by Ellis Marie
“Let’s go get the other boys, we need to go home,” Trent orders Cole, who shakes his head slightly with fists clenched as he watches Cam.
“But, alpha—”
“Now.”
The word is spoken with so much authority that it shakes me to the bone. All I can hear is the word ‘alpha’ repeating over and over in my head as I think about how often people have listened to him or followed his orders.
Alpha. Like an alpha male. Like the alpha of a pack.
I watch Cam out the corner of my eye and take in how on edge he looks, the tension in his body incomparable to anything like I’ve seen before.
He would only do that if he’s really scared of something.
Or someone.
Trent and Cole turn without another word and begin to walk away. I step after them, ignoring Cam’s hand as he reaches out for me.
“Alpha,” I shout. The two figures freeze in front of me, their bodies shooting upright. “Were you ever going to tell me that you were a werewolf or was I meant to just figure that out on my own?”
I almost can’t believe the words that have come out of my mouth. It’s as if I’m watching myself saying them, trying to stop them from being heard, but I know that they’re true.
Trent is a werewolf.
Trent spins around and comes towards us before I can even take a breath. I stumble back into Cam, using him as a way to keep myself upright.
“What did you just say?” he hisses, eyes ablaze as he looks at Cam. “What have you told her?”
Now, I can see it perfectly. The feral way his features morph with his emotions, the broad back that seems to hunch up in defence, the deep breathing that echoes a growl after it.
“He didn’t tell me anything about you,” I state, pulling his attention back from Cam to me. “Like I said, were you ever going to tell me?”
Trent’s hot breath fans over my face as he glares down at me, the emotions running through him so quickly that I don’t know what he’s feeling, but anger seems to seep through it all.
“It’s not something you should know,” he mutters darkly. “You could be killed for knowing about us. This isn’t a world that I ever wanted you a part of. Not yet.”
My heart thrums as I watch his perfect lips speak to me, the fear behind them sneaking through as much as he tries to hide it. It’s like I can see into his soul—the genuine fear causing a knot to form in my belly.
“Look, you don’t have to worry about her,” Cam interrupts, cutting off the look between us as he pulls me back and beside him. “She’s not your problem.”
Cole lets out a light laugh at Cam’s comment, which makes him look at him in confusion. His arm that’s in front of me falters a little.
“Actually, she is my problem,” Trent retorts without even sparing Cam a glance. My toes tingle as he watches me, a small smile tugging at the edge of his mouth and I feel myself blush. I turn and look at my best friend who I’m surprised to find is staring at me with his mouth popped open, his forehead creased as he watches me.
“You said you didn’t really know him,” he whispers, accusation lining his words as he steps back from me. Guilt seeps into my bones at the betrayed look that he gives me. “You promised me you’d stay away from him.”
I sigh and reach for him, my heart breaking as I watch the pained expression that mars his face. “I don’t know him that well, and it was before you got back from your trip and then we fell out and then—”
“That’s who you got the necklace from,” he whispers, eyes trained on it. I frown and shake my head. “That’s who’s been listening to you.”
“No, I found the necklace. I wasn’t lying about that,” I retort. “And no one has been listening to me, right?”
Trent only scratches his head in response, wincing at my words. I immediately know that there’s something he’s not telling me. “Trent, what does he mean?”
Trent’s mouth opens and then closes again a few times as he tries to come up with an answer. A sickening feeling pulses through me.
Our bubble pops as the front doors of the school open and people begin to pour out, the area around us suddenly becoming noisier and a whole lot less private.
“Look, can we talk about this somewhere else?” Cole asks, his eyes nervously watching every person that so much as gets close to us. “If we’ve learnt anything today, it’s that we’re not safe, so I suggest we talk this all out at the pack house, agreed?”
Pack house, of course.
I can feel Cam ready himself to argue about the location, but I hold my hand up to him and nod at Cole, my eyes darting around and looking at the people watching us.
“Agreed.”
I don’t even look at Trent as I follow Cole to the car, pushing past him on the way.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The car journey is tense to say the least. Even Cole doesn’t try to talk or make a joke. Instead, he just puts the radio on, letting the music drown out the uncomfortable silence surrounding us all.
I tried to talk to Cam when we first got in the car, but the look he gave me and the devastation on his face is enough to shut me up and leave him be.
I don’t know what is going on with him, but the anger I’m feeling at Trent is kind of outweighing that issue.
Has he been spying on me?
When we arrive at the ‘pack house’, I’m still gobsmacked at the sheer size of it. It takes me a moment to remember who lives here and how dangerous this all might be.
I grab Cam’s hand as we walk to the front door and stop him from entering, my worried gaze meeting his.
“Is it safe for us to be here?” I whisper to him. He scoffs, ripping his hand from mine.
“Don’t worry, Trent would never hurt you.”
He disappears inside. I’m left staring after him, my mind trying to process how his view on Trent could have changed from telling me to stay away from him to willingly letting me enter his house and reassuring me that I’m safe here.
And boys say that girls have mood swings.
We follow Trent to the kitchen, and I am comforted a little by the familiar sight of it, but I notice that Cam’s eyes are surveying the whole place as if planning out an escape route. Clearly, he believes Trent wouldn’t hurt me, but it’s not the same for him.
“You’re not in danger here,” Cole growls at Cam, looking offended, but Cam just rolls his eyes and sits down at the bar.
“Sure, I’ll believe that after I survive being here.”
I’ve never seen Cam like this—the way his shoulders are slumped and the sarcastic tone to his voice. He’s always positive and comforting; this guy is a stranger.
My fingers curl around the necklace as I watch him, my heart yearning for my best friend that seems to be slipping away from me. I see Trent turn and look at me, making me drop it in a second.
“What is this thing?” I ask. Everyone is silent around me as I wait for them to answer, the guilty looks evident on the two boys who are trying not to make eye contact with me.
“It’s like an emotional radar,” Cam announces, clearly bored of waiting for them to start. “Think of it like a TV channel that someone can tune in to and see how you’re feeling, or a radio station that you can broadcast what you’re thinking.”
I look at him in shock, thinking that maybe he’s joking and praying that he is as I look at Trent and Cole, waiting for them to tell me he’s lying and say it’s just a plain old necklace.
But no one says anything.
How is this possible?
“Can everyone hear it?”
Embarrassment washes over me as I think of everyone around me secretly laughing at me and my whirlwind of emotions.
“No,” Cole answers. After a pregnant pause, he continues, “Only the person who gives it to you can.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” I retort, confused at how that meant Trent could feel me. “I found this in the garden. No one was there except—”
Except the wolf
.
If I didn’t believe what they were saying about the necklace before, I do now as I watch Trent’s head snap up to me.
Trent is the wolf that I saw. He was in my garden. He was watching me.
“Why do I have this?” I ask, my eyes not leaving the boy whose knuckles are turning white as they clutch the side of the island. “Why did you want me to have this?”
He doesn’t say anything and just watches me, as if debating over what exactly he’s going to admit. My blood begins to rush into my ears and my eyes are unwavering from his as my palms begin to sweat.
“I’m going outside,” Cam growls, disgust clear in his voice as he stands up and heads for the door, not once sparing me a glance. Cole jumps up in his seat, following right behind him.
“Yeah, we’ll just wait outside.”
Before I can speak, the two of them are gone and the slam of the door behind them signals that Trent and I are utterly alone in kitchen.
“I gave you the necklace as a way to look out for you,” Trent suddenly speaks. His voice is low and controlled, as if he’s holding back. “As wolves in a pack, we can contact each other mentally. It lets us look out for one another; it keeps us safe.”
So he isn’t just mentally spying on me like a pervert, he’s doing it out of kindness.
I don’t think I could be mad at him for that . . . could I?
He slowly moves round the counter and steps towards me, his hands now uncurled as he takes a deep breath. My heartbeat pounds.
“Why are you looking out for me?” I whisper breathlessly as he gets closer to me. I begin to feel the heat of his body reach mine, the tingles already starting to develop across my skin as he watches me with an emotion I can’t read.
“Because, although I didn’t realise it, my wolf did. He knew something was wrong and knew I needed to look out for you. I needed to know you were safe.”
He reaches me and gently raises his hand, brushing a finger along my face and across the bruise on my cheek. My eyes flutter closed as he does.
“With the necklace, I could feel when you were scared, or in pain,” he audibly gulps as anger flickers into his voice. I open my eyes to see him close his own, as if trying to stop a thought. “That’s why I was so annoyed at myself when I realised you got hurt, and you weren’t wearing it. If you were wearing it, then I would have known. I could have stopped him. I could have—”
“Shhh,” I coo, placing my hands on the sides of his face as I pull it up. My soul aches as I see the devastation and disappointment he feels for himself clear as day. “That’s not your fault,” I tell him softly, brushing my fingertips across his jaw, watching how it unclenches as I do. “I appreciate you looking out for me, but you don’t have to. That’s not on you.”
Trent’s eyes open at my words. A fire in them burns as he looks over my face, making a warmth flood through me and go to certain parts that have been dormant for a while.
“It is on me,” he tells me, his arms snaking themselves around my waist and pulling me into him carefully, as if he’s waiting for me to stop him.
But I don’t. This gives him the confidence to pull me flush against his body and say what seems to have been on the tip of his tongue for so long.
“Remember I told you about Koi No Yokan?” he asks, and I nod.
How could I forget?
“The knowledge upon meeting someone that you’re destined to fall in love,” I reply. The small smile that takes over his lips makes my heart flutter as if there’s a thousand wings in it.
“Well, wolves have a similar thing. Something you’ve probably heard of, but for us, it’s real.”
Before he even says the word, I know what it is. My mind flashes back to the conversation I had with a certain neighbour not hours ago.
“Soulmates.”
That sneaky tea drinking b*tch knew.
“We usually refer to them as mates. It’s not a fairy-tale for us,” he tells me, almost looking nervous. “It’s real. Wolves have a second part to themselves, a person that evens them out, balances the good and the bad, and supports them in a way that allows them to excel. A wolf that never meets their mate won’t ever have true happiness. At least not in the same way.”
My head feels light as I try to take in his words, not quite believing him.
“Trent, I don’t know if—”
My words are cut off as he lowers his mouth to my neck and places a kiss on it. It’s as light as a feather, but my whole body reacts, shivering under his touch.
“It’s easy to spot your mate. Even if you don’t know them, your body does,” he whispers, his breath fanning over my ear. I melt, his voice like velvet dripping through me.
“The tingling across your skin when they touch you.” His nose trails down my neck and across my shoulder, reaching his hand up to gently hold my neck. “The draw of their scent whenever they’re near you.”
Trent smells like a forest freshly after it’s rained.
“The way you remember every small detail about them.”
His golden eyes that shine like the sun.
“The way that your entire body wants them even when your mind doesn’t realise.”
His words make me aware of how tightly we are pressed together. I can suddenly feel every inch on him on me, sinking into my pores like a drug.
“How intoxicated you feel around them.”
His lips leave a trail along my neck and up to my jaw where he stops and pulls back.
A soft mewl leaves my lips and I blush when I realise, not knowing why I does it but he seems to. He smiles a little, gently touching my lip with his thumb.
It feels like so long since he has been this close to me, so long since I have felt his arms wrapped around me and his lips on mine. All I can think about is the fiery hot need that he entices from me in one touch.
Soulmates.
His nostrils flare and the smile leaves as he pulls me so close that our lips are only a breath away.
“You know the necklace is very good at projecting emotions, but I can smell your desire without it.”
Heat flushes through me at the passion behind his words and their meaning. I look away, but he stops me, bringing my head back to him and forcing me to look into his eyes.
“Never be embarrassed around me. You are the most perfect creature in existence and knowing that you want me is more than anything I could ever imagine. Don’t ever hide it from me.”
My breaths come out short as my stomach coils.
He wants me just as much as I want him.
Fear begins to creep up on me as I look at him and how perfect he is, how unattainable he is to me.
“I’m damaged,” I manage to choke out, tears pricking my eyes. “Why would you want me?”
Fury takes over his expression as he holds me close, but I know it’s not at me, it’s at those who have hurt me.
“You are not damaged. You will heal, and I’ll be there to help you. You are more than what you see in yourself, and I will spend every day showing you that if anything, I don’t deserve you. I don’t want you to ever think for a moment that I don’t want you, that for a second of my life, I am not longing for you and going mad with desire when you just so much as walk in a room.”
His eyes are burning, like embers in a fire. I sink into him, feeling his fingers touch my bare skin where my top has ridden up. It shoots electricity to my core.
Pure desire.
“Tell me you believe me,” he whispers against my lips. “Tell me that you know in your soul that you’re my mate.”
His breath hitches.
“Tell me that you’re mine as much as I am yours.”
I look at him, and I mean, I really look at him. I see the vulnerability on display as his voice begs for me to admit it, to let him know that this isn’t just in his head.
“Yes,” I whisper, wrapping my hands around his neck. “I’m yours.”
The moment around us holds us in silence as we just watch one another, my words dr
ifting through the air. Finally, he lets out the breath that he’s been holding. He pulls my lips to his, the fireworks igniting through my body as he wraps me in his arms, pulling me so far into him that I could wait for us to become one.
“And I am yours, mia dea.”
After a little while, I manage to pull myself away from Trent and force us to go outside with the others. As much as I would have happily stayed wrapped in his arms for as long as possible, I know Cam is on edge and isn’t comfortable here or around the boys that stay here. I’ve never seen him so tense before. It’s all so new to me, and I don’t know what exactly is going to set him off.
We all sit and speak about Ben and what we know about him. It turns out that he and Cam have been meeting for months; Cam was helping him adjust to the shift and what was going to happen to him. Ben was a rogue as well and none of his family were wolves. It’s clear that his mother must have had an affair that no one knew of, and it just so happened to be with a wolf.
Pretty bad luck on her part.
“So what actually happened today?” I ask, not able to contain the worry that slips into my voice.
Cam sighs with a pained expression overtaking his features, and I can see the distraught that’s behind his eyes.
“We met up like usual in our free period out in the woods, the usual clearing that we always go to.” He glances at Trent hesitantly. “We always make sure we’re not followed and try to cover up our scents and go pretty far in so no wolves from the pack can hear us going.”
I see Cole snort in a laugh at his words. I shoot him a glare, not enjoying the way that Cam shrinks slightly at the tone. Cole stops when his eyes connect with mine. He clears his throat, nodding at Cam to continue.
I feel pretty proud of myself for being able to make him listen; he seems to be worried that he’s upset me.
Or maybe upset Trent.
“We were training like usual, talking about control and shifts and then suddenly we both heard something,” Cam’s voice shakes as he clasps his hands on the table and squeezes his eyes shut.
“I told him to stay put, and I went and looked for what it was. I should have just told him to leave, to get out of there, but I thought it was just going to be some kids or something. I thought they’d be harmless, but they weren’t.”
