If Only In My Dreams
Chapter 3
"Who woke you up this time, Sweetheart?"
Hope rolled over and wrapped her arms around Ryan's neck as tears started falling again. With one arm wrapped around Hope's waist, and the other holding the back of her head, Ryan pulled Hope closer and whispered that it was all okay, that he was there for her, and that when she was ready to talk he would listen. Hope didn't know how long she cried into Ryan's chest, but she was thankful that he wasn't pushing her to talk before she was ready. She just needed him to hold her while she cried.
"It was Landon. He tried climbing into bed with me while I was asleep, thinking I wouldn't mind." Hope muttered after she caught her breath.
"I take it you told him that wouldn't be happening?" Ryan asked.
"That, and to never speak badly of you ever again, or that he would regret it." Hope replied. "And I also used telekinesis to throw him against the wall, and do you remember that sphere that I whammied you with? I hit him with one of those too." She explained.
"Hope, Sweetheart... that was 2 days ago, so yes, I remember it." Ryan said. "But honestly, I deserved it. I taunted you about Landon and Josie. If you hadn't whammied me, I would have been surprised."
"I'm sorry about that, by the way." Hope whispered.
"Don't be. Like I said, I deserved it."
After that, Ryan just held Hope in his arms while rubbing her back and placing kisses to the top of her head and to her forehead. It was only once Hope's hand started roaming mindlessly over Ryan's body that she realized that they were naked again... or still. Her dreamscape seemed to just pick up from wherever it left off previously. Glancing up at Ryan, Hope tried to gauge from his expression if he expected them to continue what they had been about to do when Landon had woken her up. With a small smile, Ryan simply pressed his lips to Hope's forehead.
"If you want to continue, we can, but we don't have to, Hope." Ryan whispered directly into her ear and Hope draped a leg over his hip.
"I want to. Before someone else rudely wakes me up." Hope replied.
Ryan didn't waste any time in repositioning them so that he was on top of Hope. Lining himself up with her entrance, Ryan leaned down and captured Hope's lips in a deep kiss as he slammed into her. He knew that she had said that she hadn't had sex before, so being met with the resistance of her hymen shouldn't have surprised Ryan, but it did and it didn't help that Hope winced slightly at the pain.
"Are you okay?" Ryan asked as he broke the kiss to look at her.
"Yeah... I just didn't think it would hurt, being that this is a dream and all." Hope replied as she shifted beneath him.
"Do you want to stop?"
"No! I just need a minute to get used to it."
Ryan nodded, but rolled them over so that Hope was laying on top of him. The movement had Hope taking more of Ryan's dick into her pussy and she let out a moan as she braced herself on his chest. When she slowly started to move, the light from the bedroom reflected off of her engagement ring and Hope got lost in the sensations of everything that was happening to her. The ring helped Hope let go of her worries and apprehensions about having sex for the first time, and she quickly started to ride Ryan. It helped her hold on to the fact that Ryan was her mate, and that she loved him with all of who she was. He deserved to be the one she gave herself to for her first time. She had just started to come down from her high when she felt the stirrings of her body start to wake up on its own.
"I don't want to leave." Hope whimpered as she clung to Ryan when he pulled her down to lay on his chest again.
"Then don't." Ryan replied.
"It's probably morning. I'm starting to wake up." Hope said with a pout as she rested her chin on the backs of her hands, which were laying on his chest, and locked eyes with him. "I can't exactly give myself a sleeping potion or put myself under a sleeping spell. That would be extremely dangerous." She added.
"Then come back to me tonight. We'll pick up right where we're leaving off." Ryan said.
Hope nodded and pressed her lips to Ryan's in what she could only refer to as a goodnight kiss. A kiss that promised future kisses to be shared, rather than one that marked the end of something. A finale. When the kiss broke, Hope kept her eyes closed because she didn't want to watch as her dreamscape slowly started to disappear as she started to become more awake. When she did open her eyes again, she was back in her room at school, with a lingering feeling of Ryan's lips pressed against her own, and a dull ache between her legs. The fact that she had just given her virginity to a dream version of Ryan, and that she could still feel the ache from it, had Hope questioning whether it was truly a dream or not. But she didn't give it much thought. She was sure that one of her friends would be showing up soon, dragging her out to defeat whichever monster was next... if there even was going to be a monster. Whomever beheaded the simulation could have easily dropped the head into the portal to close it. They wouldn't know until someone went to investigate. And Hope had little doubt in her mind on who would be the one to check: herself.
After getting dressed, Hope opened her bedroom door to find Lizzie and Kaleb standing on the other side, Lizzie's hand raised in a fist as if she was about to knock. Raising an eyebrow at her friends, Hope waited for one of them to say something, but when all they did was push her back into the room before entering it themselves and closing the door behind them, Hope was confused.
"What the hell is going on?" Hope asked.
"You and Hobbit." Lizzie stated.
"What about me and Landon? He pissed me off last night, so I used magic to throw him around my room so that he would get the hint to leave me alone and get out." Hope said with a shrug.
"He broke Jo's heart to be with you." Lizzie commented.
"And then you go and use him like a rag doll cuz you fell for his brother? That ain't right, Hope." Kaleb added.
"I thought you and Raf were just friends?" Lizzie asked.
"Raf and I aren't anything, according to him. He said that he couldn't disrespect Landon by being friends with me, which is bullshit, if I'm being honest. And I'm sorry that Josie is hurting, but Landon made his choice, and I made mine." Hope said. "And Kaleb isn't talking about Raf... he's talking about Ryan." She added.
"Ryan Clarke? The Triad guy that wanted to talk to you and Dad alone in Maple Hollows?" Lizzie asked.
"Yes." Hope replied. "My wolf... she um, claimed Ryan as her mate, and I didn't realize that until last night, and so when Landon insulted Ryan, the protectiveness that is there between mates flared up, so I kicked Landon out."
Lizzie and Kaleb looked impressed, but mostly confused. So Hope elaborated.
"I was asleep when Landon showed up last night, and he tried to climb into bed with me while I was asleep, assuming I wouldn't mind."
"That's even more whack that what you did to him." Kaleb commented.
"No Kaleb, what's 'whack' is that it seems that Landon came back with Lizzie, asked me to wait for a minute so that he could go break up with Josie, came back to me, we kissed under the mistletoe- which didn't feel right anymore- and then tried to climb into my bed- while I was asleep- thinking I wouldn't mind. Simply because he and I shared a bed ONCE right before MG's mom abducted him after he walked away during the Miss Mystic Falls dance, and before I jumped into the pit with his "ass of a brother". I wasn't going to let him talk that way about Ryan."
Lizzie and Kaleb shared a look before each of them wrapped an arm around Hope and pulled her into a hug. Taking a deep breath to hold back the tears, Hope hugged them back for a moment before letting go and stepping back. Swiping the few tears that had escaped off of her cheeks, Hope gave her friends a half smile.
"Okay, so, since the simulation's body was beheaded, and someone found the body, then there's a chance that whoever beheaded him, dropped the head into the portal to close it. We need to go check on that. And then afterwards we should do a signature sweep of town to make sure there aren't any other portals from which monsters can come from." Hope said.
"We're here for you, Hope." Lizzie said.
"Yeah, and if Landon tries to mess with you again, I'll take care of him." Kaleb agreed. "No one messes with our girl and gets away with it."
Hope nodded slowly and stepped around her friends to head out of her room. As the three of them were walking towards the front door, their path was blocked by Landon and Rafael, and neither looked all that happy. Landon still looked pissed from the night before, and Rafael just looked hurt by everything, like he felt betrayed by Hope for not taking his "sacrifice" seriously.
"Can we help you boys?" Lizzie asked.
"We need to talk, Hope." Landon said, ignoring the blonde.
"You're right, we do. You're an asshole, Landon Kirby. You broke Josie's heart and then immediately thought it would be okay to jump into bed with me when I wasn't even awake to give my consent? Dick, move, Kirby." Hope said before pushing through the guys and continuing to make her way to the front door. "And if this conversation, and what happened last night didn't make it clear to you, we're done for good."
Hope spent the rest of the day with Lizzie and Kaleb. The three of them confirmed that the portal had, in fact been closed, and they searched all over town and made sure that another portal hadn't been created. A part of Hope had wished that the portal hadn't been closed, so that she might be able to see Ryan in person, tell him how she felt, but seeing no sign of Malivore had Hope losing a bit of faith of seeing her mudman any time soon, other than in her dreams. Upon returning back to the school, all eyes were on Hope as she walked through the halls with Lizzie and Kaleb flanking her on either side. When they got back to her room, Hope turned to Kaleb.
"What did you hear?" She asked.
"Landon is telling everyone that you're crazy, that being in Malivore for as long as you were made you lose your mind." Kaleb said with a growl.
"I've been out of Malivore for 2 months. If I had lost my mind while being stuck in Malivore, I'm sure that would have been signs before now. Besides, I wasn't the one who took the cowards way out by leaving instead of manning up and telling the two girls that he had feelings for that he loved them both and didn't want to hurt anyone." Hope replied.
"Most of the school doesn't fully believe him, but they are still curious to see if it's true or not." Kaleb explained.
With a groan, Hope fell onto her bed and threw her arm over her face. She felt the bed dip and then her arm being lifted up. Hope opened one eye to look at Lizzie who was giving her a worried look. Hope let out a sigh and took her friend's hand. If anyone knew what it truly felt like to be going crazy, it would be Lizzie, and Hope realized that she had misread Lizzie's facial expression. She wasn't worried so much as hurt that there was a possibility of Hope going crazy, and not having told her about it. After all, Lizzie had been the first one that had remembered Hope. The only one that had remembered Hope, at that, and she had thought that she and Hope were close enough for Hope to have wanted to confide in the blonde if she thought she was going crazy.
"Trust me, Liz, if I ever felt myself going crazy, I would tell you." Hope said before closing her eyes.
"Were you going to tell me about loving Hobbit's brother?" Lizzie asked.
"Once I had a second to fully wrap my mind around it, yes. But I just realized I loved him last night, Liz. I promise I wasn't hiding it from you." Hope replied.
"Then why did you tell Kaleb?"
"Because I was the one that brought her back here after she broke down at seeing the body. I had seen her like that once before, didn't like it then, didn't like it last night. I figured it out." Kaleb replied.
"I know it's early... but it's been a really stressful and long day, so can I have some time to myself?" Hope asked. "I'm not pushing either of you away, I just need some time to breathe and sort through my thoughts and feelings about everything." She assured them.
"Okay, but if you need anything, come find one of us." Kaleb said.
"Thank you both, for everything."
Once her friends had left, Hope changed for bed and crawled under the covers. She was ready to be in Ryan's arms again. But things didn't seem to be going her way. Because when she entered the dreamscape, Ryan wasn't there like he had promised he would be. Hope was alone in bed, still naked, but no Ryan. Sliding to the edge of the bed, Hope grabbed Ryan's discarded hoodie and pulled it over her head. It smelled like him and Hope wrapped it tightly around her, thankful that it was big enough to fall to the middle of her thighs. She had barely made it out of the bedroom when her body was pinned against the wall.
"Where do you think you're going, Sweetheart? We had plans to be in bed together when you came back." Ryan said as he stepped between Hopes parted legs.
"And you promised you would be in bed when I came back. I was just looking for you." Hope replied as she trailed her hands up Ryan's chest and around his neck to play with the hair at the base of his neck.
"I was in the bathroom, Sweetheart. If you had a little bit more patience, you would have known that." Ryan commented. "But... I will forgive you this time because seeing you in nothing but my hoodie is extremely sexy."
"Which is sexier? Me in nothing but our hoodie, or me in nothing at all?" Hope asked.
"Impossible to choo- nothing at all. Definitely sexier when you're not wearing anything." Ryan replied as he tugged the hoodie over her head. "Much better." He muttered before lowering his head and pressing kisses to the side of Hope's neck.
"You have a wicked mouth, you know that, right?" Hope moaned.
"Do I? I hadn't noticed you ever taking a special interest in my mouth. Unless it was to press your lips to mine."
"You're an ass."
"But you love me anyway."
"Yes I do."