“Guess what it is?” Nathan smirked slightly as he held the little cardboard box out to me. “I promise you won’t want to pass it up.”I looked up at Nathan a bit skeptically. He just smiled back at me and shook the box a little. Finally, I took it with a sigh and opened it up.And when I did, my eyes went wide.“This is…” I picked the sweet chocolate muffin out of the box and looked at it. I hadn’t had one of these muffins from the bakery in our town for so long, but I instantly recognized the signature powdered sugar topping and the oversized chocolate chips poking out of the top.“It’s from Jerry’s,” Nathan said with a grin. “Well… Just Jerry, now.”“What do you mean?” I asked, cocking my head. The little bakery in our town was known as “Jerry’s”, and it was named after the little old man who ran it all by himself.Nathan shrugged. “The bakery closed down quite a long time ago,” he replied, sounding somewhat wistful.I felt a bit sad at this. That bakery was one of our favorite place
I stood in front of the apartment that Ryan and I used to share.“Well?” Nathan asked. “Are you gonna go in and confront this jerk or should I?”I shook my head and swallowed. “It’s okay. I’ll go.”With my heart in my throat, I walked up the front steps to the building and rang the doorbell. I waited for a couple of minutes, but there was no answer. I decided to ring it again… And again…“Olivia? Is that you?” a familiar female voice called. I looked over to see my elderly neighbor, Susan, standing in her doorway with a puzzled expression on her face. “What are you doing here?”“I’m looking for Ryan,” I said. “I need to… talk to him. Have you seen him?”Susan gave me an even more puzzled expression. “Dear, he moved out. I thought you two broke up. Did he not tell you?”I shook my head. “No, he didn’t.”“Well… What did you need to talk to him about?” she asked.I didn’t want to tell her the truth, so I just shook my head again and made up a lie as I made my way back down the steps towa
“Fine,” I said quietly. “But I have conditions, too.”Nathan looked at me for a moment with a raised eyebrow. “Okay…” he said. “What are your conditions?”“Well…” I sighed and walked over to the table, and sat down. Nathan looked at me for a moment with his arms folded across his chest before he finally sat down across from me.“If it’s going to be for a year,” I continued, “and we have to uphold this fake relationship situation for the entire time, then I want to make something clear: we are not going to be in any sort of relationship other than friendship behind the scenes.”Nathan nodded slowly. “Go on…”“Rule one: all dates, public occasions, facing the media, Alpha Council visits, and family visits will be faked. Rule two: at home, I don’t want there to be anything else going on between us. I don’t want to do anything to destroy our friendship.”“Well, that’s fair,” Nathan said. “But what if either of us wants to look for a romantic partner?”I shook my head vigorously. “I think
“I thought for sure that you would never forgive me.”My eyes widened a bit. I knew what Nathan was talking about: the day that my dad and I got evicted.It was more than ten years ago, but I still remembered the pain and the humiliation like it was just yesterday…“Olivia. Wake up.”I was sleeping in my bed in the little house that my dad and I called home. I remembered that I was supposed to go to school in the morning.“Five more minutes,” I grumbled, rolling over.My dad shook my shoulder again, this time more violently. “Liv, you have to wake up,” he said. “We have to go. Hurry up and get dressed.”I frowned and slowly sat up. My dad was standing over me with a worried expression on his face, and when I glanced over at the clock, I saw that it was only one o’clock in the morning. I had only been asleep for a few hours.Yawning, I rubbed my eyes. “Dad, what’s going on?” I asked, feeling myself get more nervous as he threw a pair of pants and a sweater down on my bed for me. “Where
My eyes widened. Nathan stared down at the ground and shook his head.“I can’t help you with that, Olivia,” he said quietly.I felt my heart sink. “Why not?” I urged. “I know that my dad would never have done anything to betray our pack. I need to know the truth about what happened.”Nathan slowly looked up at me with a dark expression on his face that I couldn’t quite read, which was only enhanced by the darkness of the room around us. “Gamma Kamran is dead,” he replied in a sad tone of voice. “What’s the point anymore?”“What’s the point?” I couldn’t help but scoff at my childhood friend’s choice of words. “I deserve to know why we were evicted. It’s not fair.”“I know it’s important to you, but I think that right now you should just be grateful that you’ve been allowed back,” Nathan replied.I watched in a state of shock as my childhood friend turned and walked over to the kitchen door. It felt as though he didn’t even want to be around me. Ever since I tried to hug him earlier, hi
I stood in front of Alvin’s house and looked up at it with wide eyes.It was mostly dark inside, but I could see one light on. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was home now.When we were kids, Alvin was always the calm voice of reason when Nathan and I had our fights. Nathan and I were always more outgoing, but Alvin was quiet and reserved, and was often able to help Nathan and I reconcile our arguments because of that.Right now, I was still furious with Nathan for the things that he said and the way that he was so reluctant to help me with my dad’s investigation.Maybe, I thought to myself, my old friend Alvin would be around to talk to just like old times. I did miss him terribly.With a nervous sigh, I slowly walked up the front path to the door. Things had been so hectic since I returned that I didn’t have time to talk to Alvin. Did he even know that I was back? Why didn’t he show up at Nathan’s wedding?I knocked on the door and waited, wondering what I would say to him with exc
I didn’t see Nathan at home for two days.He spent most of his waking hours busy with Alpha tasks, and when he was home, he was sleeping in his bedroom. It seemed that he wasn’t planning on taking back what he said about my dad, and I wasn’t going to get any help with my investigation.I didn’t want to bother making a scene anymore. Nathan already achieved his goal of using me to ruin his wedding. All that was left now for him to deal with was his father’s anger, but it clearly didn’t matter to Nathan because his father’s anger would only be directed at me anyway.But I wouldn’t give up the villa that my aunt left me. It was the one thing that I had left to me by my loved ones, and I was going to fight to keep it in my name.I hated to say it, but I didn’t trust Nathan to do the right thing. What if he found someone else down the road and decided to fight me over the villa again, claiming his purchase of it as having more of a legal standing over my aunt leaving me the deed?The only
“Olivia?” Nathan furrowed his brow and sat up abruptly, looking both confused and awkward. “What are you doing?”I quickly moved my head away from Nathan, feeling embarrassed that I had just been leaning over him and looking at his long eyelashes.“Um… The officer at the police station wanted me to give this to you,” I said, picking up the bag of black tea and handing it to him as I secretly hoped that he wouldn’t notice my red cheeks. “It smells good. You should drink some now, since you’re clearly tired.”Nathan gave me a puzzled look. “What were you doing at the station?” he asked.I shrugged. “I just wanted to inquire about the issue with the house, but it seems like you’re already on the case. Although, while I was there, the officer mentioned my dad…”Suddenly, Nathan sighed. “Look Olivia,” he said, “I can’t help you with the case about your dad. I’m sorry, but I just can’t. The information is too sensitive, and we could get in trouble if my dad or one of the elders found out th