Chapter 1

 

 

Ever walk down the crowded streets of New York at night? The lights just twinkle like stars; so glowing, so iridescent, so perfect. The click of my heels slowed down as I continued to stare at the shimmering skyscrapers above me, the ones that I’d been so accustomed to for four years.

Funny how something you get so used to can become such a gift when you know you must leave it forever. I guess that’s what you could call my journey.

A shrill ring of my cell phone interrupted my thoughts. Shuffling through my purse, I pulled it out and answered.

“Hey mom. Yeah I’ve packed already. Don’t worry, I’ll be there no later than 11 tomorrow morning. Yeah, got it mom. Okay, see you soon. Love you, bye.”

Stopping at the crosswalk, I looked up to those luminescent lights and smiled. Sure I was leaving my temporary paradise, but I was returning somewhere I was fond of, somewhere I truly lived: home.

Looking down, I smiled and shook my head. Putting the phone away, I strutted down the streets, one last time, with Colorado on my mind.

******

“Cassie, Cassie, over here!”

Rolling my eyes, a grin formed on my face as I strode towards my mother. Only she would be calling her 21 year old daughter as if she were coming back from her first day of kindergarten.

“Jeez mom, I think the entire airport heard you. Did you forget our amazing hearing?”

“Oh shush! Can’t a mother be excited to see her daughter?!”  My mom smiled and wrapped her arms around me. After four years of studying at NYU, I was finally back with my family. Of course, I was still a bit disappointed that I couldn’t complete my graduate work there as I’d planned, but of course, when you’re as “special” as I am, danger is always around the corner.

A tall, burly man, whom I remembered as one of the pack guards, Mason, grabbed my luggage behind us, while my mother pulled me along with her.

“So would now be a good time to explain why you called me back home? Or is this a talk that we’ll be having in the car?” I asked jokingly. My mother could only smile, which supported my assumption to be the latter.

Arriving to two black range rovers, I climbed into the passenger seat of the first car, with my mother in the driver’s seat. My luggage was put into the second car, with Mason in the passenger seat and another guard driving.

 Mom pulled out her cell phone and made a quick call, which I assumed was to my father. He was my dad after all, but of course being Alpha, he was responsible for the safety of his pack members, especially his daughter’s.

“So, what’s going on mom? Why’d you call me back home?” I asked.

“Honey, well…I guess I should begin at training.”

“Training? But I was already trained to the best of my abilities.” I asked, slightly confused.

“Your father and I trained you to be the best warrior in case of any circumstances, that is a fact, but with your powers, we needed to call you back to complete your next step in mastering your powers. What you have is very hard to manage, and we know how dangerous it’ll be. We let you go have an education in New York because we knew you could handle yourself in any situation for defense, but now you’re 21, and your full powers are to be set soon. That is why we called for a highly skilled trainer to teach both your brother and yourself.”

I absorbed the information silently. It did make sense after all. My parents taught me everything I needed to know about defense and how to fight. I was trained as a great werewolf fighter, but nothing more. Of course I could use my powers, but more as a defense. This new training would help me learn to use my powers for change. But I was quite curious to who these trainers would be.

I nodded my head in understanding, and gave a smile.

“Well it’s always nice to be back with my family again,” I grinned.

“Oh, my little girl has grown so much!” My mother’s eyes filled with tears as she smiled.

“Aw mom, stop that. You’re gonna make me all sensitive,” I giggled, and leaned over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Well, we do have a surprise for you! We know how much you wanted to continue school and do some graduate work, so we enrolled you in a graduate program at the same university I went to. But, for your safety and for training purposes, the trainer assigned to you will be one of your professors. He will be teaching a course related to your training. Humans will just assume it’s a course, while you will be getting the skills you need to understand and control your powers. It’s a win-win for everyone!” She beamed.

I struggled to hold in my excitement. I would still be getting a chance to make something of myself while still keeping close to my family’s wishes! It couldn’t be more perfect!

But a thought continued to circle my mind from the minute I stepped off the plane. Would I finally get a chance to meet my mate? Growing up, all my friends were fortunate enough to find their mates before going off to college. Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to. I didn’t mind, fate did have someone in store for me, and I would just have to be patient enough to wait.

Although, I really hope we would have a romantic story just like my parents. My mom was completely oblivious to werewolves until she was 18 and was forced to marry my dad for protection. Who would’ve thought they would be mates? They did hate each other in the beginning, but eventually things fell into place, and they had two amazing kids, if I must say so myself. My older brother, Alex, was now 23, and just like myself, still had yet to meet his mate. It was pretty rare to not meet your mate at a younger age, but then again, we both are much different than most werewolves.

The car came to a stop in front the pack house. It still looked huge as ever, and standing right atop the stairs were my dad and my brother.

I pulled open the door and ran up the steps. Immediately, I jumped into my dad’s arms.

“Hey baby girl, I missed you too,” my dad chuckled, squeezing me back just as hard.

I finally let go of him, planting a quick kiss on his cheek before moving onto my brother.

Swooping me up, he spun me around in a circle before letting me down. I swatted his arm, and crossed my arms.

“Alex! Thanks for scaring the crap out of me!” I huffed, but a smile quickly grew on my face. I pulled him into a hug, while he kissed the top of my head.

“I missed you too loser,” he chuckled, ruffling my hair.

I pouted, and kissed him on the cheek also.

Swinging his arm around my shoulder, Alex led me into the house. My dad slipped his arm around my mother as they walked in behind us.

“Come on Cass, let’s go to the backyard. There’s someone you need to meet.”

Alex grabbed my arm and led me to the back of the house, where I could see a figure with their back to us through the glass doors.

Sliding the door open, I felt a shiver run down my spine. For some reason, I felt adrenaline rush through my body.

I took a step through the door, then another, until I was outside.

The figure tilted its head to the right, most likely sensing our presence.

“Alpha Parker, I would like you to meet my sister, Cassandra.”

The figure turned around, slowly, as my breath became shallow.

Turning completely around, he faced us, and my breath finally caught in my throat.

“Nice to finally meet you, Ms. Knight,” he said, his liquid brown eyes smoldering into mine.

I couldn’t bring myself to move my lips. My utter shock was like a deafening silence.

But one small cry could be heard pristine through my mind.

Mate

Chapter 2

 

 

 

Oh the irony. At that moment, that was all I could think about. Just a few moments ago, I was wondering just when I would meet my mate, and behold, he was right in front of me.

“CASSIE!”

A scream resounded, blowing my eardrums out. I turned around and saw my best friend running at me full speed. Before I could even say hi back, she engulfed me in her arms.

“Oh my gosh Cassie! How was New York? I missed you so much!” she kept rambling, causing me to chuckle as I hugged her back again.

“Hey Ellie, I missed you too!” I smiled at her. She let out her infamous squeal, causing me to pull back slightly at the sound. This girl was absolutely crazy, but I loved her nonetheless.

She and I had been friends since we were in diapers. Her mom, Natasha, was best friends with my mother, and I guess we just followed in their footsteps. I’m glad though, she’d been there for me for everything.

“Nice job Ellie, the girl’s been here for what, 5 minutes and you’ve already blown her ear drums out,” came a sarcastic comment. We both turned our heads to the approaching figure.

“Hey Cassie, I missed you girl,” she smiled at me, heading over to give me a hug.

My famous cousin Sage. She was the daughter of my dad’s sister Andrea. She was such a tough girl growing up. Even now, as she came over to me, she was wearing a tight leather jacket and combat boots. This girl was the complete opposite of Ellie, but somehow, all three of us completed each other.

After we’d pulled back from our hug, Sage whispered in my ear.

“Who’s the hottie back there staring at you?” she wiggled her eyebrows at me.

And just like that, everything that happened 2 seconds before my friends arrived came at me like a flash.

How I forgot the fact that my mate was standing right behind me is a mystery to me. I guess I just got too caught up in seeing my friends.

“Oh, uh, I’ll explain that later. Anyway, how are you guys? How’s everything going?”  I diverted quickly.

“It’s good! Just kind of crazy with all the training we’re getting. You heard about that right?” Ellie asked.

“Of course dear,” my mom interjected, “she will be training with you two. But Alpha Parker out there will also be training her specifically.”

“Yeah Cassie, that’s why I wanted you to meet him,” Alex finally spoke up, “he was the alpha of the trainer I worked with. We all bonded and I found out he was looking to get back to training special wolves like himself. Since he’d already trained all the special wolves of his pack, I thought it would be best to bring him here. With you coming back home and in need of some training, I thought it’d be perfect, so here he is!” he motioned for Alpha Parker to come inside.

The entire time I was focused on reconnecting with my friends and family, he’d been standing out there alone. Finally, with some exaggerated hand movements, he finally listened to my brother’s nonverbal pleas and entered the house.

Opening the door, he walked in, doing some weird guy handshake-pat-thing with Alex and giving my mom a side hug. He shook my father’s hand before turning to me.

I blinked. It was all I could do, anyway, seeing as though neither of us were really saying anything about the big elephant in the room-which, unfortunately, only both of us seemed to notice.

“Can I talk to you-uh, privately?” I asked awkwardly, “for, uh, training guidelines?” I added, hoping it seemed legitimate. Frankly, if I were him, I wouldn’t blame him for not believing me. I wasn’t much of a liar.

Thankfully, he seemed to get the message and nodded. I excused us and led him over to the spare office, shutting the door behind him once he entered in.

“Listen-“ I started.

“We’re mates,” he began.

“Uh, yeah. About that…“ I coughed nervously.

“Yes?”

“Well, I was hoping we could keep this,” I pointed my finger back and forth between his chest and mine, “between us?”

Before I knew it, my face was staring at his chest. He took his hand and brushed back a lock of my hair, grazing a path of tingles across my cheek with it. I closed my eyes, relishing in the feeling of attraction, before they snapped back open.

Somehow, within the time frame of his caress and me closing my eyes, he’d planted a soft kiss on my cheek where the tingles that were fading, erupted again in fierce show of a mate’s touch.

Pulling his face a fraction away, I was mesmerized by his brown eyes, glowing slightly golden at the present moment. We stood there, staring at each other like that, for what seemed like eternity. All too soon, he pulled apart, the space where his face was filling in with cold air. A part of me-the teenage girl part probably- wanted to so desperately grab his coiffed golden brown hair down and kiss him senseless. But the responsible, intelligent, adult part of me knew it would be a mistake.

He was my trainer. He IS my trainer. He’s responsible for perfecting my gift, teaching me to control it in any sort of danger.  He must be the best at what he does if Alex is raving on about him, and I can’t risk losing such a great trainer because my body just became a lovesick teenage girl with raging hormones.  My training comes first, my parents’ wishes come first.

A small voice deep inside me rang out. Liar.

I took a deep breath and looked back at him again.

“You’re my trainer. You came here for one job and one job only, to train me to the best of my abilities, and that’s it. I can’t-won’t-jeopardize it because of the connection we have,” I sighed again. “It’s just temporary, till we’re done training. Then, well, we can talk about that when the time comes. But for now, we need to keep this relationship strictly professional,” I stated firmly, looking back up at his face once again.

He just stared at me for a bit. Then, almost as if someone knocked the light switch back to on, his eyes softened.

“You’re just as hard working and intelligent as I dreamed you’d be,” he smiled, a small one-genuine.

I blushed furiously, looking down at my fingernails as if they were the most interesting things on the planet right about now. I briefly wondered if he heard what I’d just said, but a slight frown appeared on his face, which erased my doubt.

I felt his fingers tilt my head up, and skim across my cheek to cup it.

“As you wish, my mate,” he whispered.

And then, he was gone.

Out of the office, that is.

I closed my eyes, sliding down the wall behind me till I was sitting against it.

How is this ever going to work?

*******

After taking a couple seconds to compose myself, I headed out after him, back to my waiting family.

“Well that settles it! I’ll let Alex get your bags. Thank you very much Alpha Parker!” My father beamed, shaking his hand.

“Please, call me Reece. And no, thank you very much Alpha Knight,” he smiled, a full one, with little dimples at the end-

Oh god, no. No, no, no! Come on Cass, get yourself together. He’s just a man, an insanely attractive, muscled, GORGEOUS man, but that’s it, really. Nothing else. Nope. Nuh-uh. Plain old hottie.

Who was I kidding? Get me some popcorn because I could stare at that fine specimen all day!

I crossed my arms and looked down, breathing slowly.

Control yourself Cassie. You can do it!

Alex stepped out, presumably to grab Alpha Parker’s bags.

“Okay sweetie, go ahead and freshen up. I’ll call you and the girls down when dinner is ready!” My mom prompted, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek before walking down to the kitchen.

I turned back around, meeting eyes with Reece-god his name was even hot!-before grabbing the girls’ arms and dragging them upstairs with me.

As soon as we crossed the threshold to my room, I slammed the door shut behind me and laid my forehead against it.

When I turned around to face the girls, their incredulous looks almost made me laugh. Unfortunately, the reality of my situation surfaced and my growing smile turned back into a displeased frown.

“Mind explaining why you’re so upset?” Ellie frowned, walking over to my bed and taking a seat. She crossed her arms and stared at me in expectation.

I looked over at Sage, who seemed to have the same expectant look on her face as well. She leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms and nodding in my direction to speak.

I sighed. They should know after all.

“Alpha Parker…” I croaked. Clearing my throat a bit, I continued, “Alpha Parker is, uh, my mate…” I looked at them, watching their faces turn from curious to shock within a few seconds.

“Cassie-“ Ellie began.

“What the HELL!?” Sage finished.

For complete opposites, the two sure seemed to think alike.

“Guys, it’s not what you think!” I yelled. I looked side to side, making sure nobody heard me before moving over to my bed to sit down. Sage moved away from her place by the wall and sat down on my bed as well.

“Alex brought him here to train me. That’s it. I can’t let something as important as being able to handle my powers be affected by the connection I have with the trainer. Imagine what a train wreck it would be if I let everyone know we were mates? Alpha Parker himself would feel the need to go easy on me, which I sure as hell don’t want! And let’s not even begin with my mom’s reaction. I’m doing this for the sake of my parents. They need to train me for my security, and I can deal with having a mate after I’m trained and devoid of any distractions. So, please guys, keep this a secret?” I pleaded, giving them the best puppy dog expression I could.

Ellie seemed to be mulling it over, her eyes darting back and forth between me and Sage. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“Pleaseeeeee?” I drawled out.

“Okay, I guess-Ow!” Ellie squeaked, as Sage roughly elbowed her.

I looked at Sage expectantly, hoping she would be as willing as Ellie.

“Ugh, fine! But if anything happens, it’s on you!” she rolled her eyes, but a small smile appeared on her face.

I launched myself at them, grabbing them into a huge group hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I exclaimed, hugging them tighter.

“You’re welcome Cassie!” Ellie responded, hugging me back.

“You owe us, Cass,” Sage stated firmly, but eventually gave into the hug.

At least my best friends knew. And they were willing to keep it a secret! Now all I had to do was survive boot camp with a mysterious, hot alpha trainer as a mate. I can do it, can’t I?

Chapter 3

 

 

 

The cold water felt nice on my warm skin. Lathering up, I let the scent of lavender envelop my senses.

Today was the first day I was training with Reece. My stomach was in knots, and I thought maybe a cold shower could cool my temperature down. I was thoroughly annoyed by this effect he had on me.

Sometimes I wish I was just a normal werewolf with normal duties. Then Reece and I could be together as I led his pack alongside him. We’d have pups, grow old together, and watch the pack thrive.

A blush erupted on my skin, thinking of him and I having a family of our own and a pack of our own. There was no guarantee when it would happen, but it would. That thought made my skin burn as the blush seemed to travel all over my body.

Taking in a deep breath, I let the lavender scent bring my thoughts back to a field of crisp flowers and the rush of wind against my skin.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in dream land for long, as I shut off the tap and wrapped a towel around my body.

Wiping the fog from the mirror, I could only stare at myself. After so long, I met my mate. And what was I doing? Pushing him away for my own selfish reasons.

Granted, my protection wasn’t entirely selfish. He would want that and beyond for me, as my mate. But he wasn’t responsible for protecting me. I couldn’t do that to him. I needed to protect myself, to learn how to deal with my own problems, like I always have. Independent was my middle name, and I couldn’t let the notion of having a mate change that.

Sighing, I walked out of the bathroom, to find my mom and Reece talking quietly to one another.

“Oh sweetheart, good you’re out. Listen, you and Reece here should go into town today instead of training. Give him a tour, and get to know him better before you start training with each other,” she said in a hurried pace, walking to my closet and pulling out various clothing, inspecting them, before putting it back in my closet and searching for another piece.

“Mom!” I groaned, flashing a quick glance at Reece, who was more fixated on my body than my face at the moment, causing me to grip the towel tighter in my fist.

“This won’t do, this looks too plain-“

“Mom!” I shouted again, effectively gaining her attention.

With a sly smile, she glanced at Reece, before looking back at me.

“Oh sorry! Reece and I will leave you to change. Be out soon honey!” she stated, walking out of the room.

Reece hesitated a second, before connecting his eyes with me. His eyes were a deep golden brown, his desire quite evident among them. He bit his lip as he looked down at my body again before giving me a smoldering stare.

Just that look sent a shiver down my spine. It was so lust-filled that it’s energy almost knocked me off my feet! I hope he left soon or I wouldn’t be able to control myself, and I didn’t think he could either.

With one last look at my body, then my face, he stomped out, shutting the door with a slam.

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, before falling face-down on the bed.

I was completely and utterly mortified. How could my mom let Reece inside my room knowing full well that I was in the shower?

My eyebrows furrowed slightly as I pondered that thought. Something was up with her, I could feel it.

Suddenly, I rolled over and sat up quickly. Something in my gut told me she had her suspicions about Reece and I, and that notion filled the pit of my stomach with dread.

My mom was quite the matchmaker. Ellie’s mom, Natasha, had a mate that rejected her, until my mom used her matchmaking skills to unite the two. Now they were the proud parents of Ellie and her little brother, all thanks to Momma Knight.

A part of me wanted my mom’s matchmaking skills to force Reece and I together, but another, stronger part knew I wasn’t ready or willing to have that just yet.

I rolled my eyes, before venturing to my closet to pick out something to wear.

After settling on a pair of skinny jeans, a ruffled blue tank and an asymmetrical black leather jacket, I slipped on a pair of black sneakers to finish the look.

Putting on a bit of eyeliner and mascara and a spritz of my favorite perfume, I checked my look in the mirror. My outfit was cute and stylish, two words that were never used to describe my look. Despite my hobo like appearance most of the time, I was actually making an effort in my appearance, and I knew exactly why.

“Ugh, is this how I’m going to be for the rest of my life? Pleasing him?” I murmured to my reflection, taking one last look before heading down the stairs.

Waiting at the bottom was a slightly flushed looking Reece. I suppressed a laugh, considering he looked like a school boy who got caught peeping into the girl’s locker room.

I flew past him and into the kitchen, where my mom was residing.

“Mom, why are you asking me to take Alpha Parker on a tour of the town?” I bristled, staring straight at her and crossing my arms.

She barely gave me a glance. All she did was chop the vegetables in front of her like I wasn’t even there.

“Mom?” I repeated.

“Cass, the poor guy has so genuinely donated his time to train you, the least you could do is spend a bit of time with him? It couldn’t hurt you to be a bit friendly sweetheart,” she mused.

I groaned. Was she serious? Guilting me into this? I scoffed, and turned around, marching out of the kitchen. I heard soft chuckles behind me as I promptly left.

Grounding my teeth together, I walked back over to Reece waiting patiently in the foyer.

“Let’s go,” I murmured, barely giving him a glance while I grabbed my purse and keys off the side table and walked out the door.

I heard him step outside behind me, shutting the door I so rudely left open. Trust me, I felt awful for treating him like this. Just passing by him while his delicious scent wafted into my nose was no easy feat, but I had to be the cold, distant girl I’ve always been. It got me through school, through college, and now it would get me through this. Hopefully.

I opened the door to my black corvette, and stepped in. Next to me, I heard the passenger door open and Reece’s scent enveloped me. It was musky, yet had a sliver of citrus.

All I did was stare ahead, clutching the steering wheel with a death grip. When I heard the distinct sound of a buckle being clicked, I shifted the gear into reverse, and unfortunately, had to turn my head in his direction to view the back.

He was staring at me with an unreadable expression, but I could feel his eyes boring into my face as I averted my own from his and reversed the car.

Back on the road, I stepped on the gas, heading towards the town. Our house was situated in the woods, next to the house my father grew up in. It was strange, seeing two mansions parked next to each other in the middle of the forest, but hey, werewolves need their space. The pack lived a bit further into the woods, in a neighborhood hidden by the tall trees. This place was my home, and I definitely felt a pang of guilt for leaving it behind to pursue my dreams.

But I was back now, and I was happy about that. I still get to continue studying at grad school here, and I’d be closer to my family, friends, and my pack. I’m sure it seemed like the perfect compromise between my family and friends, and I, but it was far from that, thanks to the gorgeous alpha sitting beside me.

The tension in the car was too palpable. We’d barely driven a mile from the house and already I wanted to ditch him and the car and just run off to the woods in wolf form.

But all I did was grip the wheel tighter, trying to calm my erratic heartbeat.

“Relax,” a firm voice came from my right.

I turned my head over to his side so fast I probably got whiplash.

How did he know I was so nervous?

“You’re clenching the steering wheel like it’s my neck,” he scoffed irritably.

I looked down at my hands, easing them slightly.

“Your heartbeat isn’t helping much either,” I heard him murmur after.

My heartbeat quickened at his words, causing him to scoff and possibly roll his eyes at me. I couldn’t really tell. I was too embarrassed at the fact that I forgot he could hear my heart. Mate or not, we were part wolf after all.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, trying to keep my eyes on the road and not on my mate.

I knew this would be hard. I knew exactly what I was doing when I denied my mate. Heck, I was basically signing my death warrant.

Not that I was gonna die, but I might as well be dead. At least then I wouldn’t have to deal with all the conflicting emotions I was feeling.

Being without your other half is hard. I don’t know how some wolves manage to reject their mates. Actually I did know. A horrible memory flashed into my mind, but I whisked it away just as fast.

Mates are the only people in the entire world that will make a wolf feel whole. No other being could love, admire, respect, and accept them as much as their mate. What I was doing, by denying my mate for the time being, was tying a noose around both our necks, slowly but surely getting tighter and tighter until I decided to be sane and call this whole thing off. But I couldn’t. Not now anyway.

Fortunately, we arrived at the towns square. The shops were bustling with tourists and natives, all taking a leisurely stroll at this time of day. I parked the car on the side of the road.

Before I got out, I cleared my throat, hoping to attract Reece’s attention.

“I’m sorry,” I said somberly, “for doing this to you, us. It’s not fair for me to decide what our life will be like. I’m being selfish, I know. But I – I just need a little more time.”

I stared down at my lap, fiddling with a ring on my finger and too afraid to meet his gaze.

“Okay,” he replied softly. I turned my head over to him, surprised by the tenderness in his eyes. My body thrummed with want. Nobody had ever looked at me with such emotion as the man in front of me was doing right now, and it hit someplace deep inside.

 “We should go,” I said firmly, pulling away from our heated eyecontact and getting out of the car.

I felt bad for blowing hot and cold on him again, but if there was anything I could do to make it easier for him to avoid me, us, I would do it. Even if it meant being a bitch to him.

I heard his door open and his lean figure step out. His eyebrows were halfway up his forehead, staring at me in confusion. I just lifted my chin up slightly and crossed the front of the car to his side.

Looking up at the shop we’d parked in front of, I could see it was the old antique place my mom loves to come to. She has this obsession with finding little knick knacks to add to our home, and this place was her main source on getting her hands on them. My dad always rolled his eyes when she talked about yet another antique china set or glass figurine she’d found and bought. He always scolded her for spending all his money, but then he’d put an arm around her and kiss her, time and time again.

A pang hit my chest as I looked back over at Reece, knowing we’d probably never have that kind of a relationship, after all the damage control I’d have to do to pay for my idea of staying apart.

Turning back around, I walked to the front door, and called out to him.

“You coming?”

I heard his footsteps behind me, as I walked inside the little shop.

The bell rung overhead as I opened the door, and I was immediately assaulted by the smell of rose and jasmine.

“Hey Helen, how are you today?” I smiled warmly at the old woman behind the counter.

“Miss Knight, what a surprise! Didn’t expect you to be here! Your mother sent you?”

“Oh no, I’m just showing my friend around town. Helen, meet Alpha Parker,” I gestured to him behind me.

He walked up to Helen, giving her a delicate handshake before placing a kiss on her hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, Helen,” he smiled at her, causing the sixty year old to blush as bright as a tomato.

“Well aren’t you a dear?” she mused, placing a hand on her chest.

“I try,” he shrugged, sending her a gorgeous smile.

His smile seemed to strike me just as much as it did Helen. He was clearly quite the charmer.

“Oh stop it you. If my mate finds you flirting with me, I won’t be responsible for what he does to you!” she quipped, and they both laughed.

Not wanting to be intrusive, I began combing the aisles, looking for something my mom would probably like. Fortunately, when I was growing up, my mom would bring me with her to this shop and I could see what her tastes were.

I found a metal bird cage, with two doors wide open, and two metal bird figurines facing one another, with one holding a little flower in its beak. The birds were blue, with white bellies. The piece was beautiful, and I just knew my mom was gonna love it.

Carrying it back to the front, I found Helen and Reece in a secret conversation. Their heads were bent near each other as they whispered things back and forth.

Helen saw me first, giggling a bit before pulling back and smiling at me.

“Oh dear, looks like your mate here caught us,” she giggled again. My body froze, as I looked at Reece with a shocked expression.

He merely held his hands up in surrender.

“Hey, don’t look at me. Helen is just too wise. She figured out we were mates the minute we walked in,” he shrugged, winking at Helen.

“B-But, I-” I was at a loss for words.

“Oh hush dear! I’ll keep it to myself. Reece told me all about your little proposal. But please, sweetheart, put the man out of his misery soon! Trust me when I say this. My mate would get me so mad when we were young, that I’d tell him I wouldn’t kiss him for a week. He was begging at my feet by the third day. These men, I tell ya. They have no self-control,” she winked at me.

“Helen, I’m thoroughly offended,” he made a show of placing his hand on his chest in feign hurt.

She only tapped his hand lightly in response, motioning me over to the counter to checkout the antique I was going to buy.

I handed her the bird cage, watching her scan the barcode and then pull out a box from underneath to pack the item.  As she packed it carefully, I looked around aimlessly. My eyes suddenly connected with Reece, causing my body to warm with heat. The way he was studying me caused a blush to my face, and I quickly turned away, the stare too much to handle.

“$32.50,” Helen interrupted.

“Oh, uh, give me a sec,” I said quickly, reaching into my purse to pull out some cash. Giving her the money, she took it and deposited it into the cash register, and handed me the box with the bird cage in it.

“Alright dear, have a good day, and don’t worry, your secret is safe with me!” she winked. I smiled at her as we walked away and mouthed a quick thank you when Reece was turned, waving goodbye as we stepped out of the store.

“Let me just put this in the car and we’ll get going,” I said, opening the back door and placing the gift safely on the floor of the vehicle.

Locking the car, I walked back over to Reece, who was watching the middle of the square.

“Reece,” I said.

“Hmm?”

“You need to be more careful about who you tell about-” I looked left and right “-us.”

“I swear, I didn’t tell her anything. She really is that smart,” he replied, his eyes boring into mine.

“I know, but just, please, be careful?” I said softly, touching his arm. He looked down at my hand placed on his arm, almost as if it was some sort of toxic substance that could burn his arm in a second. The look on his face hurt me in ways I didn’t think were possible, but I reluctantly pulled it away, looking down at the ground.

“Uh, sorry, about that,” I murmured quickly, “We should get going. There’s a lot more to see,” I smiled at him, to which he stared at me blankly.

He finally nodded, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets before walking beside me.

We passed by an array of shops: grocery stores, clothing stores, even the store my mom told me she bought my aunt Daniella a necklace when she first moved into my dad’s place.

The conversation wasn’t much. Just the usual chit chat as we passed different shops. I took the time to explain the importance of them, to the town and to me, and offered a bit of history behind them as well. He only nodded, throwing in a comment or two once in a while, but mostly remained silent, letting me speak. Considering I always ramble when I’m nervous, it was probably best that he didn’t say too much anyway.

My stomach grumbled suddenly as we just walked out of a bookstore, causing a slight chuckle out of Reece.

“Hungry?” He asked as we walked down the sidewalk again.

“Maybe just a little,” I murmured, blushing, before an idea struck me.

“You know what? I know just the place where we can grab a bite to eat!”

I directed us over to the best diner in town, Dave’s Diner, where all the neighborhood kids always went to eat. Back when I was in high school, my friends and I used to come here almost every day, grabbing something to eat while we did homework.

The front of the place was as homey as a diner could get, sporting clean glass windows that held yellow ruffled curtains inside, booths, and a bar where 70’s looking high chairs stood. Usually the place was occupied by the lunch rush, but since it was nearing close to 4, there were only a handful of people inside.

We walked in, embraced by the scent of warm grease and freshly brewed coffee. We found a booth and slid in on opposite sides.

“This place has the best eggs. And the coffee is delicious,” I said, smiling at him from over my menu.

“Well then I guess I’ll have to have some of both,” he chuckled, smiling back at me.

A warm feeling spread in my chest, as I stared at those beautiful brown eyes. He had a way of making me feel loved and hated at the same time. Well, I guess that was probably me, considering his tender looks made me feel like the biggest traitor alive.

I sighed, mentally shaking my head to will those thoughts away.

“Welcome to Dave’s Diner, what can I get you?” a voice rung out.

“Uh, yeah, can I have scrambled eggs and coffee? Same goes for him,” I ordered, looking down at the menu.

“Sure. Anything else?”

I looked up, finally noticing the waiter taking our orders.

“Steven?”

I saw him look at me for a second, before recognition entered his face.

“Cassie! What are you doing here!?” he exclaimed.

I got up and pulled him in for a hug.

“I’m back! NYU was great but my parents want me to continue my grad work a bit closer to home, so here I am!” I smiled at him.

Looking back over at Reece, I could see him clutching his menu intensely, his eyes shifting to a dark brown as they zeroed in on my arms around Steven.

I gulped, sitting down immediately and reaching a hand over to Reece. My touch on his hand calmed him down in seconds.

“This is my friend Reece. Reece, this is my old friend from high school, Steven. How’s your mate? Is she doing well?”

Reece’s body relaxed suddenly as he heard the question about his mate, and threw an acknowledging nod towards Steven. However, his eyes were still wary as they watched Steven with a bit more concentration than I’d have liked.

“She’s great! We’re doing well, despite me having this job back. Sort of feels like high school all over again,” he chuckled, “but it’s just temporary. I’m a lawyer now, but my firm is moving to a different location and we’ll be moving soon. Unfortunately, that means I have to make ends meet for the time being, so that’s why I’m working here.”

I nodded, looking over to Reece to see him staring at my hand on his. I’d forgotten I left it there in the midst of listening to Steven.

Withdrawing my hand as casually as possible, I turned back to Steven.

“Well that’s great! Give my best to Grace,” I replied.

“Sure, of course!” A call came from the cashier, signaling Steven to another booth of waiting customers. “I gotta go, but it was so nice seeing you! We need to catch up sometime!” he smiled at me, then Reece, before walking off to the other booth.

‘Like hell’ came a soft voice in the back of my head.

I gulped. Oh no. Looking over at Reece, I could see his hands still shaking a bit. Oh god, no.

I should’ve seen this coming. It’d been more than 24 hours since I’d met Reece, which meant the mate bond was growing faster as time went on. Our special mindlink between mates was starting to form, and the idea terrified me.

Reece was still shaking slightly, his eyes growing darker. His concentration was solely on something behind me, which I assumed was probably Steven. My eyes grew large, as I realized the situation was getting more and more dangerous by the second.

I slid out of my side of the booth and slid into his. Reece was still shaking, staring at Steven as he talked to some customers. His eyes finally noticed me sitting next to him, causing his body to relax a bit, but his eyebrows to knit together in confusion.

“Why are you sitting next to me?”

I ignored him, placing a gentle hand on his face.

“Yours, I’m yours.”

Chapter 4

 

 

You could say things got a bit awkward after I’d tried calming Reece down.

His eyes were blazed with gold, the kind that told me the lustful side of his wolf had taken over.

He grabbed my waist, pulling my body as close to him as he could, and placed his head on my neck, inhaling deeply. I placed my hands on his chest, feeling the curvature of his peck muscles and upper abs. To say my mouth was watering was an understatement.

I could feel the warmth of his caress as he rubbed his hands from my waist to my hips and around my back.

For once, I forgot any sort of compromises, any consequences that my mind was screaming at me. I just let myself sink into the warmth of my mate.

It felt amazing to be so connected to an individual like I’d never been before. The way his body fit into mine like a puzzle piece astonished me. We were literally perfect for each other.

His head tilted up out of the crook of my neck, placing a soft kiss there instead. I moaned slightly, my breathing becoming shallow.

I felt his arms tighten around me as he kissed my neck again, this time where my mark would be.

Suddenly, as if my mind knocked down the wall separating itself from my heart, I pushed at his chest, trying to get as much distance from him as I could.

He let me go, a confused expression etched on his face.

“Cass?” he breathed out, startled.

I only took his confusion as leverage and managed to slip myself out of his side of the booth and back to my own.

Looking down at the surface of the table as if it was the most interesting thing at the moment, I bit out a curt response.

“Sorry, I had to do that. You were getting really angry.”

I heard nothing for the longest time, causing my curiosity to get the better of me and peer up at him. His face was stoic, a flat expression covering the vulnerable and lustful one that had been there moments ago.

I swallowed the painful lump in my throat.

“Right. Thanks.” He bit back, looking out the window.

Our food arrived, and the rest of the time was spent eating in silence.

When it was time to pay, I pulled a twenty out of my purse, but a rough voice stopped me.

“Put it back, I got it,” was all he said.

“But –”

He gave me a flat look, tossing a twenty of his own on the table and walking out.

I quickly stuffed my cash back into my purse and ran off after him.

“Reece, stop, please!” I shouted after him. All I saw was his retreating back heading off in the opposite direction.

I ran after him, ignoring the curious stares of onlookers. When I’d finally caught up to him, I grabbed his arm, trying to stop him.

He yanked his arm so fast I stepped back a bit.

“What’s wrong with you!?” I whispered – yelled at him.

“What’s wrong with me!? What’s wrong with you!?” he bit back.

I recoiled, almost as if that comment had attacked me physically.

“Why did you have to do that Cass? I can control my anger myself! I’ve done it for the past 23 years without you! But please, for the love of god, stop acting like my mate one second and completely pushing me away the next. Pick one and stick to it!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

He was right, I was being completely stupid. It was a natural reaction for me to calm him down at the diner. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until it was too late. But that was still no excuse for torturing him.

As I was mentally scolding myself, I saw that he’d already walked off.

I walked behind him this time, willing that a little space between us would be healthier for him than trying to defend myself or apologize.

When I finally reached the car, he was already buckled in, staring straight ahead.

I walked over to the driver’s side, pulling out my keys.

I started the ignition, and the car revved to life. Pulling out of the street, I made a U-turn and headed home.

The entire ride back was just as same as the ride there: silent. Though this time, I almost wished it was more awkward silence than angry silence.  I wanted to say something, anything to make him feel better, but my mouth stayed shut. For once in my life, I was tired of my mind being so rational all the time.

When we got back to the house, Reece wanted out so bad that he stepped out of the car even before I’d properly parked it. I couldn’t blame him though, if I were him, I’d hightail it out of there too.

I watched his figure retreat to the house, but I kept myself planted there in the car.

A tear escaped my eye, falling pathetically on my cheek.

“Tears? Real strong Cass, real strong,” I scoffed at myself, wiping the tear in haste.

But it was no use. Once one fell, it was a torrential downpour. I placed my head on the steering wheel between my hands, and cried my eyes out.

My body shook violently, as sobs I didn’t know I could possess rippled out of me one after another. These tears weren’t just for Reece’s anger. Among those tears, I cried tears of pain, tears of rejection, tears of fear.

Maybe it was wrong of me to use my safety as an excuse, but as I cried in that car, I realized that that wasn’t the only reason why I was pushing him away.

My mind flashed back to high school, a truly horrendous time of my life. Though it hadn’t always been that way.

It’s a known fact that nobody leaves high school without a few scars, even the alpha’s daughter.

Living in the shadow of my brother was hard, but I eventually got over it. I loved him nonetheless, but it always hurt whenever people used me to get to him, or outright shut me out because there was a better Knight kid to be friends with.

Like father, like son I assume. My brother was always the hot shot. Not only was he varsity football captain for the last two years of high school, he was also class president, and – not too surprisingly – voted most like to succeed and most attractive male by his senior class. I would be lying if I said I didn’t envy the guy. But I was never short listed either. I was valedictorian of my class, debate team captain, and speech team captain. You could say I took after my mom on that. Though I was blessed with her brains and beauty, I made no show of it, and I guess that was what landed me in with the rest of the “regular kids.”

That was, until that one stupid night.

You know what they say to victims: they were asking for it, it was because of their clothing, and vice versa.

I laughed, bitterly, as my eyes blurred with more tears.

So what was my excuse? Well, none of the usual ones fit.

I should’ve let my friends do whatever the heck they wanted. Why did I have to care so much about what stupid things they would do that night? Maybe if I hadn’t cared…

Shaking my head, I hung it down. As much as I willed myself to believe that if I’d done something different, I was basically slaving myself to the same people that tell the victims that “they were asking for it.”

I brushed away a few tears that managed to slide down, and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands. It was my futile attempt at steadying myself.

But I found myself slumped down again, as my body shook with more sobs, my arms hanging lifelessly from the wheel.

To be honest, it could’ve been hours or just mere minutes long that I’d been sitting out there crying.

After wiping Niagara falls away from my eyes, I looked over to my house and saw the porch light turn on. Looking out my window, I realized that dark was fast approaching. Since the sensor in the light had turned on already, I’m assuming it was somewhere around 5 or 6.

Sighing, I grabbed my purse, phone, and keys and stepped out of my sanctuary and back into the real world.

I straightened my spine and inhaled in a few fresh breaths of forest air before moving towards the house.

Walking as fast as I could, I slipped inside and tip-toed up the stairs as quietly as possible. When I reached the top, I checked behind me to see if anyone had heard. Satisfied that nobody was behind me, I turned back around.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I glanced over to the right at the door across from mine. Yesterday, I found out that Reece would be staying in one of the guest rooms, which was conveniently located across from my room. Unfortunately, that would make my job a lot harder if he was just a few mere steps away.

Something willed me to turn to my right and stand in front of the door. I raised my fist to knock, but all I could do was let it hover.

Pulling my hand down, I turned around and walked into my room, giving one last look at the door, as if I could maybe catch a glimpse of the tortured alpha I’m responsible for.

********

A knock resounded on my door, waking me out of the trance like state I was in at the moment.

The minute I’d gotten into my room, I’d changed into comfortable sweats and spent the last hour sitting and contemplating the level of bitchiness I’ve displayed in the last day.

I concluded with 10: the worst.

Groaning, I got off the bed, pulling the sleeves of my hoodie up to my elbows.

I opened the door tentatively, peeking a head out to see who it was. Unfortunately, or fortunately for my inner wolf, I came face to face with Reece.

“Your mother asked me to call you for dinner,” he said dully, his expression as flat as the one he left me with after the diner incident.

“Right, I’ll be down in a second,” I said quietly.

He nodded stiffly at me, before turning around and heading down the hall. I watched him go for a second longer than I’d want to admit, before pulling my head inside.

Closing the door, I turned around and placed a hand on my forehead.

You’re such a bitch Cass, I retorted in my mind.

Sighing, I went over to my bathroom and washed my face and hands. Looking at my reflection, I could see a girl I would’ve pitied a few days ago. This girl was vulnerable, weak, and in need of some serious guys-are-douches talk.

Lifting my shoulders, I tried to look as confident as I could, but it only lasted a few seconds. My shoulders slumped back to their previous state. By this point, I was too tired to care.

Slugging down the stairs, I tried my best to not look as miserable as I felt.

When I reached the dining room, everyone was already seated. My dad was at one end of the table, and my mother was at the other. My brother was sitting next to my dad’s left, and to his left was Ellie, who was staying over because her parents would be out of town for two days.

Reece was sitting opposite my brother, and it seemed the only empty seat left was next to him. I almost groaned in annoyance.

“So glad of you to join us stranger,” my dad quipped.

I rolled my eyes at my dad, and walked over to him, placing a small kiss on his cheek.

“Hey dad.”

Walking over to my seat, I saw Reece visibly stiffen.  I clenched my jaw as his scent engulfed my senses.

Sitting down, I watched my mom and dad take servings, passing the food onto the next. The entire time, I was extremely aware of Reece next to me. It was hard not to. When his scent wasn’t driving me crazy, the tension between us sure was. If anybody noticed, nobody seemed to say anything. I took that as a good sign for now.

“So, how was visiting the town Cassie?” my mom spoke up once we’d all gotten our food.

“It was good. I saw Helen,” I said quietly, hoping Helen would distract her from asking any probing questions.

“Really? How nice! Anything else? Did you see some shops?” she continued, bypassing my distraction with ease. I groaned silently. When it comes to my mom, there was no hiding anything.

“We went to a few stores Luna Knight. And then we decided to grab a bite at a diner,” Reece’s voice spoke up.

I nodded at her, attempting a smile. Her eyes were wary, but she seemed to buy it when she turned away and started asking my dad some things.

The conversation seemed to slip into pack business, and the other four were talking amongst themselves, barely noticing that neither I nor Reece had touched a thing from our plates or contributed to the conversation in any way.

Eventually, it seemed Reece couldn’t handle the tension any longer and began to act like nothing had happened. He’d started eating and even started participating in the conversation.

I pushed my food around my plate, until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Mom?” I asked quietly. “I’m not feeling too well, may I be excused?”

My mom’s eyes were the size of saucers. When it came to mine or Alex’s health, she was all “protective mother.”

“Honey what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing really. I just, I’d like to lie down please,” I said softly.

“Of course sweetheart, would you like me to take you upstairs?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll manage,” I said hastily, getting up from my seat.

I walked quickly up the stairs and into my room. When I was sure I was alone, I walked inside my room and shut the door.

Suddenly, my body felt hot, probably the remnants of that uncomfortable situation downstairs. I quickly tore off my sweats and changed into an old extra-large t-shirt I had that I was given at a volunteering job I’d done. At first I had no use for it whatsoever, until one day I wore it to bed and it’d been my favorite thing to wear to bed ever since. Usually I wore it if I lived alone, but considering I have a house full of people living with me at the moment, I wouldn’t risk accidentally being walked in on in an outfit with no pants. But today, I was too bothered to care. That and I needed a little extra comfort from today’s horrible dinner.

That dinner had to be the most awkward moment of my life. I couldn’t even stand to sit next to him.

My heart stung all of a sudden, as I realized it was the result of the heartache my inner wolf was feeling.

Sighing, I walked over to my bed and laid down, replaying today’s events over and over in my head.

Not once had I ever been so affected by a man before in my life. Well, not positively anyway.

I whisked that thought away before any new tears could spring from my eyes.

Closing my eyes, I willed myself to think of a world where I wasn’t afraid of men, where I didn’t have to worry about Reece, and where I didn’t have to go through what I had.

Eventually, before I knew it, I was asleep, dreaming of a world where nobody could hurt me.

Chapter 5

 

 

 

To say my stomach was grumbling would be an understatement. It roared like a lion, which just so happened to be the thing that woke me up at oh – 4 in the morning.

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I willed my stomach to stop rumbling like a jackhammer, but it was to no avail.

I groggily got up, stepping into my furry slippers and crossing the threshold of my room.

Before I knew it, I was in the kitchen, making myself a bowl of the most sugary cereal I could find. Luckily for me, it was chocolate too.

After crafting my craving masterpiece, I hoisted myself up onto the counter and dug in. I would’ve chosen to sit like a decent human being in one of the many kitchen table chairs or bar stools that lined the island in the center, but I wasn’t feeling it. Plus, the counter was cold, which helped my hot skin.

I remember my skin being insanely hot when I’d gotten up from dinner, but I just passed that off as a delayed consequence of that uncomfortable evening. Now, though, I was beginning to think otherwise.

I ignored that thought, telling myself I’d figure that out later, and instead dug into the bowl with a purpose that would’ve rivaled most teenage boys. I was that hungry.

“Slow down or you’ll choke on it,” a voice came from the dark, causing me to stop shoveling food into my mouth, but not before it seemed that a piece of cereal lodged into my throat.

I sputtered, coughing violently as I dropped the bowl and spoon down on the counter.

Suddenly, a hand was hitting my back, and another was handing me a glass of water.

I drank the water down greedily, feeling the stupid piece of cereal that caused this entire drama whoosh down with the current.

I breathed out, placing the glass down next to my cereal, while a hand rubbed my back softly.

“Jeez, I didn’t mean it literally,” the voice continued, chuckling slightly.

I looked up at the person who just so happened to be also rubbing my back and felt a shock travel to my core.

Reece stared up at me with those gorgeous eyes, a slight twinkle in them, presumably from my humorous encounter.

Willing my hormones to stop rushing out like a raging river, I rolled my eyes.

“Well if someone didn’t scare the hell out of me, then maybe I wouldn’t have choked in the first place.”

Crossing my arms, I looked down at the man. Well, I wouldn’t say look down, considering he was face to face with me at the moment.

I was suddenly aware of how close his body was to me, judging that his body was touching my knees, and the hand that had once rested on my back was now softly grazing my exposed thigh.

I saw him follow my eyes down to his hand, and heard a sharp intake of breath.

He glanced at me again, this time his eyes blazing gold, causing a different kind of blazing feeling to travel down my body.

“Why aren’t you wearing any pants?” He mumbled out gruffly, his voice dripping with desire.

Never in my life have I been that turned on by a voice that much in my life. I was so afraid that my hands would grow a mind of their own and grab his face to kiss him senseless.

“I, uh –“ I stammered, looking down at my lap.

Unfortunately, he seemed to as well, which – judging by his deep breathing – had only turned him on more.

I felt his other hand on my other thigh, stroking it slightly. The feeling was amazing, as I felt strong currents travel from his hand to my body.

His face inched closer, placing a tender kiss on my exposed collarbone.

My damn hands did seem to grow a mind of their own, as they grabbed the back of his head and moved it slightly closer to my skin. He seemed to oblige immediately, gripping my thighs tighter as he placed tender kisses all over my collarbone, inching up to my neck.

I arched my head back, exposing more of my neck to his soft lips. He placed more kisses up the expanse of my neck, until I felt a sort of sucking feeling on the lower left of my neck. A thrill of hormones surged in me, as I realized what just happened.

Suddenly, I pushed as hard as I could on Reece’s chest, causing him to stumble backwards a little. He looked shocked, to say the least.

I jumped off the counter, and crossed my arms in front of me to stop the shaking my body was doing.

When Reece had kissed me there, effectively leaving a hickey I assume, it seemed to bring me back to that horrible night, and I felt the fight or flight response in me.

My body shook badly, but I tried to make myself seem steady, crossing my arms impossibly tighter in hopes that it would magically cure my frazzled nerves.

“Hey,” Reece said softly, his eyes zeroing in on my quivering body.

He placed a tentative hand on my shoulder, which I pulled out from underneath his grasp. Although the touch registered as a nice feeling, I was still insanely shook up, which gave my mate instincts a backseat.

“Please, please, don’t touch me,” I whispered, mentally cursing at how pathetic my voice sounded.

“Okay, okay,” Reece answered quietly, holding his hands up in surrender and stepping back a foot. He eyed me suspiciously, and I cursed quietly. He was going to find out.

“I – I can explain,” I quivered, my voice cracking slightly.

“I’m just, I don’t know, I-“ I stumbled over my words, as a wave of tears blinded my eyes.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain it,” Reece whispered, his hand outstretching over to me before he realized his mistake and pulled it back abruptly.

“Let me take you upstairs,” he offered, motioning with his hand to go in front of him. I obliged, walking slowly across the kitchen and dining room and up the stairs, till we were standing in front of our respective doorways.

“Will you be okay from here?” He asked cautiously, half expecting me to drop on the floor and quiver in fetal position if he left me. I didn’t blame him though. It was an understandable reaction. After the incident, most of my guy friends acted the same way when they saw the complete 180 of my behavior, and reluctantly I told them. Since then, most knew how to handle my episodes, but Reece clearly didn’t.

I nodded, mumbling a quick thanks before ducking my head down and walking into my room. I shut the door slowly, watching Reece’s worried face disappear from my line of sight as the door finally clicked closed.

I stood there for a few seconds before I heard the distinct sound of footsteps retreating and a door clicking softly.

Though I was extremely touched by how much he cared, I couldn’t let it blind me.

When my guy friends found out what had happened, they were furious to say the least. I don’t know what would happen if Reece found out. And I especially didn’t want my mate hauled off to werewolf jail for killing a bunch of humans.

“No,” I said firmly.  I couldn’t tell him the truth. I wouldn’t tell him the truth.

My bitchiness would have to be taken up a notch if I wanted him to stop caring about me. He couldn’t know what happened.

As long as my name is Cassandra Knight, he would never get to know.

Chapter 6

 

 

My eyes cracked open roughly, a steady stream of light hitting them from the open window beside my bed. I placed my hand tenderly on my forehead, as it throbbed incessantly.

Stumbling to my feet, I found my way to the bathroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face, hoping to rid the zombie look it was currently portraying.

I leaned my hands against the counter and closed my eyes, but the pounding in my head still continued. Not surprisingly, I suppose, considering the amount of sleep I got after last night’s slip up.

Oh god. My brain took on a whole new level of pain as I remembered the embarrassing details of what happened last night.

A warm feeling spread in my chest, traveling down my torso. Just the thought of what he did made shivers travel down my body. I felt like I was in some erotic novel, thinking of how effortlessly he turned me on.

Breathing in shakily, I opened my eyes, and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I concentrated on my eyes, a warm brown, almost caramel colored, from my mother of course. I kinda wished I could’ve inherited my dad’s bluish green eyes, but sadly genetics wasn’t in my favor. I shook that thought away, focusing my mind back to my previous thought.

Today was the first day I would train with Reece, for real this time. It felt like déjà vu, considering just yesterday I was having these exact same thoughts in the exact same place.

Grudgingly, I pulled myself away from the countertop and out the bathroom to the closet. Pulling out my favorite sports bra, purple tank, and black workout shorts, I quickly slipped them on and walked over to my wall mirror.

After grabbing a hair tie, I walked downstairs, throwing my hair in a ponytail and swinging it over to my left shoulder, much to my migraine’s distaste. If I wanted to sneak in a quick pill to relieve this horrible pain, I needed to fill my stomach up.

My mom was at the kitchen yet again, preparing an array of breakfast food fit for an entire pack.

“Hey mom,” I greeted, hugging her from behind.

“Morning sweetie, how did you sleep?” She asked after placing a quick kiss on my cheek.

“Could’ve been better,” I muttered, my brain throbbing in agreement.

“Oh sweetie, still a bit jet lagged?” she asked me.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I agreed quickly, pushing the butterflies in my stomach down. Like hell it was jet lag. More like the hunk you have living across from me.

“Well I know exactly how to make you feel better,” she smiled, maneuvering me down to the kitchen island to sit on a bar stool. Less than a minute later, a heaping serving of eggs, bacon, and diced fruit sat in front of me, along with a steaming cup of medium roast coffee with cream – my favorite.

“Thanks mom,” I smiled gratefully, before digging in like I hadn’t had a meal in months.

I was halfway through my scrumptious meal when I heard a pair of footsteps enter the kitchen.

A groggy looking Reece came in, his brown hair shuffled around haphazardly in a way that made him look incredibly sexy. He was in a dark blue muscle tank and gym shorts, his impressive muscles out on display. I almost drooled as badly as I did when I saw my breakfast.

His eyes landed on me and I felt my body thrum with nerves. Damn my hormones!

“Good morning Reece, would you like some breakfast?” My mother spoke up, unaware of the obvious sexual tension between us.

“Sure, Luna Knight. Thank you.”

I looked down at my plate, shuffling my food around as I heard the creak of the barstool in front of me being slid out.

My face heated all shades of red, and I quickly gulped down my coffee in an attempt to mask it. Despite that, I could feel my skin grow hotter as I felt his stare on me. I adjusted my ponytail nervously and continued looking down at my food like it had to be the most interesting thing on the planet right now.

I stole a glance at him and saw him staring at my neck, his mouth formed into a hard line.

Just as I was about to try and figure out what he was staring at, a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon were placed in front of him.

“Hope you like it,” my mom smiled.

Just as he thanked her, the phone rang.

“Excuse me for just a second,” she said quickly, walking out of the kitchen.

I almost wanted to run out of there too, now that we were all alone.

Glancing down at my food, I realized that my appetite was gone for good.

“You need to cover that up,” his voice called out gruffly.

I looked up at him, confusion flittering across my face. His gaze was deeply set on my neck, and the thoughts of last night came back once again.

“What are you talking about?” I inquired, pulling a hand up to my neck to feel around for something. My eyebrows furrowed as I felt around my neck, until I hit a tender spot, causing me to bite my lip at the dull pain it emitted when I touched it. Suddenly, my eyes widened as I realized exactly what it was. A hickey.

How could I be so stupid?! I literally stared at my reflection in the mirror this morning, and I didn’t catch a red bruise on my neck!?

I got up abruptly and raced out of the kitchen to the bathroom adjacent to it.

I glanced at the mirror, and there it was, glowing brightly against my skin. My ponytail was basically displaying the mark, and I felt an uneasy feeling in my stomach. There was no way my mom missed this.

I saw Reece appear behind me through the reflection, entering the bathroom and closing the door behind us.

“Let me see it,” he ordered, turning me around and lifting my chin to the right. He squinted his eyes at it, before placing his thumb on the mark. I hissed slightly, despite the fact that this wasn’t a fresh wound. Damn how hard did he do it?

We were werewolves, which meant we healed way faster than humans. For him to leave a hickey like that which didn’t heal overnight meant that he had to have been really into what he was doing to leave such a hard mark like that. It was no surprise that the hickey hurt to touch.

“Crap, what am I gonna do? There’s no way my mom didn’t see this!” I bit my lip in frustration, turning around abruptly to examine the mark again in the mirror.

“Damn it!” I swore, as I stared at the reddish purple demon sitting on the left side of my neck.

I glanced at Reece behind me through the reflection, to see a bit of a territorial look in his eyes. He was looking at the mark almost proudly.

“Why the hell did you do this?!” I hissed at him, turning around.

“What do you mean, why? I’m not the only guilty one here!” He retorted back, stepping closer to me.

“It’s you who left this damn mark on me! If anyone sees this, I’m dead! I told everyone I’m saving myself for my mate. I can’t let people think I’m some slut, getting hickeys from random guys! The only other option would to give us up!” I whispered harshly, my eyes blazing.

He was about to say something when he closed his mouth, staring at me. His hand reached out and touched the hickey softly, his breath fanning my face from how close he was now. The sink was pressing into my back at this point, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I was trapped in the bathroom with my mate, who looked extremely turned on right now.

I pushed his hand away from my mark and crossed my arms.

“What the hell are you doing?” I glared at him.

“The mark looks so – normal on you. It belongs there. You’re mine after all,” he replied, his voice heavy.

I gulped nervously, and averted my eyes, crossing my arms tighter. I felt the sink dig into my back deeper, as I tried desperately to place some space between us.

“We need to get out of here before anyone sees,” I muttered, glancing at him.

His face was soft at first, before he clenched his chin, his jaw jutting out. He moved closer to me, causing my breath to hitch in my throat. His eyes never left me, as his body came close to mine, before I heard the distinct sound of a door opening.

He swung the door open using his hand behind him, and stepped out, giving me one last searing stare that said it all: I was pathetic.

I averted my eyes, blinking back frustrating tears that blurred my vision. Gulping, I checked left and right before leaving the bathroom too, and walked back into the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty, and all that was left was my plate of food. Reece was nowhere in sight, and his plate had been cleared.

A sinking feeling settled into my stomach as I stared at the empty space across from the chair I was sitting in previously. I was going to burn in hell for years for what I’m doing to him. And I wasn’t giving him a damn reason for my bipolar behavior.

Sighing, I dumped the rest of the food in the trash and put my plates in the dishwasher, along with all the others in the sink, and cleaned up the counters.

After dumping the trash out and wiping the place clean, I headed to the living room, hoping to find my mom.

A bright yellow post it note stuck at the end of the side table in the foyer caught my attention.

Cassie,

You’re dad just called and needs me to run some errands. I’ll be back later tonight, so make whatever you want for lunch. If you need anything, call me okay?

Mom

A breath of relief exhaled from me. At least I knew she wasn’t around to notice the whole hickey ordeal that happened a few minutes ago.

Sighing, I turned around, and saw a chest in front of me.

“Woah,” a voice rang out.

Looking up, I saw it was Alex, who seemed a bit surprised to see me.

“Hey Alex, what are you still doing here?” I questioned, a bit surprised myself. He was training to be Alpha for our pack, and should’ve been following my dad around, learning the ropes. Instead, he was here, looking a bit nervous.

“Oh uh, I’m just, uh – “

“Cassie?” Someone cut him off, stepping from behind Alex.

Ellie soon appeared beside Alex, slinging a purse over her shoulder.

“Hey Cass, your brother and I are going to town. Apparently he has a day off alpha duties and he wanted to hang out. We would’ve invited you, but we know you’re training today, so…” She answered, smiling.

I looked back and forth between the two and cocked my eyebrow up in interest.

“Hmm, I see,” I murmured, looking pointedly at my brother. He ducked away from my eyes and shuffled his feet, digging his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

Ellie seemed to be completely oblivious as to what was going on, and nodded enthusiastically.

“You and Reece should join us after your session!”

I gulped, and gave her a halfhearted grin.

“Sure, maybe if we finish early. Anyway, you two have fun. I gotta get back to training,” I smiled at both of them, more so Alex than Ellie. I was going to grill his butt the minute they came back.

We parted ways after saying goodbye, and I drudgingly headed to the backyard, where I assume Reece had run off too after our little incident.

I sighed deeply. This situation wasn’t going to be a fun one.

Through the glass doors to the backyard, a sexy looking Reece seemed to be stretching out on the grass. Not gonna lie, I did take a few minutes to admire him before sliding the door open and stepping outside.

I walked hesitantly over to him, straightening my shoulders as best as I could.

His eyes slid over to my direction, and I saw them deflate. His face was flat, a stoic look taking over his handsome face.

Ignoring the pain that jabbed at my heart, I let that little greeting slide. He had every right to be mad at me, I couldn’t be selfish about that.

“Stretch,” he ordered, after getting out of his last pose. He walked over to his gym bag a few feet away and began unloading things out.

I began stretching my legs, bending down to touch my toes. I felt a prickling sensation at the back of my neck, and I shivered inwardly. His gaze was definitely on me, and a thrill of excitement coursed through my body.

Stretching back up, I caught his eyes, a small smile appearing on my face as he looked away embarrassed.

“So, where do we start?” I said casually, trying to ease the awkward tension between us.

“Laps. We’ll be running around the border 10 times. Then we’ll move to strength training and some one-on-one fighting,” he answered, looking anywhere but at me.

10 laps around the border didn’t seem too bad. But the one-on-one session made me feel a bit uneasy. If we couldn’t as much as stand to look at one another, how the hell were we going to fight?

Ridding my head of those thoughts, I stretched my legs into a long stride, warming up to a full on sprint, leaving Reece behind.

Unfortunately, a pair of footsteps echoed close behind me, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Clenching my fists, I sprinted faster, trying to put as much distance between Reece and me as possible.

I coursed through the first few laps with ease, Reece still hot on my toes. The next few laps had me breathing a bit harder, but nothing I couldn’t handle. All the while, Reece stayed close behind, not even breaking a sweat.

We were rounding our last lap and my lungs felt on fire. I may have been a strong she wolf when I was younger, but four years of undergrad filled with nothing but studying or going out with friends left me a bit out of shape clearly. I did workout regularly, but only the human type. When it came to that, I was more active than most humans, but werewolf workouts were a whole different story.

I braced myself and pushed through it, heaving out a sigh when I finished the lap. I staggered to a stop, putting my hands on my hips and breathing deeply.

It barely registered in my mind that Reece was calling me.

I turned around, now hearing the sound of my name being called, and gasped slightly.

Reece stood a few feet away, his shirt casually strewn over his right shoulder, leaving his chest bare. The rise and fall of his chest enhanced his abs so that they stood out like beautiful, chiseled red flags. The sweat that poured off of him rolled down each crevice, and I wanted to moan right there and then.

His eyes were watching me check him out and I could smell his arousal growing. I knew he could smell mine, and for some insane reason, I just wanted to rip the rest of his clothes off and take him right then and there.

His growl shook me out of my reverie, and I turned around with lightning speed, closing my eyes as a deep blush rose to my cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” I shouted behind my back, hoping he heard how sincere I was being.

All I heard back was a grunt, and the sound of footsteps walking further away from me.

I turned around hastily, and watched as he went over to his bag to toss the shirt in and grab a water bottle.

He then proceeded to walk over to the empty field we’d just ran laps around.

“Coming?” He called out mockingly.

I bit my tongue back from retorting anything and followed obediently. Once we were situated on the field, he turned to me and began rattling off the instructions for this lesson, which was to do a bit of one on one combat fighting. Apparently, today we’d be fighting in human form since it’s a bit harder to take an opponent this way than our wolf form. I wanted to roll my eyes, this meant we’d be doing a lot of human combat fighting.

As if I needed more of a distraction. Looking at his abs while he fought against me was seriously not gonna help if I wanted to get better at human combat.

I shrugged my shoulders. Hey, this would give me an excuse to let all my anger out and beat him.

Smiling, I nodded and assumed the fighting stance.

A little taken aback by my sudden enthusiasm, Reece just nodded and mirrored me.

I assessed his form, and saw that he had an open spot on his right lower portion of his torso. Taking the chance, I tried an under hook punch using my left hand, but he blocked me with a quick extension of his hand.

I tried again with my right hand to his left side, now that it was open, but he blocked me again with his hand.

Now, he had both my fists in his hands, so I tried swooping my hands out to the sides, hoping this extension would twist his arms the wrong way, forcing him to let go. Fortunately, this worked, and a smirk appeared on my face.

I took the stance again and raised my knee to his chest, pushing hard. He hardly shook, much to my disappointment, the smirk on my face slowly fading.

I tried another tactic, spinning around and doing a roundhouse kick to his face, but he dodged effortlessly.

This went on for the next hour: me punching and kicking him relentlessly, only for him to easily block them all without batting an eye.

Exasperated and exhausted, I held up my hands in surrender and backed away from him.

Putting my hands akimbo, I walked around, breathing deeply. No matter how hard I worked to beat him, it just left me tired and no closer to winning.

“Clearly you need to work more on your choice of moves. Oh, and the strength too,” I heard him chuckle out, walking away from me and back to his gym bag.

“Wait!” I yelled after him. Jogging over to his side, I forced him to turn and look at me.

“What did I do wrong? My moves were good, well calculated, and precise. And my timing was accurate. Well okay, maybe the strength could use a bit of a boost, but hey, I’m a girl fighting an Alpha, okay? It wasn’t gonna be easy, so why the harsh criticism? I didn’t completely suck you know,” I retorted, crossing my arms in a huff.

“Well sorry to be blunt Cassandra, but I am your trainer. So I can say whatever the hell I want and you have to listen. I’m only doing this for your benefit, not mine. Besides, all those moves were obvious and the timing was subpar at best,” he answered back snidely, turning away from me and grabbing his bag. He tossed it over his shoulder and walked away.

All I could do was stand there completely dumbfounded. Tears blurred my vision and I wanted to scream at myself. Never in my life have I let myself be subjected to that kind of emotional backlash, except for that night. I vowed that I’d never let any man talk to me like trash. I just never expected my mate to be the first one after the incident that I let myself slip up on.

Normally, I wouldn’t react like this. For the last four years, I lived in New York for Christ’s sake! Telling someone to take a hike was said at least four times a day for me. But for my own mate to say that to me was low, especially in such a condescending tone.

I wiped away the stupid tears quickly, and clenched my fists. I couldn’t let myself stoop to his level. I couldn’t let him win.

Running over to my house, I slipped inside and grabbed my phone off the counter, texting Sage and Ellie. A night out was much needed right now.

They texted back quickly with agreements, and told me they’d meet me at my place at 5.

I looked over at the clock to see that it was 12. Starving, I ruffled through the fridge and grabbed everything I needed to make a sandwich.

As I ate the ingredients while making the sandwich, I listened for any sounds of Reece in the house. His scent was faint, but still there, so I assumed he was probably in his room. Using my werewolf hearing, I heard the sound of running water.

Looking down at my sandwich, I grumbled, cursing my hospitality, and grabbed two more slices of bread.

I grabbed both my plates and proceeded upstairs. Turning over to Reece’s room, I listened for the sound of running water, but was met with silence. Satisfied, I knocked the door and left the plate on the ground in front of it, and quickly slipped into my room.

Dropping my own plate down on my dresser, I grabbed my towel and headed in the shower to wash off the remnants of that training lesson: sweat, dirt, and hopefully, Reece’s touch.

********

I ran downstairs quickly, hearing the front door ring. Thankfully, both Sage and Ellie were at the door, and I grabbed them both and rushed back upstairs to my room. They obediently followed.

“Guys, help me choose something hot to wear,” I whined, standing in front of my closet.

“Why? Is your you-know-who gonna be there?” Ellie asked, whispering the “you-know-who” part and glancing at my door.

“No,” I grumbled, looking quickly at my door and back to her, with a ‘way to be obvious’ look on my face, “thank god. No, I just wanna look good tonight. Besides, maybe I’ll meet a few cute guys that’ll take my mind off him.”

I proceeded to spill all the details about our training session, making sure to be as quiet as possible.

“So are you guys in?” I asked them, after explaining that I wanted to cut loose from this mate stress and have some fun.

“Hell yeah!” Sage quipped, pumping a fist in the air. I could always count on her to be ready for a party.

“Of course!” Ellie joined in.

For the next two hours, we tried on outfits and did our makeup and hair. Satisfied with everything, we decided to head out.

Surprisingly, when we walked out of my room, the plate on the floor was gone. I could hear someone inside the room, so I walked as quietly as my heels would let me.

We all piled up in my car and sped off to town. It was time to forget Reece and have a little fun.

Chapter 7

 

 

 

I switched the gear into park and looked to my right. The bar was thumping music and hordes of wolves, males and females alike, were heading in and out.

“Are we ready to do this or what?” Sage interrupted my thoughts. She glanced at me from the passenger seat, sensing my hesitation.

I looked at Ellie sitting in the backseat, who was questioning me with curious eyes.

“Let’s go,” I prompted, stepping out of the car. Pulling my dress down slightly, I slammed the car door closed and locked it.

All three of us strode to the front of the bar, handing out IDs to the bouncers, before they promptly let us in.

I surveyed the room slowly when we got inside. The bar stood to the left, where the bartender was busy making drinks for a few people propped up on the barstools. The center of the room was filled to the brim with dancing people, holding their drinks up high. They sloshed slightly, spilling onto others, but people were too drunk to care. The music thumped loudly and the air was heavy with sticky heat, the smell of the alcohol mixed in wafting into my nose.

Although it wasn’t exactly the best scene, it made me feel exhilarated. I needed to unwind from the week I’ve been having with a certain mate of mine, and a night filled with intoxication would definitely help.

Heading over to the bar, I slipped into one of the barstools and ordered us a few drinks. Sage and I began talking, well yelling actually over the loud noise. Ellie seemed quiet for a while, greedily accepting her drink when the bartender handed it to her. She sat on the seat next to me, sipping her drink cautiously, avoiding my gaze.

“Ellie, what’s wrong?” I yelled into her ear.

“Nothing, why?” She answered back, but I could immediately tell that something was up.

“Don’t lie Ellie. You know you can’t hide a lie for your life,” I chuckled, bumping her slightly with my arm, “What’s up?”

She sighed, putting her drink down.

“I probably should’ve mentioned this earlier, but when you texted about going out tonight, it reminded me of something. Your brother told me that he was going out too, and he said that he might be bringing some friends along,” she hesitated, watching me cautiously.

I squinted at her, confused, till my gut told me this wasn’t going to be good.

“You don’t mean…”

“I’m just assuming, but it might be possible that-“

She was interrupted when something behind me caught her attention.

I turned around in my seat to see what she was looking at, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

My brother walked in, a few guys behind him. My breath caught in my throat. They were his old high school buddies.

My face grew hot, as I swiveled back around, trying to control my breathing.

I felt Sage pat my back soothingly, while Ellie held my hands, whispering calming words. I was able to calm down slightly, but I still felt quite jittery.

Relax, I prompted myself. Keep it together. I doubt they even remember you. That was over 6 years ago. You’ll be fine.

Ellie continued to calm me down, until she stopped talking all of a sudden, and muttered a quiet, “oh no.”

I looked back over to the bar’s entrance and saw Reece walk in, joined by two guys I knew too well. I groaned, as if this night wasn’t starting out as horribly as ever.

They were looking around the bar until they spotted me staring at them, and broke out into huge grins. Their grins only lasted for a second before their faces turned apologetic, looking away from me and at the guys Alex was talking with. They looked back over in my direction, mouthing “sorry” to me.

Reece followed their eyes over to me, curious as to what they were looking at.

My breath caught in my throat when my eyes connected with his. He was looking at me with a smoldering gaze, his eyes dropping from my face to survey the rest of my body. Apparently, what I was wearing was enough to drive him into a lust filled craze, because next thing I knew, he was standing before me, covering me with his body.

“What the hell are you wearing?” He bit out, his eyes switching back and forth from black to liquid gold. He was clearly fighting with his wolf between anger and lust.

I was shocked, to say the least, but quickly recovered, tilting my chin up high.

“Clothes,” I stated, turning around to pick up my drink. I sipped it slowly, acting as if he wasn’t even there. My hands shook as I grasped my glass, still freaked out about seeing my brother’s old friends. Reece being here didn’t help ease my nerves either. And on top of it all, he was being a jerk about what I was wearing. I rolled my eyes in distaste and clutched my drink with white knuckles.

“Damn it Cassandra,” he swore, running a hand through his thick hair. I ignored the way my body shivered when he said my name, and continued to stare at my drink, poking it absentmindedly with my straw.

Glancing up, I noticed my best guy friends approach, looking between Reece and me with curious glances. I ignored it and tried my best to smile at them, though it looked more like a grimace than anything. Fighting my nerves off, I lifted myself off the barstool and gave them a hug.

I heard two growls simultaneously and stepped back in shock.

Keith and Zack both looked up, slightly perturbed as well.

Looking behind me, I saw Reece glaring at them, and just behind him, Ellie was doing the same.

“Uh, Ellie?” I questioned, looking at her confused. I followed her gaze and noticed that Keith stood rigid, looking at her with a look that I knew all too well.

I groaned, happy for them, but at the same time, sick of all the mate occurrences I’ve been dealing with.

“Go you dummy!” I urged Keith, pushing him towards Ellie. He walked over to her slowly, grabbing her waist and leaning down to her neck, inhaling her scent.

I looked away, glancing at my mate, who seemed to be watching them with an intense look.

I turned away from the whole scene in front of me to see Sage step down and loop her arm around Zack.

“How’ve you been Cassie?” Zack asked, wrapping his arm around Sage and kissing her on the cheek.

“I’m okay,” I answered.

“Where have you been all this time? Sage decides to hide my best friend from me just so she can have you all to herself,” I joked, crossing my arms and pouting at the couple. I was good friends with Zack since freshman year of high school. He was one of my brother’s good friends and we bonded instantly, despite him being two years older. He practically lived in our house, and that’s how he met Sage. The two were mates and have been together ever since.

“Oh please, you love me more than him anyway,” Sage countered back, rolling her eyes and letting go of Zack to hug me. I hugged her back, chuckling when I saw Zack pout at us.

“No way babe. She clearly loves me more,” he argued, hugging me as well.

“Okay shut up you two, I love you both equally alright?” I laughed, squeezing them.

Pulling apart, Zack nestled his arm around his mate once again, and began grilling me with questions.

“So Sage told me about your little, uh, situation,” he murmured, nodding to Reece behind us.

I’d almost forgotten he was there. He seemed to be talking to Keith and Ellie, sitting on the barstool that used to be mine.

“Yeah, that. You understand why I can’t, you know…” I mumbled, glancing at my brother’s friends on the other side of the bar. I was glad they hadn’t noticed me. They probably didn’t even know that I was back. At least I escaped them when I went to New York for school, but now, I wasn’t so sure I could run from that incident anymore.

“Um Sage? Can you come with me?” I gulped, a sudden wave of nausea hitting me. She excused herself from Zack and ushered us over to the bathroom. That was the best thing about Sage. She always knew exactly what was up before you even could.

We pushed past the horde of girls primping themselves in front of the mirror and down to the stalls. I slipped into the handicapped one, Sage following behind me and shutting the door.

I leaned against the stall wall and closed my eyes, willing myself to breathe calmly.

“We can leave if you want Cassie. You don’t have to be near those bastards anymore. They can’t hurt you okay?” Sage whispered soothingly.

I thought back to when they stepped inside the bar. The horrible feeling I had in my gut, seeing their smug faces. Albeit attractive, they were absolute monsters inside, and I wish they knew how messed up they made me all these years.

“No, it’s okay. I need to, uh, calm down a bit,” I whispered back, bending slightly and resting my hands on my knees.

Sage rubbed my back, calming me slightly, until I straightened up again and nodded at her.

We walked out of the bathroom and rejoined with the group. My brother had found his way over to the bar and was chatting with Reece.

When I walked up to them, Reece noticed me first, hardening his previously happy face and getting off the barstool. I ignored the stab of pain I felt and took his seat.

“Hey Alex,” I greeted, watching my brother toss back a drink in one gulp.

“You okay?” I questioned, placing a hand on his back.

He just looked straight ahead, ignoring my question.

“Alex?”

“Just leave me alone Cassie. I’m not in the mood,” he finally answered, gulping another drink quickly. He swiveled in his seat to face the middle of the room, where Ellie and Keith were dancing. He had his arms around her waist and she had hers around his neck. They leaned in and started making out, pressing themselves impossibly closer to each other.

Coincidentally, both Alex and I looked away. Putting two and two together, I decided to broach on the subject further.

“Alex, did you like Ellie?”

He just huffed in response, turning completely away from the dance floor and back to the bar. He gestured at the bartender, who quickly began fixing him another drink.

“Damn it, Alex, that’s enough,” I scolded, taking the drink away from him.

“Now can you please tell me why you’re letting this annoy you so much? You knew you both weren’t mates, and you knew one day she was going to find hers. Why are you acting like this?”

“You wouldn’t understand,” he answered, staring down.

“Believe me, I have an idea,” I muttered, glancing at Reece, who was busy talking to Sage and Zack.

“I know that you really liked her Alex. I mean, it was obvious. Even in high school, I saw the way you looked at her whenever she came over. You really wanted her to be your mate, I know that. But please Alex, don’t be upset. You’ll find your mate one day and she’ll make you forget any other girl you’ve ever liked.”

“When?!” He shouted, glaring at me, “Damn it Cassie, I’m tired of waiting. I’m almost 24. I’m expected to take over the pack soon, but I don’t even have a Luna to do that!”

He ran a hand through his hair, and closed his eyes.

I leaned over and gave him a big hug, hoping it would make him feel slightly better. I really felt for him. He was in the same position as I was, except that he didn’t even know his mate or met her yet, but both of us were just stuck.

“Hey, I haven’t found my mate yet either,” I said, feeling a pang in my chest, stupid wolf, “but we will find them sooner or later. We just have to keep hope.”

He sighed, and pulled me into a hug.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I just – I just got all emotional seeing her with him. It just solidified the whole mate thing, and I guess I kinda freaked out,” he laughed dejectedly.

I patted him on the back and hugged him again; it was all I could do to. I knew what it felt like not being able to be with the one you want, except it was my fault.

“So, when are classes starting for you?” I asked, eager to change the subject. He needed to get his mind off of Ellie and Keith.

“Next week. You’re coming too right? All that post-grad stuff?” He nodded at me.

“Yep. Can’t wait! I haven’t seen the school, but I’ve heard it’s great. Not sure about my professors though. One of my classes has no listed professor so I don’t even know what to expect with the grading,” I shrugged, signaling the bartender to fix me another drink.

“What class?” Alex asked back.

“One of the ‘disguised special wolf training classes’ that we’re required to take because of mom and dad,” I shrugged, rolling my eyes and sipping my drink.

“Oh you mean ‘Anthropology of the Dark Ages’. Yeah, Alpha Parker’s teaching that class. Part of Mom’s rules. She wants you to learn from your trainer, so he’s going to be teaching that class in order to keep an eye on you and help you with understanding your training,” Alex chuckled, ruffling my head, “Sucks having a babysitter doesn’t it?”

I almost choked on my drink when I heard what he said. I swallowed painfully and composed myself as subtly as I could.

“Shut up,” I retorted, pushing his hand off of my perfectly done hair. I felt so stupid. How did I forget what Mom told me before? She was explaining all this in the car when I came back and I completely forgot.

I couldn’t have Reece teaching me in school. That would make things so much worse. I was already extremely unstable with my feelings around him, and now I had to see him at school too?

“Why does he have to teach? What does he even know about our werewolf heritage? I was expecting one of the elders to teach us,” I grumbled, stealing a glance at Reece, who was still with Sage and Zack and currently laughing at something Zack said to him.

“Um, because he’s an alpha?” Alex laughed, “Obviously he knows about our heritage. Plus, he’s training you anyway. This would be a good way to keep tabs on you.”

“I’m not 5,” I retorted, rolling my eyes.

“You sure about that?” He chuckled, getting off of the barstool.

“I’m gonna go catch up with some friends. Wanna come say hi?”

I tensed up immediately, until I looked in his direction and saw they were just some of Alex’s buddies from the football team. I really wasn’t up for social time, so I declined and watched him walk over to his friends before joining Sage and Zack.

I could see Reece’s back tense even before I got to them, and felt a pang of guilt.

“Hey guys,” I greeted them. Reece barely glanced at me before taking a sip of his beer and looking out towards the mass of drunk, dancing people.

“What happened over there? I saw Alex chugging drinks like no other,” Sage asked.

“He’s just upset. You know how it was obvious that Alex had a crush on Ellie? Well, he wasn’t handling her whole mate thing too well. I mean, I’m happy for Keith and Ellie, but poor Alex,” I shook my head, looking back at him with his friends.

“Don’t worry, he’ll recover soon enough when he finds his mate. Once he does, no girl in the world will matter but her,” Zack stated, nuzzling his head into Sage’s neck. She pushed him back playfully and blushed. Sage was not one to embrace couple gestures like that too well. Zack on the other hand, was a total PDA fan.

I could feel the awkwardness in the air, and I’m sure Sage and Zack did as well. If they did however, they didn’t let on.

“Well, you guys wanna go dance?” Zack asked quickly, grabbing Sage’s hand.

“Oh I don’t know…” I began, but Reece interrupted.

“Sure,” he answered, looking at me.

I stared, dumbfounded, before nodding slowly.

We all walked off towards the dance floor, Sage and Zack ahead, Reece and I in tow.

My mind was reeling. I couldn’t let him touch me again, or who knows what I’d do. That night in the kitchen was just a taste of the way his hands made my body feel. I wasn’t about to dance with him among a group of sweaty, drunk, and hormonal people. It wouldn’t end well, for the both of us.

When we pushed through the hordes of people and arrived somewhere in the middle of the group, Zack spun Sage around so that her back was facing his front, and began dancing with her. He wrapped his arms around her torso and put his head in the crook of her neck, while she placed her arms on his.

Catching the drift, we both awkwardly looked away from them and at each other. He barely glanced at me before looking at something behind me and pushing past.

I spun around to see what he was doing, when I saw him grab the arm of an attractive girl and start grinding up against her. I barely had time to process what was happening before he turned back and looked at me, a smug smile on his face.

My hands balled into fists at my side and my eyes were seeing red.

I watched in complete horror as he took the girl by the hand and brought her against the wall, dancing with her way too close. My heart lurched watching them both, and I could feel a painful lump forming in my throat.

Before I could react, however, I felt an arm slink around my waist.

I turned to look at who it was, and saw an unfamiliar face.

He was an attractive guy, with ruffled blond hair and baby blue eyes. He smiled at me, showcasing his straight, white teeth. The slight smell of alcohol wafted from him, with a mix of some strong cologne.

“Hey babe, wanna dance?” He mused, squeezing me a little tighter against him with the arm that was still wrapped around me.

I looked back once at Reece and the other girl and frowned. If he was gonna play dirty, so was I.

I turned back to the guy and smiled.

“Sure” I answered, turning to face him and placing my hands against his chest.

“It’s too crowded over here! Wanna go over to the wall?” I shouted over the music.

He smiled again, and let go of me, grabbing my hand and leading us over to the wall.

I caught sight of Sage looking at the both of us. She frowned when she saw me, but at the moment I didn’t care. My wolf was furious for Reece’s betrayal. It didn’t matter that I’d been treating him like crap for the past few days. What he did was far worse than anything I’ve done, and I was determined to set him straight.

The blond guy then led us to the wall, propping his back against it. He then pulled me towards him and slid his hands onto my hips. He rocked us back and forth to the sway of the music, putting his head into the crook of my neck and leaving a trail of kisses up my neck.

I was revolted by his touch. The only touch I wanted was my mate’s, but it didn’t matter. He was too hurt by what I’d done to care anymore.

I frowned at this realization. What if he was just done with me? What if that girl wasn’t meant to make me jealous? What if he was just trying to move on?

I looked to my left, spotting Reece a few feet away among some others. He was still by the wall, with the same brunette. She was really into him, by the looks of it. I felt myself burn in anger, but before I could comprehend, I felt his eyes veer up and connect with mine.

The shock I felt when Reece stared at me was dull compared to the anger I saw in his eyes when he saw the blond guy kissing my neck.

His eyes transformed to a coal black and I felt my heart rate skyrocket. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to handle things.

He pushed the brunette off of him, much to her disgust, and advanced towards us, his gaze never breaking contact with mine. I gulped nervously, and broke eye contact with him to look at the blond guy.

He was still kissing my neck, moving his hands further down my body and curving around my butt. He gave it a little squeeze, and I yelped slightly.

The blond looked up at me and gave me a smirk.

“You like that babe?” He grinned, glancing down at my lips.

He advanced upon them, and I quickly tilted my head, his lips just barely grazing the outer corner of my mouth.

Before I could react, I felt an arm slide around me and pull me back, towards a warm, hard chest.

Tingles shot up my body and I groaned. This wasn’t good.

Reece pushed me behind him and pinned the poor guy to the wall, his forearm pushing across the guy’s chest.

“Touch her again, you piece of shit, and you die,” he threatened, his face inches from the blond.

“S-sorry bro, didn’t know she was your chick. My bad,” he stuttered, putting his hands up in surrender.

Reece still had a strong grip on the guy and I knew I had to do something before he killed him.

“Reece,” I urged, placing a hand on his arm, “Please stop.”

He loosened his grip on the guy for a second, and the blond took that as his cue to get the hell out of there.

“Oh well that just sucks doesn’t it? Your guy got away. Too bad,” he snarled, his wolf still on the surface.

Reece turned around to face me, his eyes still a stormy black, and laughed mockingly.

“Reece, I-” I began.

“You what? You’re sorry? Well too late for that!” he bit out, his face red.

“Reece, please, I didn’t mean-”

“You know what Cassie? Just stay the fuck out of my life! You’re a poor excuse of a mate anyway,” he snarled again, and pushed past me.

I saw him storm out the bar and felt tears well up in my eyes.

What did I just do?

Chapter 8

 

 

 

“I can’t reach his cell,” I growled angrily, pacing back and forth outside the bar, while the others watched me sadly. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t part of my pack and we hadn’t, uh mated yet, I had no way to mind link him. The connection was still too week between us if he was this far away.

“Shit!” I swore, when his phone went straight to voicemail.

“He was really mad,” I turned to Sage and Ellie, tears forming in my eyes, “Oh god, what if he ran off? What if he got into an accident?”

“He’s an alpha Cass, don’t worry. He probably just went somewhere to blow off some steam and turned his phone off,” Sage tried to reassure me, but I didn’t think so.

“I don’t know. I-I just need to know he’s safe,” I whispered, staring out at the street ahead, silently willing him to just show up out of nowhere.

Call it mate instinct, but I just didn’t feel okay with this. I felt like something was wrong, and I know that if he’s hurt, it’s all my fault.

“So, I just checked with the bouncers and they said they saw a pretty angry looking guy storm out of the bar, get into his car, and drive off. They don’t know anything else,” Alex interrupted my thoughts, joining the group.

“Do you know the guy well enough to know where he could’ve gone?” Keith asked my brother, who just shook his head.

“Maybe he’s back at your place?” Zack piped up.

“I doubt it. The bouncers said they saw him drive south of this road. The pack house is up north,” Alex answered.

“Hey, you okay?” Alex asked me, placing a hand on my back.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I answered quickly. The last thing I wanted was Alex to know that the reason I was feeling rattled was because Reece and I were mates and I could feel something was wrong.

“Why did he even storm off anyway?” He asked.

I gave Ellie and Sage a look to keep quiet. I did not need my brother freaking out about what just happened back there, along with the whole mate thing.

“Who knows?” I shrugged, “All I know is, I have a bad feeling he may be in trouble.”

I ducked my head down and scuffed the sidewalk with my shoe. I could feel it in the mate bond that something was up. My wolf was feeling unsettled, and she rarely ever felt that way, unless something was bothering her.

“We should go look for him,” I offered.

Before anyone could reply, however, I saw Alex’s eyes glaze over. After a few seconds, he mindlessly nodded and turned back to us.

“That was my dad,” he informed all of us, talking about his mind linked conversation he just had, “Alpha Parker has gone back to his pack to handle a few things that came up. He told us to head home now.”

A part of me knew that was somewhat true, but my wolf was still agitated. I could almost see her metaphorically pacing back and forth with worry. Something didn’t seem right.

That was how I felt the entire way back. I just stared out the window, feeling the cool glass press against my forehead. Alex, who was driving my car, just glanced at me every once in a while, but I just ignored him. There was too much on my mind right now.

How could I let that guy kiss me all over? I could still smell the human’s scent on my neck. He may have been hot and the perfect revenge, but I should’ve followed my head, not my crazy jealous wolf hormones.

I thumped my head slightly against the window for my stupidity and earned yet another glance from Alex.

“You sure you’re okay there Cass?” He joked slightly, his eyes briefly leaving the road to check on me.

“Woman issues Alex,” I groaned, hoping the excuse would stop him from asking anymore questions.

His mouth pulled into a straight line and he looked back to the road. Satisfied, I continued to mope about my stupid decisions for the rest of the ride, which thankfully, was a quiet one.

When we got back to the pack house, Alex’s car was already parked in the driveway, and Ellie, Keith, Sage stepped out of the car. Zack came out of the driver’s seat and walked over to us, placing the keys in Alex’s hand.

Alex and I said our goodbyes to the others as they boarded their cars and left. I followed Alex into our pack house, solemnly staring out at the woods as if Reece would come back any second.

The inside of our pack house was quiet. Considering the pack house was only inhabited by the Alpha and his family, it wasn’t strange. But for me, it felt unsettling, knowing that everyone was quietly sleeping while my mate was out there somewhere. I couldn’t rest like everyone else.

Alex and I walked up to our respective bedrooms and said goodnight before slipping into them. I shut the door behind me softly and changed into my night shirt. When I was finally out of my uncomfortable clothes, I walked towards the window seat on the opposite side of the room. I sat on the bench as I looked out the window towards the wide expanse of our backyard and extended territory. The woods cast a silent shadow over the house, darkening the fields with its earthy presence. The moon, however, broke through its dark mist and radiated on a small expanse of the field. As I stared at this area, a wolf suddenly emerged from the trees, its dark coat illuminated by the gleam of the moon as it stood right on that glimmering field.

Biting my lip, I got down from the window seat, breathing a sigh of relief. My feet padded out of my room and down the stairs as quietly as possible, until I reached the sliding glass doors to the backyard.

I slipped out and walked over to the towering wolf, my right hand clutching a pair of Alex’s sweats that he’d kept downstairs for when he needed to change out of his wolf. I wasn’t sure if they were the same size, but it was all I had anyway.

I approached him slowly, but he obviously heard my feet brushing against the grass. His black eyes turned their chilling gold as he stared at me walking towards him.

“I brought you a pair of Alex’s sweatpants,” I muttered, holding them out for him. I kept my eyes downcast, but I could feel his eyes burrowing holes into my face. Even in wolf form, he still affected me in ways I could never possibly describe.

A minute later, I felt the pants leave my grasp, and I looked up just in time to see him run behind a tree.

I crossed my arms, and looked back up at the moon, sending a silent thanks to the moon goddess for protecting him. I knew Reece’s Alpha status would always protect him, but it was my stupid mate bond that had me so worried. Either way, I was thankful he was okay, even if I knew the tension between us was still very much alive.

He emerged from the trees and I yet again had to suck in a sharp breath as I saw his sculpted chest. The moon’s light glittered off of it and the shadows of the night fell at every crevice he had in his toned torso. The sweatpants hung loosely on his hips, outlining his taut lower body and very sculpted v-line. His face was stoic, with his jaw clenched impossibly tight, outlining his hollow cheeks and raised cheekbones. He stood towering, a few inches above 6 feet, and I knew then just how powerful of an Alpha he really was.

I saw him stop walking, glaring at me with those electric gold eyes, but I couldn’t stop staring at his body, imagining what it would be like if his pants weren’t there.

My teeth clamped down on my lip hard. The mate bond was getting increasingly stronger, and I didn’t know how much more I could take before things got too out of control.

Before I could even comprehend, the air was knocked out of my lungs as I felt my back hit a tree.

“Fuck,” I heard Reece’s voice growl by the base of my throat, his hands clamping down on my hips with a tough but gentle touch.

I couldn’t hide the desire in my eyes when he growled that. It was like all the tingling had gone to a specific area of my body. My cheeks turned a rosy pink at my thoughts.

Reece trailed his nose up my neck, inhaling my scent deeply, before laying small but feverish kisses in his path. His kisses led him up my jaw and closer to my mouth.

Pulling back slightly, he looked at me, judging my face. I could feel my own eyes turn their light brown as my wolf’s lustful side took over. Nothing in my gut made me feel nervous right now, like I had that night. I felt safe with him and my eyes were clearly displaying that. I guess it was all the permission he needed, as I felt his lips descend on my own.

To say kissing him felt like fireworks would be an understatement. His lips, soft and warm, mingled with my own in perfect rhythm, even as he opened his mouth and let his tongue slowly slip past my mouth.

I moaned, giving him better access as I explored his mouth as well. Tingles erupted from my mouth and settled in the pit of my stomach, and I felt my body thrum with desire. I trailed my hands up his chest, feeling my hands rise and fall with every peak and valley on his gorgeously molded chest.

His own hands skimmed down my hips and rested on the sides of my thighs, before hoisting me up. I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled him impossibly closer to my own body, shivering at his lustful growl as he deepened the kiss.

All too soon, we broke apart, our heavy, lust-filled breaths echoing in the expanse of the forest.

I glanced at his eyes, which were still a deep golden brown, and gave him a small smile. He seemed a bit stunned at that, as I saw his eyes open wider. I couldn’t help but let out a giggle, biting my lip to stop from laughing harder. He looked like a lost little boy, fascinated by what he was seeing.

“Fuck Cass,” he breathed out, staring at my lips. He brought his lips to my own, hovering over them so close I could feel the electricity buzzing between us.

“Kiss me Reece,” I breathed out, tightening my grip on his chest.

Reece wasted no time in diving right in, but softer and gentler this time, like he was trying to trace the outline of my lips into his memory to hold forever.

When we broke apart again, I felt him let me down on my feet and lean his forehead on my own.

“Cass, I’m sorry, I –”

I cut him off before he could say anymore.

“We were both stupid. I didn’t mean to hurt you and I know you didn’t mean to hurt me,” I whispered, placing a gentle kiss on his lips.

My hands flew up to his face and rested on either side, pulling him away from my own.

I looked at him deeply, allowing my thumbs to trace his jaw and finally rest on his lips.

“I should be the one to say sorry. Not just for what happened at the club, but…for everything,” I let out, dropping my hands from his face and down to my sides.

He gave a low growl and pulled my waist in so that our chests bumped together.

“Don’t ever say that. It wasn’t your fault. It was both our faults,” he stated sharply, his eyes staring down my own.

I glanced away, still feeling like absolute shit for treating him the way I had. Maybe we were supposed to do something so stupid to realize how much we really needed each other.

His finger and thumb tilted my face back to his, and his thumb stroked down my neck in circles. We just stood there awhile, admiring each other’s faces.

I had to admit, I was surprised I lasted this long. Just looking at his taut body, flawless skin, gorgeous eyes, and full lips, I found it hard to resist such a man, mate or not. His long lashes fell down and hit his perfectly arched cheekbones every time he blinked, and his eyes glowed brightly against his olive skin.

“I think it’s your shirt,” he finally muttered, picking at the hem of my night shirt I slept with. For a second, I didn’t know what he meant, until I realized that I wasn’t wearing any pants.

“Or maybe it’s because you’re not wearing any pants, which, by the way, shouldn’t ever happen unless it’s with me,” he growled, his hand gripping my thigh possessively.

“Relax Alpha,” I chuckled, “nobody besides my parents and brother are in the house. It’s not like anyone would see me like this anyway.”

“The guards could,” he shot back, clenching his jaw so that a visible tick could be seen on his face.

“Okay, okay,” I surrendered, sensing his wolf was having a tough time controlling his possessive nature of me.

“You’re right, I won’t I promise,” I nodded at him, “only for you.”

He seemed very satisfied with my answer, because he gave me a knowing smirk and slipped his hands under my shirt, pushing it up slightly.

“Good, but I should warn you, that won’t usually happen, since I plan on not having the shirt on at all,” he stated with a smug look.

I felt my cheeks blush even hotter if that was possible. I guess the way I was dressing made him attack me, but I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we were sharing a room together.

He smirked again, and stepped back. I felt a rush of cold air and shivered slightly, missing my mate’s protective warmth.

I felt his arms around me a second later, as he hoisted me up bridal style and walked back into the pack house. I didn’t know how he managed to open all the doors, but somehow, we ended up back in my room, where he laid me down gently on my bed.

Giving me a soft kiss on my forehead, he stepped back, about to leave, when I grabbed his wrist.

“No, please stay,” I whimpered, surprised at my sudden vulnerability.

I’d given into the mate bond, and now I needed my mate around more than ever.

He seemed torn, but eventually laid down in my bed, wrapping the covers around us.

I snuggled into his chest, glad for its warmth, and closed my eyes. I felt his arm around my waist push me impossibly close to him and his chin rest on the top of my head. I intertwined my fingers with his and snuggled them closer to my chest. Before I knew it, I felt my eyelids droop and my mind drift off to one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had.

Chapter 9

My eyes squinted as they tried to get adjusted to the light in the room. My window, with its delicate silk curtains pulled aside, allowed a steady stream of light to land on my bed, waking me up from my blissful sleep.

I rolled over on my back and patted the bed beside me, only to find an empty space.

Sitting up abruptly, I glanced down at the space beside me and indeed saw no sleeping Reece there. Furrowing my eyebrows, I pulled the blankets off of me and stood up, heading towards the bathroom to freshen up.

After I’d brushed my teeth and taken a shower, I slipped on a t-shirt and fleece shorts before heading downstairs.

I could smell Reece’s scent in the kitchen, as well as the scent of freshly prepared food. My stomach grumbled loudly, and I had no choice but to head inside.

“Hi princess,” my dad was first to greet me, sitting on a barstool at the island. He had his glasses perched on the bridge of his nose as he scanned a handful of papers before him. Reece was sitting beside him, sipping some coffee. He kept his eyes glued to his phone, barely glancing at me.

I walked up to both of them and sat on the barstool to my father’s right. He looked away from the documents and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Hungry?” My mom called out from the stove, already piling a plate with bacon and eggs. She poured a cup of coffee into a mug too and put all of it in front of me.

“Thanks mom,” I smiled at her, digging in. I didn’t ignore the fact that Reece was completely avoiding me, but I tried to not let it bother me too much. My parents were in the room after all.

“Honey, your mom and I have some business to attend at another pack. We’ll be gone for a couple weeks. Alex is also coming with us, so we’re leaving the responsibility of the pack to you and Reece,” my dad stood up, gulping down the rest of his coffee, and walked over to the sink to put his dishes in. He kissed my mom tenderly on the temple and turned over to us.

“So, I expect the place to be just how I left it. No wild parties,” he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, but gave him a smile.

“Dad, I’m 21, I can handle myself. And trust me, there will be no parties of any kind. Why are you leaving anyway?”

“Just some legal stuff we’ve got to sort out with other packs,” my dad replied a little too quickly. I didn’t miss the glance he gave to my mom.

“Okay,” I stated. I didn’t want to press anything further, but for some strange reason, my parents didn’t want me to know why they were leaving. Still, I didn’t push the subject. My parents wouldn’t hide something from me unless it was important.

Besides, I was also mentally freaking out about Reece and I’s impromptu make out session last night. I can only imagine what we might do with nobody around. The thought made me shiver slightly. Reece and I had the whole place to ourselves with nobody to disturb us.

“Cass?”

“Huh?” I replied, as I noticed my dad calling my name.

“I was just trying to say that we’re leaving in half an hour, so make sure to check in with the guards after to secure the area when we’re gone.”

“Okay, I will,” I answered quickly. With a prompt nod, my parents left the kitchen, once again leaving me alone with Reece.

I decided now was as good of a time as ever to broach the subject about last night, so I slid into my dad’s seat and faced him.

“Reece, about last night…”

“What about last night?” He responded mid-sentence, still sipping his coffee and texting on his phone. I stared at him, my mouth agape and my eyebrows furrowed close together. Did he really just say that? Why was he pretending like last night didn’t even happen?

“What do you mean?” I stuttered out, still staring at him with an incredulous look.

He glanced at me quickly and scoffed, shaking his head and glancing back at his phone screen. He typed some sort of response and wrinkled his eyebrows in thought.

“Can you please look at me when I’m speaking to you?” I glared at him. I was irritated at how rude he was being. I was trying to have a decent conversation with him about us and he was treating me like last night didn’t happen and he couldn’t give a shit if it did.

He barely gave me a glance, before looking back down at his phone.

“Nothing happened, so there’s nothing to talk about,” he said stiffly, his jaw clenching.

Before I could respond to him, I smelled by brother’s scent nearing the kitchen, and I turned back around abruptly, facing my untouched food. Not surprisingly, my appetite was gone.

Alex walked into the kitchen a few seconds later and headed towards the fridge, his back to us. It was a good thing too, since my face looked murderous. Next to me, Reece looked indifferent, just looking up once to see my brother before looking back down at his phone.

“Hey Cass, have you seen dad?” Alex asked, opening the fridge and grabbing a water bottle.

“Yeah he was just in here a few minutes ago. Not sure where he went though. You guys are leaving right?” I replied, sipping my coffee. I tried to keep my tone neutral, but it was hard to when I was so furious at Reece.

“Yeah, we’re visiting the Blue Moon pack to discuss some business with them. Just regulation stuff, but dad wants me to come along since I have to learn the ropes, you know,” he shrugged, taking a swig of the bottle.

He was acting too nonchalant, and I knew better than anyone that that’s what he usually did when he was trying to tell a convincing lie. Besides, I didn’t even ask about what it was for, just where they were going. Something was going on and I wanted to know just what it was. The fact that my parents and brother were hiding something from me, and Reece was being a complete jerk about last night wasn’t helping my anger much.

“Okay, and I’m sure dad is packing right now, so I’d try his room,” I suggested, plastering a fake smile on my face. I wasn’t mad at Alex, but I was mad that he felt the need to hide things from me.

He nodded and walked out, leaving Reece and I alone.

I waited a few seconds before turning back over to Reece. Before I could get a word out, he stood up, and walked over to the counter, and dropped his mug into the sink.

I just sat there, unable to speak and my mouth hung open, as I watched him walk from the kitchen out to the backyard.

“You coming or what Knight?” He called out behind him. I bristled, disturbed by how indifferent he was. What the hell was going on? A few hours ago, he’d snuggled next to me as we drifted off to sleep together, and now he was acting like this?

I had to figure out what was wrong with him. He hadn’t even told me what yesterday was about when he’d gone back to his pack. I remember how I felt through the mate bond. I was overwhelmed by a sense of worry, fear, and anger. Something had happened, and maybe he was using me to cope with it. The thought angered me slightly, to be used like that, but then again, maybe it was something else? Whatever it was, I had to get to the bottom of this.

I ran outside and caught up to him, just as he was stretching his limbs. It seemed like he was getting ready for another training session, but that would have to wait. I needed answers.

Crossing my arms, I cleared my throat, hoping to get his attention. It worked, seeing as he abruptly raised his head and met his eyes with mine. I felt a jolt when our eyes connected, but I hardened my own, trying to resist the mate pull.

“Something wrong?” he asked, his tone slightly clipped.

My inner wolf snarled slightly, not liking his tone with us.

Relax, I tried to soothe her, but she still bristled, almost on the verge of shifting. She was an alpha female used to being respected by others. She expected even more from her mate, and the fact that the human side of her mate wasn’t respecting her was making her rigid with anger.

I knew she wanted to take over, especially since she was being blatantly ignored by her mate. He was disrespecting us, and my wolf was confused why.

His wolf wants us, but his human is ignoring us, she whimpered quietly.

I’m not sure what’s going on either, but I’ll figure it out. He can’t just treat us this way, I replied, clenching my fists.

“Can we talk?” I bit out, anger laced in each word.

I saw his back muscles tense as he turned away from me and threw down his towel.

“Fine,” he answered shortly, turning back around to face me. He nodded behind me and began walking back into the house.

I followed him silently, partly pissed at his attitude, but also partly confused by it.

“Talk,” he ordered, as we stepped back into the kitchen. He folded his arms in front of his chest and stared me down, his eyes void of any emotion.

“Uh, my parents -” I argued, worried they’d hear something.

“Aren’t here,” he finished my sentence. “They left a few minutes ago. I guess they were in a hurry because they left right after you came outside. You would’ve noticed if you weren’t so busy being mad at me.”

He rolled his eyes obnoxiously, but they betrayed a hint of emotion – anger – and it made my own emotions grow even more furious. I pushed the thought of my parents and brother leaving so abruptly aside and focused on my infuriating mate.

“Excuse me? I have every right to be mad. After that – that little stunt you pulled yesterday?” I argued, throwing my hands up.

He opened his mouth to retort back to me, but instead stopped and closed it, shaking his head.

“It’s funny how the tables have turned, isn’t it Knight?” He chuckled humorlessly, staring at me with void eyes.

I stood there, dumbfounded, as I processed his words. He was right. I did feel like shit now that he was treating me like I had with him. But I was still furious at his behavior. It was one thing to accidentally submit to the mate bond, but it was another to act like everything was fine and then throw it back in my face for revenge.

“Really? Revenge. Is that what all this is about? You know I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I sighed, crossing my arms, “but you intentionally tried to hurt me, and that’s a lot fucking worse.”

I was surprised at my tone, but it was true. He hurt me on purpose. He didn’t accidentally do so, like I had, but actually tried to hurt me. That idea caused a sharp pang in my heart.

“What’s worse,” he laughed angrily, “is that you think I actually tried to do that on purpose. I would never do that to you, don’t you get it? Dancing with that girl was a test! Just a fucking test!”

He ran a hand angrily through his hair, and laughed humorlessly, before glaring back at me.

“I thought you’d pull her away from me, stop me from being with her like a mate would. Instead, you decided to play another fucking game! I’m not like you, I can never do what you did to me. And as for what happened last night, it was the best thing that’s ever happened in my life, but then I woke up this morning and saw you lying next to me, and I knew I’d just be pushed away again. You’re not ready to have a mate, and unfortunately I don’t know why. But I know something happened to you in the past to make you this way, and I can’t do anything to help you. Until you’re ready to confess why you’re so afraid to accept the mate bond, you’ll just keep pushing me away until there’s nothing left of us to fix.”

I gaped at him, trying to come up with some reason to justify my actions but failing miserably. He was right. I was being a real bitch for the way I was handling all this, especially since I’d done the exact same thing to him for the past week. My shoulders slumped down in defeat, as my eyes trailed down to the floor. For once in my life, I was overcome with so much shame I could hardly look at my mate. I was a real fucking screw up.

“Cass,” Reece breathed out, causing my body to shiver slightly.

Glancing back up at him, I didn’t realize that he’d traveled a few feet closer to me, holding up a hand like he wanted to reach out. He held back, however, and slowly dropped his hand, looking away.

“We can’t be together,” he spoke finally, causing a sudden sharp pain in my heart, before he continued, “not like this anyway.”

He looked back at me, a grim frown etched onto his face.

“That night when we were in here, you…you freaked out. Something is obviously going on with you, and you’re not ready to overcome it. And all these fucking games, they’re obviously a way to deflect what’s really going on. You’re not ready to be mates, I understand that, but it’s only going to hurt us if we try and pretend that everything is fine. So, I think we should keep our distance until you have everything sorted out. Until then, we keep to ourselves and focus on what needs to be done,” he finished, looking at me as though I’d break into a million pieces.

I felt the words he said fall like bricks on my chest. He was right. There was no way we’d be able to work as mates if I didn’t sort my issues out. That night in the kitchen was getting too intense for me, it was bringing up issues about that night and I had experienced a full blown panic attack. I needed to get everything sorted out before even thinking of having a relationship with Reece. I couldn’t keep putting him through this torture, even if last night was as amazing to me as it was to him. He was in pain, clearly, that I couldn’t tell him about my issues, and it would just keep hurting him until he couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t just hurting his feelings, I was toying with a sacred mate bond that the moon goddess blessed us, and every stab in the back I caused Reece would feel a thousand times worse than in a human relationship. His wolf was in pain from what I was doing, and I felt so completely ashamed.

“You’re right,” I nodded at him, clasping my hands together in front of me.

“We can’t keep doing this to each other. I know…I know I’m not ready to tell you what happened to me, but I will, eventually, and when I do, that’s when I know I’m ready to commit to this…to us,” I spoke quietly, glancing down at my hands.

All I heard was silence, so I looked back up, seeing Reece’s head turned away from me, his jaw clenched impossibly tight.

“I hate this so fucking much, but it has to be done,” he bit out, clenching and unclenching his fists.

“I hate how I can feel your wolf’s sadness and anger at our decisions, and I hate that my wolf and your wolf are in so much pain trying to be together, but I know this is the best thing for us.” He concluded, releasing his jaw and turning his head back over to me, his eyes a sharp gold.

I sucked in a breath and looked back down. All he said was absolutely true. I could feel the immense pain my wolf was feeling, having her mate so close but still so far away.

“Yes, it is,” I whispered softly, biting down on my lip hardly. I could feel it trembling as I tried to keep my tears at bay. This was what we had to do, and I needed to man up and accept it.

“Okay then, let’s do this,” I said abruptly, my voice strong. I held out a hand for him to shake. He glanced down at my hand in surprise, before grasping it softly and shaking it. I ignored the tingles that shot up my arm and promptly displayed a firm smile. I was determined to make this work for us and I was not going to let my irresponsibility and my damaged past to mess up my future. I was going to be the mate Reece needed me to be, and I was more determined than ever to do it.

Chapter 10

Our hands dropped down from their clasped position and a strong silence filled the air. I peered up at Reece from underneath my lashes and found myself hit with the reality of the pact we just made. It all seemed too real, him standing there, trying not to seem just as affected as I was.

The silence broke when Reece’s phone rang out, the shrill ringtone causing a drift from the awkward tension in the air.

“Hello?” Reece answered, turning his back to me and walking towards the kitchen entrance.

I couldn’t make out what the person was saying on the other end, but I could tell it wasn’t good. Reece’s tension seemed to resonate from his body to mine via our bond and I could feel the stress of what the other person had said affecting him deeply.

“Alright, I’ll see to it.” Reece ended the call, and slipped the phone into his pocket.

For a few seconds, he just stood there, back facing me, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath he took.

“Is everything okay?” I asked softly.

It seemed like what I’d said broke him from whatever trance he was in, because he finally turned around and faced me, a hard look in his eyes.

“There are some issues going on with my pack currently that I need to attend to. I need to leave immediately to address it. Will you be fine staying here?” He asked, though it seemed more like a command.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said abruptly, straightening my shoulders, “How long will you be gone?”

“I’ll most likely return by night but I’ll let you know if I need to stay at my pack. You sure you’ll be safe here?” I could feel his tension and worry, and for once, I realized it was from leaving me behind. His wolf was fiercely protective of mine, and the idea of him leaving me here didn’t sound too good.

“Yes, my pack has excellent guards and I’m a skilled fighter. I can defend myself,” I stated quickly, a little defensive. He should know that as an Alpha female, I’m already far stronger than normal wolves, and my parents have skilled me at combat training since I shifted. I was not an amateur.

Reece gave me a withered look, but nonetheless accepted my response. His piercing eyes held my own before he pulled them away and turned around, heading out of the kitchen and to the backyard.

I watched from the doorway as he broke out into a run and jumped up, shifting midair. His clothes shredded and flew to the ground as he sprinted into the woods. I stood there for a few more minutes, just watching the forest rustle from the breeze.

My shoulders slumped down, as if the weight of the world was on them. I knew we had just made this pact, but I couldn’t help it when my wolf whined for her mate. It was going to be a long road – that was for sure.

                                        ********* [1 week later]

I felt my eyes shoot open, and a strange burning sensation fill my abdomen. Sitting up with a start, I clutched my midsection as a bead of sweat fell down my forehead.

My breathing turned shallow, like water was filling my lungs, and I struggled to get air in.

Stumbling out of bed, I fumbled for with the light switch as I got into the bathroom and placed my hands on the counter, heaving into the sink.

Turning on the faucet, I greedily splashed water all over my face, but the burning feeling in my stomach turned into sharp pains, causing me to stumble down to my knees.

My vision blurred, as the distant sound of water running filled my ears. I grabbed onto my head as a sudden pounding increased in my skull.

Abruptly, all the pain dulled slightly, and I felt myself opening my eyes.

“What the hell…” I whispered, trying to stand up, but the pain in my stomach was still making it difficult to stand.

I got up finally and placed my hands on the counter, shutting off the water. My fingers grasped my forehead softly, as I leaned on the counter.

‘What on earth was that?’ I questioned my wolf, hoping she could shed some light on what was happening.

‘Mate…’ she whispered faintly, before she was silent.

I opened my eyes wide and felt a shiver go down my spine.

This wasn’t my pain. It was my mate’s.

“Reece,” I whispered, before scrambling out of my bathroom and throwing my closet door open. I grabbed a duffle bag out and stuffed it with a few of my clothes.

Zipping it up, I ran down the stairs and out the backyard door.

Stopping abruptly, I surveyed the yard for which patrols were making their rounds.

I quickly shed my clothes and shifted, putting my duffle bag strap across my wolf body.

There were two patrols currently on the border, but I could smell their scents traveling towards the outer borders of the land. If I slipped past them using the north direction, I would be able to get out unseen.

I started out with a jog, surveying around the land, before I broke out into a run, heading for the forest.

I slowed down, feeling a presence coming closer to me. Growling, I came to a stop, as a large brown wolf jumped from behind a cluster of trees.

It was Eli, one of the few pack warriors on patrol.

‘Cassandra, where are you going?’ He asked me through our pack mind link.

‘Eli, I can’t explain much, but I need to go to another pack. Please let me go.’ I pleaded back, hoping he wouldn’t make me use my alpha command on him.

‘I can’t allow that,’ was his reply, ‘it’s unsafe for you to go alone.’

I wanted to groan. I needed to leave and he wasn’t going to let me go. I had no choice but to use my alpha command.

‘Eli,’ I stated his name, watching as the command echoed over his wolf and caused him to lower his head in submission. ‘I need to leave, so you will let me leave and inform Beta Jennings that I am at the Night Shadows pack. He can come retrieve me from there. But you may not follow me as I leave.’

I could see his wolf submit to my demands, and felt a wave of relief. With one last look, I darted off into the woods, my fur flattening against my body as the wind rushed past me. My legs rippled through the dense forest, launching me as fast as I could go. My wolf could sense her mate’s distress and used this fear to push us as hard as ever to get to him.

Glancing up at the moon, I could see it lighting the expanse before me, and I sent a silent prayer up to the moon goddess. Reece had to be okay. He had to be.

After the day he left when we had made our pact, Reece had informed me that there was some important issue he needed to attend to so he had to stay at his pack for a few more days. It was now about a week in and I was really beginning to miss him. My wolf was suffering incredibly and the pain of being apart was starting to weaken her. But whatever that pain was that I felt back in my room, it seemed to snap my wolf out of the depression she was in. Now, she forced her body to push on, focusing solely on making sure our mate was okay.

After a few hours of nonstop running, I finally came to the border of our two packs. I could see a pair of wolves patrolling this section of the territory, and I halted in my steps. I had reached here propelled on pure adrenaline, but my mind hadn’t exactly thought of what to do once I reached the border to his territory.

Running behind a nearby tree, I watched the patrol wolves while weighing my options carefully. Running straight into the border would get me seriously injured, but I couldn’t exactly go up to them and demand they let me in without informing their alpha beforehand, which wouldn’t work anyway since Reece was obviously injured. My wolf whined in my mind at that thought but I silenced her. I needed to think of something fast.

My ears perked up as an idea came to mind. I just hoped it worked.

I approached the border slowly, howling slightly to alert my presence. I watched as both wolves swiveled in my direction to the sound, jarring their teeth menacingly. They squinted their eyes and sniffed the air, hoping to catch a smell of the intruder. Their noses scrunched slightly, probably because they could smell my alpha ranking, before they began approaching me. I had stopped several feet before their border, allowing them to come to me.

I whined slightly when they were close, pointing my snout at my body and then at the trees. I showed them my neck as well, indicating that I meant no harm. They seemed to understand what I was saying, and one of the wolves ran off behind a group of trees. He came back out after shifting, with a pair of shorts on and some clothing in his hands.

He gave his partner a pair of shorts as well before looking at me. I grabbed my duffle bag strap and pulled it off my body, clasping it in my mouth and running behind a tree to shift. When I came back out, I saw both men staring at me, their arms crossed as if waiting for me to explain myself.

“You’re not a rogue,” one of the men said. He was young, probably a few years older than me, with a strong, masculine face that was currently set to a stoic expression.

“Uh yeah, I’m not,” I answered, obviously I said in my mind and resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“I’m Cassandra Knight, daughter of Alpha Leo and Luna Taylor Knight of the Black Mountain Pack, and I’m here because Alpha Parker was temporarily watching over my pack while my parents were gone and he left urgently. I haven’t been able to contact him and I have a pressing matter and need to speak with him quickly. Is it alright if I cross your border?”

They both squinted their eyes before looking at each other, most likely mindlinking about me. I hoped to the goddess that they believed what I was saying and would let me through.

“What is the pressing matter?” The first man asked.

“It has to do with some breach of rogues on our pack territory. I’m not equipped to handle matters like this and my beta was given strict orders to rely on Alpha Parker for instruction.” I answered. Though this was a white lie, most of what I said about my beta was true. I just hoped they would believe me.

I saw their eyes widen before they furrowed their eyebrows in thought.

“If that is the case, why not call our alpha? Or perhaps send the beta over? Why have you come?”

I felt my palms grow moist, and I gulped, trying to quickly think of something that could explain why I, a female wolf, came running to another pack’s territory in the middle of the night without my beta or any backup.

“My beta wanted to come with” I answered, which wasn’t exactly a lie either I thought, “but I was just really nervous so I did kind of go behind his back. It’s just that this problem is urgent and we could use your alpha’s help.”

I curled my hands into fists, hoping they wouldn’t push it any further. The first guard mindlinked the other guard and he nodded, before mindlinking again, probably to someone else.

I bit my lip, watching their faces, until their eyes returned from their blank stare and focused back on me.

“We let our beta know that you were here, and he is concerned with the threat you have received about the rogues. He will see you,” the second guard stated.

Two new guards came down and gestured for me to follow them and guided us up to the main pack house. As I walked through, I was in awe of the massive size of Reece’s territory. I could understand the guards’ hesitation to let me in. The area was huge, which meant a lot of vigilant security would be needed to keep such a large number of pack members safe. Besides, the pack had probably met my parents, but since I had been gone for so long, they were unfamiliar with me. I just thank the goddess that they bought my excuse. I needed to see Reece and find out what the hell was wrong.

We finally reached an enormous pack house, about ten times the size of our own. The guards let me inside and left me in the foyer, saying that the beta would be with me soon.

As I waited, I glanced around the massive house, admiring the great detail. The delicately woven woodwork and crisp cream walls framed the split grand staircase, the glistening marble floors were so transparent I could almost see my reflection, and a beautiful glass chandelier hung overhead, lighting the foyer before me.

“Ms. Knight,” came a smooth voice to my right, and I swiveled my head to see a handsome man with bronze hair and light gray eyes. He smiled at me, before stretching a hand out, which I shook gingerly.

“I’m Beta Keith Jones. Why don’t we talk in my office,” he stated, gesturing down the hallway he came from. I followed his tall frame down the hall and to the right till we got to his office. He ushered me in and closed the door behind him, before walking over to his desk. I noticed he was dressed nicely, a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and dark slacks. He had a steel gray tie that matched well with his eyes. He was incredibly handsome, but I felt nothing for him besides acknowledgement of his attractiveness. My mind kept drifting off to a specific man I found to be even more handsome than any man I’d ever seen. I bit my lip and willed those thoughts away. This was not the time.

Beta Jones leaned against the front of his desk with his arms crossed, scanning my face intricately. I squirmed slightly under his gaze, before clearing my throat.

“So Beta Jones, I was wondering if we could discuss the issue that I’m here for?” I asked, straightening my shoulders.

He merely stared at me before looking down and smiling to himself.

“I know why you’re really here. I’ll give you credit though, coming up with an elaborate excuse to see Reece. You’re lucky it was spot on,” he chuckled.

I gaped at him, before composing myself and gathering what to say in my defense when he interrupted me.

“I know you’re his mate,” he declared, uncrossing his arms and shoving them into the pockets of his slacks. He looked so triumphant, I didn’t know whether to deny it or slap the smirk off his face. But I had bigger issues to worry about, like why Reece told him when we agreed not to tell anyone, or if he didn’t tell, how did his beta find out? I decided to address the easier question of the two.

“How did you know?”

“I’m not just Alpha Parker’s beta, but I’m also his best friend. He never told me directly, but something was different about him after he came back to the pack from yours. So when he got injured tonight and with you showing up from the very pack he left, I put two and two together.”

I stared at him, incredulous. He was smart, I had to give him that. I sighed, there was no point in denying it if he already knew.

“What happened to him?” I asked softly.

Beta Jones rubbed his face in exhaustion before glancing back up at me, the relaxed nature once presented before vanishing and a cold demeanor in its place.

“He was out on a run today, longer than his usual ones and much farther out of the territory. It was getting late and he wasn’t back yet, and I had some important things I had to discuss with him, so I decided to mindlink him to ask him to come back. I tried a few times to communicate, but I wasn’t getting through. That’s when I started to worry. He would never block me, so I went out looking for him to make sure he was okay. I traced his scent out to deep into the forest on the north side of our territory and found him collapsed on the ground, a large gash on his chest down to his stomach. We patched him up as best we could and put him in his room. He hasn’t woken up yet, so when I heard from our guards that you were looking for him, I decided to go along with your lie to get you here,” he sighed deeply, before continuing, “I was hoping you could try and get him to wake up. I’ve never seen him this weak before. Something like this wouldn’t affect him that badly, but now that I know you exist, it seems like whatever is going on between you two is leaving his wolf vulnerable.”

I felt my wolf whimper and I swallowed the lump in my throat. He was injured because of me, because of that stupid pact I made with him. How could I have been so selfish to endanger his life like this?

“So you want me to try and use our mate bond to wake him up?”

“Yeah, I think that’s the only shot we have of finding out who did this to him,” he replied.

“Okay, please take me to him,” I urged. I put my mate in this vulnerable position, so I was sure as hell I was going to get him out of it.

Beta Jones nodded to me, before walking over to the door.

“You ready?”

I nodded, and followed him.

I needed to fix my stupid mistake that managed to endanger his life like this. I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.06.2013

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