Ch. 5 - Adrian

It wasn't like he wasn't coordinated enough to catch or throw a ball, but the minute he felt that familiar tug pull him into the direction where the football was going, he immediately knew that the flying projectile was now dangerous.

Not a second later, that same football collided against its unintended target.

"Aria!" Mira immediately ran toward the fallen girl in a burst of panic. "Aria!"

Adrian didn't know what to do. The tug he felt that led him to the girl who fell was unmistakable. It was the same type of tug he felt at the mall and when he first met Mira.

The girl on the ground must have been his soul mate, and the sensation he felt was unreal. He didn't know whether to run around in joy until his adrenaline wore off, or call an ambulance.

Nick moved before he did, and Adrian realized that the girl who fell was still not awake.

"Aria." Mira shook her friend's shoulder. "Aria? Wake up, Aria!" she called out.

It didn't take long for Adrian to realize that he had unintentionally hurt his soul mate, and soon enough a sense of panic immediately settled in.

And to think, they hadn't even officially met yet.

He quickly dashed toward the three in a matter of seconds. His thoughts were in a frenzy, and he was trying his best to calm down.

What if he just killed his soul mate?

He hurriedly pulled his phone out of his front pocket and was ready to call the ambulance until Mira cried out, "Aria! Oh my God, Aria. I thought you died!"

The girl's expression had a mixture of bewilderment and something else he couldn't quite place. She didn't speak right away and looked like she was still trying to process what just happened. She glanced toward Mira, who quickly explained the situation.

"You were hit with a football," Mira explained. "Because this dipsh*t . . ." She shifted her ire at Adrian. "Can't catch."

Aria then turned to look at the two of them, and Adrian noticed that his heart rate wasn't going to slow down anytime soon.

"The hell?" Aria groaned.

Adrian couldn't speak. He was stunned, and his mind was in a flurry of chaos.

Is she gonna say something? Does she hate me? Will she think I'm incompetent? Why isn't she saying anything?

Even if she was angry at him, he would appreciate it if she said something—anything.

"We're getting you to the ER." Mira grabbed a hold of Aria's shoulder before she slowly sat her up. "You were out for a minute. We have to get you checked."

Aria blinked in confusion. "Really?"

"For a few minutes at least." Mira then grabbed Aria's backpack and handed it to Adrian. "Nick, can you help with the other side?"

Adrian didn't complain and simply followed orders because he wasn't sure if he could even trust himself to help her. A part of him wanted to grab the opportunity and say, "I'll do it!" and be completely confident with what he was saying, but he couldn't even convince himself that he was reliable enough.

He watched as Aria stood up and walked with a little sway to her step. The guilt began to eat at him, and he couldn't help but hate himself.

"I'm fine, really," she insisted.

"No, we're taking you to the ER," Mira said.

"No, seriously." Aria walked over and leaned against Mira's car. "I'll be fine."

"You have to get checked for possible concussions, so we're going."

"That's . . ." Aria stopped and Adrian wondered what she was about to say.

Mira looked at him with a glare. "I'll cover it, don't worry."

The cogs in his mind started to turn.

"Mira, it's okay. Seriously," Aria said.

"I can cover it," Adrian offered. "It's my fault that you got hit."

Aria turned to him. "I don't even know you," she said, which felt like a hit to the gut.

Why'd she have to say it like that?

Nick spoke out, "It's really important to get checked out. Otherwise, it could get worse."

"He's right," Mira said, using this as an opportunity to get her friend to cave in.

Adrian heard Aria whisper something to Mira, and he immediately pulled away to avoid listening out of respect. It was hard because for some reason, all he wanted to do was to observe every little thing she did.

In the end, all three of them won the battle because Aria was too tired to continue fighting with them on the matter.

The whole ordeal with the hospital was rather quick. They managed to get Aria some brain scans to check for any possible concussions, and as they waited for the results in a separate room, Mira continued to give him the evil eye.

Adrian, on the other hand, felt like he really screwed up with this situation. The only reason he was able to breathe a little lighter was because Aria wasn't being rushed off to some other unit to deal with some sort of complication. However, that guilty feeling still continued to eat at him.

Eventually, Nick had to leave early to pick up Leila from the university, and as the three of them waited for the results, Adrian made sure to observe Aria as discreetly as possible. Of course, it didn't help that Mira literally confronted him the minute Aria got her X-ray results.

"Adrian," Mira called out to him softly while Aria was going over the test results with the doctor, "we need to talk."

He nodded. He would be lying if he said he wasn't expecting this. After all, Mira was Aria's best friend. Still, something didn't quite add up. If Aria and Mira were best friends, wouldn't Aria be like them?

The minute they were out of earshot as they made their way through the hospital's corridors, Mira immediately spun around on her heel and then narrowed her eyes at him.

"What was that about?" she asked.

Adrian let out a stressed sigh. If he knew about this whole soul mate thing, then he wouldn't be as much of a mess as he was now. How could he even begin to explain to Mira what he felt when there was a hiccup in the equation?

After he noticed her impatient foot tapping, he decided to take the plunge and explain it the best he could.

"It was the pull," he said. Judging by Mira's expression, he knew that she immediately understood what he meant.

"The pull . . ." she repeated.

Adrian nodded. "It happened so fast. You saw we were just talking and then . . . then I felt . . . No. I sensed someone, and I just . . . Everything just . . ." He couldn't even finish it.

How could he even try to put all of these feelings into words with the sheer amount of emotions flooding through his system?

As he glanced back to Mira, he noticed her stunned expression—which, strangely enough, gave him some sense of comfort throughout this situation. At least he wasn't the only one entirely alone and confused. Besides, they didn't get to pick who their soul mates were. Those things were complicated, where not even the oldest of community members could explain it in depth on how it really worked.

It was just in their nature, and now, Adrian was able to find his soul mate who just happened to be her best friend. The list of complications began to grow, and although he was certainly happy with finding Aria, there were still a ton of repercussions that could happen if he screwed up.

"You know she's human, right?" Mira finally spoke, her voice soft—not with understanding or empathy but with hints of hostility.

His eyes widened. Human? Seriously?

One look at Mira's face, and he knew that this wasn't some sort of sick joke.

Aria was a normal person. She was a regular human girl, which meant that she had no idea what he was or how important she was to him. She wouldn't ever feel the same pull that he did.

It all made sense now.

"Yeah," she said before she followed up with a question. "So what are you going to do?"

Adrian didn't reply. He honestly had no idea.

Mira frowned and narrowed her eyes once more. "Because I'm not just going to let you take her."

He couldn't help but feel deeply insulted that she even thought that, much less implied it.

"I'm not going to force her to be with me, if that's what you're saying," he said firmly.

"Well, you'd better not. For the sake of your pack's future." He didn't miss the threat as she continued, "Carmen may be the next alpha, but I'm in that lineup too."

The weight of her words hung high in the air, and he narrowed his eyes as he stood his ground.

"I'm not a dick."

"Then what are you going to do?" she asked again.

"I don't know," he replied.

Even though it wasn't the best answer, it was an honest one.

"What do you mean?"

"Look." He let out an agitated sigh. He didn't have the mental strength to keep this up. "Did you really think that I would've known that my soul mate wouldn't be like us?"

Mira seemed to contemplate on this as she went quiet.

"I didn't think . . . I never expected . . . The odds are just . . ." He was finding it harder and harder to gather his thoughts by the second. "I don't know, but I'm not going to force her into anything."

"But you'll never be happy without her," Mira stated the obvious.

He scoffed. He already knew that. "Thanks for the reminder."

"I just don't want her to deal with things she shouldn't have to," Mira said, her voice gentle this time. The expression behind her eyes was torn, and Adrian immediately knew that Mira never told her best

friend what she was, what her true nature was. Now that he was drawn to Aria, it was inevitable that she would eventually know.

Could he feel any worse?

"She'd feel responsible for you if she knew," Mira finally said.

"I'm not going to guilt her into—"

"I know. I know," she interrupted before she continued, "I just . . ." It was her turn to sound just as stressed as he did.

"Why did it have to be her of all people?"

* * *

The two of them eventually returned to the room where Aria was still waiting in bed. Adrian's mind was filled with thoughts on his earlier conversation with Mira. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do next. He wished he'd understood the whole soul mate thing and how it really worked.

He only understood the basics, like how soul mates didn't have one type of relationship. He also knew that when it came to the whole ordeal, genders were nominal, ages varied, and all that jazz. But to have a soul mate who wasn't even the same species as him? What was up with that?

Sure, he heard of cases like this one. They had to exist since the elders way back in time allowed for humans to enter the bloodline. But he never really knew anyone else who had inter-species relationships. So the fact that his soul mate was someone who wasn't even aware of his existence? It frustrated him to no end.

As he brought himself back to the present, he immediately realized that Aria had been looking at him.

His posture immediately stiffened.

"So . . . you're Adrian?"

It took him a moment to register that she was even talking to him.

"Uh yeah, I am," he said, somehow managing not to sound like a total idiot.

Smooth, Adrian. Smooth.

"Cool, cool. My name's Aria."

She didn't seem to hate him for sending her to the hospital, which was good, and he immediately took it as a sign to start frantically apologizing.

"I'm really sorry about your head by the way. I seriously didn't think the ball would hit anyone," he apologized as he meant every word.

"It's fine." She swung her legs to the edge of the bed. "I'm not dead or anything. I already even told you guys that. We didn't have to come all the way here."

It sounded a little more directed at Mira than him. However, he couldn't help but wonder why she was so against the idea of going to the hospital in the first place. Did she just not like hospitals, or was it something else?

Whatever the reason was, it didn't sit well with him. Her own health was in jeopardy, and she still refused to get it checked out? What part of that made it a good idea to just shrug it off?

As soon as the nurse came back with permission to discharge her from the ER, relief flooded through Adrian's body. They were practically home free and just needed to fill out some paperwork.

"I'm glad you're okay," Mira told Aria.

"Thanks, but um . . ." She seemed a little uncomfortable. "I can pay you back . . ."

"We can pay for it," Mira insisted as she tried to comfort her.

"Ah." Aria appeared torn.

"Don't worry. At least between the two of us, it'll be fine." Adrian gave a reassuring smile.

Aria looked at Mira, then back at him. "Are you sure? I know she can be really pushy, but—"

"It's fine, really," he said.

Aria still wasn't convinced, so Adrian decided to try a different tactic.

"So I hear you like history."

"Ah . . ." She laughed almost apologetically. "Lame, right?"

"Not really. I think it's interesting to see why the world is the way it is."

"Right?" Her eyes widened as her lips quirked a smile.

Before they could continue their conversation, Mira butted in, "Guys, it's almost six. I don't know about you, but I have to go home, and I still have to drop off the two of you."

"Right, right." Aria nodded, then she looked at Adrian.

He could only hope that she was a little interested in getting to know him.

"Maybe we can talk about all of this some other time?" Adrian asked, hoping it didn't sound too desperate or clingy.

"Yeah, maybe. I'll probably see you around?"

"Probably," Mira scoffed.

"Cut it out, Mira. I'm not dead yet, so don't pull the angsty teen mode on me." Aria made a face at her best friend.

"Yeah, yeah, let's get going," Mira said with finality as she led them to the car.

Adrian had no room to argue, so he could only comply. He wasn't exactly sure where he stood with Aria, but at least he knew that she didn't loathe him—which, for him, was a win.

He wouldn't lie though. He was afraid of this whole situation. He didn't want to force her into anything, but he also didn't want to live a life that felt incomplete. All he could hope for was friendship. That would be the best-case scenario.

If he couldn't manage that, then he'd be okay with them being acquaintances or maybe even frienemies. As long as she didn't disappear from his life altogether, he'd figure out a way to make it work.