Before me, Matteo had another mate.

It was a concept that I was struggling to get my reeling head around but Matteo had been right, this line of questioning had led to me getting upset.

And what was even more irritating than my initial hurt upon hearing this new information was that I knew exactly what this pain implied. It meant that I had feelings for Matteo.

"You didn't kill her, right?" I blurted out, immediately slapping a hand over my mouth.

Matteo surprisingly wasn't upset, or visibly at least. He almost seemed caught off guard that, that was the particular question I settled upon. "I did not." He affirmed with a cautious nod of his head, apparently satisfied with my lack of outburst.

He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, "Mal actually rejected me."

My eyes widened as the pieces started to all started to come together.

"Shortly after Isabel turned me, I joined into Ardor as one of their own. It was there where I met Mal and discovered that she was my mate." His jaw tightened ever so slightly but I noticed it. "Everything was as ideal as any normal wolf could hope for, until Mal got it into her head that there were people coming after her. She began to obsess over her this outlandish idea that someone was hunting her down and wouldn't stop until she was dead, Mal drove herself into insanity. Then one night she was tearing me out of bed and rejecting me supposedly for my own safety."

I leaned forward ever so slightly, listening a little too intently to Matteo's explanation than I was entirely comfortable with. I straightened immediately. "Well was someone really after her?"

He snorted and looked over at me as if I was as crazy as Mal, "Obviously not." Matteo sighed and dropped his hand from the back of his neck, "She was troubled and I was unable to see that earlier because I was blinded by the bond."

"Being rejected by Mal was the greatest pain I'd ever experienced, the very act of breathing alone became a chore." Matteo absentmindedly picked at the bark of a tree beside us before beginning to walk again, forcing me to follow after him if I wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say.

Needless to say, I walked.

"I had to get out of Ardor, it was too painful for me there so I left." He explained, "I scrounged around on my own for a while as a pseudo-rogue until I stumbled upon Malice Pack but that is besides the fact."

Matteo looked over at me as we walked, "When I found you, imagine my surprise..." He shook his head, not particularly liking the way he started, "All of these feelings and emotions I'd kept pent up inside of me as a result of Mal's rejection projected themselves onto you. Yet still, I couldn't bring myself to inflict that same kind of pain onto anyone else." He cracked the smallest of smiles, "The Dark Alpha of Malice, afraid of hurting someone's feelings, a first for everything I suppose."

I was slightly ashamed by my first assumption that Matteo had been the one to harm his mate, when in reality it was quite reversed.

I looked down at his hands and noticed they were clenched tightly, I boldly reached over and took his hand in mine surprising the both of us. "I'm glad you didn't reject me."

His eyes widened slightly and it sent me anxiously scrambling to recover from that embarrassing omission, "For our wolves' sake, of course." I coughed nervously, trying and failing to maintain an air of casualty.

Matteo smiled fully, a soft laugh emanating from his chest as he saw right through my diversion, "I'm glad I didn't reject you either." He paused for a moment, staring down at our interlocked hands before adding. "I'm glad you didn't reject me too."

I pretended to gag at the cheesy sentiment and Matteo just laughed and pulled us closer together, "Too much?"

I stood up on my toes and silenced him with a kiss and in a flash I was pinned against the closest tree. It was as if nothing ever mattered more to Matteo than this kiss, this moment with me.

Whatever pain I experienced from the bark of the tree biting into my back was all but erased by the feeling of Matteo's lips. There was this wild energy that settled upon us like a southern thunderstorm, appearing out of nowhere with an intensity that was beside itself.

Wasting no time, Matteo's hands immediately went between my legs. I bucked against the simplest of friction, his hand pressing against me through my shorts already had me pooling for him.

I closed my eyes, losing myself to the sensation and when I felt his other hand unfasten the button of my shorts I couldn't help the smile that crossed my features but I wanted more.

It wasn't fair that he was undressing me in the middle of Freeman's Land and I didn't get a chance to touch and oggle him. I tugged at the hem of Matteo's shirt and when he caught on to what I wanted with a smug smile but instead of granting me the physical contact I so desperately craved, Matteo took my small hands in his and pinned them to the tree above my head.

"What did you want, Olive?" His husky voice taunted as his teeth grazed my earlobe, gently nipping me there, earning a small gasp from me.

I groaned when his erection brushed against my parted legs, the smallest of movements driving me mad. He chuckled and trailed a finger all the way down from my wrists above my head, between my breasts and to the area where I wanted him most.

In an instant, Matteo slipped his hands beneath the newly unbuttoned waistband of my shorts, he ran his finger against my folds teasing me. My back arched off of the trunk of the tree into Matteo's chest and I felt his heart pounding against me.

He inserted his finger into me and with a slight curling action, he began to drill into me. I cried out as I immediately began to feel something within me build, I grinded against his hand as I wildly searched for my release.

Matteo added another finger and I felt my knees go weak but his other hand holding my wrists prevented me from tumbling to the floor, I moaned at the addition and his lips were quickly covering mine.

From behind Matteo somewhere there was a gasp.

Matteo groaned against my lips and broke the kiss but refused to remove his hands from me, he glanced over his shoulder. "You better have a good reason to be interrupting us, Amias."

"Amias?" I squeaked out and and fought my way out of his hands, with shaky legs I shoved his hand out of my pants.

His arrival sent me parting away from Matteo instantly and embarrassingly flushed in the face for a number of reasons. I stepped away from the tree and I peered from around Matteo's muscular form to find Amias truly standing in front of us once more.

"First Devin and Fran and now you two?" He huffed, "When I said you needed to complete the process I didn't mean that you had to go at it right away."

I blushed and smiled apologetically over at Amias but after his first exclamation I honestly stopped listening, too distracted by what I thought I'd heard, "What was that you said about Fran and Devin?"

Amias rubbed his eyes dramatically, "I'll never be able to unsee it..." He trailed off as a wave of shivers rolled through his body, "Straight sex." He acted like it was the plague, some kind of horrific scourge to existence.

Rolling my eyes I walked over towards Amias, "What happened? Tell me everything."

"Pervert." I heard Matteo mutter playfully behind me from the tree I'd been situated upon seconds ago, causing both Amias and I to turn and send him a pointed glare. I could tell that he was pouting over the interruption, I couldn't blame him. There was a part of me that wished Amias had waited just a while longer to make this announcement to us. But as per usual, my life did not go accordingly to plan.

Amias pointed between Matteo and I, "You two seem awfully..." He narrowed his eyes, "Chummy."

That was one way to put it.

"C'mon, Amias." I pleaded once more, ignoring his distraction and it seemed that the second time around was actually the charm.

He grinned, all too willing to share suddenly now that he had me begging. "There I was, making a hasty yet somehow leisurely retreat back to base camp after I was accosted by the complexities of your sexual lives. I had almost made my way back when off ahead of me I heard noises, screaming and sounds of strangled pain. So, me being the exceptionally decent person that I am, I took off to go and be the hero for what feels like the millionth time these past few days...I came crashing through the shrubbery to find none other than Francis and Devin cavorting sexually with one another, having the heterosexual intercourse on the grass right before me, also right next to my belongings."

Fran and Devin...

At face value it was a concerning pairing but when I remembered the tumultuous relationship that Fran survived, I trusted her. I glanced over at Matteo, besides, I really wasn't in the best position to be giving relational advice anyways.

Matteo cleared his throat and pointedly looked down at my crotch. I frowned and instinctually I moved my hand to block his view, shocked at Matteo's obvious advances in front of Amias. Only to discover that I'd neglected to button myself back up in Amias' unexpected arrival.

Why do things like this happen to me? I must have done something exceptionally terrible in another life.