Chapter 31

Rachel POV

Wright House

Rachel POV

Wright House

"Men don't really want a woman of mystery?"

"Mysteries are overrated."

Tyler seemed to almost be teasing me except there wasn't anything funny about our conversation.

We had started our life together with pain and suffering because I had chosen to lie rather than approach my mate with the truth. I hadn't trusted Tyler Wright and I had not had a single reason for my doubt. All my fears had been the result of years of instincts honed from life with a compulsive gambler, liar, and con artist.

Patrick Flores taught me not to trust anyone---not even my own father.

"I wish I had told you the truth."

"I wish you had, too," Tyler murmured, leaning down to nuzzle my neck once more, "I would have saved Ethan. I would have personally delivered the ransom if I needed to and I wouldn't have regretted a single dollar. It was never about the money."

Tyler was distracting me with his hot breath on my skin. It felt as if he were whispering erotic promises rather than secondhand regrets. Why did my body still crave his even after we had cut off the mate bond?

"Stop."

I backed out of his arms even though my body was screaming for me to stay put. I couldn't let myself be ruled by my instincts. I couldn't even trust my instincts at this stage. Who knew what kind of crossed wires I was working against now I was pregnant and had lost connection to my wolf?

Rayne had kept me safe in all kinds of situations. I missed her terribly though I was grateful not to have to feel her pain while she slept.

"Why? Why should we stop? You can't get more pregnant."

"Tyler, we can't fall back into bed together. Sex won't solve anything."

Tyler stepped back and ran a hand through his hair. He looked angry, furious really, and I couldn't blame him. I knew I was sending mixed signals. I wanted life to get easy again. Why had things become so complicated?

"We go out, someone will see us."

Wait. Had Tyler been planning to get me back into his bed from the beginning? He had promised me a date night only to mean for us to get together to roll around in the sheets once more?

"What about our date? I thought you were going to take me out."

"Rachel, I want to take you out. I just want you to know if I do? We're going to become public knowledge. Are you ready for people to know you have a connection to me?"

Tyler had a reputation in the media as a playboy. Jenny Wayland the model had been his most frequent arm candy, but paparazzi had photographed him with supermodels, movie stars, and wealthy society debutantes ever since he was a teenager.

When I had been sharing sodas and fries with Nathan Lewis, Tyler Wright had been spontaneously flying to Paris with the It Girl of the moment.

"Are you asking if I would be ashamed of you?"

I couldn't keep the incredulity out of my voice. Tyler had to know I wasn't concerned with my own reputation being tarnished by associating with him. We were fated mates even if we had rejected the mate bond.

"I'm asking if you're prepared for everyone to believe I share my bed with whoever catches my eye. The press thinks I'm fucking these women I escort out."

"I don't care what the press thinks. I know you aren't."

Tyler looked at me with a wry twist to his mouth which held far more bitterness than he should have at his age. He looked a decade older than me rather than only a few years. I was oddly intimidated without knowing why.

Stepping back a pace, I asked, "Tyler, are you telling me you were having sex with other women?"

"I already told you I never slept with another woman while we were together. I'm asking if you're ready to be faced with the press saying I did every single time they come after you. Are you ready to fight public opinion?"

Public opinion didn't matter to me. I wanted to believe Tyler was choosing not to care about the media either, but I was getting a feeling of dread in my stomach which suggested otherwise.

"You're not ready to fight them."

I knew it was true as soon as the words cleared my lips. The truth was written all over Tyler's face and I felt so stupid I wanted to die. Tears stung my eyes; I had never hated Tyler so much before.

"I'm leaving. Don't ask me to come again."

Tyler grabbed my wrist and dragged me against his chest again. His scent -I had just been reveling in it- almost made me sick. I couldn't stand it. I was drowning in him.

"I don't want to let you go. I don't want you to go. I want to be with you, Rachel. I just want you to be sure you really want to be with me because you're going to find it isn't going to be as straightforward as you think it will be."

Nausea crept up my throat, choking me.

Gasping, I asked, "Can you let me go? Please. I'm going to be sick."

Tyler let me go and I took the reprieve to put several steps between us. I moved to sit on the couch while I fought down the urge to be sick. I felt as if I were a stranger in this place I'd once called home. Nothing about the formal living room felt as if it had any personality.

No one could look around this house and see me in it. I'd been a guest here, not a resident. I had no idea what I thought would happen when I came here to meet Tyler. All I had wanted was to feel as if my mate wanted me. Tyler made me believe he did only to take away the certainty in less than minutes of my arrival.

"Here," Tyler offered me a glass of ice water, "Drink a little of this. You feel sick thinking I could cheat on you? Imagine how I felt when I woke up to find my mate missing without even a name to look for her under."

The water helped some. I felt more even keeled with the icy liquid cooling me from the inside.

"How many times do you want me to tell you I'm sorry?"

"How many times do you think you'll be able to stand hearing about my playboy past?"

I shook my head. I didn't know how I would handle defending myself as Tyler's mate. He had never given me a chance to try to be his mate in public. No one had been allowed to know I was the woman waiting on him at home.

"Are you waiting on me to become famous enough to earn a spot on your arm before you take me out for that date?"

"I'm waiting on you to tell me my arm will be the only one you appear on."

"You want a commitment from me and you won't even take me out for a dinner?"

Tyler hated seeing me with Nathan Lewis. I knew his Alpha instincts would drive him to pursue me as his mate and urge him to fight against another Alpha trying to claim me. I just thought he understood he had no right to make claims on me at this stage.

"I'll take you out right now. You tell me you won't see Nathan Lewis again. You don't belong with him. Fate says you belong with me."

"We already set fate aside, Tyler."

I held my hand up so he could see the scar marring my palm. It ached sometimes. I noticed it every time I played my piano. Could he not understand how far we were from where we'd started?

"You wanted that," Tyler accused, "I just gave it to you because you wouldn't stop asking for it. Don't you realize you were wrong? We shouldn't reject what fate has given us. We can go back to the way things were! You could keep your music going. You'd just have to be careful not to let the press trail you here and we'll have to work out a real strategy with my father if we choose to go public together."

I felt as if I'd injected the ice water into my veins instead of drank it. What did John Wright have to do with anything? What did he mean letting the press trail me home?

"What does your father have to do with us? Why would it matter if the press got pictures of me coming home?"

Nathan Lewis had let me declare on national television he was the inspiration for my love song. Tyler Wright wanted to get his father's permission to risk being seen with me?

"My father has to consider the future of House Wright. He has been making potential arrangements with the understanding I'm unmarried."

"But not unmated," I pointed out.

"No, not unmated either. We've never announced a mate and we've---handled the rumors about you."

"You've kept me a secret, you mean? Like a dirty mistress? What about taking me out right now? You never intended to take me out, did you?"

"Rachel, this is bigger than you or me. My father has to think about the fate of Moonrise Pack. I have to obey my Alpha."

"Your father only cares about keeping the line of succession under his name! As long as it's a Wright in the Alpha House, he doesn't care about anything else!"

"You don't know him!"

"I don't know you either! I can't believe I never knew you were hiding me, Tyler! Nathan would never hide me! Nathan is proud to stand at my side! From now on? You don't contact me until you're ready to cut the strings your father uses to make you dance. I want a mate, not a marionette!"

I left in a fury, hoping there really was a paparazzi following me so they could get a picture of me storming away from Tyler Wright. I had no doubts about leaving him this time---I just wondered if I had made the right choice in coming to him in the first place.