My Long Lost Mate - Chapter 159

“…and I became their first audience!” Andrew bragged, boasting about his experience with the singing squirrels. “They gave me tons of acorns, and I gave them my hunt in return.”

Andrew has been talking for the last twenty minutes, and I didn’t know how to make him stop. It was fun listening to his story for the first ten minutes, but now it’s getting a bit tiring. He looked so excited, looking like a child with his chocolate, so I didn’t have the heart to tell him to stop.

“What did you hunt?”

“Foxes,” he said, folding his arms together as if proud of his past decision. “They were terrified,” he guffawed, lolling his head backward as he laughed. At first, I didn’t know what was funny about it, but then he added, “You see, foxes prey on squirrels.”

I gasped.

“Why did you give them foxes?” I asked, feeling bad for the poor squirrels. It must be bad luck for them to meet such a mischievous man like him. “You could have given them flowers.”

“Well…” he turned to the window, recalling his past memory. “They’re not exactly good singers. I had to visit Ronald on the way back because my ears kept on ringing.”

No wonder he was their first audience.

“It was hilarious when I saw them shocked out of their wits, but then they bit my butt!” He huffed, slanting his eyes as if remembering the pain. “I was only five, surrounded by five angry squirrels. It was traumatizing, ” he shook his head. “Ever since then, squirrels have become my nemesis.

I can’t even decide who was more unfortunate. Perhaps the squirrels. They only wanted to sing, but unintentionally hurt others by doing so. Little Andrew must have been a little too adventurous and obnoxious than most children. His parents must have had a hard time raising him. Even as an adult, Andrew was already hard to deal with.

Even so, I’m jealous of him. I didn’t have any fun childhood memories to brag about. I was locked for as long as I could remember, so even if I share my story with people, all I will see from them is their pity. I don’t want to be pitied.

“But how come you can already hunt for foxes when you were only five?” I asked. “I don’t think squirrels are any scarier than foxes.”

“Well, what can I do if I’m born so talented?” he said, and I could almost see his shoulders rising with pride. “The only thing stopping me from being an Alpha is the Alpha blood,” he said, and I quickly glanced at Luke, relieved that he was still fast asleep. “If only I was born with the blood, then—”

“Then what?” Luke barked, and Andrew grew silent. Was he only pretending to sleep? I swear his eyes were closed two seconds ago.

“Then I’ll still be your Beta, of course,” Andrew laughed, slapping his thighs as he did. “There’s no way that I could replace you as the Alpha even if I was born with the blood, right?” He laughed louder, acting as if it was the most hilarious thing he’d ever heard in his whole life. “Only in my dreams, I guess.”

“Aren’t you asleep?” I asked.

“I was,” he smiled to me, then glared at Andrew, “But a certain someone kept on making such a racket that I couldn’t help but wake up. It was hard to keep sleeping while listening to the absurdity he was spouting.”

Andrew gasped.

“Excuse me? Could you please tell me which of my stories you find absurd?” He protested. Though he was just avoiding eye contact with Luke a moment ago, it seemed that the comment which talked badly about his past adventures offended him.

“All of them,” Luke groaned, raking through his hair lazily.

No longer wanting to respond to Andrew’s yapping, he glanced at me, then raised his palm so that it cupped my cheek. He stared at me for a few moments, then smiled as he caressed my cheek with his thumb.

W-what’s with him? Why is he giving me such a soft smile?

My cheeks grew warm when I saw him with a smile so handsome, making my heart flutter at the sight of him. That smile was the prettiest thing I’ve seen in a while, and those red eyes were the most enchanting of all. Is he really mine?

“W-what’s wrong?” I asked, blushing.

“Nothing,” he chuckled, happy to see me acting this flustered again after such a long day. “You’re just too pretty.”

“Ha!” Andrew gawped. “What kind of discrimination is this? You’ve never looked at me with such dreamy eyes! You’ve also never spoken to me in such a soft tone, and we’ve been together for years! God, I can’t stand this anymore,” he threw his hands up, as if surrendering, “Sir! Stop the carriage! I’m leaving!”

I beckoned Luke to deal with Andrew, using my eyes to point at the angry Beta sitting across from us. Instead of stopping him, he smiled brightly, saying, “Don’t mind him.”

Complying with Andrew’s request, the carriage soon came to a stop in the middle of the mountain road, surrounded by the trees he told me not to trust. Even though he would have no problem hiking the mountain road all by himself, I felt bad that he had to leave the carriage.

“Andrew, you don’t have to leave,” I quickly grabbed his hand as he opened the door, stepping down the carriage.

He looked back at me with a sad smile, feigning a sob in order to guilt-trip the Alpha—which obviously didn’t work.

“Please don’t mind me,” he sobbed, his palm covering his mouth, “All these years of friendship…” he turned away, then clenched his hand around his heart, “…curse this loyal blood.”

I bit back my lips, trying not to laugh at his antics. How did Luke even find someone like him? He’s easily one of the most dramatic people I’ve ever met.

I thought he would come inside the carriage once he knew his tactics failed, but it turns out he was being serious about getting off the carriage. Luke, too, didn’t care about the Beta leaving—rather, he looked quite content with the outcome.

The carriage soon started moving again, leaving Andrew behind to stare at us teary-eyed. Not long after the carriage moved, the sound of birds flapping in the sky and many more animals running was heard.

Birds, rabbits, monkeys, foxes, all kinds of animals were seen running away from the mountain, running in the opposite direction to where we were going. They were in such a rush that I saw a few animals stumbling down as they ran, looking as though they were running for their lives.

The carriage soon came to another halt, this time due to the animals blocking our path. A few animals collided with the carriage, causing us to shake inside while we worked hard to keep the carriage stable.

“Andrew!” Luke called for the Beta, immediately receiving a response from the man who had fallen out of his act. “Search the surroundings!”

Andrew, who was behind us, immediately dashed past us as a blonde wolf, running at such a speed that he made the carriage look no less than a sloth. He jumped to the swarming herd of animals with no hesitation, fighting the wave as he ran in the opposite direction of the others.

“What’s happening?” I asked, taken aback by the sudden change of situation. Luke shook his head, heaving a sigh.

“I don’t know, but this usually means someone—something is threatening these animals. They’re running to avoid the danger up ahead.”

Danger up ahead? But ahead is the packhouse. What danger could there be in the packhouse?

“For now, we should stay in the carriage,” he said, asking the coachman to start the carriage once he saw a clearing. “It’s safer here. And if anything happens, I’ll protect you. So don’t worry.”

Even though his voice sounded calm, the expression on his face showed the exact opposite. He was obviously worried that something might have gone wrong with the packhouse while he was away.

Right now, the only one in charge is Lisa. Lisa is the Beta female, so I’m sure she’s as strong as the others, but what if something happened to her?

What if an enemy took advantage of this, knowing that Luke and the others had been going out a lot in the past few weeks? I’m afraid it would be like what happened with Leonard again.

Luke had his brows furrowed and his fist clenched as he watched the animals run down the mountain in terror. I put my hand over his, trying to assure him that no matter what happened, I’d be by his side.

“…I’ll protect you too,” I mumbled.

Hearing this, I found him smiling, saying words that showed his faith in me without even glancing back at me.

“I’m sure you will.”