He had just woken up from a coma, and I didn’t want him to stress. Nevertheless, we had to know what he could recollect.

He exhaled a breath of air as he looked intently at Sarah.

“You… knew?” He seemed to be ashamed of it.

Sarah nodded in response.

“Yes, and that is the least of my worries,” she said.

A breath of relief escaped his lips. “I was worried that the wolves in the packs wouldn’t accept me…” he trailed off, chuckling to himself. There was no humour in his laugh. Perhaps due to the pain and weakness in his body.

“Do you remember anything?” I inquired.

“Yes,” he sighed. “I… they caught me. I was trying to sneak into their so-called laboratory. I heard that they were preparing a vial to make us stronger,” he hesitated.

He studied our faces and ran his tongue over his lips. His face suddenly wilted.

“I… should leave… I don’t belong here…” he mumbled under his breath.

I looked at Sarah. Her eyebrows were knitted together in concern.

Heaving a deep breath, “don’t you want to be a part of a pack?” I asked. “Don’t you want to be with your mate?” I inquired further.

Shaking his head, “no… I mean I want to… but… “

“It is your choice…. What is your name?” I asked, cutting him in.

“Allan,” he replied.

Nodding my head, “it is your choice, Allan. You can either choose to leave or stay and submit to our leader. As for us, we are ready to accept you as long as you are willing to submit,” I told him firmly.

Staring at me blankly, “are you the alpha?” He questioned, making me chuckle.

“No,” I smiled. “You will meet our leader soon. The point is, you can choose to become a better person and let go of the past. You have your mate beside you and we are all here for you. Yet, if you choose to leave, we won’t stop you,” I told him firmly.

Looking at Sarah, “I want to stay,” he declared. “But…”

Silence followed.

Sucking in a breath, “but what?” Sarah asked softly, her gaze intense as she scrutinised his demeanour.

“I have done a lot of… things… that I’m not proud of…” he gulped.

“Well, are you willing to change and be a better person?”

The Queen’s voice made us look at the entrance. Her aura filled the whole atmosphere, making our knees go weak. I glanced at Allan. He seemed to be dazed. Perhaps the sudden change in the atmosphere made his wolf shaky.

“Yes,” he mumbled, staring blankly at her.

“Good. Will you submit?”

He gulped.

“Y..yes,” he replied.

Smiling, “see, there is nothing to worry about,” she said. “I heard that you woke up, so I thought I would come and pay a visit. Rest well and get well soon,” she beamed and turned around to leave.

“Don’t ask too many questions today. He needs time to heal,” she told me on her way out.

Bowing, ” Yes, Your Majesty,” I said.

“Majesty?” Allan mumbled, as soon as she left. He still had that stunned look on his face.

“Yes, that was the Queen,” Leo smirked. Allan’s eyes widened in shock.

“Holy shít! No fúcking way!” he exclaimed.

***

We let him relax the whole day. We took the Queen’s advice and didn’t stress him with questions. He was astounded to learn that the Queen had taken her time to visit him, but later he managed to relax.

The healers soon shifted him to a private room when he had woken up. It was a good thing, because Sarah didn’t move away even for a minute. At least in the room, she could rest on the couch and freshen up using the attached toilet. Though we left them alone, allowing them to bond, we decided to take food for them so that they could eat.

Regarding the issue with the rogues, we halted our investigation for a while so that we could focus on Sarah’s mate. He could tell us a lot of things, but to gain his trust, we had to let him loosen up and get used to us. The Royals focused on the security of the kingdom. More scouts guarded all the important places in the kingdom and more guards were assigned to patrol the woods. The perimeters were also well policed. We still had to replace out how they managed to penetrate the perimeters.

Perhaps they discovered that we could use wolfsbane for that? It could be possible. Our pack members had been using them for the past few years.

Although we couldn’t be precisely confident why they were plotting against us, we now knew they might attack at any moment. So the whole kingdom was on standby. Everyone was prepared for war. The underground bunkers were already packed with food and water in case of an emergency and all the warriors were on alert. The packs had also prepared well, so that even in the case of a surprise attack, they would be able to defend themselves.

By the end of the day, Allan had grown pretty comfortable with us and, to our relief, his recovery was prompt. That night, we had our dinner together in the room of the infirmary. We waited to chat for a while and he started to tell us about his past.

“So, yeah. I am a rogue. I never belonged to a pack. My mom was a lone she-wolf. I don’t know why, or how she became a rogue, and I don’t know who my father is. But that isn’t an issue among us. Anyway, we used to live in peace as loners until we heard that all the rogues were uniting against injustice. The wolves who spoke to us claimed that they wanted to build an empire… you know, a pack… and to attain that they said that they had to defeat the current Queen,” he smiled sheepishly.

“At first, mom was thrilled by the thought of belonging to a pack. I didn’t understand what it meant, because I never knew what being in a pack was like. I followed her anyway. I trusted my mom. I didn’t realize what they were up to. I just joined the drills. You know, they taught us how to fight and I was fascinated by it… you know. I was fifteen and it intrigued me.

But as years passed, I think mom started to realise that they weren’t the right type of wolves to blend with. She wanted to escape and spoke to me about it. I was naive and rebelled. I thought she was wrong…” he sighed sadly.

His face withered as he glanced away. “I should have listened to her. Maybe if I did, she would still be alive,” he whispered.

My lips parted. “What?”

Sarah intertwined her fingers with his and offered a sympathetic smile. He forced his lips to stretch. Heaving a shaky breath, he spoke.

“I resisted. She didn’t want to leave without me, but then, the others heard that she was trying to leave. I still remember that day. They ganged up on her and ripped her throat open…” he trailed off. Pulling her lips into a thin line, Sarah hugged him. There was no doubt that Allan was volatile.

He gulped a couple of times as he blinked away the tears that glossed his eyes. His mouth opened, and it seemed to me that he was forcing himself to speak.

“They… they threatened that I would have the same fate if I tried to escape,” he paused. The tension in the atmosphere was too much. Hoping that speaking about it would lessen his burden, I listened to him.

“That was the point I felt that mom must be right. They were hiding something. I wanted to leave, but was hesitant… you know. I wanted to try anyway, but at the same time, I was worried that no pack would accept me unless I had solid proof, so I tried to sneak into their laboratory,” he chuckled. “That’s where they caught me.”

I glanced at Elena. She nodded. Leo and Xander gave me a meaningful glance. So they had a laboratory. Maybe we could ask more about it.

“So what is in the laboratory?” I implored.

Shrugging, “I am not sure. I wasn’t a part of their strange investigations. I was more like a puppet who blindly followed their instructions. I trained to fight for them. And when the time was right, to go to war,” he told us.

“You mean… They are preparing to fight… a war?” I raised an eyebrow.

He nodded. Just then, a male healer entered the room. So we ceased our discussion.

“Have you had your pills?” He asked.

“Yes. I would like to use the bathroom,” Allan told him. The healer helped him onto his feet and took him to the bathroom. While we waited, I kept theorizing and trying to make sense of what we had found out so far. So they have a laboratory where they are preparing a vial. In addition to that, they were preparing for war. What we didn’t know was what the vial does. Perhaps it would have some connection with their secret weapon. I looked at Leo. He, too, was deeply immersed in his thoughts. But we didn’t say anything. Despite the room being full, no one uttered a word.

The bathroom door opened and the healer helped Allan back to his bed. When he returned, his face was contorted in confusion.

Looking at Sarah, “why is there a mark on my neck?” he asked, bewildered.