by Belle Kayce
“Just thinking,” Lance replies. “You?”
“Just thinking,” I retort. I shiver at the cool morning air.
“Thinking about what?” Lance asks me. His eyes glance at me, but he quickly looks away, and I swear I see a faint blush on his cheeks. I look down at my soaked-almost-see-through-lavender shirt clinging on my body like second skin.
And my bright neon pink Victoria Secret bra, which is very visible.
Of course.
“It’s your fault, you know,” I tell him in a sing-song tone. “I have to make sure no one sees me like this—”
Lance suddenly decides to take off his shirt, showing off his perfect, too-good eight pack that I can probably stare at all day. It’s not fair for him to look that good without a shirt on. Really. He needs to give other guys a chance.
“Wear this,” he cuts me off, handing me his plain navy t-shirt.
“Oh, so you can be half-naked but I can’t?” I ask, crossing my arms, which doesn’t help. Lance’s eyes darken, and it only makes me feel bolder. Why am I even complaining anyways? He needs to show off his body to me more often.
“Because no one will notice me half-naked if you’re in the room looking like . . .” Lance swallows, “that.”
Now I’m the one blushing. The next best thing I can do is take his shirt. With his eyes never leaving mine, I take off my own shirt and put his on. I pat his shirt which comes down to my knees. “There.” His shirt does feel better on my skin. “I just need to take off these shoes. The socks are killing me.” I sit down at a nearby rock, and Lance, the ever gentleman, kneels in front of me and takes off my shoes and socks for me. I murmur a thank you to him as he holds my shoes and my shirt.
“So, what were you thinking about this early, Cinderella?” Lance teases me.
“I’m thinking too much about what’ll happen at the alpha meeting. Julia and Bo and how much I want to punch my brother. I’m thinking about there’s nothing I can do to help them.”
“It’s not your job to help everyone,” Lance tells me. “I know you’ve done your share for Julia and Grayson, as well as Bo. Don’t feel bad if you can’t change someone’s feelings for another.”
“Why does it have to be so difficult? They’re mates!”
“What’s the fun in your mate automatically being into you?” Lance asks.
Our eyes meet and there’s humor in his eyes. I think about how much I love his eyes and how he only looks at me with nothing but love. We haven’t said the words, but I feel it in our bond. It’s there. “Give them time to know each other.”
I purse my lips. “I mean, I guess. What about you? Why are you up so early?”
“I wanted to do some training with Cole but then I didn’t feel you in the house, so I searched for you.”
“Aren’t you even a little stressed about the alpha meeting?” I ask him. I don’t know how to face the alphas that wants me dead.
“It’ll be fine,” Lance assures me as we near the pack house.
“How can you be so sure?” I stop and turn to him.
“Because,” Lance takes a step towards me and presses his lips on my forehead with his hand stroking the side of my head, “I will never let anything bad happen to you.”
With that, he walks inside the house.
***
After I take a shower and continue wearing Lance’s shirt because it smells like him, I decide I need to steal some of his shirts. Later. After the work at the bookstore.
Honestly, Beth is the nicest manager ever. I don’t know why she doesn’t just fire me for being late all the time. This time, I have Julia drive me to work, and Grayson has invited himself in the backseat of the car. For a second, I thought that Julia would kick him out, but she’s not doing anything. It worries me that she is going to dump his dead body somewhere far away.
“So, get this,” I say, finally being able to talk to Julia about one of the stories we are both reading on Wattpad. It is always interesting to see how humans portrayed werewolves, and it isn’t always pretty nor accurate. We love talking about it, everything wrong with it mostly. I continue, “Since the alpha’s mate won’t submit to him, he puts her in the dungeon, and placed a silver collar around her neck. Of course, she’s stubborn and doesn’t submit, but she’s also super annoying because she just howls and doesn’t do anything about it.”
“Oooh. I know the exact story you’re talking about,” Julia exclaims. “I’ve skipped to the ending, and she gives this alpha a second chance.”
“Ew. What?” I scoff. “Thanks for saving me the read.”
“Do you think someone like that deserves a second chance?” Grayson asks me but I know he wants Julia’s input more.
I look at Julia, who is in deep thought.
“I mean, no,” I answer him. “I’m not that forgiving of something like that, personally.” If Lance ever puts me in a dungeon because I don’t submit to him . . .
“Same here,” Julia agrees, interrupting my thoughts. “If my mate did that to me, I will never speak to him again, nor would I ever submit to him. I will probably slap him for good measure.”
“I think I’d rather die. That should teach him a great lesson,” I say. “Plus, it’s her mate doing this to her. The alpha has some serious issues he needs to sort out.”
“Why is it okay for people to be reading this and think it’s okay? Because the Alpha is hot?” Julia asks. “He literally abused his mate.”
“Do you think it’s important for everyone in the pack to submit to the alpha?” I ask Grayson, curious on his opinion and how he thinks about stuff like this. It’ll give me a better idea of how he is in general. This is for Julia’s sake. “This Alpha in the story is crazy, though, you see. He wants everyone to show their necks to him and tell him how he’s the most powerful alpha.”
“Seriously?” Grayson gives a disapproving look. “Those kinds of alphas are the ones I like to kill the most.”
I shoot Grayson a look, but he just smiles wickedly.
“Also,” Julia adds, giving Grayson her attention again, “this ugly alpha goes to other packs and destroys them.”
AKA what Grayson is known for. This is probably one hundred percent Julia’s intentions. My best friend is throwing some serious shade right now.
“Well, he sounds pretty dumb,” Grayson drawls. “But, expanding territory is necessary.”
“Feeding on the weak is necessary?” Julia challenges.
“I don’t like to go to random packs and just destroy them,” Grayson says sarcastically. “The packs I used to take over were incompetent. Heck, I was about to take over Kade’s pack, but things . . . happened.”
“Is Kade going to be in the meeting?” I ask, my voice small.
“He’s an alpha,” Grayson answers, “but he won’t be bothering you. Remember? You knocked that guy out cold.” Grayson chuckles.
Julia gives me a questioning look.
“You knocked out an alpha? That’s my girl.” Julia laughs as she drops me off of work. She tells Grayson he has to get off too.
He does but tells Julia, “If I show you mine, will you show me yours?”
This little troublemaker changes into his wolf right in front of my workplace and runs off somewhere.
Julia gives me a look that just begs the question if Grayson is crazy.
“Thanks, B. See ya later.” I wave at Julia as I enter the bookstore, greeting Beth as I walk inside.
I trust Lance’s words that nothing is going to happen in the alpha meeting that is living rent-free in my head, but I can’t help to be worried about him.
“Is something troubling you, my dear?” Beth asks me as I’m putting away some Stephen King novels. “Relationship problems?”
“Oh-ha! No.” I shake my head, but when I think about it deeply, the next logical step in my relationship is to get marked. Am I ready? If I’m now the luna, I should be ready already, right? Does Lance want to mark me? I always thought of marking as something really primal and animal
istic because that’s what we are. “I mean, he’s great.”
“Yes?” Beth prompts me.
“But I don’t know how to approach the next step in our relationship,” I tell her. Lance never really pushes me to do anything. He wants me to set the pace, and I get it. “I just want him to give me a sign that he’s ready.”
“Well, make sure you both consent to it,” Beth says and just I want to crawl in a hole and die because my boss thinks I’m thinking about sex. I guess it’s better than her knowing I want to get marked. Or am I even really thinking about getting marked? Consenting to getting marked is applicable though. Imagine a mate marking the other without permission. Total violation and total no. “And be safe. Please just do it safely. Don’t want any babies running amuck.”
I try to cover my face with the novel ”It” because I’m red just thinking about pups with Lance. I think about what a great father he would be and how beautiful our pups will look with his genes. Oh gosh. I don’t need baby fever anytime soon.
“You guys should talk about it too,” Beth says. “The having-babies part, I mean.”
I clear my throat, “Oh, I’ll try . . .” to avoid it at all possible cost.
But Lance as a father . . .
***
Meg picks me up from work, telling me that everyone has to be at dinner for something about the alpha meeting.
Meaning, Sargon has to come, and he surprisingly does.
There’s a tension in the room as soon as Sargon enters. Sargon obviously wants nothing to do with me, which is, okay. Fine. But his own mate? Someone as awesome as Bo? That’s not fine. Not to me. Bo deserves better than this treatment from his mate.
Sargon sits at the table, at the end of it, far away from Bo and I. Grayson tries to sit next to Julia, but she sits right in the middle of Cole and I.
Grayson’s eyes narrow a fraction before he goes around the table and sits across from me.
This is so awkward.
“This is so awkward,” Grayson announces. “Sargon, why are you sitting all the way over there?”
“Why don’t you join him?” Julia asks Grayson sweetly. Their eyes meet and Julia looks away, which makes Grayson produce a predatory kind of smirk.
I’m kind of glad he’s back to his usual arrogant self. Grayson is known to be unpredictable, but with Julia here, he may help us in this upcoming alpha meeting.
“I’ll second that,” Bo mumbles to me. Grayson hears it and stabs his steak with a fork.
I realize none of us really have touched our food yet. You can slice the tension in the air with a knife right now. Usually, Bo would be the one to break the tension, but he’s not himself right now, and it’s killing me. Throughout dinner, Grayson keeps sending Julia these puppy-dog-like expressions. Julia keeps ignoring them. Bo is playing with his food. Lance and Cole are oblivious to the entire thing and is actually eating.
“So, what is this alpha meeting that you have to go to?” Julia asks, breaking the silence.
“It’s where alphas and lunas have attend trials and discuss the rules over and between packs,” Lance explains.
“It’s a real bore,” Grayson adds.
“I heard you’re trying to get rid of the whipping post, which is very admirable.” Julia shoots Grayson a glare then.
“I got rid of it,” Grayson mumbles.
“It’s taken some other packs a harder time to get rid of it because they’re so immersed into their barbaric traditions. Some packs even have the silver collar still,” Lance continues.
“That wasn’t fun at all,” Grayson says and he shudders slightly.
His words make Julia look at him, her eyebrows furrowing.
Go on, Julia. Ask him what he means. I can tell she wants to ask.
“My father used both punishments of whipping and collar application. I’d never wish it upon any werewolf to get the collar.”
I can see a faint scar on Grayson’s neck.
“Your father used it on you?” Julia asks, trying to sound indifferent, but I know she feels something for him. After all, Julia herself experienced the whipping post. I wonder what Grayson will do once he knows that his mate was subjected to the whipping post by Trent. It’s strange that Grayson is taking an interest in helping us because little does he know that he has a part in all of this too. He just doesn’t know it yet. Fate is a strange thing.
“Nah, not my father.” Grayson’s eyes hold Julia’s. “My mother.”
The room is silent.
Julia looks away from him and takes a sudden interest in her brussel sprouts, and I know she hates them because they smell really bad.
“It’s okay now though. You see,” Grayson’s voice is light, almost cheerful, “I killed both of my parents right after.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
My first official task at being luna is to determine how our pack could use the old dungeons into something more productive. No one can have enough pools to own.
I just really find the fact that Lance doesn’t believe in rogue wolves being prisoners an interesting concept.
For someone who is not a morning person, I wake up at the crack of dawn to get this thing fixed. Maybe it’s anxiety that’s keeping me up, but I haven’t slept a wink.
I want to see how much space the dungeons have and what could become of something so . . . ugly.
The first step is to walk down a creepy stair case.
The windows are letting light inside, and I can’t believe this place is in the inside of the pack house. It’s like a basement, but scarier and way bigger.
“Mind if I join?” Grayson’s unwelcome voice fills the air.
Last night’s dinner was super uncomfortable. I couldn’t even talk to Julia because she was avoiding everyone. I don’t know what she’s feeling, but it can’t be good, especially if her mate hurt had been through such experiences.
“Sure.” I shrugged but I would rather have someone else to get scared with. Honestly, I don’t think Grayson is scared of anything.
It’s just me and him. Alone. In the dungeons. How much do I trust him really? I mean he definitely wants his mate. And if he ever does anything to me, Julia will never forgive him, so I will have to thank Julia for Grayson not killing me on the spot.
“You really went there last night,” I tell him, breaking the silence.
“You told me to be genuine,” Grayson starts, “so I was being genuine.”
“Not like that kind of genuine. The I-killed-my -parents genuine.”
“Trust me, you would’ve don’t it too if you were in my position.”
“Maybe you should invite Julia to go with you to the alpha meeting,” I suggest out of nowhere.
Bo explained to me alpha meetings were usually half-business, half-party. It’s more of a social event, but when the alphas get into business, they goet into business.
“She’ll say yes?” Grayson asks, hopeful.
I want to laugh for a second because of how hopeful he looks. I don’t think he ever felt unsure about anything in his life until Julia. Of course, Julia is a special one though.
I mull this over for a second. “Okay, not to you.”
“Usually alphas bring their mates,” Grayson says softly.
“Do lunas have a part in it?” I ask.
“If their mates permit,” Grayson answers.
“Would you permit it?” My eyes narrow at him as we head up the stairs and out of the creepy dungeons.
Grayson stops at the steps and looks at me. His expression is a mix of amusement and curiosity. “I think my mate will not care what I permit or not. Of course, I’d love it if she joins me, but I think she wouldn’t go just to spite me.”
I chuckle. It seems like he is getting to know Julia’s character.
”Actually true.” We both look back at the dungeons.
“I’ve never met an alpha as interesting as Lance,” Grayson comments. “This is the biggest dungeon in the region that his father used to maintain. Lance shut it down t
he moment Lance’s father died. He’s the only alpha I know that isn’t scared of what rogues would do to his territory. Or doesn’t care. He helps them out instead.”
For a brief second, an idea comes to me. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a werewolf school here?”
“I don’t think the children would like to be in a place where wolves once died.”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “There’s so much space, but should it be used for?”
“Glad I don’t have to think about it.”
***
In just four days, the alpha meeting would start.
Bo and my brother are still not talking. Bo is still a little down in the dumps, but he’s still teasing me at training, so that’s good. Right now, he’s telling me how much I still suck at punching. Thankfully, Meg shows him a true punch to his stomach.
Lance keeps glancing over at me when he thinks I’m not looking. I only know because I catch myself looking over at what he’s doing. He’s trying to make sure I’m not hurt. I should try to see what would happen if he thinks I am hurt.
On the other side of the training grounds, Grayson is not wearing a shirt at training which is completely on purpose. I think it really does serve a purpose since there are many she-wolves ogling his six pack, and Julia notices too. He is also all tatted up, making him look rougher and a total bad boy.
“He’s not even that built,” Julia tells Meg, Bo, and I. She’s huffing as she does her push-ups. I think she’s done over a hundred now, but since she’s angry or jealous, she keeps on going.
“I mean for all they know, he’s single,” I tell her.
Honestly, I’m rooting for Julia and Grayson. They complement each other in a weird way. Julia will keep Grayson in check, and Grayson will truly challenge Julia.
“Well, he is.” Julia shrugs but she looks over at Grayson and then her eyes turn to slits.
I forget all about her existence until she goes up to Grayson and puts on her big bright smile. Grace is laughing at whatever Grayson is saying, and Grayson is eating this up. He’s giving her that predatory smile.
