Her Alpha Mates

49.

MYRA

When I woke up the time, it was sometime in the afternoon, and I was still plugged into some machines, making me remember my terrible time at the hospital.

"Don't do that," Mateo's sharp command made me stop when I tried to remove the oxygen mask. It felt uncomfortable against my face. I glanced at Mateo to find him sitting by my bed, reading some papers with a grim face.

Nonetheless, I went forward and took the mask off. He gave me a warning growl, but I didn't stop. Without the mask, I could breathe fine again. I concentrated on my breaths, checking if something in my body felt out of place. Meanwhile, I heard shuffling on my side and felt Mateo move closer to me.

"Put the mask back," He urged.

"I can breathe," I frowned.

"You abruptly stopped breathing last night when I came to check up on you," He told me, running his fingers gently through my shot hair. I wanted to fight it off but accepted his touch with a deep sigh. His words reminded me of the dream I had last night.

It wasn't a dream but more like a flashback of me asking the moon goddess for mates. I remembered everything vividly now, making me realize some things I had forgotten. Especially, me promising the moon goddess to accept whoever she chose for me. I dipped on that part, and well... she punished me in return.

"I can breathe now," I told him, "Take these things off me. I hate them," He narrowed his eyes at me. His hair looked messy, as if he had repeatedly run his fingers through them. He had salt and pepper stubble growing on his face, making him look mature beyond his age. I stared at him for a few seconds, unable to recognize him.

He seemed to have aged ten years since I first saw him in the hotel that night. Damn, I must've been giving the brothers a tough time.

"That's not happening until your vitals are stable," He told me gruffly, sounding like a brooding guardian, and despite my dislike for him, it softened a part of me. He looked genuinely worried about me, which reminded me of Hunter.

Though Hunter looked at me with that motherly worry while Mateo was looking at me as if I was one of his trouble children, constantly breaking all the rules, despite all this, he couldn't bring himself to punish me. It almost made me smile.

Didn't I ask for someone like this? I recalled. Now that I think of it, I had asked for a long list of qualities, most of them opposite of each other. Maybe that's why the moon goddess gave me two mates— the brothers who were day and night in comparison but still oddly similar. They were like the two sides of the same coin.

"Where's Hunter?" I had to ask because it was usually him looking after me while Mateo was the one sulking away somewhere, avoiding me. However, a part of me was happy to wake up to him. I had neglected him a lot, pushed him away and berated him at every chance. Seeing him so worried over me made me feel guilty for treating him like that.

Maybe I should start giving people the benefit of the doubt sometimes.

"He's out dealing with stuff," Mateo muttered, "But that's not important. Do you want him instead of me?" He asked. Even though he had asked the question casually, I sensed the heaviness of emotions in his voice. He looked at me as if he meant business, but his eyes searched my face for something — acceptance.

It tugged at my heart. Even though I still found it hard to accept him, much less forgive him, I felt like crap for treating him like crap. He was my mate, too, and my wolf craved for him. I was sure his wolf craved for me, too, after all the things he'd seen me through. Pushing him away felt cruel, even if I saw him as my enemy.